Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his expected timetable is for publication of the Government’s response to the consultation on strengthening the standards and conduct framework for local authorities in England.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government response to the Strengthening the standards and conduct framework for local authorities in England consultation was published on 11 November.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the time taken for the payment of refunds from her Department.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

UK Visas and Immigration have a range of customer service teams and processes in place to support customers where they may require a refund.

These teams ensure that refunds are made in a timely fashion and in line with the policies and procedures linked to the individual visa service that has been paid for.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) combat spiking offences and (b) support victims.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Spiking is an abhorrent crime and illegal in any form, whether through food or drink, vape, or needle. It can affect anyone, at any time and in any setting, regardless of gender, sexuality or age.

We are taking a range of action to tackle spiking and provide better support for victims:

• In line with our manifesto commitment, the Government has introduced new legislation on spiking, as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, to strengthen the response to these appalling incidents.
• We continue to provide free training for staff in the hospitality sector to understand and tackle spiking, provide better support for victims, and assist police with evidence collection. This is being delivered by our partner Red Snapper Learning.
• We are funding two weeks of increased policing activity on spiking with the aims of raising awareness, encouraging reporting, and gathering more evidence to support spiking prosecutions. The first week was on the week commencing 15 September to align with University Freshers weeks. The second week will be in December.
• From April 2026, we will be enhancing how the police record and report spiking crimes with the aim of improving both the quality and quantity of data.
• The Home Office is continuing to fund research into the efficacy of rapid urine testing kits.
• We are also exploring options to enhance and make more convenient the process for collecting and processing urine samples from spiking victims.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans her Department has to improve taxi licensing policy, in the context of the findings of the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

We have committed to legislate to address the issues raised in Baroness Casey’s national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, to tackle the inconsistent standards of taxi and private hire vehicle driver licensing. We want to achieve two outcomes; the first is ensuring we have consistently high safeguarding standards. The second is that there is no unintended reduction in the availability of licensed taxi and private hire vehicle services, which could disproportionately impact women and girls and disabled people, who rely on these services the most. We are considering all options – including out-of-area working, national standards, enforcement and transferring licensing to local transport authorities - seeking the best overall outcomes for passenger safety.

We are currently reviewing licensing authorities’ compliance with existing guidance issued by the Department on actions they should take on licensing matters, including safety. All licensing authorities have reported that they require the highest level of criminal background checks for taxi and private hire vehicle driver licence applicants – an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check with a check of the children’s and adults’ barred lists. Where key safety recommendations from the guidance are not being followed, licensing authorities will be held to account.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle violence against women and girls.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government with a manifesto mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

We will deliver a cross-government transformative approach, underpinned by a new strategy which we will publish as soon as possible.

In advance of the strategy, we have already introduced measures designed to strengthen the police response to VAWG, protect victims and hold perpetrators to account.

These include: funding to rollout Drive Project, a proven intervention for high-risk and high-harm domestic abuse perpetrators across England and Wales; embedding the first domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in five police forces; measures to tackle spiking to strengthen the law and improve the response victims receive, including committing to introducing a new criminal offence for spiking and piloting new spiking training for bar staff; measures focusing on preventing and tackling ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA), developing a statutory definition for HBA, community engagement campaigns, enhanced training and funding for support services; six measures to tackle stalking including statutory guidance to empower the police to release the identities of online stalkers to protect victims, and a review of the stalking legislation to ensure it is fit for purpose; and launching the new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in selected police forces and courts which go further than any existing orders.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, following the announcement made on 16 October 2025 regarding the extension of funding to Trailblazer areas under the Get Britain Working programme, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Trailblazer schemes to date on a) employment outcomes b) levels of economic inactivity, and c) associated health and wellbeing indicators.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department developed a Strategic Outline Business Case for the Get Britain Working Trailblazers in March 2025, which followed HM Treasury’s Green Book framework. Within this, an assessment was made of the potential impact of the programme upon employment and associated health outcomes, as well as increasing participation in education and training. An update to the Business Case is being conducted, which will take account of relevant information following the programme launch earlier this year.

The Department will be commissioning an evaluation, starting in December 2025, which is expected to build evidence on the effectiveness of the programme at achieving employment outcomes, reducing levels of economic inactivity, associated health and well-being indicators, increasing participation in education and training, and effectiveness of systems integration. We expect to publish interim findings during the next two years and will develop the value for money assessment once longer term impacts have developed.

Crawley's Open House 30th birthday

Conflict in Sudan

Russian shadow fleet

Thanking postal workers

Repression following the Iran-Israel war

Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week 2025

Israel’s use of cluster munitions

National ban on street-racing

Dying in Poverty 2025

Safe and legal routes for Sudanese people to the UK

Border Force industrial dispute

Anniversary of first recorded labour action in human history

Future of the BBC

Suicide prevention on railways

Found: present: Simon Hoare (Chair); Richard Baker; Markus Campbell- Savours; Charlotte Cane; Sam Carling; Peter Lamb

The report from the Infected Blood Inquiry includes recommendations for Parliament on two key areas: how to respond to calls for public inquiries and how to scrutinise the implementation of recommendations resulting from future inquiries.