Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral evidence given by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to the Business and Trade Committee on 15 September 2025, question 29, when his Department last assessed whether there is a serious risk of genocide in Gaza; and whether he plans to make another assessment.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government continues to keep the situation in Gaza under review to ensure that the UK meets its obligations, including under the Genocide Convention.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to publish draft regulations under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 for the proposed sanctions regime regarding Israeli settlements; and whether there will be a consultation on the proposals.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As the Foreign Secretary said in his statement to the House on 8 September, this legislation will be in place within six to nine months. We aim to bring in the measures as soon as possible within that time frame. Officials continue to work intensively to deliver the new regime. Sanctions are powerful and technical. It is important that we take time to carefully design our measures to make sure they have the impact we want them to have, that they are legally robust and can be implemented effectively. As a matter of long-standing principle, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office does not formally consult on the introduction of sanctions regimes as it risks eroding our ability to introduce measures quickly and undermining the impact of our sanctions. However, we are engaging with a range of stakeholders and experts as we develop sanctions measures for the new regime.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many full-time equivalent staff in his Department work on developing and implementing sanctions on Russia.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government does not disclose the number of staff working on individual sanctions regimes as to do so could undermine the effectiveness of those regimes.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department plans to allocate additional resources to monitoring serious violations of international humanitarian law for the purposes of identifying potential designations under the Global Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Sanctions Regulations 2026.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This Government does not disclose the number of staff working on individual sanctions regimes as to do so could undermine the effectiveness of those regimes.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she had with the police a) prior to the Great Israeli Real Estate Event on 14 June 2026 and b) following reports that materials were handed out promoting properties in West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, undermine the two-state solution, and contribute to instability and violence. We completely oppose the advertisement of property for sale in those settlements, and we were appalled by reports of an event where that advertising was taking place.
On 9 June, prior to the event, the UK Government updated advice to UK businesses to make clear that they should not engage in economic activity in illegal settlements, and warn them of the reputational and potentially legal consequences of any such activities. Alongside the Minister of State for Culture, Media and Sport, I also wrote to the Advertising Standards Authority last week to request that they investigate whether any breaches of their regulations have occurred in the context of this event.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of low commissioning rates by local councils on incidence of non-payment for travel time between care visits for homecare workers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We expect local authorities to pay sustainable fee rates that meet the costs of delivering care. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes negotiating fees individually with care providers, including in the homecare market, to achieve a sustainable balance of quality, effectiveness, and value for money.
Under the Care and Support Statutory Guidance, local authorities should assure themselves that providers are sufficiently remunerating staff to retain an effective workforce, including appropriate remuneration for any time spent travelling between appointments.
The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund provided over £3 billion to local authorities for adult social care from 2023/24 to 2025/26. This was used by authorities, based on their areas’ local priorities for improvement, to build capacity and support market sustainability, including to increase fee rates paid to care providers.
As part of our monitoring of the grant conditions, and to understand fee rates more generally, local authorities are required to provide an annual return to the Department which includes data on the fee rates they pay care providers. The Government publishes this data annually, with the latest being available at the following link:
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed council commissioning rates for homecare to ascertain if councils are encouraging the underpayment of the National Living Wage.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We expect local authorities to pay sustainable fee rates that meet the costs of delivering care. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes negotiating fees individually with care providers, including in the homecare market, to achieve a sustainable balance of quality, effectiveness, and value for money.
Under the Care and Support Statutory Guidance, local authorities should assure themselves that providers are sufficiently remunerating staff to retain an effective workforce, including appropriate remuneration for any time spent travelling between appointments.
The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund provided over £3 billion to local authorities for adult social care from 2023/24 to 2025/26. This was used by authorities, based on their areas’ local priorities for improvement, to build capacity and support market sustainability, including to increase fee rates paid to care providers.
As part of our monitoring of the grant conditions, and to understand fee rates more generally, local authorities are required to provide an annual return to the Department which includes data on the fee rates they pay care providers. The Government publishes this data annually, with the latest being available at the following link:
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State with Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Local Government Association on tackling the non-payment of travel time of homecare workers in advance of a fair pay agreement for adult social care workers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The Department of Health and Social Care has regular discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on a range of issues regarding local government services, including adult social care.
All social care workers must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage for the work that they do. Time spent travelling between appointments counts as working time for minimum wage purposes.
Currently, National Minimum Wage enforcement continues to be delivered by HM Revenue & Customs under a contracting arrangement with the Fair Work Agency. This ensures continuity of service while the Fair Work Agency prepares for the full transfer of National Minimum Wage functions in April 2027.
If an individual believes their rights as a worker are not being upheld, they can seek confidential guidance and support from ACAS. ACAS can be contacted on 0300 123 1100, or they can visit the ACAS website for further information, which is available at the following link:
They can also submit a query online directly to HM Revenue & Customs via GOV.UK; it considers every complaint it receives.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many records of individual immigration status have been shared by NHS England with the Personal Demographics Service.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts must indicate on a patient’s NHS record whether they are an overseas visitor, whether an exemption from charges applies to that overseas visitor, and the date on which the latest assessment of their chargeable status took place, under regulation 3A of the charging regulations.
The Personal Demographics Service (PDS) is the national electronic database of all NHS patients, who are born in or have received NHS care in England, Wales, and the Isle of Man, or who are an overseas visitor.
It helps healthcare staff identify patients, match them to their care records, and keep their details up to date. If the person is an overseas visitor, information obtained via the PDS is used to help NHS trusts understand if a patient has an immigration status to make NHS charging decisions.
The Home Office provides data to the PDS when a new immigration record is created or approved, including the Home Office Reference Number, visa dates, and charging status.
This is used to enable an NHS Overseas Visitor Manager in an NHS trust to check when an overseas visitor accesses NHS services, when they need to confirm their charging status, and uses NHS systems linked to Home Office systems to check the relevant status. Access to this data on the PDS via NHS systems is limited to this purpose.
NHS England is directed to collect and analyse the data necessary to deliver this service under the Cost Recovery Collection, Processing and Dissemination of Overseas Visitor and UK Patient-Level Data Directions 2021, and the Health and Social Care Information Centre (Immigration Health Charge) Directions 2021.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether data from Cost Recovery Collection in the NHS can be accessed by the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
Data collected as part of the NHS Cost Recovery Collection is not accessible by the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP). The NHS FDP does not hold, process, or provide access to data relating to an individual’s immigration or residency status, nor does it ingest data from the Cost Recovery Collection.