Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support British citizens in Iran.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Our Embassy in Tehran which continues to operate remotely, is closely monitoring the situation in Iran. We remain committed to ensuring the safety and security of our nationals, including those detained.

However we have long advised against all travel to Iran and warned British Nationals that in an emergency the UK government will not be able to evacuate or provide face-to-face assistance.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support unemployed people not in receipt of benefits to find employment.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. The new Jobs and Careers Service will offer employment and careers support for all – not just those on benefits - who want support to find or progress in work.

Supporting our ‘Get Britian Working’ agenda, we have funded several measures to help unemployed people not in receipt of benefits to find employment:

• £115 million funding for 2025/26 for the Connect to Work programme, a voluntary, locally led Supported Employment programme in England and Wales, which will support disabled people, people with health conditions and those with complex barriers to employment.
• £125 million for 2025/26 to deliver 9 place-based economic inactivity trailblazers across England and Wales, of which £45 million is for NHS England Health Accelerators. Tailored to the needs of local areas, these trailblazers are testing different ways of reducing economic inactivity.
• Working with the Department for Education, £45 million for 2025/26 for our 8 Youth Guarantee trailblazers which are testing a cohesive education, training and employment support offer for young people aged 18-21.
• £34m funding for 2025/26 for WorkWell pilots for 15 areas to design and deliver integrated work and health support.
• Continuing with the Employment Advisers in NHS Talking Therapies programme to provide people with common mental health conditions the support they need to enter, re-enter or return to work and improve mental health.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of expanding Jobcentre access to people not in receipt of benefits.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. The new Jobs and Careers Service will offer employment and careers support for all - not just those on benefits - who want support to find or progress in work.

Supporting our 'Get Britian Working' agenda, we have funded several measures to help unemployed people not in receipt of benefits to find employment:

• £115 million funding for 2025/26 for the Connect to Work programme, a voluntary, locally led Supported Employment programme in England and Wales, which will support disabled people, people with health conditions and those with complex barriers to employment.
• £125 million for 2025/26 to deliver 9 place-based economic inactivity trailblazers across England and Wales, of which £45 million is for NHS England Health Accelerators. Tailored to the needs of local areas, these trailblazers are testing different ways of reducing economic inactivity.
• Working with the Department for Education, £45 million for 2025/26 for our 8 Youth Guarantee trailblazers which are testing a cohesive education, training and employment support offer for young people aged 18-21.
• £34m funding for 2025/26 for WorkWell pilots for 15 areas to design and deliver integrated work and health support.
• Continuing with the Employment Advisers in NHS Talking Therapies programme to provide people with common mental health conditions the support they need to enter, re-enter or return to work and improve mental health.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of Google's compliance with the AI safety commitments made at the Seoul AI Safety Summit in May 2024 in relation to its Gemini 2.5 Pro model.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

We expect all signatories to the Seoul commitments to stand by their agreements. The AI Security Institute, within DSIT, has ongoing discussions will all major developers, including Google DeepMind, about the implementation of frontier AI frameworks that guide the safe development of AI.

The government welcomes Google's recently published framework that prioritises the emerging risk of deception in AI models and their plans to publish safety cases.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help ensure all signatory companies from the Seoul AI Safety Summit honour their commitments made at that summit.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

We expect all signatories to the Seoul commitments to stand by their agreements. The AI Security Institute, within DSIT, has ongoing discussions will all major developers, about the implementation of frontier AI frameworks that guide the safe development of AI.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) clarity of HM Revenue & Customs guidance for employers on workplace nursery schemes.

Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The workplace nursery scheme exemption allows employers to offer childcare support to employees without incurring income tax or National Insurance (NI) charges, provided certain conditions are met.

HMRC publishes online guidance on the use of workplace nursery schemes which is reviewed frequently and was last updated in August 2024.

In July 2024 HMRC published an article in its Agent Update as a reminder to businesses of the conditions to be met for the tax exemption to apply following increased awareness of a number of scheme operators advertising their service as having HMRC approval were the partnership requirements were not met.

The article can be found here: Issue 121 of Agent Update - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Employer Supported Childcare schemes are voluntary arrangements. The Government supports these initiatives through relevant tax and NICs reliefs, but it is up to the employer to decide whether or not to offer childcare support to its employees.

The schemes primarily operate through salary sacrifice arrangements, as childcare is one of the few areas where salary sacrifice tax reliefs are still available.

Employers can choose to offer a workplace nursery scheme as part of their employee benefits package to attract and retain skilled employees.

With Tax-Free Childcare, eligible parents can simply open an online account and make payments directly to their childcare provider. For every £8 a parent deposits into their account, the government adds £2 to help with the cost of childcare.

As such, there is no requirement for employers to adopt the schemes.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to encourage employers to adopt (a) tax-free childcare and (b) other workplace nursery schemes.

Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The workplace nursery scheme exemption allows employers to offer childcare support to employees without incurring income tax or National Insurance (NI) charges, provided certain conditions are met.

HMRC publishes online guidance on the use of workplace nursery schemes which is reviewed frequently and was last updated in August 2024.

In July 2024 HMRC published an article in its Agent Update as a reminder to businesses of the conditions to be met for the tax exemption to apply following increased awareness of a number of scheme operators advertising their service as having HMRC approval were the partnership requirements were not met.

The article can be found here: Issue 121 of Agent Update - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Employer Supported Childcare schemes are voluntary arrangements. The Government supports these initiatives through relevant tax and NICs reliefs, but it is up to the employer to decide whether or not to offer childcare support to its employees.

The schemes primarily operate through salary sacrifice arrangements, as childcare is one of the few areas where salary sacrifice tax reliefs are still available.

Employers can choose to offer a workplace nursery scheme as part of their employee benefits package to attract and retain skilled employees.

With Tax-Free Childcare, eligible parents can simply open an online account and make payments directly to their childcare provider. For every £8 a parent deposits into their account, the government adds £2 to help with the cost of childcare.

As such, there is no requirement for employers to adopt the schemes.

Found: Cheam) (Lib Dem) • Matt Vickers (Stockton West) (Con) Sir Roger Gale, Emma Lewell, and Dr Rosena Allin-Khan

Found: course of debate on amendments to the clause/schedule (Standing Order No. 68) Chairs: Dr Rosena Allin-Khan

Found: course of debate on amendments to the clause/schedule (Standing Order No. 68) Chairs: Dr Rosena Allin-Khan