Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to publish the evidence from the Digital Inclusion Strategy Call for Evidence.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government published the Digital Inclusion Action Plan in February, which sets out the first steps we are taking towards our ambition of delivering digital inclusion for everyone across the UK, regardless of their circumstances. The Government also published a call for evidence on the focus areas and invited contributions from individual citizens, charities, business, civil society, and subject matter experts. The call for evidence closed on 9 April and details on how the Government expects to respond will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to tackle digital exclusion.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government published the Digital Inclusion Action Plan in February, which sets out the first steps we are taking towards our ambition of delivering digital inclusion for everyone across the UK, regardless of their circumstances. The Government also published a call for evidence on the focus areas and invited contributions from individual citizens, charities, business, civil society, and subject matter experts. The call for evidence closed on 9 April and details on how the Government expects to respond will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much money the Government has committed for the Digital Inclusion Fund; and how it will be allocated.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Digital inclusion is a priority for Government. The Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund is designed to support initiatives that increase digital participation and to identify innovative best practice with an ambition to scale and replicate successful digital inclusion activities.
Further details of funding will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress he has made on the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund, announced in February 2025.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Digital inclusion is a priority for Government. The Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund is designed to support initiatives that increase digital participation and to identify innovative best practice with an ambition to scale and replicate successful digital inclusion activities.
Further details of funding will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is planning to take in the 10-year NHS Plan to improve (a) palliative and (b) end of life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and families receive the care they need when and where they need it, including those who need palliative and end of life care.
As part of the work to develop a 10-Year Health Plan, we have been carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, including the hospice sector.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with palliative care providers on the adequacy of funding for (a) palliative and (b) other end-of-life care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
In February, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at end of life and their loved ones. In recognition of this, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England, to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices.
We, alongside key partners NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the Child Maintenance Service deems receipt of Child Benefit to be sufficient evidence that a child is still in full-time education.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
To qualify for maintenance payments, a child must meet the Child Maintenance Service's criteria. They must be under 20 years of age and in full time, non-advanced education, or approved training, and eligible for Child Benefit. They must also be habitually resident in the UK and usually living in the same household as the receiving parent. Child maintenance defines a child the same way as Child Benefit does, to offer consistency across rules.
Child maintenance payments usually stop when the child reaches 16, or 20 if they are in full-time education up to A-level or equivalent. Child maintenance will also stop when the child stops being eligible for Child Benefit. Child Benefit may stay in payment for a period after a child under 20 ceases education or training until a terminal date is reached. Child Benefit will remain payable from the date education or training ceased, up to and including the week that includes the first terminal date, as will child maintenance payments.
Child Maintenance Service make automated monthly requests to His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) asking for all children aged 16 to 19 who are included in its caseload, to establish whether Child Benefit is still in payment.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress he has made on establishing the Digital Inclusion Action Committee.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Digital Inclusion Action Committee is an external advisory body that will work closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. It will be made up of national and local experts to tackle digital exclusion. Its role is to scrutinise, steer and help determine the work of the government in reducing digital exclusion in every part of the UK.
The Expression of Interest closed on 2nd April, and selection is underway, led by Baroness Armstrong. Attendees are expected to be announced in Spring 2025. The first meeting will take place shortly thereafter.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason child maintenance arrears are not offset against the amount owed by a paying parent after they have moved from being a receiving parent.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service is dedicated to ensuring parents meet their obligations to children and will do everything to encourage cooperation between separated parents and encourage parents to meet their responsibilities to provide their children with financial support.
Child Maintenance Regulations provide that “offsetting” is a process that allows the Child Maintenance Service to adjust child maintenance payments and arrears in specific scenarios between the Paying Parent and the Receiving Parent.
Child Maintenance role reversal offsetting occurs when a qualifying child changes the parent they live with. This means that the Receiving Parent and the Paying Parent reverse their roles in relation to the qualifying child, so that the Receiving Parent becomes the Paying Parent and vice versa. The potential for a debt against debt offset arises where the former Paying Parent (now the Receiving Parent) owed arrears to the former Receiving Parent (now the Paying Parent) at the point their roles were reversed, and the new Paying Parent fails to pay their current liability, so that they now owe arrears to the new Receiving Parent.
When deciding whether it is appropriate to offset ongoing payments against arrears, caseworkers must consider the length of time that the parent who owes the arrears will be without their ongoing maintenance payments because the payments they are due to receive will be stopped or reduced in comparison with the arrears that they owe. It is essential that caseworkers carefully consider the effect that this may have on the welfare of all children potentially affected.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Child Maintenance Service has made of the potential impact of GDPR legislation on the ability of paying parents to find proof that their child is still in full-time education.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
If a paying parent believes that the Child Maintenance (CM) liability should cease because a qualifying child (QC) no longer meets the statutory definition of a qualifying young person but checks with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) disagree, the CM caseworker can ask the receiving parent to provide;
1. verbal confirmation of the QCs status if they agree that the paying parent’s statement is correct, or
2. where they disagree with the paying parent, a letter from the school or college confirming the QCs status, or
3. written confirmation from an employer that the QC has started work.
Where the paying parent believes that Child Benefit is claimed fraudulently, the paying parent will be signposted to report the fraud to HMRC at Gov.UK.
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) makes automated monthly requests to HMRC asking for all children aged 16 to 19 who are included in its caseload, to establish whether Child Benefit is still in payment.
The CMS has a Financial Investigations Unit (FIU), that can investigate complex cases. This is a specialist team which can request information to check the accuracy of information the CMS is given by either parent.