Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will support the establishment of structured, research-led innovation through an Areas of Research interest approach for fire and rescue services, similar to that adopted by police services in England.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises the importance of working collaboratively with sector partners.
The implementation of an Areas of Research Interest (ARI) approach to support research and innovation will be considered as part of the due process associated with any future establishment of a college. This ensures that decisions are informed by evidence-based priorities and aligned with fire sector needs.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of job vacancies in key professions within his Department’s responsibilities, including contractor organisations.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice has not undertaken a central assessment of trends in job vacancies across key professional groups. Workforce planning is devolved to individual business groups, which are responsible for assessing their own staffing requirements and monitoring vacancy levels in line with operational priorities. This includes oversight of contractor organisations supporting the department, who are similarly responsible for overseeing their own workforce needs. Through established governance and performance-management arrangements, the department maintains oversight to ensure that services continue to be delivered effectively.
However, the ONS publishes information on the number of vacancies from the Vacancy Survey. These headline accredited official statistics are published monthly on a rolling three-monthly basis at UK-level, by industry sector, and by size of business, as part of the ONS's Vacancies and jobs in the UK release.
Further insights into labour demand are provided in the ONS's Labour demand volumes by Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2020), UK dataset, which includes official statistics in development sourced from Textkernel data. These tables are published monthly and contain the number of online job adverts split by local authority and occupation (SOC 2020).
Be advised the ONS caution use of these alternative data sources because the data is not seasonally adjusted or directly comparable to their headline estimates.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of job vacancies in key professions within his Department’s responsibilities, including contractor organisations.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The independent Office for National Statistics publish monthly estimates of online job adverts by occupation Labour demand volumes by Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2020), UK - Office for National Statistics and vacancies across each industrial sector VACS02: Vacancies by industry - Office for National Statistics.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to remove the work capability assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that we are abolishing the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and that following this, eligibility to the new Universal Credit Health Element would require the claimant to be in receipt of a Daily Living award on Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
Work is continuing to determine the detail of how this reformed system would work and discussions are also under way with the Scottish Government about the interactions between the devolved and reserved systems. We will set out further details of the reformed system, and the timing of WCA abolition, once we are in a position to do so.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a centralised Probation service.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
A unified Probation Service operates throughout England and Wales, under the leadership of the Chief Probation Officer, who provides both professional guidance and system oversight for probation staff.
We recognise that probation works best when delivering in partnership, and Regional Probation Directors and their teams have significant flexibility to collaborate with local partner agencies. Examples of that local collaboration and innovation include joint delivery of Integrated Offender Management with police forces and co-commissioning of services for offenders with metro mayors.
The probation service needs investment and strong leadership – which we are delivering. It is our assessment that further structural changes at this time would be disruptive and detrimental.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which prisons have humanist pastoral support provided through prison chaplaincy services.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We recognise and respect the right of prisoners to register and practice their faith or belief while in custody. Chaplaincy plays a critical and unique role in the work of prisons and the life of prisoners. It not only provides advice on faith and belief matters but also offers pastoral care regardless of an individual’s faith or belief, in support of HM Prison and Probation Service’s commitment to decency, safety and rehabilitation.
Specifically Humanist/Non-Religious pastoral support is available from chaplains at the following prisons:
Aylesbury
Bullingdon
Channings Wood
Dovegate
Durham
Frankland
Highpoint
Isis
Pentonville
Stafford
Wayland
Wormwood Scrubs
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to mitigate the mental health impact of proposed changes to settlement routes.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 20 November, we launched a public consultation on our proposed earned settlement model.
This consultation provides a means for all members of the public to express any concerns about the proposed new system are considered as we finalise policy. We are also running a separate, focused survey of visa holders to make sure their specific concerns are fully captured.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Motability Scheme on supporting disabled people into employment and training.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Motability Foundation report that 27% of Scheme users have improved access to education and 21% have improved access to employment opportunities. Scheme customers in employment report working an extra 14 hours a week, on average.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support humanitarian aid and climate resilience in Somaliland.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Climate resilience is a priority across Somalia, including Somaliland. The UK is the largest contributor to the Somaliland Development Fund (SDF), providing nearly £50 million since 2012 and an additional £4 million in Financial Year 25/26 to improve water access, promote sustainable agriculture, and protect livestock-dependent incomes vulnerable to climate change.
The UK also supports climate adaptation through the Sinaan programme, which helps Somaliland's growing cities manage unplanned urbanisation driven by climate pressures.
On humanitarian aid, the UK contributes to the Somalia Humanitarian Fund, which has responded to Somaliland's drought emergency, and the UK also supports partners such as the Red Cross/Red Crescent working locally on disaster response.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to develop a National Integration Strategy for asylum seekers and refugees as part of proposed reforms to the asylum system.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s Asylum and Returns Policy Statement published on 17 November 2025 announced transformative changes to the asylum system and safe and legal routes.
Successfully integrating refugees remains a key Government priority. Work is underway to operationalise the proposals set out in the statement, with careful consideration being given to how integration is prioritised in implementation. Further details will be provided in due course.