Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it easier for refugees who are carers to qualify for UK citizenship.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office expects all applicants for naturalisation to meet the statutory requirements which are based on a period of residence in the UK, including being free from immigration time restrictions and being of good character.
The Government considers that those seeking to make a permanent home in the UK should be equipped to integrate successfully in society, with an appropriate level of English and an understanding of British life. All applicants are therefore required to pass the Life in the UK test and meet the English language requirement. The aim is to ensure that those who intend to settle here develop both the language skills that enable them to make a success of living permanently in the UK and have an understanding of life here and society’s expectations.
There are no plans to change the requirements for citizenship.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to amend fiscal rules to (a) incentivise and (b) reward spending on climate change mitigation measures.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The Government is committed to sustainable public finances and delivering on the priority of getting debt falling over the medium-term. To deliver on this priority, the Government has fiscal rules – the rules require underlying debt to be falling and borrowing to be below 3% of GDP in the fifth year of the rolling forecast period. The fiscal rules are comprehensive, and targeting public sector wide measures means the impact of Government decisions on the public finances is clearly reflected.
The Government is committed to ensuring fiscal decision making is aligned with achieving net zero and our legally binding environmental targets. The Green Book requires departments to assess the climate and environmental impacts of policy proposals, with major bids and proposals at fiscal events assessed according to these impacts, and Spending Review 2021 was developed alongside the Net Zero Strategy to ensure our plans were funded.
Spending Review 2021 committed £30 billion of domestic investment for the green industrial revolution. Since then, we have committed a further £6 billion for energy efficiency in the next parliament, up to £20 billion of long-term funding for early deployment of carbon capture, usage and storage, and over £1 billion for green industries supply chains through the Green Industries Growth Accelerator.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his planned timetable is for ensuring that the (a) National Disability Strategy is and (b) related policies are compliant with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The commitments set out in the National Disability Strategy are designed to support the UK to become as accessible and inclusive as possible, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ aims of progressive realisation. The strategy, together with other work such as the Disability Action Plan, demonstrate this Government's commitment to implementing the Convention through its legislation, policies and services.