Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to respond to correspondence from the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry of 24 October 2025, with the transfer to his department accepted on 3 November 2025.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I responded to the hon. Member on 8 December 2025 (our ref: MC2025/27344).
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh since the signing of the Joint Declaration between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington DC in August 2025.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 3 September to Question 69852.
I met both the Armenian and Azerbaijan Foreign Ministers for constructive discussions in the margins of the OSCE Ministerial on 5 December 2025.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Russian interference in the internal affairs of Bosnia and Hercegovina.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK opposes any attempts by Russia or other states to interfere in the internal affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The UK works with BiH authorities and international partners to counter destabilising Russian interference, including to address disinformation campaigns, dependence on Russian energy, and vulnerability to political and economic coercion. We are working to bolster independent media in BiH. This financial year we are investing £400,000 to improve BiH's cyber defences. The UK Special Envoy for the Western Balkans reaffirmed our support for BiH's sovereignty during a meeting with BiH Presidency Chair Željko Komšić in London on 4 December.
I met Foreign Minister Konakovic on 5 December in the margins of the OSCE Ministerial meeting to discuss our continued support for peace and stability in BiH and the wider region.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help support biodiversity in Colombia.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK supports biodiversity in Colombia through the UK-Colombia Partnership for Sustainable Growth and a range of other programmes and initiatives, including the Blue Planet Fund, the Global Plastic Action Partnership, the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate, the Sustainable Forest Territories programme, the Darwin Initiative and Biodiversity Challenge Funds.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the response received to written question 44482 answered on 23 April 2025, what progress she has made on recruiting Driving Examiners at i) Arbroath Test Centre and ii) Dundee Test Centre.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DVSA has agreed with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that 36 defence driving examiners (DDE) will carry out driving tests. The DDEs will be based at the driving test centre (DTC) with the highest demand near either their MOD base location or where they live. These locations are in England.
To ensure fairness for everyone wanting to book a practical driving test, DVSA continues to work hard to combat the unscrupulous practice of reselling tests across the country.
Alongside military support, DVSA is introducing new rules to tackle unfair booking practices that have allowed bots and resellers to profit at learners’ expense.
Further details on the steps announced 12 November, can be found on GOV.UK: Mirror, signal, manoeuvres: Military driving examiners mobilised to cut test backlog - GOV.UK
DVSA is continuing with recruitment campaigns across the country to provide as many tests as possible. A full-time driving examiner (DE) can be expected to add approximately 1,200 tests per year to the booking system.
For Arbroath and Dundee DTCs, whilst one candidate did not successfully complete their training earlier this year, DVSA successfully recruited an additional DE for Dundee DTC during the summer.
DVSA is launching a new recruitment campaign for DE positions at Dundee in the coming weeks, with the aim for successful candidates to be in place by early 2026.
Additionally, to further support test availability in Dundee & Arbroath, DVSA are transferring an examiner to Dundee DTC. DVSA anticipate that their transfer will be finalised by early 2026 as well.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to deploy defence driving examiners in Scotland to help reduce the backlog of learners waiting for a driving test.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DVSA has agreed with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that 36 defence driving examiners (DDE) will carry out driving tests. The DDEs will be based at the driving test centre (DTC) with the highest demand near either their MOD base location or where they live. These locations are in England.
To ensure fairness for everyone wanting to book a practical driving test, DVSA continues to work hard to combat the unscrupulous practice of reselling tests across the country.
Alongside military support, DVSA is introducing new rules to tackle unfair booking practices that have allowed bots and resellers to profit at learners’ expense.
Further details on the steps announced 12 November, can be found on GOV.UK: Mirror, signal, manoeuvres: Military driving examiners mobilised to cut test backlog - GOV.UK
DVSA is continuing with recruitment campaigns across the country to provide as many tests as possible. A full-time driving examiner (DE) can be expected to add approximately 1,200 tests per year to the booking system.
For Arbroath and Dundee DTCs, whilst one candidate did not successfully complete their training earlier this year, DVSA successfully recruited an additional DE for Dundee DTC during the summer.
DVSA is launching a new recruitment campaign for DE positions at Dundee in the coming weeks, with the aim for successful candidates to be in place by early 2026.
Additionally, to further support test availability in Dundee & Arbroath, DVSA are transferring an examiner to Dundee DTC. DVSA anticipate that their transfer will be finalised by early 2026 as well.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help prevent companies adding premiums to third party booking of driving tests.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
DVSA has agreed with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that 36 defence driving examiners (DDE) will carry out driving tests. The DDEs will be based at the driving test centre (DTC) with the highest demand near either their MOD base location or where they live. These locations are in England.
To ensure fairness for everyone wanting to book a practical driving test, DVSA continues to work hard to combat the unscrupulous practice of reselling tests across the country.
Alongside military support, DVSA is introducing new rules to tackle unfair booking practices that have allowed bots and resellers to profit at learners’ expense.
Further details on the steps announced 12 November, can be found on GOV.UK: Mirror, signal, manoeuvres: Military driving examiners mobilised to cut test backlog - GOV.UK
DVSA is continuing with recruitment campaigns across the country to provide as many tests as possible. A full-time driving examiner (DE) can be expected to add approximately 1,200 tests per year to the booking system.
For Arbroath and Dundee DTCs, whilst one candidate did not successfully complete their training earlier this year, DVSA successfully recruited an additional DE for Dundee DTC during the summer.
DVSA is launching a new recruitment campaign for DE positions at Dundee in the coming weeks, with the aim for successful candidates to be in place by early 2026.
Additionally, to further support test availability in Dundee & Arbroath, DVSA are transferring an examiner to Dundee DTC. DVSA anticipate that their transfer will be finalised by early 2026 as well.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of investment treaties on net zero policies.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I refer the member of Arbroath and Broughty Ferry to the answer I gave on 12 November 2025 to UIN 88456.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with MyCSP on the timeline for delivery of Immediate Choice Remediable Service Statements for people with civil service pensions.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
MyCSP, the current administrators of the Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS), continue work on the implementation of circa 132,100 impacted members who are drawing their pension and need to be provided with revised options for the Remedy period (2015 to 2022). This is known as Immediate Choice (IC).
In agreement with the Cabinet Office Pension team, acting as Scheme Managers, MyCSP provided 58,400 IC members with their remedial service statements by March 2025. Of this group, 43,400 members have returned their option forms and all but 500 of these will be implemented by the end of November.
From 1 December 2025, Capita takes over as scheme administrator and as part of this, they will pick up the remaining IC work as a focused programme of work ‘project 7’.This will see the remaining 56% of IC members provided with choices as soon as possible. This project is currently being scoped to establish what work remains and how quickly the work can be completed whilst balancing accuracy and business as usual requirements. Detailed delivery plans will be provided to the Cabinet Office by the end of March 2026.
Asked by: Stephen Gethins (Scottish National Party - Arbroath and Broughty Ferry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Student Awards Agency Scotland (a) loans and (b) grants on levels of entitlement to Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Most people in full-time education are excluded from Universal Credit because financial support for students comes from the system of student loans and grants designed for their needs. The level of that support is a matter for the Department of Education and the Devolved Governments.
If an eligible student makes a claim to Universal Credit any loan or grant which provides for the student's basic maintenance is taken into account as income. Student income which covers additional costs, such as tuition fees and books, is disregarded.