Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help increase skills in low carbon sectors in Edinburgh.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
As my Honourable Friend will be well aware, earlier this year we unlocked £25 million of seed capital for the Forth Green Freeport to create tens of thousands of jobs in clean energy and manufacturing.
Already we are seeing the benefits in Edinburgh. The Port of Leith has transformed itself into an offshore wind hub, currently servicing the massive InchCape development. There is the potential for further investment by the wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, which could create up to 500 new jobs at the port.
Skills policy is devolved to the Scottish Government and it is up to them to ensure that the young people of Edinburgh are equipped to take advantage of these opportunities.
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his department has undertaken on the adequacy of safeguarding procedures for surrogacy arrangements.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government supports surrogacy as a part of assisted conception options, to help people who have difficulty starting their own family.
The Department has published guidance on the care of surrogates and intended parents in surrogate births, which is available at the following link:
The Government has not undertaken an assessment on the adequacy of safeguarding procedures for surrogacy arrangements.
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the funding her Department has provided to the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme (TOEX) for its referral pathway with Vivastreet for each year it has been in existence.
Answered by Natalie Fleet
The Government recognises that online platforms are significant enablers of sexual exploitation. They must be responsible and held accountable for content on their sites, including taking proactive steps to prevent their sites being used by criminals. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a notable proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism. The most recent annual statistics show that in 2025, sexual exploitation (either partly or wholly) accounted for 15% (3,607) of all referrals.
In December 2025, the Government committed within the “Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, to address many aspects of prostitution and sexual exploitation within England and Wales. Commitments include reviewing legislation, raising awareness among frontline agencies of what constitutes adult sexual exploitation, and strengthening police disruption of sexual exploitation. Further details on each of these commitments will be announced in due course.
The Government is also working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational activity aimed at tackling modern slavery threats, ensuring they have the tools they need to disrupt sexual exploitation facilitated online and targeting prolific perpetrators.
This financial year (2026/2027) the Home Office is providing over £10.7m to the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) Programme to improve the law enforcement response across a number of threat areas, including modern slavery and human trafficking, organised immigration crime, county lines, adult and child sexual abuse and exploitation. This funding is used to deliver a range of specialist intelligence and analytical capabilities across threats, including supporting law enforcement partners with an adult service website referral pilot, where adverts are referred to TOEX to support operational activity.
The Online Enablers Working Group, previously the Adult Services Website Working Group, is a multi-agency working group. The working group comprises of law enforcement, policing, policy officials and regulators, including the National Crime Agency, Home Office officials, police officers, TOEX and Ofcom. The Home Office does not intend to publish information or documents from meetings, as this could undermine future policy development.
The Home Office has provided dedicated funding to support law enforcement agencies to purchase software licenses to identify and tackle sexual exploitation as part of routine work and project work in the following financial years:
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the funding her Department has provided to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of purchasing software licenses to obtain and analyse data from websites advertising prostitution since 2017.
Answered by Natalie Fleet
The Government recognises that online platforms are significant enablers of sexual exploitation. They must be responsible and held accountable for content on their sites, including taking proactive steps to prevent their sites being used by criminals. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a notable proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism. The most recent annual statistics show that in 2025, sexual exploitation (either partly or wholly) accounted for 15% (3,607) of all referrals.
In December 2025, the Government committed within the “Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, to address many aspects of prostitution and sexual exploitation within England and Wales. Commitments include reviewing legislation, raising awareness among frontline agencies of what constitutes adult sexual exploitation, and strengthening police disruption of sexual exploitation. Further details on each of these commitments will be announced in due course.
The Government is also working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational activity aimed at tackling modern slavery threats, ensuring they have the tools they need to disrupt sexual exploitation facilitated online and targeting prolific perpetrators.
This financial year (2026/2027) the Home Office is providing over £10.7m to the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) Programme to improve the law enforcement response across a number of threat areas, including modern slavery and human trafficking, organised immigration crime, county lines, adult and child sexual abuse and exploitation. This funding is used to deliver a range of specialist intelligence and analytical capabilities across threats, including supporting law enforcement partners with an adult service website referral pilot, where adverts are referred to TOEX to support operational activity.
The Online Enablers Working Group, previously the Adult Services Website Working Group, is a multi-agency working group. The working group comprises of law enforcement, policing, policy officials and regulators, including the National Crime Agency, Home Office officials, police officers, TOEX and Ofcom. The Home Office does not intend to publish information or documents from meetings, as this could undermine future policy development.
The Home Office has provided dedicated funding to support law enforcement agencies to purchase software licenses to identify and tackle sexual exploitation as part of routine work and project work in the following financial years:
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the agenda, minutes and any other meeting papers of the Adult Services Website Working Group for each year it has operated.
Answered by Natalie Fleet
The Government recognises that online platforms are significant enablers of sexual exploitation. They must be responsible and held accountable for content on their sites, including taking proactive steps to prevent their sites being used by criminals. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a notable proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism. The most recent annual statistics show that in 2025, sexual exploitation (either partly or wholly) accounted for 15% (3,607) of all referrals.
In December 2025, the Government committed within the “Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, to address many aspects of prostitution and sexual exploitation within England and Wales. Commitments include reviewing legislation, raising awareness among frontline agencies of what constitutes adult sexual exploitation, and strengthening police disruption of sexual exploitation. Further details on each of these commitments will be announced in due course.
The Government is also working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational activity aimed at tackling modern slavery threats, ensuring they have the tools they need to disrupt sexual exploitation facilitated online and targeting prolific perpetrators.
This financial year (2026/2027) the Home Office is providing over £10.7m to the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) Programme to improve the law enforcement response across a number of threat areas, including modern slavery and human trafficking, organised immigration crime, county lines, adult and child sexual abuse and exploitation. This funding is used to deliver a range of specialist intelligence and analytical capabilities across threats, including supporting law enforcement partners with an adult service website referral pilot, where adverts are referred to TOEX to support operational activity.
The Online Enablers Working Group, previously the Adult Services Website Working Group, is a multi-agency working group. The working group comprises of law enforcement, policing, policy officials and regulators, including the National Crime Agency, Home Office officials, police officers, TOEX and Ofcom. The Home Office does not intend to publish information or documents from meetings, as this could undermine future policy development.
The Home Office has provided dedicated funding to support law enforcement agencies to purchase software licenses to identify and tackle sexual exploitation as part of routine work and project work in the following financial years:
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of trends in levels of women who are being advertised for prostitution on websites advertising prostitution in the UK.
Answered by Natalie Fleet
The Government recognises that online platforms are significant enablers of sexual exploitation. They must be responsible and held accountable for content on their sites, including taking proactive steps to prevent their sites being used by criminals. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a notable proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism. The most recent annual statistics show that in 2025, sexual exploitation (either partly or wholly) accounted for 15% (3,607) of all referrals.
In December 2025, the Government committed within the “Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, to address many aspects of prostitution and sexual exploitation within England and Wales. Commitments include reviewing legislation, raising awareness among frontline agencies of what constitutes adult sexual exploitation, and strengthening police disruption of sexual exploitation. Further details on each of these commitments will be announced in due course.
The Government is also working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational activity aimed at tackling modern slavery threats, ensuring they have the tools they need to disrupt sexual exploitation facilitated online and targeting prolific perpetrators.
This financial year (2026/2027) the Home Office is providing over £10.7m to the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) Programme to improve the law enforcement response across a number of threat areas, including modern slavery and human trafficking, organised immigration crime, county lines, adult and child sexual abuse and exploitation. This funding is used to deliver a range of specialist intelligence and analytical capabilities across threats, including supporting law enforcement partners with an adult service website referral pilot, where adverts are referred to TOEX to support operational activity.
The Online Enablers Working Group, previously the Adult Services Website Working Group, is a multi-agency working group. The working group comprises of law enforcement, policing, policy officials and regulators, including the National Crime Agency, Home Office officials, police officers, TOEX and Ofcom. The Home Office does not intend to publish information or documents from meetings, as this could undermine future policy development.
The Home Office has provided dedicated funding to support law enforcement agencies to purchase software licenses to identify and tackle sexual exploitation as part of routine work and project work in the following financial years:
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the membership is of the Adult Services Website Working Group.
Answered by Natalie Fleet
The Government recognises that online platforms are significant enablers of sexual exploitation. They must be responsible and held accountable for content on their sites, including taking proactive steps to prevent their sites being used by criminals. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a notable proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism. The most recent annual statistics show that in 2025, sexual exploitation (either partly or wholly) accounted for 15% (3,607) of all referrals.
In December 2025, the Government committed within the “Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, to address many aspects of prostitution and sexual exploitation within England and Wales. Commitments include reviewing legislation, raising awareness among frontline agencies of what constitutes adult sexual exploitation, and strengthening police disruption of sexual exploitation. Further details on each of these commitments will be announced in due course.
The Government is also working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational activity aimed at tackling modern slavery threats, ensuring they have the tools they need to disrupt sexual exploitation facilitated online and targeting prolific perpetrators.
This financial year (2026/2027) the Home Office is providing over £10.7m to the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) Programme to improve the law enforcement response across a number of threat areas, including modern slavery and human trafficking, organised immigration crime, county lines, adult and child sexual abuse and exploitation. This funding is used to deliver a range of specialist intelligence and analytical capabilities across threats, including supporting law enforcement partners with an adult service website referral pilot, where adverts are referred to TOEX to support operational activity.
The Online Enablers Working Group, previously the Adult Services Website Working Group, is a multi-agency working group. The working group comprises of law enforcement, policing, policy officials and regulators, including the National Crime Agency, Home Office officials, police officers, TOEX and Ofcom. The Home Office does not intend to publish information or documents from meetings, as this could undermine future policy development.
The Home Office has provided dedicated funding to support law enforcement agencies to purchase software licenses to identify and tackle sexual exploitation as part of routine work and project work in the following financial years:
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether UK-produced arms are being used in a) the West Bank and b) the Gaza strip.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 18 September 2025 to Question 72500. The latest information on Israel export licences has since been updated on 20 April 2026 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/export-control-licensing-management-information-for-israel.
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many export licenses for arms and defensive equipment between the UK and Israel are currently active.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The UK Government published specific information relating to export licensing to Israel on 20 April 2026, covering extant export licences on 28 February 2026. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/export-control-licensing-management-information-for-israel).
At that date, there were 203 extant military licences to Israel. These include 89 for components for items to be re-exported from Israel to third countries, 37 licences for the export of items to commercial companies (such as for testing or demonstration purposes), and 9 covering military grade equipment for academic or civilian purposes (including protective equipment for non-combatants).
68 remained extant where the Government of Israel is the end-user or a potential end-user. These include parts for trainer aircraft, missile defence systems, or components for submarines – which were not assessed to have combat utility in current military operations in Gaza.
Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of aid trucks entering Gaza in a) April and b) May 2026.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the statement made to the House by the Foreign Secretary on 9 June, where - in setting out the action being taken by the UK in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza - she said that barely half the level of the 4,200 trucks a week promised in the 20-point Peace Plan are currently entering Gaza.