Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that weapons manufactured in the UK and sold under export licences are not being used to commit or facilitate violations of international human law in Gaza and in contravention of the Arms Trade Treaty ratified by the UK on 2 April 2014.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.

The Criteria provide a thorough risk assessment framework and the Export Control Joint Unit will not issue an export licence to any destination where to do so would be inconsistent with the Criteria.

The Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel and Gaza. We can and do respond quickly and flexibly to changing international circumstances. All licences are kept under careful and continual review as standard. We are able to amend, suspend or revoke extant licences and refuse new licence applications as circumstances require.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which the government of Israel is depriving the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including by inhibiting of relief supplies.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

As an occupying power in Gaza, Israel has a responsibility to ensure aid is made available for civilians.

We have set out the action that must be taken to allow more aid into Gaza, including: an immediate humanitarian pause and stop in fighting to get more aid in and the hostages out; increased capacity for aid distribution inside Gaza; increased access for aid through land routes and a fully open Ashdod Port; an expansion of the types of humanitarian assistance allowed into Gaza, such as shelter and items critical for infrastructure repair; and the provision of electricity, water and telecommunications.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will undertake a review of existing and pending licences of arm sales to Israel.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel and Gaza. The Government can and does respond quickly and flexibly to changing international circumstances.

All export licences are kept under careful and continual review as standard. We are able to amend, suspend or revoke extant licences and refuse new licence applications as circumstances require.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken, together with allies, to persuade those holding Israeli citizens hostage in Gaza to release them without delay.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK Government has been working with partners across the region to secure the release of hostages. The Foreign Secretary met with hostage families on 18 March, reaffirming the UK's commitment to see the release of all hostages.

We have been clear that the release of all hostages is one of the vital elements for a lasting peace. The Government continues to call for an immediate humanitarian pause to allow for the release of hostages.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reported allegations by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East of widespread abuse of Gazans detained by Israel during the war with Hamas.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We have expressed our grave concern about the shocking reports of ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli military detention. The UK Government is clear that administrative detention should only be used when it is justified in accordance with international law. Those under detention should either be charged or released. We ask Israel to secure improvements in its detention practices.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, IPC Global Initiative - Special Brief, published 19 March, that famine in Gaza is imminent; and what steps they are taking in response.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Palestinians are facing a devastating and growing humanitarian crisis.

On 20 March, the Foreign Secretary announced the UK has funded WFP to provide 2000 tons of food aid, enough to feed 275,000 people in Gaza.

On 25 March, the Royal Air Force airdropped 10 tonnes of food aid - including water, rice and baby food - directly to civilians in Gaza.

We have trebled our aid commitment this financial year and we are doing everything we can to get more aid in as quickly as possible by land, sea and air.

We continue to call for an immediate stop in fighting to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire, without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to reinstate funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and, if so, when.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK provided £35 million to UNRWA this financial year, including an uplift of £16 million for the Gaza humanitarian response, all of which was disbursed before the recent allegations came to light. No more British funding is due this financial year and we have paused any future funding of UNRWA. I met with Commissioner-General Phillipe Lazzarini on 4 April to discuss the steps they are taking in response to the interim findings.

We want UNRWA to give detailed undertakings about changes in personnel, policy and precedents to ensure this can never happen again. We are working with allies to try to bring this situation to a rapid conclusion - not least because UNRWA have a vital role to play in providing aid and services in Gaza.

We are aware that the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services and Catherine Colonna have now provided their interim reports to the UN Secretary-General.

Our decision to pause future funding to UNRWA has no impact on the UK's contribution to the humanitarian response. We remain committed to getting humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza who desperately need it, including through other UN agencies and British charities.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of figures released by the Office for National Statistics on 20 March showing an average increase in monthly rent paid by tenants in the UK of 9 per cent in the year ending in February, including an increase to 10.6 per cent in London to an average monthly rent of £2,035.

Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Government recognises the cost of living pressures that tenants are facing, and that paying rent is likely to be a tenant’s biggest monthly expense.

Over the last two years, the Government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable with one of the largest support packages in Europe. Taken together, total support between 2022 and 2025 to help households with the cost-of-living is worth £108 billion – an average of £3,800 per UK household.

Individuals who need help to make their rent payments may be eligible for a range of support through the welfare system. From April 2024, the Government will be spending £1.2 billion restoring Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This significant investment means 1.6 million low-income households will gain, on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25. For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and need more support, Discretionary Housing Payments and Household Support Fund grants are also available from local authorities.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to impede Hamas acquiring or retaining the resources to make war.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

As we have said, removing Hamas' capacity to launch attacks against Israel and Hamas no longer being in charge of Gaza are among the vital elements for a lasting peace.

The UK has already imposed sanctions on key figures in Hamas' leadership, disrupting the terrorist group's financial networks which sustain their operation, including from Iran. A third tranche of sanctions was announced by FCDO in January. On 27 March the UK announced further sanctions on individuals linked to a Hamas-supporting media network. The UK continues to work closely with our partners to identify further opportunities to disrupt Hamas' financial networks, including cutting off access to funding being used to carry out atrocities.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress has been made in correcting the errors in the Person Centric Data Platform and Atlas system, which have led to the merging of different immigration records.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Person Centric Data Platform (PCDP) holds millions of identities that have been submitted or otherwise provided in support of immigration applications to the UK over many years. The Home Office is aware of issues around ‘merged identity’ - where a single ‘identity island’ has been formed with data belonging to two or more individuals within the PCDP. This is not an issue with Atlas - which provides caseworking capabilities supporting business processing of applicants.

Through detailed analysis of PCDP data, the Home Office has identified around 46,000 records with an identity issue, of which over 13,000 have already been resolved. We have a dedicated team working to resolve the remainder as quickly, and as carefully, as possible.

The Home Office takes data security and accuracy very seriously. Substantial changes have been made to our IT systems to improve data quality, user experience, and caseworking productivity across multiple applications.

Where customers identify an issue with their data, we encourage them to contact the UK Visas and Immigration Contact Centre to enable this to be investigated and resolved.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in allocating the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund 2023 to 2024 for adult social care; and what are their plans for allocation in the financial year 2024–25.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) gives an overall profile of almost £2 billion over two years. Local authorities can choose to use the funding to increase fee rates paid to adult social care providers, increase adult social care workforce capacity and retention, and reduce adult social care waiting times.

In 2023/34, a total of £927 million was made available to local authorities via MSIF, with a further £1.05 billion being made available in 2024/25. The funding has been distributed using the adult social care relative needs formula. Full local authority allocations for 2024/25 are available in the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund Grant Determination 2024 to 2025 on GOV.UK in an online-only format.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made regarding the 12 targets set out in the Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper, published on 2 February 2022.

Answered by Baroness Swinburne - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

As set out in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act, the Government will publish an annual report on mission progress, this will detail the progress that has been made against the 12 missions set out in the Statement on Missions in January 2024.

Levelling Up is a long-term ambition, but we are already making headway. 64% of England’s population and 90% of the North are now covered by a devolution deal. We have met the 5G element of the digital connectivity mission early, achieving 5G coverage for the majority of the population with 72% of premises having outdoor access to a 5G signal. The disparity in employment rates between regions has reduced and productivity has grown faster across many Northern cities than London.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of shortages in the supply of prescription drugs.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are approximately 14,000 medicines licensed for supply in the United Kingdom, and the overwhelming majority are in good supply. The medicine supply chain is complex, global, and highly regulated, and supply issues can be caused by a range of factors. For example, suppliers can encounter manufacturing problems, difficulty accessing raw materials, and surges in demand. These are commonly cited as the drivers of the recent supply issues, which have affected many countries, not just the UK.

Whilst we can’t always prevent supply issues, we have a range of well-established tools and processes to mitigate risks to patients. These include close and regular engagement with suppliers, use of alternative strengths or forms of a medicine to allow patients to remain on the same product, expediting regulatory procedures, sourcing unlicensed imports from abroad, adding products to the restricted exports and hoarding list, use of Serious Shortage Protocols, and issuing National Health Service communications to provide management advice and information on the issue to healthcare professionals, so they can advise and support their patients.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Orpheopolis system of French orphanages for the orphaned children of police officers; and what assessment they have made of the benefits of introducing such a facility in England and Wales.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

This Government has no plans to introduce a facility specifically for orphaned children of police officers.

The death of an officer is devastating for all in policing, but most deeply felt by their loved ones and children. It is important that bereaved families have access to the appropriate support, primarily from the police force. Depending on the particular circumstances, there is a range of benefits payable to children on the death of an officer under both the occupational pension and injury benefit schemes. There are also a number of police charities providing support for bereaved families and children, which provide access to counselling and peer support.

This Government also introduced the Police Covenant, to support the police workforce and their families, recognising the risks and demands that can be involved. We have funded the National Police Wellbeing Service to develop and launch the first national family support package, providing advice for the families of officers on mental health and fatigue, as well as practical resources for those with young children to help them understand the role of policing.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to hold chief officers of police to account for the appropriate vetting of adverse information on police recruits regarding (1) security, (2) public safety, and (3) the confidence of the community.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Police forces carry out their vetting independently of government and in line with the College of Policing’s vetting code of practice and vetting authorised professional practice (APP) guidance, which are both continually reviewed. The code sets out the role that a thorough and effective vetting regime has in helping to ensure public trust and confidence in those working in policing.

The College’s most recent code, published in July 2023, sets out how adverse information should be considered in vetting decisions, as well as provides a number of requirements on chief officers, including the need to assess the risks posed by the individual undergoing vetting both to the public and the police service.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) hold forces to account by routinely carry out independent inspections of forces’ effectiveness and efficiency, which include assessments on vetting. The inspectorate has recently set up a new rolling inspection programme on integrity which will look at the work of professional standards units alongside force vetting and counter-corruption arrangements.

The government is supporting policing by creating a statutory requirement for officers to hold and maintain vetting clearance, as well as creating a new set of regulations which will govern how those who fail vetting can be dismissed. In January this year, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) also published outcomes from its exercise ensuring all officers and staff were checked against the Police National Database (PND).

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel regarding the occupation by Israeli settlers of Cows Garden in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem on 3 April.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We have not held discussions with Israeli counterparts on the situation in the Cow Garden site of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. The UK is monitoring the situation and is clear on the need to avoid any further rise in tensions. British Consulate General staff in Jerusalem met members of the community on 19 January, discussed the current situation and visited the Cow's Garden site. The UK's position on the status of Jerusalem is clear and long-standing: it should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Jerusalem should ultimately be the shared capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states. The UK is a strong supporter of Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) and an advocate for the integrity of culturally important areas to be respected.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Azerbaijan regarding the protection of Armenian heritage in Nagorno–Karabakh following the recent destruction of the St John the Baptist Church and the Ghazanchetsots cemetery in Shusha, and the nearby village of Karin Tak/Dashalti.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We are clear that the preservation of religious and cultural sites in the region is an important issue and we take seriously reports of the destruction of churches or other sites of religious significance. We are aware of allegations from both Armenia and Azerbaijan that cultural and religious sites have been deliberately damaged over the course of the conflict. British Embassy in Baku have raised the topic of religious and cultural destruction and the need to protect such sites with the Azerbaijani government consistently and at the most senior levels.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to undertake an impact assessment of the closure of the Work and Health Programme this autumn and the impact of this on enabling disabled people to enter the job market.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

As part of the government’s Back to Work Plan we have launched and plan to deliver a range of other support which will put in place an offer to a broader range of disabled people, for example, Universal Support will support up to 100,000 disabled people, people with health conditions and people with additional barriers to employment per year, once fully rolled out, helping them to find, enter, and remain in work.

The Work and Health Programme (WHP) has supported 300k people since it was introduced in 2017 to the end of November 2023, of whom over 130k have entered employment in this time. More recently WHP Pioneer, which is part of the first phase of Universal Support, aims to support up to 25k people through DWP contracts. The next publication of WHP Statistics on Gov.UK is due at the end of May 2024.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent Refugee Council report Keys to the City 2024: ending refugee homelessness in London and its finding that in the two years to September 2023, there was a 239 per cent increase in refugees requiring homelessness support from local authorities after being evicted from Home Office asylum accommodation.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We recognise the number of individuals moving on from the asylum support system is placing pressure on local authorities. The Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are working closely on this and have been regularly engaging with local authorities to ensure they are supported. There are a number of improvements in train to ensure local authorities receive early notification of those leaving Home Office asylum accommodation to enable effective planning.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the transfer to Universal Credit of those with a long-term disability which inhibits them from entering the job market.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP continue to learn and iterate our approach as we progress our Move to Universal Credit activity. We remain committed to ensuring that the transition to Universal Credit works as smoothly as possible for all customers, including enhanced customer support for vulnerable customers.

Our latest insight publication is available on GOV.UK - Move to Universal Credit – insight on Tax Credit migrations and initial Discovery activity for wider benefit cohorts.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to regulate identity tracing agencies in relation to the recovery of debt.

Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government wants to see fair treatment of individuals in problem debt, and there is a range of work underway across government and regulators to promote responsible practices for debt recovery.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates the collection of debt by lenders and certain debt collection agencies arising under credit agreements, consumer hire agreements and peer-to-peer loans. The FCA sets clear expectations for firms undertaking the collection of these debts, including the expectation for firms to establish the correct identity, where this is disputed.

On 18 March 2024 the UK Regulators Network (UKRN), including the FCA, Ofgem, Ofwat and Ofcom, published joint guidance which sets out their expectations for firms’ debt collection practices across their respective sectors. This is to ensure that firms support customers in debt and that firms’ collection practices are not causing harm to customers.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to resume funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), following the publication of the Independent Review of Mechanisms and Procedures to Ensure Adherence by UNRWA to the Humanitarian Principle of Neutrality on 22 April.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the events that took place on 7 October in Israel are appalling, which is why we took decisive action to pause future funding to the organisation.

The Prime Minister has been clear that the UK will set out its position on future funding to UNRWA following careful consideration of Catherine Colonna's final report, UNRWA's response and the ongoing UN Office for Internal Oversight Services investigation into these allegations. We recognise the pivotal role the UNRWA play in support of Palestinians in Gaza and neighbouring countries.