Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what investigations his Department is conducting into goods originating from Israeli settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories being labelled as originating from within Israel’s pre-1967 borders; and what enforcement measures are available.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Government of Israel.
The overseas business risk guidance, available on gov.uk, provides information for UK operators on how goods from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories should be labelled.
Where there are doubts about the declared origin of goods, HMRC undertakes checks to verify the origin of those goods to ensure compliance.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of goods originating from Israeli settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories that are being labelled as originating from within Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
HMRC are responsible for the conduct of origin verification checks on imported goods. Where there are doubts about the declared origin of goods, HMRC undertakes checks to verify the origin of those goods to ensure fiscal compliance. Data on imports from Israel is available on uktradeinfo.com/trade-data.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the mortgage guarantee scheme beyond 30 June 2025.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the difficulties some prospective first-time buyers face in buying a home, and is committed to helping them get on the housing ladder.
We committed in our manifesto to introduce a permanent and comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme to help buyers who struggle to save for a large deposit. At Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor confirmed our intention to introduce this scheme.
We will announce further details of this scheme in due course.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
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 made of the UK’s capacity to attract investment in dementia clinical trials, in the context of the availability of disease-modifying treatments in other countries that have not yet been approved for use by the NHS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No particular assessment has been made.
The Department is committed to turbocharging medical research and delivering better patient care, to make the United Kingdom a world-leading destination for clinical research. We are working to fast-track clinical trials to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes and accelerate the development of medicines and therapies of the future, including treatments for dementia.
The Department delivers dementia research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Government funders are investing in dementia research across all areas, from causes, diagnosis and prevention to treatment, care and support, including for carers.
The NIHR is investing nearly £50 million to the UK Dementia Trials Network, which will deliver a coordinated network of early phase dementia trial sites. This will be complemented by the £20 million Dementia Clinical Trials Accelerator, designed to position the UK as the destination of choice for late phase clinical trials in dementia and neurodegenerative diseases.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of permitting people to undertake government-funded childcare to children they are related to, but are not the parents of.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
Funding made available in the dedicated schools grant for the early education childcare entitlements for children aged from 9 months up to school age, cannot be claimed by, or spent on, any type of childcare providers who provide childcare for related children.
This restriction for local authorities funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4)(c) the 2006 Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative and section 18(8)(c) of the 2006 Act states that a relative, in relation to a child, means “a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister, whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership”.
Successive governments have taken the view that people should not receive funding for looking after related children that they may already look after on an informal basis for free. This is on the basis that it would not be an effective use of public money. For this reason, the department has no plans to change this long-standing position at this time.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to increase the penalties for (a) failing to display a front registration plate and (b) using a plate that does not meet the legal requirements on a car.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government keeps the motoring offences under review, and is considering possible interventions.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will introduce legislation to (a) protect and (b) guide the ambulance service on a statutory footing.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service ambulance services have already been placed on a statutory footing through existing legislation.
NHS England will publish further guidance to support integrated care boards in their commissioning of ambulance services in 2025/26, and will provide a new ambulance commissioning specification for 2026/27.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that (a) hospitals offer (i) gluten and (i) dairy free food that is not high in added sugars and (b) people with restricted diets have access to (A) healthy and (B) fresh food when in hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published their Food and Drink Standards, which set out the expectations for National Health Service trusts regarding the food they provide to patients and staff. Emphasis is placed on providing healthy, nutritious food options. The standards include requirements that hospital food has:
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) seed oils, (b) added gluten and (c) processed food standards on public health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government advice on a healthy, balanced diet is encapsulated in the United Kingdom’s Eatwell Guide. This is underpinned by the robust independent risk assessments and recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN).
SACN has not undertaken a specific assessment of seed oils. However, SACN’s 2019 report on ‘Saturated fats and health’ concluded that reducing saturated fats reduces the risk of heart disease and lowers cholesterol. SACN recommended that saturated fat intake is reduced and saturated fats are substituted with unsaturated fats. Vegetable oils, including seed oils, are higher in unsaturated fats and lower in saturated fat than alternatives such as butter, ghee and palm oil. The topic of individual fatty acids, including omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, of which seed oils may be a source, is on SACN’s watching brief.
SACN has not undertaken a specific assessment of the impact of added gluten on health outcomes. However, gluten-containing carbohydrate foods were considered as part of SACN’s report on ‘Carbohydrates and health’ published in 2015. SACN recommended that approximately 50% of total dietary energy should be derived from carbohydrates. Government dietary advice, as depicted in the Eatwell Guide, is that we should choose wholegrain or higher fibre versions of starchy carbohydrates wherever possible. Management of clinical conditions for which gluten has a role is under the remit of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
There are no food standards on processed foods. However, the evidence on processed foods and health has been assessed by SACN in position statements published in 2023 and 2025. SACN has concluded that the observed associations between higher consumption of (ultra) processed foods and adverse health outcomes are concerning. SACN has recommended that on balance, most people are likely to benefit from reducing their consumption of processed foods high in energy, saturated fat, salt and free sugars and low in fibre. This is based on the nutrient content of many ultra-processed foods and concerns raised in relation to health. SACN will continue to keep the topic under review.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to ban car insurance companies from using age to determine insurance premiums for older drivers.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government takes uninsured driving seriously. This is achieved through Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE), a scheme where the Motor Insurers’ Bureau and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency collaborate to identify uninsured drivers and police enforcement on the road.
All drivers must be insured to drive the vehicle they are using and for the purpose it is used for. As with all drivers, they are subject to roadside enforcement by the police.
Motor insurers are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of the policies that they offer, and it is for them to decide the level of risk that they take in issuing any policy to a given applicant. They use a range of criteria to assess the potential risk a driver poses, including the age of the applicant, the type of vehicle being insured, the postal area where the applicant lives and the driving experience and record of the applicant. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for individual insurers based on their underwriting experience and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market.
The Equality Act 2010 provides general protection against age discrimination for people of all ages. However, the Act also includes an exemption for those conducting an assessment of risk for the purposes of providing a financial service to another person. This means that motor insurance companies are still able to take age into account when considering the premium to be paid or indeed whether to insure people of any particular age group.