Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the regulatory approach on investor adoption of pound sterling based stablecoins.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to making the UK a global hub for digital assets. It recognises the huge potential posed by tokenised asset innovation, and for stablecoins to support innovation in both retail payments and wholesale settlement.
That is why the government is bringing in legislation to establish a new financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets, including stablecoin, and maintaining a close and ongoing dialogue with the financial regulators as they develop detailed rules and guidance.
This legislation complements other measures being taken forward by the government on digital assets, including: the Digital Securities Sandbox, which supports settlement using distributed ledger technology; the Digital Gilt Instrument pilot issuance; and the publication of the Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with regulators on permitting multi-jurisdiction reserve models for pound sterling stablecoin issuance.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to making the UK a global hub for digital assets. It recognises the huge potential posed by tokenised asset innovation, and for stablecoins to support innovation in both retail payments and wholesale settlement.
That is why the government is bringing in legislation to establish a new financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets, including stablecoin, and maintaining a close and ongoing dialogue with the financial regulators as they develop detailed rules and guidance.
This legislation complements other measures being taken forward by the government on digital assets, including: the Digital Securities Sandbox, which supports settlement using distributed ledger technology; the Digital Gilt Instrument pilot issuance; and the publication of the Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of restricting stablecoin use in wholesale markets on the development of tokenised settlement systems.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to making the UK a global hub for digital assets. It recognises the huge potential posed by tokenised asset innovation, and for stablecoins to support innovation in both retail payments and wholesale settlement.
That is why the government is bringing in legislation to establish a new financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets, including stablecoin, and maintaining a close and ongoing dialogue with the financial regulators as they develop detailed rules and guidance.
This legislation complements other measures being taken forward by the government on digital assets, including: the Digital Securities Sandbox, which supports settlement using distributed ledger technology; the Digital Gilt Instrument pilot issuance; and the publication of the Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps is taking to support UK participation in digital settlement markets.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to making the UK a global hub for digital assets. It recognises the huge potential posed by tokenised asset innovation, and for stablecoins to support innovation in both retail payments and wholesale settlement.
That is why the government is bringing in legislation to establish a new financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets, including stablecoin, and maintaining a close and ongoing dialogue with the financial regulators as they develop detailed rules and guidance.
This legislation complements other measures being taken forward by the government on digital assets, including: the Digital Securities Sandbox, which supports settlement using distributed ledger technology; the Digital Gilt Instrument pilot issuance; and the publication of the Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of limiting interest-earning reserves on the commercial viability of pound-backed stablecoins.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to making the UK a global hub for digital assets. It recognises the huge potential posed by tokenised asset innovation, and for stablecoins to support innovation in both retail payments and wholesale settlement.
That is why the government is bringing in legislation to establish a new financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets, including stablecoin, and maintaining a close and ongoing dialogue with the financial regulators as they develop detailed rules and guidance.
This legislation complements other measures being taken forward by the government on digital assets, including: the Digital Securities Sandbox, which supports settlement using distributed ledger technology; the Digital Gilt Instrument pilot issuance; and the publication of the Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to review guidance for local authorities on HIV support service commissioning.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new HIV Action Plan, published on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. Services to support people living with HIV are primarily the responsibility of National Health Service integrated care boards, who commission adult HIV care in line with the relevant NHS England service specification. Providers of HIV care are responsible for collaborating with local authority commissioned social care where needed.
The HIV Action Plan also asks local partners across the NHS and local authorities to carry out a HIV needs assessment which will inform the development and publication of local HIV plans across the country during 2026/27. Local areas will monitor uptake and outcomes to identify gaps and improve equity in access to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. The UK Health Security Agency will continue to support this with robust data monitoring and reporting.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the laboratory capacity required to meet anticipated levels of HIV screening during the HIV Action Plan for England 2025–2030 period.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the new HIV Action Plan, we will continue the success of the blood-borne virus emergency department opt-out testing programme, investing £156 million from April 2026 to March 2029 to deliver opt-out HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C testing in emergency departments in very high and high HIV prevalence areas.
We will also expand digital provision of HIV testing, investing £5 million in 2025/26 to trial HIV testing through the NHS App, working in partnership with existing commissioned sexual health providers, such as those already used by local authorities, rather than building a new service from scratch. These services have a strong track record in at-home HIV testing, and the NHS App will provide a new entry point that routes people into that established service.
National Health Service trusts are responsible for ensuring laboratories have adequate capacity for all testing, including HIV screening.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that clinical commissioning structures are prepared for changes arising from the HIV Action Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new HIV Action Plan (HIV AP), published on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030.
National Health Service integrated care boards hold commissioning responsibility for adult HIV services in line with the relevant NHS England service specification. NHS England is supportive of the HIV AP and its recommendations and is committed to the implementation and delivery of the plan.
The HIV AP asks local partners across the NHS and local authorities to carry out a HIV needs assessment which will inform the development and publication of local HIV plans across the country during 2026/27.
Local areas will monitor uptake and outcomes to identify gaps and improve equity in access to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. The UK Health Security Agency will continue to support this with robust data monitoring and reporting.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the national HIV surveillance system remains compatible with international reporting standards.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and its predecessors have led HIV surveillance since the beginning of the epidemic in the early 1980s. In addition to continued collaboration and acting as expert advisors on HIV surveillance to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) European region, the UKHSA ensures that its data remains compatible by reporting standard data to ECDC/WHO European region and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS on an annual basis.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what criteria are used by his Department to determine which public systems require mandatory zero-trust security measures.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Department applies a risk-based assessment framework, underpinned by secure by design methodology including structured threat modelling, to determine which public systems require mandatory zero-trust security measures. Systems handling sensitive data, supporting critical services, or presenting elevated threat exposure are prioritised. This approach ensures that zero-trust controls are applied proportionately, focusing effort on the environments with the highest risk profile.