Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department holds on the expected uptake of family financial resilience programmes in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency under the Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not hold data on the expected uptake of family financial resilience programmes, and have not made any assessment of the number of children in households newly eligible for debt-prevention or money-management support in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency under the Child Poverty Strategy.
The Strategy recognises the important role that financial resilience must play in supporting families in poverty. The new £1 billion (including Barnett consequential) Crisis and Resilience Fund, launching in April 2026, will invest in local financial resilience to enable communities to better deal with crises in the long-term, reducing dependence and repeat need.
Alongside this, the government is boosting financial resilience through helping low-income families to save, increasing debt advice provision and providing financial education and money management tools. The Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy, published on 5 November 2025, brings together the foundations of financial resilience in support of the Child Poverty Strategy.
Alongside the Child Poverty Strategy, we have set out our initial plans for monitoring and evaluation to ensure our strategy is on track to tackle child poverty. We will work with departments and policy owners to complement existing monitoring and evaluation plans, and support them to further assess the delivery and impact of their policies on child poverty, particularly for policies where it is important to capture wider benefits. Further details on our approach to monitoring and evaluation will follow in a baseline report in Summer 2026.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency in households newly eligible for debt-prevention or money-management support under the Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not hold data on the expected uptake of family financial resilience programmes, and have not made any assessment of the number of children in households newly eligible for debt-prevention or money-management support in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency under the Child Poverty Strategy.
The Strategy recognises the important role that financial resilience must play in supporting families in poverty. The new £1 billion (including Barnett consequential) Crisis and Resilience Fund, launching in April 2026, will invest in local financial resilience to enable communities to better deal with crises in the long-term, reducing dependence and repeat need.
Alongside this, the government is boosting financial resilience through helping low-income families to save, increasing debt advice provision and providing financial education and money management tools. The Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy, published on 5 November 2025, brings together the foundations of financial resilience in support of the Child Poverty Strategy.
Alongside the Child Poverty Strategy, we have set out our initial plans for monitoring and evaluation to ensure our strategy is on track to tackle child poverty. We will work with departments and policy owners to complement existing monitoring and evaluation plans, and support them to further assess the delivery and impact of their policies on child poverty, particularly for policies where it is important to capture wider benefits. Further details on our approach to monitoring and evaluation will follow in a baseline report in Summer 2026.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what processes his Department uses to determine which UK industries will be prioritised during negotiations for an enhanced free trade agreement with Turkey.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It is too soon to presume on the final outcomes of FTA negotiations with Turkey, but we have held three successful rounds of negotiations to date.
We already have a goods focussed FTA with Turkey, providing tariff-free access on industrial goods. Both countries are now working towards ambitious outcomes across trade in services and digital trade, areas not covered by the existing agreement. We will continue to work with our independent regulators on any decisions relating to cooperation with Turkey.
Our prioritisation decisions will align with our Industrial Strategy - including its eight sectors of focus - and Trade Strategy and will be informed by the latest economic data, with the aim of fulfilling our mission of securing the highest sustained growth in the G7.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has set any departmental benchmarks for the data required to support decisions on regulatory co-operation with Turkey under a future agreement.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It is too soon to presume on the final outcomes of FTA negotiations with Turkey, but we have held three successful rounds of negotiations to date.
We already have a goods focussed FTA with Turkey, providing tariff-free access on industrial goods. Both countries are now working towards ambitious outcomes across trade in services and digital trade, areas not covered by the existing agreement. We will continue to work with our independent regulators on any decisions relating to cooperation with Turkey.
Our prioritisation decisions will align with our Industrial Strategy - including its eight sectors of focus - and Trade Strategy and will be informed by the latest economic data, with the aim of fulfilling our mission of securing the highest sustained growth in the G7.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate he has made of the number of UK business sectors that will fall within scope of the market-access discussions with Turkey.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It is too soon to presume on the final outcomes of FTA negotiations with Turkey, but we have held three successful rounds of negotiations to date.
We already have a goods focussed FTA with Turkey, providing tariff-free access on industrial goods. Both countries are now working towards ambitious outcomes across trade in services and digital trade, areas not covered by the existing agreement. We will continue to work with our independent regulators on any decisions relating to cooperation with Turkey.
Our prioritisation decisions will align with our Industrial Strategy - including its eight sectors of focus - and Trade Strategy and will be informed by the latest economic data, with the aim of fulfilling our mission of securing the highest sustained growth in the G7.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate he has made of the number of UK businesses in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency that have participated in trade remedy investigations in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
According to the records available, no producers have registered with the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) to an investigation using a contact address within the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency, between 01/01/2023 and 13/12/2025. Other interested parties do not routinely provide the TRA with an address.
Due to commercial sensitivities, I am unable to comment on engagement with businesses which may inform decisions on whether to open a case.
If any businesses in your constituency have concerns about unfair trading practices, I would encourage them to contact the TRA at contact@traderemedies.gov.uk.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what criteria her Department plans to use to evaluate bids for funding under forthcoming peacebuilding programmes for Israel and Palestine.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has announced plans to host a key peacebuilding conference on 12 March next year, which will bring together international experts and civil society organisations from the Middle East, to map existing peace-building work and support the establishment of an International Peace Fund for Israel and Palestine. All further details such as the staffing of this work, international partners attending the conference, and the evaluation of funding bids, will be set out in the usual way in due course.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the staffing resource required to administer new peacebuilding schemes.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has announced plans to host a key peacebuilding conference on 12 March next year, which will bring together international experts and civil society organisations from the Middle East, to map existing peace-building work and support the establishment of an International Peace Fund for Israel and Palestine. All further details such as the staffing of this work, international partners attending the conference, and the evaluation of funding bids, will be set out in the usual way in due course.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what mechanisms her Department intends to use to co-ordinate planned UK peacebuilding activity with that of international partners.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has announced plans to host a key peacebuilding conference on 12 March next year, which will bring together international experts and civil society organisations from the Middle East, to map existing peace-building work and support the establishment of an International Peace Fund for Israel and Palestine. All further details such as the staffing of this work, international partners attending the conference, and the evaluation of funding bids, will be set out in the usual way in due course.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to publish annual constituency-level child poverty indicators in relation to the Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Details of new statistics currently under development are also set out in the DWP Statistical Work Programme, available at: Statistical work programme - GOV.UK. This includes proposals for a new measure of low income for families in receipt of Universal Credit (UC) and new local area Official Statistics on children in low-income families on an after housing costs (AHC) basis, which will provide additional local area level insights.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, published alongside the Strategy, sets out how we will track progress and evaluate success as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability and continued learning. We will use two complementary headline metrics, relative poverty (after housing costs) and deep material poverty, as well as a comprehensive programme of analysis focussing on the drivers of child poverty and the impact of specific interventions. We will publish a baseline report next summer with further details, which will set out the latest statistics and identify what further indicators and wider evidence will be used to monitor and evaluate the Child Poverty Strategy at both a national and local level.