Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has considered joining the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to helping deliver global climate finance, including the New Collective Quantified Goal agreed at COP29 of at least $300bn per year to developing countries by 2035, and responding to the wider call on all actors to increase climate finance to developing countries to £1.3trn per year.
As part of that effort, we are pressing for faster and more ambitious reforms to the global financial system to deliver much more and higher quality climate and development finance. Alongside this, we are supportive of exploring revenue raising mechanisms for climate action.
We recognise the work being undertaken by the Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce and will consider their proposals and those of other organisations on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of plastics industry lobbyists on the UK Government’s position at at the United Nations plastics treaty negotiations (INC-5.2).
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has been a strong advocate for an ambitious and effective global plastics treaty and is a founder member of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution. During the resumed 5th session of the negotiations (INC5.2), we continued to work closely with ambitious countries to push for a treaty covering the full lifecycle of plastics. The UK has consistently argued that an effective treaty must be based on the best available science.
The Government is committed to an open and transparent process and has engaged widely with industry and other stakeholders to gather a broad range of views to inform the UK’s negotiating position. This includes engagement through the UK National Treaty Dialogues on Plastic Pollution which facilitated discussions with industries at all stages of the plastics value chain as well as NGOs and academia. The reports from these sessions can be found here. The UK’s negotiating position seeks to balance the interests of all stakeholders and is not determined by any single group.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much her Department spent on bilateral water, sanitation and hygiene projects in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
UK bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) for water supply and sanitation, which includes hygiene, is released annually in the UK Government Publication Statistics for International Development. The latest report, published in September 2025, shows that UK bilateral ODA spent on water supply and sanitation totalled £80million in the 2024 calendar year. The Statistics for International Development publishes data on an annual basis rather than by financial year.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of linking salary requirements to NHS pay scales on overseas social workers with skilled worker visas employed by local authorities.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We use Office for National Statistics (ONS) data to set salary requirements for occupations, except where a national pay scale exists. In the case of social workers, the NHS Agenda for Change is the only available national scale, as Local Authority rates vary. Using Agenda for Change means the salary requirements are lower than they would be if we used ONS data.
On 2 July we asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to advise on future salary requirements for Skilled Worker visas. We look forward to receiving their recommendations in due course.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many social workers are working in the UK on a (a) skilled workers visa and (b) health and care visa.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on sponsored work visas by occupation in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release. Data on grants of visas are published in table ‘Occ_D02’ of the ‘sponsored work visas by occupation and industry dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Data is from January 2021 up to the end of June 2025.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason she decided to use NHS pay bands instead of local authority pay bands when determining income requirements for overseas social workers applying for a skilled workers visa.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We use Office for National Statistics (ONS) data to set salary requirements for occupations, except where a national pay scale exists. In the case of social workers, the NHS Agenda for Change is the only available national scale, as Local Authority rates vary. Using Agenda for Change means the salary requirements are lower than they would be if we used ONS data.
On 2 July we asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to advise on future salary requirements for Skilled Worker visas. We look forward to receiving their recommendations in due course.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much ringfenced funding will be provided to children’s hospices in each year from 2026-7 to 2029-30.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.
We cannot yet confirm what the funding for 2026/27 and beyond will be, or how it will be administered.
The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections, published on 17 July 2025, what progress has been made on testing (a) digitally enabled and (b) convenient approaches to electoral registration.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is actively exploring a range of approaches to improve electoral registration, including making it easier for people to register to vote. User research is undertaken throughout the policy and digital service development process.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing the Government's Strategy and Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The existing Strategy and Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission does not reflect this Government’s priorities and will not remain in place.
On 17 July, we published our strategy for modern and secure elections which included proposals to give significant new powers and responsibilities to the Electoral Commission to strengthen the enforcement of political finance rules. In light of these new responsibilities, we intend to designate a new Strategy and Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission to reflect this Government’s priorities for elections and the Commission’s increased roles and responsibilities.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she expects the research her Department has commissioned into tackling gaps in the scientific evidence on the potential impact of various catching methods for farmed poultry to conclude.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Research into assessing the impact of poultry catching and handling methods on animal welfare and catching durations in Great Britain is expected to be completed in 2028, after which the Government will consider its findings.