Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of Israeli goods imported to the UK are from the Occupied Territories.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as an accredited official statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the eVisa system since its rollout; and whether any complaints have been received on (a) accessibility issues and (b) inaccuracies in eVisa records.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are committed to ensuring that the transition to eVisas is as smooth as possible for all status holders. The Home Office has a robust support model in place to facilitate this transition that strives to ensure that all people, including the most vulnerable, are properly supported as we transform our immigration system. All our digital status online services are designed to be compliant with relevant accessibility legislation.
People who need support can contact the UKVI Resolution Centre to request that an account is created for them so they can access their eVisa. They can also get help to access their eVisa from Grant Funded Organisations or Local Authorities, or through the Assisted Digital Service if they are digitally excluded.
We have increased the number of support services available to vulnerable people and have delivered £4m of grant funding to 72 voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK.
In response to feedback from users, we have also provided information and guidance videos on GOV.UK which show all users how to access and use their UKVI account.
If a person notices any inaccurate details in their eVisa, for example, their eVisa is showing a wrong date of birth or immigration status, or they cannot see their eVisa after creating their UKVI account, they should report the error as soon as possible via: eVisas: access and use your online immigration status: Report an error with your eVisa - GOV.UK
Once the eVisa error form has been submitted, we prioritise the resolution of their issue and people will receive an email notification when the error or issue has been resolved.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2025 to Question 83308 on Export Controls: Israel, whether his Department has considered introducing a formal (a) certification and (b) verification mechanism for importers to demonstrate that goods originating from Israel are not produced in illegal settlements.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Israeli settlements in Palestine are illegal under international law. Goods originating from illegal Israeli settlements are not entitled to tariff and trade preferences. Where there are doubts about the declared origin of goods, HMRC undertakes checks to verify the origin and ensure fiscal compliance. Separately, we are conducting a review of Responsible Business Conduct, focusing on the global supply chains of businesses operating in the UK, as outlined in our Trade Strategy.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions his Department has had with Innovate UK on (a) when it plans to open the next Biomedical Catalyst grant awards and (b) steps being taken to ensure a wide range of biomedical businesses can apply for grants via that programme.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Biomedical Catalyst has a suite of competitions designed to support small and medium sized businesses to progress projects at different stages of development.
There is currently one grant opportunity open - Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Accelerator – Hospital to Community - which closes on the 31st of October. The next round of industry-led R&D funding is under preparation and expected to be launched early Nov and open for 4 weeks.
Innovate UK promotes R&D funding opportunities through social media and other communication channels. Biomedical Catalyst also utilises Business Connect services to engage with UK businesses by offering bespoke, sustained 1:1 support as well as providing advice and access to resources that can help promote Biomedical Catalyst, and support with applications and funding.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has issued guidance to financial institutions on its investment decisions in the context of the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, published in July 2024.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There is guidance on gov.uk setting out the clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements, and we do not encourage or offer support to such activity.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Action 10 on page 22 of the Life Sciences Sector Plan, published on 16 July 2025, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that musculoskeletal conditions are included in plans to increase investment in health research and development focused on primary and secondary prevention and multiple long-term conditions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including a variety of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions such as arthritis, including osteo, rheumatoid, psoriatic, juvenile arthritis, osteoporosis, and joint and back pain. This includes research on primary and secondary prevention of MSK and the interaction and co-concurrence of MSK with other long-term conditions. Current investments across the NIHR include:
- the UK Musculoskeletal Translational Research Collaboration, which works across all sectors of the health and care system to collate expertise, resources, and to develop novel innovations to benefit those experiencing MSK related conditions, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do/infrastructure/translational-research-collaborations/musculosceletal;
- the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, which is evaluating new devices and surgical interventions, using large datasets to find new ways to identify and treat MSK conditions and testing new drug delivery systems to help treat MSK conditions, with further information available at the following link:
https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/research-themes/musculoskeletal/; and
- a major research grant exploring whether long-term conditions such as arthritis can be predicted by a person’s level of inflammation. Predicting these conditions will enable better intervention, prevention, and treatment, with further information available at the following link:
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR205461.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the resilience of Government Digital Services to outages.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In the 2025 State of Digital Government review, cyber security and digital resilience risks were identified as critically high across the public sector, and we are taking immediate action to make Government services more secure, resilient and reliable.
Government has a robust set of policies that ensure there are well-defined and tested incident management processes in place, providing continuity of essential functions in the event of system or service failure.
Furthermore, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) will publish the Government Cyber Action Plan this Winter, which sets out a clear approach for Government and the public sector to manage cyber security and resilience incidents.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) comply with the ICJ Advisory Opinion entitled Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, published on 19 July 2024 and (b) prevent (i) trade and (ii) investment relations that help to maintain Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is fully committed to international law and respects the independence of the International Court of Justice. We continue to consider the Court's Advisory Opinion carefully, with the seriousness and rigour it deserves. The UK does not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Israeli settlements, as part of Israel. Goods imported from the settlements are therefore not entitled to benefit from trade preferences under the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement. The UK also supports accurate labelling of settlement goods, so as not to mislead the consumer.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67326 on Taxation, what reforms to the tax system are being considered to support (a) job creation and (b) economic participation in regions with persistently lower employment levels.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The OBR will produce a new forecast for the annual Budget, and the Chancellor will make decisions in the round based on that forecast.
The Government is focused on unleashing the potential of people across all nations and regions of the UK and growing the economy – a key priority in the Plan for Change.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the impact of the AWS outage on 20 October 2025 on Government Digital Services.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is leading Government’s response to the AWS outage that took place on Monday 20 October 2025. DSIT continues to work across government and with businesses to understand the full impacts of the outage. All AWS services were restored on Monday evening and DSIT is in contact with AWS to understand how such events can be mitigated in the future.
The outage affected a number of suppliers and departments, and it will take some time to fully understand the scale of the impact. DSIT will be gathering a full picture of the impact on government in the coming weeks.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will publish the Government Cyber Action Plan this Winter, which will set out a clear approach for the Government and the Wider Public Sector to manage cyber security and resilience incidents.