Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support is available to British citizens travelling from countries outside of the Middle East on visas that expire before they are able to return to the UK as a result of journeys that have been cancelled due to the situation in Iran.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

As part of the FCDO's crisis response, we have been working with the relevant authorities in various countries to request flexibility for people who might overstay their visas due to disrupted travel plans as a result of the crisis in the Middle East. Any British nationals affected in this way should in the first instance speak to their airlines, travel agents or insurance companies about their situation and flight options. FCDO staff are also available 24/7 via our contact centre in the event that consular assistance is required.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has assessed the potential merits of public equity investment in frontier artificial intelligence companies in encouraging those firms to list or dual-list on UK capital markets.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The British Business Bank’s Five Year Strategic Plan, published in November 2025, sets a clear focus on improving access to finance for smaller and high-growth businesses, helping crowd in private capital and ensuring more UK companies can reach scale and ultimately access public markets. A strong early‑stage and scale‑up ecosystem is essential to the long‑term depth and competitiveness of the UK’s public equity markets.

In 2025, the Government increased the British Business Bank’s financial capacity to £25.6 billion, marking a major step change in its ability to support UK businesses to start and scale.

The Government have also delivered an ambitious set of reforms to boost the UK’s capital markets and make it easier to IPO in the UK through an ambitious modernisation of the UK’s listings rules. Taken together, these reforms make it easier to start, scale and list in the UK.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Tonia Antoniazzi (Chair); Chris Bloore; Sorcha Eastwood; Claire Hanna

Found: Current membership Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour; Gower) (Chair) Chris Bloore (Labour; Redditch) Sorcha Eastwood

Found: Q99 Chris Bloore: First off, I just want to say thank you for coming.

Found: Stephanie Peacock 2025-11-18 Chris Bloore MP and the Diabetes Football Community To discuss diabetes

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