Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department holds information on the number of independent UK veterinary practices that offer out-of-hours emergency care.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra does not hold data on the number of independent UK veterinary practices that offer out-of-hours emergency care.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the powers of employment tribunals to seize and destroy lists of blacklisted workers.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As part of the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Department for Business and Trade intends to publish a consultation on blacklisting protections in due course. The consultation will cover, amongst other things, the powers of employment tribunals in regard to lists of blacklisted workers. The government will carefully consider responses to the consultation before outlining next steps.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total expenditure of NHS England on agency staff was in each of the last three years; and what plans his Department has to reduce the use of agency employees.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Agency spend of National Health Service trusts in England in each of the last three years is shown in the table below and is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/financial-performance-reports
Year | Expenditure (£bn) |
2022/23 | 3.46 |
2023/24 | 3.02 |
2024/25 | 2.07 |
Agency spend is already going down and fell by nearly £1 billion in 2024/25.
The NHS 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance sets an expectation that trusts should reduce their temporary staffing spend by a minimum of 30% over the financial year and reduce bank spend by 10%. The accompanying Revenue finance and contracting guidance for 2025/26 sets the ambition of eliminating agency spend entirely in the coming years and is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/revenue-finance-and-contracting-guidance-for-2025-26/
In June, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and the Chief Executive of NHS England wrote to trusts and integrated care boards emphasising the message in the guidance to reduce spend. The letter states that if sufficient progress is not made the Government will consider what further action it can take to reduce spend.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with a diagnosis of dementia have needed to sell their home to pay for care costs in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held by the Department.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Legal Aid Agency informed the Information Commissioner’s Office of the April 2025 data breach within the required statutory timescale; what investigations have been launched by her Department or the ICO into the breach; and whether her Department plans to commission an independent review into the handling of the cyber-attack and the subsequent response by the Legal Aid Agency.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
To ensure we reached as many potentially impacted individuals as possible, the Ministry of Justice published a notice as swiftly as possible at 08:15 on 19 May on GOV.UK.
The statement provides information about the cyber-attack and directs concerned members of the public to the National Cyber Security Centre’s webpage, which contains information on how to protect against the impacts of a data breach. If it is identified that a specific individual is at risk, action will be taken to try to contact them.
The published statement referred to above sets out information about who may have been impacted and the categories of data exfiltrated. It remains the case that there is no evidence to suggest that any of the data accessed has been published.
The recent data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of long term underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.
The Legal Aid Agency is complying with all legal and regulatory requirements arising from the cyber-attack. The current priority is the restoration of services and the prevention of future attacks. Once we can be assured that our legal aid services are operating properly and handling people’s data in a safe way, there will need to be a stocktake and an effort to learn lessons.
It is too early to comment on what remedial actions, if any, may be appropriate for impacted individuals, whether clients or providers.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department and the Legal Aid Agency have taken to notify individuals whose personal data was compromised in the April 2025 cyber-attack; whether the Legal Aid Agency has notified affected people directly; and what criteria are being used by the Legal Aid Agency to determine which people are contacted following the breach.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
To ensure we reached as many potentially impacted individuals as possible, the Ministry of Justice published a notice as swiftly as possible at 08:15 on 19 May on GOV.UK.
The statement provides information about the cyber-attack and directs concerned members of the public to the National Cyber Security Centre’s webpage, which contains information on how to protect against the impacts of a data breach. If it is identified that a specific individual is at risk, action will be taken to try to contact them.
The published statement referred to above sets out information about who may have been impacted and the categories of data exfiltrated. It remains the case that there is no evidence to suggest that any of the data accessed has been published.
The recent data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of long term underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.
The Legal Aid Agency is complying with all legal and regulatory requirements arising from the cyber-attack. The current priority is the restoration of services and the prevention of future attacks. Once we can be assured that our legal aid services are operating properly and handling people’s data in a safe way, there will need to be a stocktake and an effort to learn lessons.
It is too early to comment on what remedial actions, if any, may be appropriate for impacted individuals, whether clients or providers.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were impacted by the cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency’s IT systems on 23 April 2025; what categories of (a) personal and (b) sensitive data were (i) accessed and (ii) taken; and what security measures were in place to protect the data of Legal Aid applicants prior to the breach.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
To ensure we reached as many potentially impacted individuals as possible, the Ministry of Justice published a notice as swiftly as possible at 08:15 on 19 May on GOV.UK.
The statement provides information about the cyber-attack and directs concerned members of the public to the National Cyber Security Centre’s webpage, which contains information on how to protect against the impacts of a data breach. If it is identified that a specific individual is at risk, action will be taken to try to contact them.
The published statement referred to above sets out information about who may have been impacted and the categories of data exfiltrated. It remains the case that there is no evidence to suggest that any of the data accessed has been published.
The recent data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of long term underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.
The Legal Aid Agency is complying with all legal and regulatory requirements arising from the cyber-attack. The current priority is the restoration of services and the prevention of future attacks. Once we can be assured that our legal aid services are operating properly and handling people’s data in a safe way, there will need to be a stocktake and an effort to learn lessons.
It is too early to comment on what remedial actions, if any, may be appropriate for impacted individuals, whether clients or providers.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support is being provided by (a) the Legal Aid Agency and (b) her Department to people whose data was compromised in the April 2025 cyber-attack; and whether those affected have been offered access to (i) credit monitoring, (ii) identity protection services and (iii) any other assistance.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
To ensure we reached as many potentially impacted individuals as possible, the Ministry of Justice published a notice as swiftly as possible at 08:15 on 19 May on GOV.UK.
The statement provides information about the cyber-attack and directs concerned members of the public to the National Cyber Security Centre’s webpage, which contains information on how to protect against the impacts of a data breach. If it is identified that a specific individual is at risk, action will be taken to try to contact them.
The published statement referred to above sets out information about who may have been impacted and the categories of data exfiltrated. It remains the case that there is no evidence to suggest that any of the data accessed has been published.
The recent data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of long term underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.
The Legal Aid Agency is complying with all legal and regulatory requirements arising from the cyber-attack. The current priority is the restoration of services and the prevention of future attacks. Once we can be assured that our legal aid services are operating properly and handling people’s data in a safe way, there will need to be a stocktake and an effort to learn lessons.
It is too early to comment on what remedial actions, if any, may be appropriate for impacted individuals, whether clients or providers.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate he has made of the proportion of aid from the UK destined for Gaza that has reached its intended recipients.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Israel has clear obligations under international humanitarian law to facilitate humanitarian aid. The unimpeded entry of assistance at scale to meet the enormous needs in Gaza must be restored immediately. Israel must allow partners to operate in line with humanitarian principles to deliver lifesaving aid. The current limited amount of aid entering Gaza is completely inadequate, in the face of the desperate needs resulting from months of Israeli restrictions on aid. Due to the complex operating environment and limited real-time data, it is difficult to quantify the volume of aid currently awaiting entry.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent estimate she has made of the costs for businesses to train staff on the requirements of the proposed EHRC Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions, and Associations.
Answered by Nia Griffith
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is independent of government. The purpose of the EHRC’s Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations is to ensure or facilitate compliance with the Equality Act 2010 or an enactment made under that Act. The EHRC has opened its consultation on the draft updated statutory Code of Practice, seeking views from affected stakeholders. We encourage all those affected stakeholders to submit a response to the consultation. We will then consider the EHRC’s updated draft once they have submitted it.