Christine Jardine

The Disability Action Plan was an initiative of the previous administration.This Government is committed to championing the rights of Deaf and disabled people. We will build on the insights shared by disabled people and their representative organisations, working closely with them so that their views and voices are at the heart of everything we do.

We will provide further updates on the Government’s priorities for disability policy in due course.

The Disability Action Plan was an initiative of the previous administration.

It is this government’s ambition to see more disabled people in public office. We have been clear that we will champion disabled people’s rights and work closely with them so that disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of decision-making.

On 9 June we announced a new Access to Elected Office Steering Group to support the development of a new fund to help with the disability-related expenses of gaining elected office. Drawing on their lived experience and expertise of disability, accessing funding or standing for elected office, members will work with the Minister for Social Security and Disability to ensure the fund is effective in increasing disability representation in future elections. More information about this work will be shared in due course.

No assessment has been made on the potential implications for policies of the report published by the University of York entitled The Impact of Chiropractors on Workplace Productivity in NHS MSK Pathways.

The National Health Service provides a comprehensive service, available to all patients including transgender patients. This principle is established as part of the NHS Constitution and the Supreme Court ruling does not impact this commitment.

We are clear that all patients should feel comfortable and confident to access the services they need. Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by the Government, and trusts should follow the clarity the recent Supreme Court ruling in the For Women Scotland case provides.

The NHS is currently reviewing its ‘Delivering same-sex accommodation’ guidance. Ministers have been clear that this needs to be done as soon as possible and we will be working closely with the NHS to ensure we provide NHS organisations with the guidance they need.

The abolition of NHS England will strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy and cut the duplication that comes from having two organisations doing the same job. We will empower staff to focus on delivering better care for patients, driving productivity up and getting waiting times down.

The Government and NHS England are committed to implementing the recommendations of the Cass Review in full. NHS England has developed a two-year action plan which sets out how it will improve the specialist NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Services, helping to tackle waiting lists, whilst ensuring safe and holistic care. This includes establishing new gender services in each region of England.

The Government and NHS England are committed to implementing the recommendations of the Cass Review in full. NHS England developed an ambitious two-year action plan which sets out how they will continue to transform and improve gender services, helping to tackle waiting lists, whilst ensuring safe and holistic care.

NHS England has opened three children and young people’s gender services in the North-West, London, and Bristol. A fourth East of England service will open later this year. These services operate under a fundamentally different model and embed multi-disciplinary teams in specialist children’s hospitals. The Government is pleased to say that these services have begun seeing patients from the national waiting list.

NHS England remains on schedule to deliver a gender clinic in each region of England by 2026, helping to improve the care offered to children and young people with gender dysphoria and/or incongruence.

The Government is also working to bring down waiting lists and improve care offered in adult gender services. NHS England has increased the number of adult gender dysphoria clinics in England from seven to 12, with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics since July 2020. Furthermore, NHS England is currently carrying out a review of adult gender services, with the aim of producing an updated service specification. The review, which is chaired by Dr David Levy, will examine the model of care and operating procedures of each service, and will carefully consider experiences, feedback, and outcomes from clinicians and patients.

NHS England does not nationally commission chiropractic care as it is a complementary and alternative medicine. There are no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of integrating chiropractic care into centrally commissioned National Health Service care.

Under the Equality Act 2010, health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard which details the approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment or sensory loss, including blind and partially sighted people. NHS England has been undertaking a review of the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.

Before travelling overseas, we advise British Citizens to check the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's travel advice on gov.uk. This includes entry requirements by country and advice on passport validity. Our travel industry partners amplify our travel advice to their customers through their channels.

The Government remains deeply concerned about the impact of the conflict on children. While there have been no formal meetings with the Royal Medical Colleges on these issues, Ministers regularly engage with medical and humanitarian organisations and continue monitoring their assessments closely. In January 2025, the UK announced £17 million to support the delivery of food, healthcare and shelter via the United Nations Children's Fund, UK-Med and the World Health Organization. This included support for 14,000 children with education and welfare, and over 465,000 medical consultations, many involving paediatric care. We continue pressing for full humanitarian access, the protection of aid workers and remain committed to upholding children's rights in Gaza.

Work is ongoing to improve beneficial ownership transparency in the Overseas Territories. At the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) in November 2024, the Falkland Islands and Saint Helena committed to join Montserrat and Gibraltar in implementing fully public registers by April 2025. The British Virgin Islands (BVI), Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Anguilla and Turks and Caicos Islands agreed to implement registers of beneficial ownership, accessible to those with a legitimate interest, by June 2025. It remains our expectation that the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies will ultimately implement fully public registers.

Every Territory is making progress towards these commitments and FCDO officials are in regular contact with counterparts in the Overseas Territories on their proposals for registers to ensure they meet the agreement made at JMC. I have and will continue to raise this directly with elected leaders across the Overseas Territories. I have recently spoken with the Premiers of BVI and Bermuda on this issue.

As set out in the 2024 Labour Party manifesto, the Government's plans are to strengthen international development work within the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The UK's new Eliminating Lymphatic Filariasis in Africa programme (ELFA), that will receive £15 million of funding from 2024-25 to 2026-27, supports the broader Reaching the Last Mile Fund initiative to eliminate the neglected tropical diseases lymphatic filariasis and river blindness from Africa by 2030. Part of the programme supports work to raise awareness and change behaviours in order to reduce the impact of lymphatic filariasis. The FCDO is also in the process of renewing funding for research and development through Product Development Partnerships including for neglected tropical diseases.

HMRC monitors Employer National Insurance Contributions through receipts monitoring, and information collected from Real Time Information returns.

Receipts are published via the monthly HMRC tax and National Insurance receipts publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk

At Budget, the Government committed to an independent review of the Loan Charge to help bring the matter to a close for those affected whilst ensuring fairness for all taxpayers.

Further details will be set out in due course.

The Expensive Car Supplement (ECS) is an additional Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) supplement payable from year 2-6 of a car’s lifecycle, and liable on new cars with a list price of £40,000 or more.

Any vehicle modifications for disabled users made prior to first registration are not included when calculating the list price for the purposes of ECS. However, there is no exemption from the ECS for modifications made to taxis for disabled users after the first registration.

This Government is committed to restoring ODA spending at the level of 0.7 per cent of GNI as soon as fiscal circumstances allow. The Government will set out its approach to the House in due course.

The purpose of identity documents, including passports, is to verify a person’s identity and confirm they are the rightful holder of the document.

Current policy is that only ‘male’ and ‘female’ sexes are recognised for official purposes under UK law, which is reflected in UK passport policy.

There are no current plans to introduce a gender-neutral marker on passports.

While the Home Office has responsibility for overarching policy and legislative changes to the police pension regulations in England & Wales, the police pension scheme is locally administered by individual police forces. The Home Office is working with the policing sector to support the effective implementation of the McCloud remedy for all affected individuals.

It is for each Chief Constable, in their role as scheme manager for their force, to determine their administrative timetable, including when remedy payments will be distributed.

The devolved governments have overarching policy and legislative responsibility in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Graduate route does not have a salary threshold for eligibility.

As set out in by the Home Secretary in her written statement on the 30^th July, this Government values the economic and academic contribution that international students make to this country, including those here on the Graduate route.

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) and the accompanying PACE codes of practice establish the powers of the police to combat crimes while protecting the rights of the public. PACE Code H focuses on detention, treatment and questioning by the police under terrorism legislation.

PACE Code H 2023 can be accessed via Gov.uk and details a person’s right to communication with ‘one named person’. The code sets out the following:

While held in custody at a police station or other premises the detainee may, on request, have one named person who is a friend, relative or a person known to them who is likely to take an interest in their welfare informed by the custody officer that they have been detained. They may also request a phone call or other form of communication with the ‘named person’.

At the custody officer’s discretion and subject to the detainee’s consent, visits should be allowed, when possible, subject to sufficient personnel being available to supervise a visit and any possible hindrance to the investigation.

However, in limited circumstances the nature of an investigation might mean that such requests (for visits, phone-calls or other form of communication) cannot be met. This is risk assessed on an individual basis, and in accordance with the considerations set out in Annex B to the Code. In this situation consideration is given to increasing the frequency of visits from independent visitor schemes, such as by the Independent Custody Visitors Association.

Any delay or denial of these rights should be proportionate and should last no longer than necessary.

Sexual Harassment has no place in our Armed Forces.

Every individual must be treated with dignity and respect.

We have a Zero Tolerance policy in Defence – unacceptable behaviour of any kind is not tolerated people will be held accountable.

All criminal behaviour is investigated by the Service police and those found to be below the standard will be met with sanctions, including Termination of Service.

All the submarines currently stored at Rosyth have already been defueled, which has significantly reduced overall potential risk. Further, steps include contractual requirements with Babcock International around safety and environmental factors. These include regular sampling of surrounding waters and beaches, and dismantling one boat as a demonstrator to determine the safest methods before starting on other boats.

In addition to the safety and environmental activities the Ministry of Defence and Babcock undertake, we also comply with permits and regulatory requirements from the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator (DNSR), the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). This includes annual emergency exercises with ONR to plan and test for any potential incidents, in the very unlikely event that a significant issue may occur.

We are investing an historic £445 million into Welsh rail to right years’ of underfunding by previous governments and unleash Wales’ economic potential.

This new investment will improve transport links, including for Padeswood on the Borderlands Line through Wrexham, and between Cardiff and Bristol.

This will mean new stations, enable more and faster trains on the key lines across North and South Wales, connecting people with the new, well-paid jobs we’re creating across Wales.

This announcement also includes providing £48 million over four years to the Welsh Government to continue to upgrade the Core Valleys Lines.