Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to increase levels of trade with India.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I am delighted to say that we are deepening our trading relationship with India through the UK India Free Trade Agreement, which is estimated to boost UK GDP by £4.8bn, increase wages by £2.2bn, and grow bilateral trade by £25.5bn each year in the long run.
Every region and nation in the UK will benefit from the agreement, including a £190m boost for Scotland supported by market access for whisky, advanced manufacturing and financial services access.
We are now anticipating the deal entering into force in Spring, ahead of the planned schedule of Summer, provided final issues are resolved with India.
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to help ensure that young women are aware of rights on equal pay.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The government is committed to strengthening equal pay and ending pay discrimination.
We have already introduced legislation, through the Employment Rights Act 2025, which will require employers to publish the actions they are taking to close the gender pay gap.
Through planned legislation, we will make the right to equal pay effective for ethnic minority and disabled people. We will also put in place measures to ensure that the outsourcing of services can no longer be used by employers to avoid paying equal pay, and we will implement a regulatory and enforcement unit for equal pay.
Last year, we launched a public call for evidence on a number of areas of equality policy, including these commitments. We are currently analysing the responses to the call for evidence, which closed at the end of June 2025. We will consider the views from the call for evidence to ensure that the legislation works for everyone.
On implementing these measures, up-to-date, clear guidance will be made available so that everyone understands their rights under the law.
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
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 the introduction of a salary history ban preventing employers from asking about previous salaries during recruitment processes.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government is committed to strengthening equal pay and ending pay discrimination.
As part of the 2025 Equality law call for evidence, the Office for Equality and Opportunity sought information about best practices already used by some employers, research from academics and the experience of other countries when it comes to pay transparency measures. Responses to the call for evidence will help us to understand how increased pay transparency may impact women, ethnic minorities, disabled people, and other groups in the workplace.
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
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 requiring employers to show salaries on job adverts.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government is committed to strengthening equal pay and ending pay discrimination.
As part of the 2025 Equality law call for evidence, the Office for Equality and Opportunity sought information about best practices already used by some employers, research from academics and the experience of other countries when it comes to pay transparency measures. Responses to the call for evidence will help us to understand how increased pay transparency may impact women, ethnic minorities, disabled people, and other groups in the workplace.
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to meet the target of two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level learning.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
We have set an ambition to have two-thirds (66.7%) of young people participating in higher-level learning, academic, technical, or an apprenticeship, by age 25.
The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper sets out our path to meeting that ambition, by raising the status of further education, strengthening our world-leading higher education sector, and introducing more support and flexibility for learners.
We are delivering these reforms at pace, with rapid progress across funding, policy development and key launches that are already impacting providers and learners:
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent progress he has made on improving cooperation between the UK Government and the devolved Administrations.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This government reset relations with the devolved governments, has delivered record funding settlements for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and is bringing pride to communities in every part of the UK with our groundbreaking Pride in Place scheme, including in West Dunbartonshire.
My honourable friend’s constituents are best served when both of Scotland’s governments work in partnership, to create jobs and opportunities for all Scots, and that is exactly the approach I have taken in this role.
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has considered options for schemes to deliver compensation in line with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's report on Women's State Pension age communications.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Secretary of State announced in his oral statement of 11 November 2025 that we will retake the decision made in December 2024 as it relates to the communications on State Pension age.
This was because findings from a 2007 report had not been drawn to the attention of the previous Secretary of State as its potential relevance to the making of her decision was not evident at the time.
The process to retake the decision is underway and it is important that we give this full and proper consideration. Retaking the decision should not be taken as an indication that Government will necessarily decide that it should award financial redress. We will update Parliament on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached and on 2 December 2025 we committed to re-take the decision within three months.
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Replacing animals in science strategy on economic growth.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has published a strategy to support alternatives to the use of animals in science, which considered economic impacts.
Building on the UK’s strengths as home to world leading research and pharmaceutical businesses, the strategy will support the UK to capitalise on the global non-animal technologies market, estimated to be worth $29.4 billion by 2030
The strategy has also considered the scientific and economic advantages of human-relevant methods for product development and testing.
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to enter into alternative dispute resolution with WASPI Ltd.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We have no plans to do so.
Asked by: Douglas McAllister (Labour - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to meet with representatives of the WASPI campaign.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
There are no plans to meet with any campaign groups.