Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with the Scottish Government regarding the availability and UK-wide supply of flu and RSV vaccines this winter; and what steps are being taken at a UK level to support devolved administrations in managing winter pressures related to respiratory illness.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works closely with flu vaccine manufacturers and suppliers to maintain high level oversight of the overall United Kingdom supply of flu vaccine for adults. This enables early identification and mitigation of potential risks to programme delivery, such as constraints in dose availability or delays to deliveries.
The UKHSA procures the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine and the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), which is the primary vaccine used in the children’s flu programme, on a UK wide basis. As such, the UKHSA liaises regularly with all devolved nations, including the Scottish administration, on procurement activities and supply arrangements for these vaccines.
Both the RSV vaccine and LAIV are available for Scottish Health Boards to order via the UKHSA’s online ordering platform, ImmForm, ensuring consistent access across the UK.
Ensuring timely and reliable access to flu and RSV vaccines is a key part of reducing the burden of respiratory illness over the winter period, helping to limit avoidable hospital admissions and support health systems, including those in devolved administrations, in managing winter pressures.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the Defence Industrial Strategy on employment and skills in Scotland; and what steps are being taken to ensure defence procurement supports jobs and economic growth across all parts of the United Kingdom.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Industrial Strategy is already having a significant impact on employment and skills in Scotland. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) spent more than £2.1 billion with industry in Scotland in the last financial year alone, backing almost 12,000 skilled jobs and highlighting Scotland as a backbone for defence of the UK - from the home to our nuclear deterrent, to boasting a long-term pipeline of major international military shipbuilding.
This is illustrated by the deal to supply Norway with Type 26 frigates, the biggest ever warship export deal by value, that will support 4,000 jobs across the UK supply chain, including more than 2,000 at BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyards. The Scotland Defence Growth Deal and the defence industry skills package that was also announced in the Defence Industrial Strategy will support even more employment and skills opportunities in Scotland.
The Defence Industrial Strategy sets out our commitment to revamp our procurement framework, delivering a comprehensive review of defence contracting to incentivise productivity and improve delivery. This includes our new segmented approach to procurement that is enabling the MOD to tailor its acquisition processes to the type of capability, supplier and risk involved, as well as measures aimed at making it easier for SMEs to do business with the MOD. All of these initiatives will have benefits for jobs and economic growth across the UK, including in Scotland.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on the development of the new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy; and how her Department is working with devolved governments, including the Scottish Government, to ensure effective coordination on prevention, perpetrator interventions and data sharing.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
“Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, was published on 18 December 2025. It sets out the strategic direction and concrete actions to prevent violence and abuse, pursue perpetrators, and support victims, and to deliver our unprecedented commitment to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade.
We have engaged with the Welsh Government, Scottish Government, and Northern Ireland Executive in the development of the Strategy.
Each Devolved Government has its own strategy, and ours has been informed by best practices drawn from the approaches of all three jurisdictions, including Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate VAWG, the Northern Ireland Ending VAWG Strategic Framework, and Wales’s Strategy for Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence. We are committed to sharing learning and best practice to make our work complementary, and this includes sharing data. VAWG is a national and international emergency, and we will continue working with all devolved governments to ensure a coordinated UK-wide response.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of UK Government measures to reduce child poverty on children in Scotland; and how he is working with the Scottish Government to complement devolved policies and support progress towards Scotland’s statutory child poverty targets.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We estimate that removing the two-child limit alongside other measures in the Child Poverty Strategy, published on 5 December, will lift 550,000 children out of poverty across the whole of the UK, leading to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began.
Removing the two-child limit from April 2026 will alone reduce child poverty across the UK by 450,000 in the final year of parliament and could benefit 95,000 children living in households in Scotland impacted by the policy.
We have published the UK wide impacts for the Child Poverty Strategy here: Child Poverty Strategy: Impact on low income poverty levels and children gaining in the UK: December 2025.
We are committed to continued collaboration with the Devolved Governments to tackle child poverty across the UK. As set out in our Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, published alongside the Child Poverty Strategy, we will continue to work closely with them to consider how best to feed into their own findings to track progress at both the local and national level.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps HMRC is taking to improve the responsiveness and consistency of its telephone customer service.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Improving day-to-day performance is a key priority for HMRC.
HMRC are investing in new technology to improve their telephony services. Last year, they launched procurement for a new Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) platform which will significantly enhance the customer experience.
They are also expanding their digital services. HMRC online services and the HMRC app are convenient to access and receive high customer satisfaction ratings.
As more people use HMRC digital services, HMRC’s customer service advisers are freed up to support those who are digitally excluded, have complex tax affairs, or find themselves in vulnerable circumstances.
HMRC’s Transformation Roadmap sets out further steps to improve the customer experience for taxpayers, agents, and businesses. The Roadmap can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-transformation-roadmap
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps Civil Service Pensions is taking to improve the process for the provision of the death in service benefit pay-out to bereaved families.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Scheme Manager and the Scheme Administrator work in close partnership to ensure that all death in service cases are treated as a matter of the highest priority.
To improve the provision of benefits to bereaved families, the new Civil Service Pensions Scheme Contract has been strategically designed with enhanced performance metrics and more rigorous key performance measures. These improved indicators allow the Scheme Manager to exert greater leverage over the Administrator, ensuring that service delivery meets strict standards and that any delays are met with robust financial penalties.
Furthermore, the Cabinet Office has implemented a standardised contract management policy to provide consistent, high-level oversight. This ensures that the administration of death in service benefits is not only closely monitored but held to a level of accountability that directly supports a more efficient and responsive process for claimants.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to reduce spending on the Civil Service.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This Government is relentlessly targeting waste and driving efficiencies to deliver a leaner Civil Service. At the Autumn Budget the Government announced that back-office administration costs will be reduced by 16% by 2029-30, to save money and focus resources on frontline services.
Examples of these departmental savings include DSIT’s use of AI and automation to free up staff from administrative tasks, which will deliver £7m of efficiencies by 2028-29. Additionally, the MOD will deliver £905m of technical efficiencies by 2028-29 through digitisation and modernisation, acquisition reform, and sustainability initiatives.
Additional, cross-government examples include cutting government credit card spending by £25 million in the first four months since new rules were introduced by the Cabinet Office in March. In addition, the Plan for London, part of the Places for Growth programme, was launched in May this year and will involve the closure of no fewer than 11 buildings by 2030, delivering annual savings of £94 million. Most notably, 102 Petty France, Caxton House and 39 Victoria Street will all be closed during the programme, as it consolidates the central London estate.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential for accelerating asylum hotel closures in the nations and regions of the United Kingdom that will be hosting large military site accommodation for Asylum seekers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Hotel closure will be prioritised based on a wide range of criteria. The hotel exit plan will continue to be carefully managed to ensure that all supported asylum seekers are accommodated in suitable alternative accommodation, including large sites, elsewhere in the estate.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of prioritising cyber security in public procurement contracts for national infrastructure projects.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This Government recognises that cyber crime is a significant threat to our economy, to our businesses, and to the livelihoods of our workers.
As set out in the National Procurement Policy Statement, contracting authorities are required to identify the cyber and other security risks associated with their procurements and take appropriate action to mitigate them.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she intends to conduct a review of technical service arrangements involving non-European vehicle manufacturing and regulatory entities to ensure alignment with UK/EU regulatory standards.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
I am satisfied that that the current type approval regime ensures that only reputable and trustworthy entities are involved in the certification process.