Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support humanitarian aid organisations operating in Yemen.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains committed to working towards lasting peace and prosperity for the Yemeni people. We continue to support the work of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen and use our role as penholder for Yemen at the UN Security Council to galvanise international support and advance progress towards an inclusive political settlement.
We also continue to urge the international community to respond to the rapidly deteriorating levels of food security in Yemen. The UK is currently the largest donor to the UN-led Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, delivering £139 million in aid through the UN and other agencies in 2025/26, including dedicated support to enable those organisations to carry out their work.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support a peaceful political settlement in Yemen.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains committed to working towards lasting peace and prosperity for the Yemeni people. We continue to support the work of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen and use our role as penholder for Yemen at the UN Security Council to galvanise international support and advance progress towards an inclusive political settlement.
We also continue to urge the international community to respond to the rapidly deteriorating levels of food security in Yemen. The UK is currently the largest donor to the UN-led Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, delivering £139 million in aid through the UN and other agencies in 2025/26, including dedicated support to enable those organisations to carry out their work.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Warrington North, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, on what dates, and in what form, have IPSA asked hon. Members to provide information about (a) the volume of casework being undertaken by their offices and (b) any other such data referred to at the SCIPSA oral evidence session which took place on 4 March 2026.
Answered by Charlotte Nichols
IPSA regularly engages and communicates with both Members and Members’ staff through informal and formal channels.
IPSA has discussed the need for information and evidence relating to casework volumes and other pressures experienced by offices, including through regular informal engagement with proxies and office managers, as well as via account manager liaison with offices. For instance, as part of IPSA’s consultation ahead of 2026-27 budget decisions, IPSA encouraged office managers to provide data on casework volumes at a Members’ Office Managers’ meeting on 22 October 2025. A written follow-up with this request was also distributed.
IPSA’s consultation on staffing was open from 6 October until 31 October 2025. In total, IPSA received over 440 responses. Of those, 60 responses referred to casework.
The regular engagement IPSA has with offices is an invaluable opportunity in which IPSA is able to informally seek and receive feedback, outside, or as part, of formal consultation cycles.
IPSA has listened to the feedback received in the wake of the announcement of 2026-27 staffing funding and will be setting up a joint working group with House services that will aim to assess the evidence of need and agree a practical, deliverable plan to accelerate efforts to help MPs manage workloads and secure value for money beyond the additional funding provided, reporting back to the Speaker in four months’ time.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Warrington North, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, if the transcript of the meeting titled Staffing budget drop in - session 1 held on Monday 23 February 2026 will be placed in the Library.
Answered by Charlotte Nichols
The transcript of that meeting will be placed in the Library and sent to the hon. Member once it has been reviewed for any personal data.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the overseas scale rates.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Where employers reimburse allowable travel expenses, tax relief is available provided the expenses are wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for work purposes.
Ordinarily, employers must hold evidence of the employee’s actual expenditure. However, to reduce administrative burdens on employers, HMRC allows expenses for travel outside the UK to be reimbursed without evidence up to the levels contained within the Overseas Scale Rates. Where the Overseas Scale Rates do not cover the expense incurred by employees, employers can still reimburse and provide tax relief provided they have appropriate evidence.
The government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy making process.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to increase the purchase limit for properties outside of London when using a Help to Buy ISA.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This Government is committed to helping first time buyers own their own home and will do this by building 1.5 million more homes.
The Government keeps savings policy under review, any changes of this kind would be made at a relevant fiscal event.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to help bring awareness to the National Year of Reading within schools and alternative provision settings.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Year of Reading is a UK-wide campaign to address long-term declines in reading enjoyment through engaging new audiences, reshaping public attitudes and building the systems needed to embed lasting, meaningful change during 2026 and beyond.
It includes a major physical and online marketing campaign, as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout the year.
The department is raising awareness of the National Year of Reading in schools through a range of methods, such as via departmental communication channels, the National Year of Reading mailing list and social media, communications from the National Literacy Trust and promotion via the English Hubs network.
For libraries, The Reading Agency are providing public libraries with resources, toolkits and print and digital materials to activate the National Year of Reading.
Schools, alternative provision settings and all interested parties are encouraged to sign up to www.goallin.org.uk to receive regular updates on the National Year of Reading.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has to help bring awareness to the National Year of Reading.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Year of Reading is a UK-wide campaign to address long-term declines in reading enjoyment through engaging new audiences, reshaping public attitudes and building the systems needed to embed lasting, meaningful change during 2026 and beyond.
It includes a major physical and online marketing campaign, as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout the year.
The department is raising awareness of the National Year of Reading in schools through a range of methods, such as via departmental communication channels, the National Year of Reading mailing list and social media, communications from the National Literacy Trust and promotion via the English Hubs network.
For libraries, The Reading Agency are providing public libraries with resources, toolkits and print and digital materials to activate the National Year of Reading.
Schools, alternative provision settings and all interested parties are encouraged to sign up to www.goallin.org.uk to receive regular updates on the National Year of Reading.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the review into the Carr-Hill formula accounts for GP translation service costs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The review of the general practice (GP) funding formula, the Carr-Hill formula, is being conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The purpose of the review is to ensure that funding for GPs is distributed equitably and is targeted towards areas that need it most.
The review has commenced and will draw on a range of evidence and advice from experts. Implementation of any new funding approach will be subject to ministerial decision, in the context of the available funding and our commitment to substantively reform the General Medical Services Contract within this Parliament.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population, which includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of translation services.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of providing training to mental health teams on support to children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
In addition to the undergraduate degree route, speech and language therapists can now also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is going into its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist.
In partnership with NHS England, the Department for Education has extended the Early Language and Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs in early years settings and primary schools.
At the Spending Review, we confirmed that we will deliver on our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament, roll out mental health support teams to cover all schools in England by 2029/30 and expand NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes.
We have also already started piloting Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres. These pilots aim to provide open access care for anyone with a severe mental illness 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our aim is to have one Neighbourhood Health Centre in each community that brings together National Health Service, local authority and voluntary sector services in one building to help create a holistic offer that meets the needs of local populations including children with lifelong speech and language difficulties.