Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to (a) introduce (i) licensing and (ii) regulation for dog and cat rescue centres and (b) prevent fraudulent operations at unregulated rescue centres.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government will introduce the most ambitious plan to improve animal welfare in a generation. The Department has initiated a series of meetings with key animal welfare stakeholders as part of the development of an overarching approach to animal welfare. We will be outlining more detail of plans in due course.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much funding he plans to provide for programmes supporting (a) nutrition and (b) primary health care services in each of the next three financial years; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of that funding on levels of immunisation in affected countries.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We remain committed to strengthening health systems through a Primary Health Care approach that includes nutrition. We continue to support integrating nutrition into other sector investments, with the Global Compact on Nutrition Integration an important mechanism in achieving this. Over the coming months, we will work through detailed decisions on how the Official Development Assistance budget will be used from 26/27 onwards, informed by internal and external consultation and impact assessments, ahead of publishing indicative multi-year allocations in the autumn.
At the Gavi Summit on 25 June 2025, the Foreign Secretary announced an additional £1.25 billion investment in Gavi for 2026 - 2030. This commitment will help support Gavi to partner with countries to immunise up to 500 million more children and save up to 8 million more lives through a primary health care approach. We are currently working through how best to allocate our new funding across the 5-year period.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to retain civil servants in his Department with expertise in (a) maternal, (b) new born and (c) child health policy.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has a well established and highly skilled health profession made up of 61 health advisers who have been tested and accredited against a set of technical standards. These include specialist skill sets in strengthening health systems for maternal, newborn and child health. Advisers are assessed during formal accreditation exercises at either the affiliate, practitioner or expert level and deployed throughout the FCDO technical and geographical departments. For example, the FCDO deploys health advisers in Nigeria, Somalia, Malawi, and Ethiopia, to help reduce maternal and child mortality.
A robust learning and professional development framework is in place and includes a comprehensive Global Health toolkit, the Global Health hub, monthly bulletins, and a dedicated communications and engagement distribution list with over 400 members. The recent Health Advisers' Professional Development Conference held 3-5 June 2025 in London provided a platform for knowledge exchange and upskilling for 85 FCDO health advisers and affiliates.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the removal of potential bias relating to (a) class, (b) race and (c) disability in civil service recruitment.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service People Plan 2024 - 2027 outlines our commitment to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds. Appointment to the Civil Service must be based on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.
To support this, and reduce the potential for bias in the recruitment process, the Cabinet Office uses name-blind recruitment where applications are anonymised during sifting. Information on candidates' socio-economic background and race is collected for monitoring and reporting purposes, but hiring managers are not provided with access to this information for individual candidates.
The Cabinet Office also uses the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), ensuring disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a role are given a fair opportunity to demonstrate their skills at interview.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to update the regulatory framework for the General Dental Council.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to modernising the regulatory frameworks for healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom. The Government is aiming to publish a consultation on secondary legislation to modernise the General Medical Council’s (GMC) regulatory framework in late 2025. This legislation will be the blueprint for the reform of all of the healthcare professional regulators. In addition to the GMC’s legislation, we aim to deliver reformed legislation for the Health and Care Professions Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council within this Parliament. No timeframe has yet been set for reforming the General Dental Council’s legislative framework.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the forthcoming 10 Year Health Plan will include measures to integrate (a) welfare and (b) debt advice provision into primary care settings.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, Neighbourhood Health Centres will co-locate National Health Service, local authority and voluntary sector services, to help create an offer that meets population need holistically. Examples of this include providing debt advice and employment support services.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to (a) monitor and (b) help tackle potential civil service recruitment barriers for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service People Plan 2024 - 2027 outlines our commitment to having a Civil Service that reflects the composition of our society, attracting, retaining and investing in talent wherever it is found. This includes better socio-economic representation and investing in our young people.
We have recently launched a two year Careers Launch Apprenticeship scheme in Birmingham, Manchester and London, to support our young people. In addition, the Cabinet Office develops and supports Going Forward into Employment (GFiE) recruitment pathways across government. GFiE brings people who face barriers to employment into the Civil Service. There are over 20 GFiE pathways in place and over 3,600 people have joined the Civil Service through GFiE since 2018. These are just two of the ways in which we demonstrate our ambition regarding underrepresented backgrounds.
Diversity data is collected from candidates during the recruitment process and made available to departments to support their people strategies.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the progress of the civil service in increasing the proportion of recruits from (a) lower socio-economic backgrounds, (b) with disabilities and (c) from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
We are committed to having a Civil Service that reflects the composition of our society, attracting, retaining and investing in talent wherever it is found. This includes better socio-economic representation and investing in our young people. We have recently launched a two year Careers Launch Apprenticeship scheme in Birmingham, Manchester and London, to support our ambition.
We continue to monitor the diversity of our candidates and workforce to improve our recruitment in these areas and tackle barriers to employment.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much funding his Department has allocated to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in each of the next three years.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is a longstanding supporter of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), having contributed £1.4 billion since 1995. This has enabled GPEI to reduce wild poliovirus cases by over 99 per cent. The UK is also the largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We recently announced a new investment of £1.25 billion for 2026 - 2030 that will support eligible countries with polio vaccines as part of an essential package of childhood immunisation. The UK is working with international partners to ensure sustainable resources for global health. We are reviewing our spending - including for GPEI - following the outcome of the Spending Review to ensure that every pound of development assistance is spent in the most impactful way.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Government plans to adopt a new target that would triple UK international climate finance to 2035 in line with the global goal agreed at COP28.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains committed to providing International Climate Finance (ICF) now and in the future, and to playing our part alongside other developed countries and climate finance providers to deliver our international obligations. Climate and nature are top priorities for the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget, alongside humanitarian and health. Meeting the £11.6 billion ICF commitment by March 2026 remains the Government's ambition. Detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used are being worked through as part of the ongoing Departmental resource allocation processes. The Government will set out spending plans following the completion of these resource allocation processes.