Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2025 to Question 58204 on Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of top-up funding for therapeutic support over the Fair Access Limit from (a) local authorities and (b) adoption agencies in this financial year.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department does not collect information from local authorities and regional adoption agencies on whether, and if so, to what extent, they are adding financial top-ups to the therapeutic support available through the fair access limit.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of hours of therapy an applicant to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund would receive using this year’s Fair Access Limit should they also require a specialist assessment costing the average amount calculated by her Department; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of this.
Answered by Janet Daby
The number of hours of therapy available to a child after a specialist assessment funded by the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) is dependent on a variety of factors. This includes the cost of the therapy and in which financial year the specialist assessment was completed. It is also important to note that additional funding may be made available by the local authority or regional adoption agency beyond that provided by the ASGSF, therefore increasing the amount of therapy available, should the specialist assessment recommend this.
Specialist assessments vary in cost, although the maximum the department can fund is £2,500 and the current average spend is slightly below this. If the maximum is used on a specialist assessment, this will clearly limit the amount of therapy which can be funded under the Fair Access Limit in the same financial year.
Outcomes measurement tool (OMT) data enables the adequacy of ASGSF-funded support to be monitored at local and national level. The department started to collect data from OMTs for ASGSF-funded therapies in December 2023. As therapy treatment concludes, this data will give an overall picture of the impact and adequacy of individual ASGSF-funded therapies. We are currently developing tools and methods for assessing this emerging information.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2025 to Question 58204 on Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF), what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the provision of updated guidance local authorities on the provision of adoption support services.
Answered by Janet Daby
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues over a range of important matters.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of reports of disputes involving religious communities in the Bukovina region of Ukraine; and what steps he is taking to support freedom of religion or belief in the area.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are deeply disturbed by the impact of Russia's illegal war on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) in Ukraine. Ukraine's democracy is well known for its commitment to religious pluralism. The UK regularly engages with Ukrainian religious groups and the Government of Ukraine on this issue, including on Law 8371 which mandates that religious organisations must cut ties with the Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate. The Ukrainian Government and religious leaders have offered reassurances that the law responds to clear national security threats. In February, a delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches met Parliamentarians and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office officials to discuss religious persecution in the temporarily occupied territories, and Law 8371.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2025 to Question 58204 on Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund, if she will publish the data her Department collected on the costs of applications for (a) therapeutic interventions and (b) specialist assessments funded by the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department published management data from the adoption and special guardianship support fund for the first time in September 2024 and is planning to publish updated data for 2024/25 in the autumn. This will include cost information data.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the (a) financial and (b) related professional services industry is represented on the Defence Industrial Joint Council.
Answered by Maria Eagle
The Defence Industrial Joint Council (DIJC) aims to harness a wide and diverse set of expertise to shape the future of Britain's defence manufacturing, supply chain and innovation. The DIJC's top-level council is comprised of experts from across the sector, including representatives from the finance and investor community (Kerry Baldwin, IQ Capital and Dame Fiona Murray, NATO Innovation Fund). The membership of the DIJC runs on a principle of rotation, with all appointments for an initial tenure of 12 months. The financial sector will have opportunities for participation in DIJC initiatives as these are stood up.
The DIJC has strong links through its membership to the CBI-led Defence Economic Growth Taskforce, an initiative that is mobilising defence and finance leaders, to shape the UK's future prosperity and is co-chaired by the Chancellor and Defence Secretary.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder also have a diagnosis of foetal valproate syndrome.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Everyone who has been harmed from sodium valproate has our deepest sympathies. Information on the number of children diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder and a diagnosis of foetal valproate syndrome is not collected centrally.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children with a diagnosis of foetal valproate syndrome also have a diagnosis of (a) spina bifida, (b) neural tube defects, (c) cardiac malformations, (d) kidney malformations and (e) cleft (i) lip and (ii) palate.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Everyone who has been harmed from sodium valproate has our deepest sympathies. The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of reports of (a) abductions, (b) forced marriages and (c) religious conversions of (i) Christian and (ii) other minority girls in Pakistan.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Promoting the rights of religious minorities is a core part of the UK's diplomatic engagement in Pakistan. I am deeply concerned by reports of abductions, forced marriages and religious conversions of Christian and other minority girls. I raised the importance of protecting minority rights with Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights during my visit in November 2024 and Lord Khan raised this in meetings with senior Government of Pakistan interlocutors during his visit in April 2025. Our High Commission in Islamabad continues to raise these issues at the highest levels and engages regularly with civil society to monitor the situation. We urge the Government of Pakistan to uphold its international human rights obligations and ensure that all citizens, regardless of faith, are protected from coercion and violence.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the British Business Bank's publication Small Business Equity Tracker 2024, if she will make a comparative assessment of (a) venture capital investment in the life sciences in the UK and the US and (b) the implications for companies in each jurisdiction seeking to scale-up.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The UK remains Europe’s leading destination for life sciences venture capital (VC) investment, according to the British Business Bank’s Small Business Equity Tracker 2024.
The US market is larger in scale, supporting late-stage growth with deeper capital pools and larger fund sizes. While the UK VC market is competitive with the US at the seed stage, UK companies face a widening funding gap as they scale.
At the recent Spending Review, the Government increased the British Business Bank’s financial capacity to £25.6 billion, a two-thirds increase in investment activity. Alongside reforms to give the British Business Bank greater flexibility to deploy funding responsively, this expanded capacity will enable more substantial support for SMEs and scale-ups, including life sciences companies, and move the UK market closer to the scale of late-stage financing seen in the US.