Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of banning trade with illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. They undermine the viability of a two-state solution. We have updated the UK's Business Risk Guidance to explicitly advise businesses against economic and financial activity in illegal settlements. Settlement goods do not benefit from preferential trade arrangements under the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement.
We are discussing further concrete steps with our partners to counter settlement expansion and promote peace and security.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department took to consult experienced police personnel in the development of the Metropolitan Police's new frontline policing rotation policy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police forces are operationally independent and the deployment of officers remains an operational decision. It is for the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to decide how to allocate the resources available to the force, including the deployment of police officers and staff, to provide an effective service and keep Londoners safe.
Understanding the views and experience of the police workforce will be an important part of successfully delivering police reform.
Retention of experienced officers is important to policing. Expertise and experience built up during a police career can be extremely valuable, which is why forces should also be using effective evidence-based strategies to manage retention and progression of existing officers. Data on the rate of police officer leavers is published as part of the annual Home Office police workforce publication. [note: the latest data as at 31 March 2026 will be published on 22 July].
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Metropolitan Police's new frontline policing rotation policy on trends in the levels of early retirement among police officers; and what plans she has to monitor this impact.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police forces are operationally independent and the deployment of officers remains an operational decision. It is for the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to decide how to allocate the resources available to the force, including the deployment of police officers and staff, to provide an effective service and keep Londoners safe.
Understanding the views and experience of the police workforce will be an important part of successfully delivering police reform.
Retention of experienced officers is important to policing. Expertise and experience built up during a police career can be extremely valuable, which is why forces should also be using effective evidence-based strategies to manage retention and progression of existing officers. Data on the rate of police officer leavers is published as part of the annual Home Office police workforce publication. [note: the latest data as at 31 March 2026 will be published on 22 July].
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of classifying Access to Work expenditure as Annually Managed Expenditure to help ensure the scheme can respond to demand from new and sustained employment of disabled people.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Access to Work is an important programme that supports many people to start and stay in work. We are committed to ensuring it can respond to demand. That is why we announced in May that we would recruit and train 480 additional staff to speed up decisions and tackle the existing backlog by September 2027. That is a 72.5% increase to the existing 658 staff already working on Access to Work.
Access to Work is funded within DWP’s Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) to support effective management of expenditure. Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) is generally reserved for spending that is particularly volatile or cannot reasonably be managed within departmental DEL budgets.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of recent findings by UCL, City St George’s and Carers Trust that young adult carers are more than twice as likely as non-carers to be 'Persistently NEET' for two years or more.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The Government recognises the valuable contribution of unpaid carers, including young adult carers, and the challenges that caring responsibilities can present for education, training, and employment.
The Department has noted the recent research by University College London City St George’s and the Carers Trust, which contributes to the evidence base and will inform policy development. The Government continues to work across departments to support unpaid carers, including young adult carers, to access the support they need to balance caring responsibilities with education, employment, and their own health and wellbeing.
On 14 July 2026, the Government published the Cross-Government Action Plan for Unpaid Carers, setting out measures to improve recognition of unpaid carers, connect them with the right support, and help them balance caring with work, education, health, and everyday life.
The Government is also committed to improving opportunities for young people to access education, training, and employment. Through the Youth Guarantee and wider skills and employment reforms, the Government is investing ÂŁ2.5 billion over the next three years to support young people into opportunities to learn and earn.
The Government will continue to review the evidence, including this research, as it develops policies to improve outcomes for unpaid carers and young people.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has designated a team responsible for agri-tech as a frontier industry under the Industrial Strategy.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department of Business and Trade has expertise committed to delivering economic growth in the agri-tech sector and helping to deliver the outcomes of the Industrial Strategy.