Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will allow people with power of attorney to use HMRC's free online system to manage their donor's self assessment tax return.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC are taking a digital-first approach to improving the experience for their customers, providing more digital and online services.
People with lasting power of attorney (LPA) are able to file online Self Assessment returns using the HMRC free online service, as long as they can provide the relevant verification documents. This approach ensures HMRC can verify the identity of the individual and safeguard potentially vulnerable customers.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve accessibility of ticket offices at rail stations for people suffering sight loss.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to improving accessibility and helping to remove barriers to travel for all users of public transport, including those with visual impairments.
Train operators are required to set out how they will support passengers with disabilities through their Accessible Travel Policies (ATPs). In their ATPs, operators explain how assistance will be provided at stations, including for purchasing tickets. ATPs also require station and train operators to provide their customer facing staff with disability awareness training.
As part of the roadmap published last year, we committed to rolling out Welcome Points at stations which will feature technology to support those with visual impairments to access information and call staff for assistance.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to improve skills in the defence workforce.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Alongside the Defence Industrial Strategy, we announced a £182 million skills package, encompassing a range of initiatives to increase skills across the UK.
This includes launching five Defence Technical Excellence Colleges across England and our intention to do so in Wales and Scotland; providing more funding to universities and colleges to increase capacity on defence-focused Higher Education courses; and supporting mid-career professionals upskill to work in the UK’s leading defence sector.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support apprenticeships in the housing sector.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government has a mission to deliver 1.5 million homes in England over the course of this parliament. Tackling skills shortages in the construction sector is critical to driving growth and delivering the Plan for Change.
Construction is one of the key sectors benefitting from new foundation apprenticeships with three standards including onsite trades launched in August 2025. Employers will receive £2,000 for every foundation apprentice they take on and retain in the construction industry.
Smaller businesses, including in the housing sector, will also be able to benefit from the introduction of a new apprenticeship hiring payment of £2,000 for non-levy paying employers, typically SMEs, that hire apprentices aged 16-24 as new employees. Additionally, from August 2026, apprenticeship training will be completely free for non-levy paying employers who hire eligible young people aged 16-24.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the accessibility to and reliability of the NHS patient transport service.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) often provide funded transport where a medical condition means that a patient would struggle to safely attend their treatment independently. NEPTS can be provided by ambulance trusts or other providers depending on local arrangements.
How the NEPTS guidance is implemented at a local level is determined by integrated care boards and their partners, including local ambulance trusts. In May 2022, NHS England set out eligibility criteria, which includes disability criteria, available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/B1244-nepts-eligibility-criteria.pdf
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of issuing hologram-overlayed firearm licences to tackle firearm licensing fraud.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has committed to a public consultation on shotgun controls and other firearms issues. This consultation will include consideration of measures to address the potential illegal use of forged firearms and shotgun certificates, including changes to certificate requirements. The consultation will be published in due course.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she made of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the level of coral bleaching; and what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle coral bleaching.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The impact of climate change and marine heatwaves on coral reefs is increasingly concerning. A network of global coral reef scientists under the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) confirmed the 4th global coral bleaching event in 2024. While we cannot yet quantify the full impact to reefs, we do know this is the largest bleaching event ever recorded. UK Government is currently working with international partners at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network to develop the Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025 report, which will combine monitoring data from over 120 countries to provide a comprehensive view of the status and trends of the world’s reefs.
We have taken action both at home and abroad to support a resilience-based management approach in addressing the range of threats facing coral reefs. By tackling local and regional threats and combined with action on climate change, we are supporting coral reefs to resist and recover from coral bleaching and changing environmental conditions. This includes funding the Coral Conservation in UK Overseas Territories working group to share best practice on reef management and support partnership working between UK Overseas Territories, committing £40.25 million to the Global Fund for Coral Reefs between 2021 and 2026 through our International Official Development Assistance Marine Programming, and contributing our scientific technical expertise to international organisations like ICRI and the Coral Research & Development Accelerator Platform.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of military hospital provision.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Armed Forces personnel in the UK routinely receive secondary care, including specialist hospital treatment, through the NHS, working with the Defence Medical Services (DMS) to ensure that specific defence requirements are met.
The Royal Centre for Defence Medicine is the UK's primary military medical facility. Based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, military medical personnel are integrated with NHS staff to provide specialist treatment for injured military personnel, including those evacuated from overseas. It further serves as a centre for training and research.
Additionally, there are over 1000 military Doctors, Nurses and Allied Health Professionals permanently based in 56 NHS trusts across the UK, ensuring military medics maintain the skills they require to support military operations across the globe and providing essential support to our NHS. Through this partnership, Defence is supporting the government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future with military healthcare professionals routinely treating members of the general public, however, for security reasons they are not always identifiable as being serving members of the Armed Forces.
DMS is working closely with NHS England and health services in the Devolved Administrations to ensure non-deployable personnel awaiting NHS treatment are returned to fighting fitness. Further, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is working with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to meet the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) recommendations including rebuilding capacity and capability, in partnership with the NHS, to meet the demands of warfighting.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what economic steps she has taken against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We have stood shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine and against Putin’s illegal invasion. This government has significantly increased our economic pressure on Russia. This includes our recent sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft last October, which means the largest Russian oil companies are now sanctioned. This action was closely followed by the US. We also recently announced a maritime services ban on Russian Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), in parallel with the EU, which will ban the involvement of UK service providers in the global trade of Russian LNG. We will use all the economic tools at our disposal to stand up for what is right.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of gambling warnings for prize draw competitions advertised on websites, radio and tv shows.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is acutely aware of the impact harmful gambling can have on individuals and their families, and we are committed to strengthening measures to protect those at risk.
In November 2025, we launched a Voluntary Code for prize draw operators. The Code was developed in collaboration with the prize draw industry. It aims to promote best practice standards to strengthen player protections, transparency and accountability for those participating in prize draws.
In the development of the Code, we consulted with broadcasters and their trade associations and concluded the Code would not apply to this sector. We are satisfied that the fundamental principles of increased player protections, transparency and accountability that underpin the Voluntary Code are largely addressed by broadcasters through their existing regulatory bodies and governing principles. In particular, broadcasters’ draws and competitions are already subject to established, comprehensive regulatory frameworks enforced by different bodies, such as Ofcom.