Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made representations to his Israeli counterpart on the fuel blockade on Gaza; and if he will take diplomatic steps to ensure the entry of fuel into Gaza.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. Not enough aid is getting in and vital services such as water supplies, ambulances and hospitals are at risk of shutting down due to fuel shortages. On 12 July, the UN stated that fuel shortages in Gaza had reached a critical level. The small amounts that have been allowed to enter in recent days are nowhere near enough. We continue to call on Israel to allow for a full and unhindered resurgence in the flow of aid into Gaza and to allow the UN and humanitarian partners to operate in line with humanitarian principles. The Foreign Secretary spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Sa'ar on 21 July, where he reiterated our concerns about the situation on the ground and pressed for a return to a ceasefire.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make representations to his Israeli counterpart calling for the immediate unconditional release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya from custody.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I remain deeply disturbed by the ongoing detention of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and other medical staff from Gaza. We continue to call on Israel to clarify the reasons for the detention of Dr Abu Safiya and other medical personnel, and to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross unfettered and immediate access to detention facilities.
I have specifically raised Dr Hussam Abu Safiya's case with both the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister and Israel's ambassador to the UK. We are urging Israel to clarify the reasons for his detention, to allow medical workers to carry out their work safely and without hindrance, and to provide detainees with access to legal representation.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information he holds on the (a) status and (b) health of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I remain deeply disturbed by the ongoing detention of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and other medical staff from Gaza. We continue to call on Israel to clarify the reasons for the detention of Dr Abu Safiya and other medical personnel, and to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross unfettered and immediate access to detention facilities.
I have specifically raised Dr Hussam Abu Safiya's case with both the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister and Israel's ambassador to the UK. We are urging Israel to clarify the reasons for his detention, to allow medical workers to carry out their work safely and without hindrance, and to provide detainees with access to legal representation.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the potential (a) humanitarian and (b) medical impact of establishing a UK medical evacuation scheme for seriously ill and injured children in Gaza, in the context of (i) the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system due to the ongoing blockade, (ii) recent advice from UK-Med that hospitals in Gaza are close to running out of capacity, (iv) the World Health Organization’s call for the urgent evacuation of at least 5,000 children requiring specialist medical care and (iv) the acknowledged inability of regional countries to meet the scale of need alone.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are many people in need of urgent medical care in Gaza, where the UN reports all hospitals have been damaged or partly destroyed. Countries in the region, particularly Egypt, play a vital role treating high numbers of medially evacuated Gazans, but capacity is stretched. We recently announced a £7.5 million package to strengthen medical care in Gaza and the region, including additional funding for UK-Med and World Health Organization (WHO) Egypt. Our funding has provided 1.3 million items of life-saving medicines and enabled UK-Med to support over 500,000 patient consultations across Gaza. We consistently press the Government of Israel to allow access to essential healthcare and to ensure the protection of medical workers. The Prime Minister confirmed the UK will urgently accelerate efforts to medically evacuate critically ill and injured children from Gaza, working with the WHO and others to get these children to the UK so they get the treatment they need.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to establish a medical evacuation scheme for seriously (a) ill and (b) injured children from Gaza; and what assessment he has made of the (i) capacity for treatment in (A) Gaza and (B) the wider region and (ii) potential implications for his policies of the statement by the British Ambassador to Egypt of 5 May.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are many people in need of urgent medical care in Gaza, where the UN reports all hospitals have been damaged or partly destroyed. Countries in the region, particularly Egypt, play a vital role treating high numbers of medially evacuated Gazans, but capacity is stretched. We recently announced a £7.5 million package to strengthen medical care in Gaza and the region, including additional funding for UK-Med and World Health Organization (WHO) Egypt. Our funding has provided 1.3 million items of life-saving medicines and enabled UK-Med to support over 500,000 patient consultations across Gaza. We consistently press the Government of Israel to allow access to essential healthcare and to ensure the protection of medical workers. The Prime Minister confirmed the UK will urgently accelerate efforts to medically evacuate critically ill and injured children from Gaza, working with the WHO and others to get these children to the UK so they get the treatment they need.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the decision to reprioritise high-cost subject funding away from (a) journalism, (b) media studies, (c) publishing and (d) information services.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has had to make tough prioritisation decisions driven by the challenging fiscal context that we inherited. For the Department of Education, this has meant prioritising support for high-cost subjects that are essential to delivery of our industrial strategy and core funding to support access to higher education for disadvantaged groups. It is important that the targeted funding allocated through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) supports courses that have higher costs of delivery and our Plan for Growth.
The Government’s commitment that opportunity is available for all remains unwavering, and we will achieve this by addressing gaps in access and outcomes faced by disadvantaged groups. That is why we have asked that the Office for Students retain the per-student funding rates for the full-time, part-time, disabled premium and mental health Student Premiums at their current level. We have also maintained funding for Uni Connect, which delivers targeted interventions and support aimed at increasing the number of young people from under-represented groups going into further and higher education.
The Government also remains committed to supporting the invaluable role which journalism plays in the fabric of our society. We acknowledge journalism as an important and valued subject in higher education, alongside numerous other subjects that do not attract SPG high-cost subject funding, such as history, languages, economics, maths and law.
DCMS officials are engaging with the Department for Education, as well as the press sector and the key journalism professional bodies, to better understand the impact this will have on the journalism industry. These discussions form part of our planning for the DCMS Local Media Strategy. It is important to maintain a healthy and diverse pipeline of talent into the industry through the provision of journalism education opportunities. With this in mind, we are exploring through the Strategy whether more can be done to promote journalism as a career amongst young people, including through the DCMS-funded Creative Careers Programme which is intended to promote careers in the creative industries among young people and recently added the National Council for the Training of Journalists to its steering group.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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 potential impact of the reprioritisation of high-cost subject funding for journalism courses on the aims of the local media strategy, announced in December 2024.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has had to make tough prioritisation decisions driven by the challenging fiscal context that we inherited. For the Department of Education, this has meant prioritising support for high-cost subjects that are essential to delivery of our industrial strategy and core funding to support access to higher education for disadvantaged groups. It is important that the targeted funding allocated through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) supports courses that have higher costs of delivery and our Plan for Growth.
The Government’s commitment that opportunity is available for all remains unwavering, and we will achieve this by addressing gaps in access and outcomes faced by disadvantaged groups. That is why we have asked that the Office for Students retain the per-student funding rates for the full-time, part-time, disabled premium and mental health Student Premiums at their current level. We have also maintained funding for Uni Connect, which delivers targeted interventions and support aimed at increasing the number of young people from under-represented groups going into further and higher education.
The Government also remains committed to supporting the invaluable role which journalism plays in the fabric of our society. We acknowledge journalism as an important and valued subject in higher education, alongside numerous other subjects that do not attract SPG high-cost subject funding, such as history, languages, economics, maths and law.
DCMS officials are engaging with the Department for Education, as well as the press sector and the key journalism professional bodies, to better understand the impact this will have on the journalism industry. These discussions form part of our planning for the DCMS Local Media Strategy. It is important to maintain a healthy and diverse pipeline of talent into the industry through the provision of journalism education opportunities. With this in mind, we are exploring through the Strategy whether more can be done to promote journalism as a career amongst young people, including through the DCMS-funded Creative Careers Programme which is intended to promote careers in the creative industries among young people and recently added the National Council for the Training of Journalists to its steering group.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to include the PCS trade union in the co-production process for the Timms review of the Personal Independence Payment assessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Terms of Reference for this review were announced in a Written Ministerial Statement from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on Monday 30 June, and you can find them here – Welfare Reform - Hansard - UK Parliament. They will be updated shortly.
We are committed to co-producing the review with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, Members of Parliament and other stakeholders, to ensure that a wide range of views and voices are heard. We will engage widely over the summer to design the process for the work of the review and consider how it can best be co-produced to ensure that expertise from a range of different perspectives is drawn upon.
We are currently planning what engagement will look like and will share more information in due course.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of legally-binding poverty reduction targets on the number of children living in poverty in Liverpool Riverside constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is committed to tackling Child Poverty and the Child Poverty Taskforce is developing an ambitious child poverty strategy which we will publish in the autumn. The Taskforce will continue to explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term action across government to reduce child poverty.
The Taskforce will be guided by the leading, internationally-recognised measure of poverty - Relative Poverty After Housing Costs (the proportion of families with below 60% of the median income, after deducting housing costs).
We will also measure the experience of children in the most severe and acute forms of poverty, which we are considering how best to measure as we develop the strategy.
These headline metrics will be supported by a range of other metrics as part of a monitoring framework to ensure the Strategy is on track to meet its aims.
The strategy is focused on metrics related to child poverty, but we are working closely with colleagues on complementary metrics across government. An example is the Plan for Change measure on the percentage of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage assessment.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of legally-binding poverty reduction targets as a mechanism to deliver change in Liverpool Riverside constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is committed to tackling Child Poverty and the Child Poverty Taskforce is developing an ambitious child poverty strategy which we will publish in the autumn. The Taskforce will continue to explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term action across government to reduce child poverty.
The Taskforce will be guided by the leading, internationally-recognised measure of poverty - Relative Poverty After Housing Costs (the proportion of families with below 60% of the median income, after deducting housing costs).
We will also measure the experience of children in the most severe and acute forms of poverty, which we are considering how best to measure as we develop the strategy.
These headline metrics will be supported by a range of other metrics as part of a monitoring framework to ensure the Strategy is on track to meet its aims.
The strategy is focused on metrics related to child poverty, but we are working closely with colleagues on complementary metrics across government. An example is the Plan for Change measure on the percentage of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage assessment.