Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to update the loneliness strategy in the context of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting people to have the social connections they need. Our ambition to strengthen social connection is a key part of achieving wider government work to create a healthier society, more connected communities and support young people. My department has been working hard to ensure social connection and loneliness are embedded in all government policy making, including the recently published Pride in Place strategy, the upcoming Men’s Health Strategy and National Youth Strategy.
In addition we are funding a project to develop the Tackling Loneliness Hub, which was set up to provide a forum for people working on loneliness to come together and share insights, research and best practice. My officials are exploring how the Hub can be made more accessible to the full range of people who work on loneliness, from healthcare professionals to volunteers, sports coaches to youth workers, researchers to policy makers.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help tackle potential barriers to the provision of lighting on (a) walking, (b) wheeling and (c) cycling paths.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Active Travel England (ATE) recognises that good lighting is essential for enabling safe and inclusive walking, wheeling and cycling, particularly during winter months and after dark.
The Spending Review in June 2025 allocated £616 million for Active Travel England to support local authorities to build and maintain walking and cycling infrastructure from 2026/27 onwards. This comes on top of £222.5 million announced in February 2025 for local authorities over 2024/25-25/26, which can be used by authorities to reduce barriers to the provision of lighting.
In addition, to address potential barriers to providing lighting, ATE Supports local authorities in relation to designing active travel schemes through guidance and our tools ensure that lighting is integrated into street design. Guidance is available such as in LTN 1/20 - Cycle Infrastructure Design (LTN 1/20), Manual for Streets, and Inclusive Mobility. In addition, the ATE Route Check Tool includes metrics for lighting coverage, visibility, and light pollution.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of providing commuted sums for maintenance within active travel capital funding.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In the Spending Review we announced that we are allocating £616 million for Active Travel England from 2026/27 to 2029/30 to support local authorities to both build and maintain cycling and walking infrastructure. This is in addition to almost £300 million for active travel between 2024/25 and 2025/26, which we announced in February.
It is for local authorities to determine how best to use the funding available to them, including what amount to set aside for maintenance purposes.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of (a) funding for the Canal & River Trust to maintain and improve England’s waterways and (b) the long-term funding arrangements for the Trust.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is currently providing the Canal and River Trust with a 15-year grant (2012-2027) totalling about £740 million to support maintenance of the canal network infrastructure. When it was set up in 2012, the Government also provided the Trust with a permanent endowment fund now worth around £1 billion that generates a further quarter of its income. A review of the grant funding in 2021-2023 concluded that the Trust is providing value for money and there was a good case for continued grant funding. A further substantial 10-year grant from 2027 of £401 million was confirmed by the Government in August 2024. This further grant reflects the importance of the country’s inland waterways and continues to support the Trust in the long-standing objective of reducing its reliance on public funding while developing alternative funding sources.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance HMRC issues to employees who work in companies entering administration who (a) have not received P45s and (b) are being taxed under emergency codes; and whether her Department plans to take steps to provide more support to employees who have been disadvantaged in insolvency cases.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not issue specific guidance to employees of companies entering administration regarding P45s or emergency tax codes.
Where a company is in administration, the administrator, who is a regulated Insolvency Practitioner, is responsible for issuing relevant documents, such as P45s, to former employees.
A customer may be assigned an emergency tax code if HMRC has not received updated income details following a change in circumstances. Once HMRC receives the correct information, the tax code will be adjusted accordingly. Guidance is available to all customers on emergency codes and how to update a code on Gov.UK.
HMRC undertakes reviews of processes regularly and is open to receiving any specific suggestions for improvements in administrating tax within its responsibilities.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is considering further sanctions in response to settler violence in the Occupied West Bank.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In response to the persistent cycle of serious violence undertaken by extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, the former Foreign Secretary announced three sanctions packages targeting individuals, outposts and organisations. This included, on 10 June, acting alongside Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, to impose UK sanctions on Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, in their personal capacity, in response to their repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities.
Imposing sanctions is one response among other diplomatic tools, and we will continue to consider a range of approaches to achieve our foreign policy objectives globally. However, it is not appropriate to speculate on future designations as to do so could reduce their impact.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support Palestinian children forcibly displaced from Gaza to Egypt.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are deeply concerned by the effect of ongoing hostilities on children in Gaza, many of whom have been displaced several times. The UK has provided £3 million in funding to World Health Organization (WHO) Egypt to boost regional healthcare capacity to treat medically evacuated civilians from Gaza who are receiving care in Egypt. Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure that Palestinians can return to their homes, and to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that proper accommodation and conditions are provided to all those displaced. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of International Humanitarian Law. A cross-government taskforce is working urgently to get some sick and injured children out of Gaza, so that they can receive specialist treatment in NHS hospitals across the UK. The UK continues to be a major donor to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - our support reached a more than 160,000 people in the last financial year, including almost 80,000 children.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the level of IVF funding is adjusted in line with inflation; and with reference to NICE's guidelines entitled Fertility problems: assessment and treatment, updated on 6 September 2017, what steps he is taking to ensure that local provision allows patients to access more than a single NHS-funded IVF cycle.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, ensuring equal access to fertility treatment across England.
NICE is currently reviewing the fertility guidelines and will consider whether the current recommendations for access to National Health Service-funded treatment are still appropriate. A consultation on revised guidelines was published on 10 September 2025.
The Government recognises that fertility treatment across the NHS in England is subject to variation in access. Work continues between the Department and NHS England to improve NHS-funded fertility services.
In light of broader pressures on the NHS and ongoing changes within NHS England, we are considering achievable ambitions to improve access to fertility services and fairness for all affected couples.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of (a) regulatory oversight and (b) consumer protection for Small Self-Administered Schemes (SSAS); and if she will take steps to (i) improve regulatory oversight of SSAS trustees and (ii) ensure that people who have suffered losses relating to SSAS are able to access compensation.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
DWP officials work closely with The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to ensure people’s pension savings are protected and that the regulatory regime remains fit for purpose in a changing pensions landscape.
A Small Self-Administered Scheme (SSAS) is an occupational pension scheme typically set up by the directors of a business (often a small or family-run business) who want more control over the investment decisions relating to their pension and often the ability to invest in employer-related assets.
The Pensions Regulator regulates those SSAS which are required to register with it (only occupational pension schemes with two or more members must register with TPR). A SSAS with only one member would be exempt and is unlikely to be registered with TPR. In addition, SSASs are excepted from many pensions regulatory requirements because all the members of these schemes, through being trustees, are responsible for the decisions made. SSASs are therefore not usually eligible for Government compensation arrangements.
Unfortunately, in a few cases SSAS appear to have been misused as a means of avoiding the regulatory regime which helps ensure that members’ pensions are secure. Individuals have been encouraged to use a SSAS inappropriately. Any member who has suffered a loss in connection with a SSAS should contact the Pensions Ombudsman in the first instance.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities in addressing unauthorised encampments that negatively affect local (a) high streets or (b) businesses.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Local authorities and police have a range of powers to manage unauthorised encampments, including those affecting high streets and businesses. These include long-standing provisions under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and additional powers introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
The response to any unauthorised encampments is locally led, involving multi-agency collaboration between councils, police and other services, ensuring actions are tailored to local needs. Statutory guidance issued by the Home Office sets out how these powers should be applied, including the importance of considering welfare needs and ensuring enforcement is lawful, necessary and proportionate.
The 2022 Act also introduced a criminal offence for residing on land without consent in or with a vehicle and causing significant damage, disruption or distress. Penalties include up to three months’ imprisonment, a fine of up to £2,500, and/or vehicle seizure.