Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take legislative steps to remove the consideration of Armed Forces compensation from means testing for the Disabled Facilities Grant.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, we continue to fund the locally administered Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) which helps eligible older and disabled people on low incomes to adapt their homes. We have provided an additional £172 million across this and the last financial year to uplift the DFG, which could provide approximately 15,600 home adaptations to give older and disabled people more independence in their homes. This brings the total funding for the DFG to £711 million in 2024/25 and 2025/26.
To ensure the DFG is as effective as possible, we will continue to keep different aspects of the grant, including the means test, under consideration.
The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme is independently reviewed every five years to ensure it remains fit for purpose, providing appropriate financial support to those members of the Armed Forces who are injured, become ill, or die as a result of service, and identifying opportunities for policy improvement.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the Armed Forces Covenant Duty across his Departmental responsibilities.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government’s election manifesto committed to placing the Armed Forces Covenant fully into law. During Armed Forces week in June, the Prime Minister announced that Military personnel, veterans, their families and the bereaved are to have their unique circumstances legally protected by central and devolved governments for the first time under new plans to extend the Covenant Legal Duty to more policy areas and across the UK.
The Covenant Legal Duty will now be extended from three policy areas to encompass 14 policy areas in a much broader scope. The policy areas are healthcare, education, housing, social care, childcare, employment and service in the Armed Forces, personal taxation, welfare benefits, criminal justice, immigration, citizenship, pensions, service-related compensation and transport. The Government aims to make the changes in the next Armed Forces Bill, anticipated in 2026.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has had discussions with (a) tea industry representatives, (b) Fairtrade organisations and (c) international partners on ensuring that tea (i) farmers and (ii) other workers receive a living wage in (A) Kenya and (B) other producing countries.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
No, we have had no such specific discussions, but we actively engage with Kenyan counterparts and remain committed to promoting fair trade and workers' rights, including decent working conditions and living wages.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that schools have access to speech and language specialists.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government is committed to ensuring that every child has the best start in life. This includes all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including speech, language and communications needs such as Developmental Language Disorder.
We know that continuing to build the pipeline of speech and language therapists (SaLT) is essential. The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with SEND.
In addition to the undergraduate degree route, SaLTs can now also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is entering its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a SaLT.
In partnership with NHS England, the department has extended the Early Language and Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years settings and primary schools.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to reintroduce three-year grant settlements for schools participating in the music and dance scheme.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government fully supports the arts and the development of a skills pipeline into the creative industries.
The department is providing £36.5 million for the Music and Dance Scheme this academic year.
Any introduction of multi-year funding agreements will be considered in due course.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of funding for the Music and Dance Scheme.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government fully supports the arts and the development of a skills pipeline into the creative industries.
The department is providing £36.5 million for the Music and Dance Scheme this academic year.
Any introduction of multi-year funding agreements will be considered in due course.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the effectiveness of telephone-based disability benefit assessments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
An assessment of whether each of the channels - telephone, video and face to face - for initial health assessments drive different award outcomes and impact Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) has recently been undertaken. The results will be published in due course.
This is in addition to the research published last year, which can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is monitoring the (a) importation and (b) online sale of imitation firearms; and whether she plans to make an assessment of whether the online sale of imitation firearms contravene (i) product safety and (ii) trading standards legislation.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government works closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) to address any potential risks to public safety posed by the sale and possession of imitation firearms. The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 makes it an offence to manufacture, import or sell a realistic imitation firearm. It is also a requirement that imitation firearms are safe for their intended and foreseeable use before they are placed on the market.
The Government, the National Crime Agency and the NPCC, together with Border Force, have taken, and continue to take, action to prevent the import and sale, including online sales, of certain types of blank firing firearms, which are viewed as readily convertible, to prevent these getting into the hands of criminals. Such imitation firearms are contrary to existing legislation, and to remove these particular types of imitation firearms from circulation, a four-week amnesty was run by the NPCC in February this year saw around 3,000 such firearms being handed in to police forces, and further action is being planned to remove further makes of blank firing imitation firearms from circulation as they have been found to be readily convertible.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the online sale of imitation firearms.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government works closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) to address any potential risks to public safety posed by the sale and possession of imitation firearms. The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 makes it an offence to manufacture, import or sell a realistic imitation firearm. It is also a requirement that imitation firearms are safe for their intended and foreseeable use before they are placed on the market.
The Government, the National Crime Agency and the NPCC, together with Border Force, have taken, and continue to take, action to prevent the import and sale, including online sales, of certain types of blank firing firearms, which are viewed as readily convertible, to prevent these getting into the hands of criminals. Such imitation firearms are contrary to existing legislation, and to remove these particular types of imitation firearms from circulation, a four-week amnesty was run by the NPCC in February this year saw around 3,000 such firearms being handed in to police forces, and further action is being planned to remove further makes of blank firing imitation firearms from circulation as they have been found to be readily convertible.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77729 on Horizon IT System: Compensation, whether his Department has a timeline for when this process will be available to claimants.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to ensuring that postmasters receive full and fair financial redress as quickly as possible. While we are not yet able to confirm a specific timeline due to the complexity of these cases where there is no evidence of shortfalls, work is progressing at pace. Work is underway to resolve claims where postmasters are awaiting Fixed Sum Offers under the Horizon Shortfall Scheme due to a lack of available data to verify that shortfalls occurred.