Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of reports of abuse of young Christian women, raids on churches and allegations of bribery of pastors in Kazakhstan.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK is committed to standing up for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) globally. No one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe in. We will work to uphold the right to Freedom of Religious Belief through our position at the UN, G7 and other multilateral fora and in our bilateral work.

Our Embassy in Astana works actively with local non-governmental organisations in Kazakhstan to support interfaith dialogue and engage authorities in constructive negotiations with religious groups. The Embassy has hosted four events in the last 12 months, bringing together representatives of a variety of majority and minority religious groups, alongside international organisations, and state bodies. The resulting recommendations are under review by government. The UK will continue to be a leading voice in support of Freedom of Religion and Belief in Kazakhstan.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of retrospective changes to settlement requirements on health care workers and the wider health care system.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The consultation for the earned settlement model, as proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, was open to the public between 20 November 2025 and 12 February 2026. Contributions will now be analysed, and the findings will support the development of the final model.

Economic and equality impact assessments will be conducted on the final model and published in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals holding pre settled status work in the health and social care sector.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office does not hold data on the occupations of people granted pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Internationally Educated Nurses registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council have lived in the UK for over five but fewer than ten years.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department does not hold information on the length of residence in the United Kingdom of internationally educated nurses registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

The NMC publishes statistics as part of its biannual registration data reports on the number of nurses who obtained their nursing qualification outside of the United Kingdom, by the length of time since their first registration with the NMC. Nurses though may have been resident in the UK prior to their first registration, so this is not the same as length of residence.

Also, length of time since first registration does not necessarily mean unbroken or continuous registration. Registrants may leave the register for a variety of reasons, for one or more period during their careers.

This information can be found in the ‘UK permanent Register data tables’ in the worksheet ‘Time’, at the following link:

https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/