Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with Boston Consulting Group since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has not held discussions with the Boston Consulting Group since 4 July 2024 concerning Gaza. We have always been clear that any plans to enforce a reduction in territory or demographic change in Gaza are totally unacceptable.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what guidance his Department issued to British citizens in Iran during the airstrikes of June 2025.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) travel advice remains under regular review to ensure it reflects our latest assessment of risks to British nationals. On 13 June, the FCDO updated its travel advice for Iran to note that Israeli strikes had occurred and that an Iranian military response was underway. FCDO updated advice further as military action continued, including to provide factual updates on the reported targets of strikes, the status of Iran's airspace, the status of Iran's land borders and the temporary withdrawal of UK staff from Iran. Subsequent updates reflected the announcement of a ceasefire and the return to Iran of UK staff. As we have long advised, UK Government support is extremely limited in Iran. In an emergency, the UK Government will not be able to evacuate you, provide face-to-face assistance or help you if you get into difficulty. The safety of British nationals in each country and territory is the FCDO's overriding concern when determining travel advice. We continue to advise against all travel to Iran, where British and British Iranian dual nationals are at very high risk of arrest, questioning and detention.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells on coroners holding inquests into stillbirths, dated 6 June 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has received the Hon. Member’s correspondence of 6 June and will reply as soon as possible.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of expanding the scope of the maternity care inquiry to include the limitations of coroners’ powers to hold inquests into stillbirths.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, recently announced an independent, national investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal services, to look at the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies, and families experience unacceptable care. It will look at up to 10 maternity and neonatal units where there are specific issues, international evidence, adoption of best practice, and will engage in a system-wide investigation of maternity and neonatal care. This will include bringing together lessons from past reviews. The investigation will produce, by December 2025, one clear set of national recommendations to achieve high quality, safe care across maternity and neonatal services, and will ensure that women and families are listened to.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, also announced the establishment of a Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce that will use the recommendations from the independent investigation to develop a national plan with families to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.
The Terms of Reference for the independent investigation and taskforce, including the investigation’s scope, are being developed with input from families and other key partners and are expected to be published shortly. We are not, therefore, able to confirm whether this will include reference to coronial powers.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63473 on Origin Marking: Occupied Territories, how many compliance checks HMRC undertook to identify whether goods labelled as originating from Israel were produced in Israeli settlements located in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2024; and how many of those checks identified (a) non-compliance and (b) the mislabelling of goods.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law, and that goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
HMRC takes a risk-based and intelligence-led approach to tariff enforcement and routinely checks the accuracy of customs declarations. Such checks include checking material particulars such as the declared origin, value and classification of goods. Checks are conducted where risk analysis or intelligence indicates potential non-compliance, and in cases where there is a risk of customs duty under-declaration.
HMRC does not publish details of numbers of checks in relation to specific countries of origin or the outcomes of those checks. However, HMRC confirms that regular and proportionate checks are carried out on Israeli goods in which they are subject to verification to check their originating status.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance her Department issues to Access to Work case managers on reducing costs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
At present no guidance has been issued explicitly advising Access to Work Case Managers on reducing costs. There is however guidance related to:
which provide guidance to case managers on reasonable costs and to provide value for money.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of reopening closed passenger rail lines.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Spending Review shows the government’s commitment to investment in the railways and in schemes that support economic growth. The settlement represents an increase in funding on what has been spent on rail enhancements in recent years. While some key schemes have already been referenced by the Chancellor, my officials are now working to confirm our wider portfolio of rail enhancements, which will be published as part of the government’s commitment to set out its overall infrastructure pipeline.
The Restoring Your Railway programme was closed by the government as announced by the Chancellor in July 2024 and currently has no plans to revisit this decision. Most of the Restoring Your Railway schemes that were announced by the previous government were unfunded, which is why the programme was closed.
It is possible that Local Transport Authorities may wish to press ahead with developing individual local rail enhancement projects for funding in the future as this government believes that local authorities are best placed to advocate for projects that will most benefit their local areas.
The aim is to encourage strong business cases that effectively identify the optimal transport solution supporting growth, more homes and increased job opportunities.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with (a) police forces and (b) community groups on the potential impact of Respect Orders on community cohesion.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Respect Orders, which were introduced in the Crime and Policing Bill in February, will be behavioural court orders which focus on combatting anti-social behaviour. We have undertaken extensive consultation with policing partners, including the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), and other key stakeholders in the Anti-social Behaviour sector to ensure the Respect Order will be as effective as possible.
Respect Orders will enable courts to ban adult offenders from engaging in harmful anti-social behaviour. They can also compel adult perpetrators to take action to address the root cause of their behaviour.
Breach of the order will be a criminal offence, allowing the police to arrest anyone suspected of breach. Courts will have a wide range of sentencing options, including community orders, unlimited fines and, for the most severe cases, imprisonment.
The Respect Order will be piloted prior to national rollout to ensure it is as effective as possible.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 61108 on Import Duties: Israeli Settlements, what compliance checks HMRC undertakes to identify goods whether goods labelled as originating from Israel were produced in Israeli settlements located in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; what estimate HMRC has made of the number and proportion of goods imported from Israel which are labelled as produced in Israel but were produced in Occupied Palestinian Territories; and whether HMRC levies sanctions in relation to the mislabelling of goods.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Government of Israel
Where there are doubts about the origin of goods that have been declared as being of Israeli origin, HMRC will undertake checks to verify the origin of those goods to ensure fiscal compliance. HMRC does not however provide specific details regarding checks as it may serve to undermine compliance activity
HMRC encourages members of the public to report cases of potentially fraudulent activity either via the ‘report fraud to HMRC’ function on GOV.UK or the HMRC fraud hotline on 0800 788 887 available Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. HMRC takes such matters seriously and investigates them in detail
The overseas business risk guidance, available on GOV.UK, provides information for UK operators on how goods from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories should be labelled.
Data on imports from Israel are available from UK Trade Info: uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what was the total value of imports from Israel that were deemed ineligible for preferential tariff treatment under the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement in 2024.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Government of Israel
Where there are doubts about the origin of goods that have been declared as being of Israeli origin, HMRC will undertake checks to verify the origin of those goods to ensure fiscal compliance. HMRC does not however provide specific details regarding checks as it may serve to undermine compliance activity
HMRC encourages members of the public to report cases of potentially fraudulent activity either via the ‘report fraud to HMRC’ function on GOV.UK or the HMRC fraud hotline on 0800 788 887 available Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. HMRC takes such matters seriously and investigates them in detail
The overseas business risk guidance, available on GOV.UK, provides information for UK operators on how goods from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories should be labelled.
Data on imports from Israel are available from UK Trade Info: uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/.