Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to address the conflict in Sudan through the Integrated Security Fund.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Through the Integrated Security Fund, we are providing over £500,000 of funding to projects focused on conflict and security dynamics which support our diplomatic and humanitarian response. In addition, we have also committed £120 million of new funding this financial year to reach over 650,000 people with food, cash, water, sanitation and nutrition support. This is in addition to £235 million allocated in 2024-2025. In May, the Minister of State for International Development announced a further £36 million for Sudanese refugees in Chad to mitigate the regional burden of the displacement crisis. We continue to pursue all diplomatic avenues to press the parties into a permanent ceasefire, allow unrestricted humanitarian access, protect civilians, and commit to a sustained and meaningful peace process. This includes our role as penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council and leader of the core group on Sudan at the UN Human Rights Council.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding he has allocated to the Women Peace and Security Agenda through the Integrated Security Fund for (a) 2025-26, (b) 2027-28 and (c) 2028-29.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Integrated Security Fund (ISF) supports UK National Security and as part of that delivers on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in support of UK’s WPS National Action Plan. All projects funded through the ISF consider how their work can benefit gender and social inclusion. ISF projects use marker tools such as the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) indicators to ensure that gender issues are considered from the design stage.

In 2025-26 the Fund has a dedicated allocation for gender and national security work. Funding allocations for 2025/26 are due to be published in the autumn alongside the ISF Annual Report 2024/25 and allocations for future financial years will be announced in due course.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Women, Peace and Security Agenda remains a fund-level outcome for the UK Integrated Security Fund.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Supporting women and girls is a priority for this Government. The Integrated Security Fund (ISF) supports UK National Security and as a part of that delivers on Women, Peace and Security through the UK National Action Plan. The ISF addresses gender and national security threats, both domestically and internationally across the breadth of its work. All ISF programmes consider the impact of gender on their work alongside dedicated projects.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for which the number of Crown Court sitting days has been below the maximum operational capacity forecast by HM Courts and Tribunals Service since September 2024.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Operational capacity in the criminal courts does not refer solely to judicial sitting days. Consideration of court capacity necessarily includes consideration of capacity in terms of numbers of advocates, defence and prosecution, legal advisors and other court staff of which there is a finite supply. To fund additional sitting days, the Lord Chancellor needed to be confident that the extra days were both deliverable and affordable.

The Crown Court is currently sitting the most sitting days since records began. The previous Lord Chancellor had already funded a significant increase over previous years’ allocations for this year. Having assessed regional delivery performance and confidence across criminal justice partners required for delivery, and considered the Department’s broader financial position, the Lord Chancellor chose to fund a further 1,250 Crown Court sitting days, taking the total to a record 111,250 this financial year.

The additional sitting days will be distributed to areas of the country able to support higher sitting levels and will enable the courts to sit at record levels this year, meaning more trials will be able to be heard. New courts and prison projections which include the assumed 111,250 days will be published in December.

Whilst the Crown Court sitting days allocation is at a record level, it is not even higher due to capacity constraints and the Department’s wider financial position. This means while we are prioritising Crown Court funding we also have to consider the capacity not just of HMCTS, but the capacity and cost of the judges, lawyers, prosecutors, legal aid and defence barristers that underpin the rest of the system. We do not hold data for the number of cases not heard each month as a result of the cap on sitting days. We consider capacity across the year and have adjusted sitting day levels accordingly, as detailed below.

The Lord Chancellor and his officials engage regularly with the Treasury on court resourcing and funding. This increase in sitting days reflects the Government’s commitment to ensuring the Crown Court has the resources it needs to deliver timely justice. This year we have secured record investment in the courts system – up to £450 million by the end of the Spending Review period.

While extra sitting days will help to tackle delays in our courts, only major reform will address the crisis in our courts. That is why the previous Lord Chancellor commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to lead an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, to propose bold and ambitious reforms to improve timeliness in the courts and deliver swifter justice for victims.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of Crown Court cases that were not heard as a result of the cap on sitting days for each month for which data is available.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Operational capacity in the criminal courts does not refer solely to judicial sitting days. Consideration of court capacity necessarily includes consideration of capacity in terms of numbers of advocates, defence and prosecution, legal advisors and other court staff of which there is a finite supply. To fund additional sitting days, the Lord Chancellor needed to be confident that the extra days were both deliverable and affordable.

The Crown Court is currently sitting the most sitting days since records began. The previous Lord Chancellor had already funded a significant increase over previous years’ allocations for this year. Having assessed regional delivery performance and confidence across criminal justice partners required for delivery, and considered the Department’s broader financial position, the Lord Chancellor chose to fund a further 1,250 Crown Court sitting days, taking the total to a record 111,250 this financial year.

The additional sitting days will be distributed to areas of the country able to support higher sitting levels and will enable the courts to sit at record levels this year, meaning more trials will be able to be heard. New courts and prison projections which include the assumed 111,250 days will be published in December.

Whilst the Crown Court sitting days allocation is at a record level, it is not even higher due to capacity constraints and the Department’s wider financial position. This means while we are prioritising Crown Court funding we also have to consider the capacity not just of HMCTS, but the capacity and cost of the judges, lawyers, prosecutors, legal aid and defence barristers that underpin the rest of the system. We do not hold data for the number of cases not heard each month as a result of the cap on sitting days. We consider capacity across the year and have adjusted sitting day levels accordingly, as detailed below.

The Lord Chancellor and his officials engage regularly with the Treasury on court resourcing and funding. This increase in sitting days reflects the Government’s commitment to ensuring the Crown Court has the resources it needs to deliver timely justice. This year we have secured record investment in the courts system – up to £450 million by the end of the Spending Review period.

While extra sitting days will help to tackle delays in our courts, only major reform will address the crisis in our courts. That is why the previous Lord Chancellor commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to lead an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, to propose bold and ambitious reforms to improve timeliness in the courts and deliver swifter justice for victims.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of holding 111,250 Crown Court sitting days in the 2025-26 financial year on the criminal case backlog.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Operational capacity in the criminal courts does not refer solely to judicial sitting days. Consideration of court capacity necessarily includes consideration of capacity in terms of numbers of advocates, defence and prosecution, legal advisors and other court staff of which there is a finite supply. To fund additional sitting days, the Lord Chancellor needed to be confident that the extra days were both deliverable and affordable.

The Crown Court is currently sitting the most sitting days since records began. The previous Lord Chancellor had already funded a significant increase over previous years’ allocations for this year. Having assessed regional delivery performance and confidence across criminal justice partners required for delivery, and considered the Department’s broader financial position, the Lord Chancellor chose to fund a further 1,250 Crown Court sitting days, taking the total to a record 111,250 this financial year.

The additional sitting days will be distributed to areas of the country able to support higher sitting levels and will enable the courts to sit at record levels this year, meaning more trials will be able to be heard. New courts and prison projections which include the assumed 111,250 days will be published in December.

Whilst the Crown Court sitting days allocation is at a record level, it is not even higher due to capacity constraints and the Department’s wider financial position. This means while we are prioritising Crown Court funding we also have to consider the capacity not just of HMCTS, but the capacity and cost of the judges, lawyers, prosecutors, legal aid and defence barristers that underpin the rest of the system. We do not hold data for the number of cases not heard each month as a result of the cap on sitting days. We consider capacity across the year and have adjusted sitting day levels accordingly, as detailed below.

The Lord Chancellor and his officials engage regularly with the Treasury on court resourcing and funding. This increase in sitting days reflects the Government’s commitment to ensuring the Crown Court has the resources it needs to deliver timely justice. This year we have secured record investment in the courts system – up to £450 million by the end of the Spending Review period.

While extra sitting days will help to tackle delays in our courts, only major reform will address the crisis in our courts. That is why the previous Lord Chancellor commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to lead an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, to propose bold and ambitious reforms to improve timeliness in the courts and deliver swifter justice for victims.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the provision of funding to increase the number of Crown Court sitting days.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Operational capacity in the criminal courts does not refer solely to judicial sitting days. Consideration of court capacity necessarily includes consideration of capacity in terms of numbers of advocates, defence and prosecution, legal advisors and other court staff of which there is a finite supply. To fund additional sitting days, the Lord Chancellor needed to be confident that the extra days were both deliverable and affordable.

The Crown Court is currently sitting the most sitting days since records began. The previous Lord Chancellor had already funded a significant increase over previous years’ allocations for this year. Having assessed regional delivery performance and confidence across criminal justice partners required for delivery, and considered the Department’s broader financial position, the Lord Chancellor chose to fund a further 1,250 Crown Court sitting days, taking the total to a record 111,250 this financial year.

The additional sitting days will be distributed to areas of the country able to support higher sitting levels and will enable the courts to sit at record levels this year, meaning more trials will be able to be heard. New courts and prison projections which include the assumed 111,250 days will be published in December.

Whilst the Crown Court sitting days allocation is at a record level, it is not even higher due to capacity constraints and the Department’s wider financial position. This means while we are prioritising Crown Court funding we also have to consider the capacity not just of HMCTS, but the capacity and cost of the judges, lawyers, prosecutors, legal aid and defence barristers that underpin the rest of the system. We do not hold data for the number of cases not heard each month as a result of the cap on sitting days. We consider capacity across the year and have adjusted sitting day levels accordingly, as detailed below.

The Lord Chancellor and his officials engage regularly with the Treasury on court resourcing and funding. This increase in sitting days reflects the Government’s commitment to ensuring the Crown Court has the resources it needs to deliver timely justice. This year we have secured record investment in the courts system – up to £450 million by the end of the Spending Review period.

While extra sitting days will help to tackle delays in our courts, only major reform will address the crisis in our courts. That is why the previous Lord Chancellor commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to lead an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, to propose bold and ambitious reforms to improve timeliness in the courts and deliver swifter justice for victims.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what is the breakdown of financial (a) commitments and (b) disbursements in relation to the UK’s 2021 Nutrition for Growth pledge to spend at least £1.5 billion on nutrition objectives from 2022-2030 to date.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Since 2010, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has reported on its nutrition-related spend across our Official Development Assistance (ODA). The latest available report captures data up to 2023 and shows that FCDO dispersed over 40 per cent of our 2021 Nutrition for Growth spend pledge during the first two years. FCDO Ministers have decided to move away from a spend focused target and instead focus on a more meaningful results target to better demonstrate the impact achieved through our programme and policy efforts to improve nutrition.

FCDO officials are currently working on proposals for a nutrition results target and will share more information on this in due course with the aim to report on nutrition results from 2026. Whilst we will no longer be reporting spend against the 2021 spend target, we do intend to continue to share our nutrition spend data as part of our established accountability mechanisms.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department plans to deliver the full financial value of the UK’s 2021 Nutrition for Growth pledge.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Since 2010, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has reported on its nutrition-related spend across our Official Development Assistance (ODA). The latest available report captures data up to 2023 and shows that FCDO dispersed over 40 per cent of our 2021 Nutrition for Growth spend pledge during the first two years. FCDO Ministers have decided to move away from a spend focused target and instead focus on a more meaningful results target to better demonstrate the impact achieved through our programme and policy efforts to improve nutrition.

FCDO officials are currently working on proposals for a nutrition results target and will share more information on this in due course with the aim to report on nutrition results from 2026. Whilst we will no longer be reporting spend against the 2021 spend target, we do intend to continue to share our nutrition spend data as part of our established accountability mechanisms.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure (a) transparency and (b) accountability in nutrition spending following its decision to discontinue reporting on the 2021 Nutrition for Growth financial commitment to spend at least £1.5 billion on nutrition objectives from 2022-2030.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Since 2010, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has reported on its nutrition-related spend across our Official Development Assistance (ODA). The latest available report captures data up to 2023 and shows that FCDO dispersed over 40 per cent of our 2021 Nutrition for Growth spend pledge during the first two years. FCDO Ministers have decided to move away from a spend focused target and instead focus on a more meaningful results target to better demonstrate the impact achieved through our programme and policy efforts to improve nutrition.

FCDO officials are currently working on proposals for a nutrition results target and will share more information on this in due course with the aim to report on nutrition results from 2026. Whilst we will no longer be reporting spend against the 2021 spend target, we do intend to continue to share our nutrition spend data as part of our established accountability mechanisms.

Conduct of Samir Zitouni and Stephen Crean on the 18.25 Doncaster to Kings Cross train on 1 November 2025

Release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah and the plight of British nationals arbitrarily detained abroad

Found: Sarah Champion (Labour; Rotherham) (Chair) Tracy Gilbert (Labour; Edinburgh North and Leith) Monica Harding

Found: Sarah Champion (Labour; Rotherham) (Chair) Tracy Gilbert (Labour; Edinburgh North and Leith) Monica Harding

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Tracy Gilbert; Monica Harding; Noah Law;

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Tracy Gilbert; Monica Harding; Noah Law;