Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she is taking steps to ensure that the voluntary measures agreed by the Creator Remuneration Working Group in July 2025 deliver improved remuneration for (a) session musicians and orchestral players and (b) other non-featured artists from music streaming platforms.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Ensuring that music creators are fairly compensated for their work is crucial to the ongoing success of our world-class music industry, as this is what allows them to invest their time, effort, and money into creating music.
Through the Creator Remuneration Working Group, we collaborated on this matter with key industry stakeholders, including major and independent record labels and music creator representatives.
In July 2025, we were delighted to welcome the new label-led principles as an output of these discussions. This includes targeted support for legacy artists, songwriters and session musicians, with the commitment from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the Musicians’ Union to increase fees for session musicians by 40% for pop and 15% for classical sessions. The UK’s major labels have also launched bespoke packages to deliver benefits for UK creators.
To track progress and measure success, the government has worked with industry to implement a robust process to monitor and review the impact of the Principles. The Government will then assess the need for further intervention to ensure this package delivers on its objective to bring about real change.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the impact of the removal of the 10 per cent wear and tear allowance on self employed, Ofsted registered childminders; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of (a) reinstating this allowance and (b) introducing an alternative mechanism to cover additional household costs for childminders who provide childcare from their own homes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Childminders make a significant contribution to children’s development, learning, and wellbeing. The Government has eased rules on working from schools and community centres and increased early years funding rates above 2023 average fees. These increases reflect increased costs, and from April 2026, local authorities must pass at least 97 per cent of funding to providers.
Only a small proportion of childminders with qualifying income over £50,000 have been mandated into Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax from April 2026. Childminders moving to MTD for income tax can continue to claim tax relief for household costs, wear and tear of household items and furniture, and food and drink, by deducting actual business costs. This ensures childminders receive tax relief for all of the costs that they incur in relation to their childminding business. The Government has recently published updated guidance for childminders to help them claim relief for these costs.
The Government will monitor the impact of MTD for income tax on childminders and other home-based childcare providers in the same way as it will for all sole traders moving to MTD for income tax. We will also review the impacts of moving from the 10% deduction to actual costs for wear and tear claims.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of allocating the majority of the UK’s pledge to the Eighth Replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in 2028/29 on the ability of the Global Fund to scale up innovations.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations announced by the Foreign Secretary on 19 March take a strategic, multi‑year approach, which will provide greater predictability and support effective planning by our partners, including multilateral organisations such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which the UK continues to back as a high‑impact institution delivering strong results. These allocations were considered in the round alongside other multilateral commitments and priorities, within a highly constrained overall ODA settlement.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the gap between the introduction of increased tuition fees in 2026 and the reintroduction of maintenance grants in 2029 on students from lower-income households.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
No assessment has been made. Tuition fees are covered by tuition fee loans, so students do not need to pay them while they study.
Regarding students from lower-income backgrounds, we are acting to support them through future proofing our maintenance loan offer by increasing maintenance loans in line with forecast inflation every academic year from 2026/27.
Additionally, from 2028/29, maintenance grants will support full-time students from low-income households studying courses aligned with the government’s missions. The grants will provide disadvantaged full-time students with up to £1,000 extra per year, on top of existing maintenance loans, increasing cash in students’ pockets without increasing their debt.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of Chevening scholars from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan have claimed asylum in the United Kingdom following the completion of their scholarships.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of people claiming asylum where the latest leave held prior to claim was a study visa is published in table Asy_D01a of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’. The number of student entry clearance visas issued is published in table Vis_D02 of the 'Entry clearance visas datasets'.
A full Impact Assessment has been published for the Visa Brake policy; see Table 1 for historic volumes of asylum claims linked to visa for the relevant nationalities and routes in scope of the Brake.
The requested information on asylum claims from Chevening scholars is not available from published statistics.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the report by Christians Against Poverty entitled 'Barriers to work: Challenges, support and solutions, published on 25th February 2026; and what steps his Department is taking to help support people with (a) mental health conditions and (b) disabilities into employment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is good for health, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. In our Pathways to Work Green Paper we set out our Pathways to Work offer, backed by £1 billion a year of new funding by the end of the decade.
Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. The Government is committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, including people with mental health conditions, with their employment journey.
We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems. Existing measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants. Through Pathways to Work we are building towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and people with health conditions on out of work benefits, building on and bringing together initiatives such as Connect to Work, WorkWell and Employment Advisers in Talking Therapies.
The 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising good work is good for health. The Plan states our intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the proportion of secondary school pupils in England completing CPR training as required under the Health Education curriculum; and what steps the Department for Education is taking to support schools in ensuring consistent delivery of CPR training and to promote participation in national initiatives such as Restart a Heart month.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education set out in the Relationships, Sex and Health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.
The RSHE guidance requires primary schools to teach basic first aid, such as dealing with common injuries. In secondary schools, pupils learn additional skills, including cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and how and when to use a defibrillator.
Schools have flexibility in how they deliver this content, including which resources they choose to use and whether to participate in initiatives such as Restart a Heart month.
The department does not collect data on how many pupils have completed CPR training; schools are responsible for determining how best to meet curriculum requirements and ensure appropriate first aid education.
The government has commissioned Oak Academy to make lesson materials freely available.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent representations her Department has made to the Government of Saudi Arabia regarding (a) the reported increase in executions in 2024 and 2025, (b) the execution of individuals convicted of offences committed when they were under 18, and (c) the cases of individuals facing execution for protest-related offences.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 11 December in response to Question 97116.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations she has made to the Syrian interim government on constitutional protections for the political, cultural and linguistic rights of Kurdish communities as part of the ongoing integration process between the Syrian interim government and the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the Written Ministerial Statement I made to the House on 28 January 2026. I can assure her that we continue to raise the protection of Kurdish civilians and other minority communities, as well as the importance of accountability and rule of law, as a constant subject of concern with the Syrian Government. On 27 February I spoke to Foreign Minister al-Shaibani and raised with him directly my concerns around the humanitarian situation in Kobane and the internally displaced persons camps. I also recently met with members of the UK Kurdish community to discuss their views on the 30 January agreement and their hopes for the future.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
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 unrestricted humanitarian access to civilian populations affected by recent military operations in North-East Syria.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the Written Ministerial Statement I made to the House on 28 January 2026. I can assure her that we continue to raise the protection of Kurdish civilians and other minority communities, as well as the importance of accountability and rule of law, as a constant subject of concern with the Syrian Government. On 27 February I spoke to Foreign Minister al-Shaibani and raised with him directly my concerns around the humanitarian situation in Kobane and the internally displaced persons camps. I also recently met with members of the UK Kurdish community to discuss their views on the 30 January agreement and their hopes for the future.