Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of defence equipment collaboration between the UK and Germany on levels of investment in (a) infrastructure and (b) innovation in the North West.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Collaboration with Germany on defence equipment will have a positive impact on infrastructure and innovation in the North West. Specifically, recently announced programmes with KNDS UK in Stockport, which build on the existing investment for Bridging, as well as investment in a new manufacturing facility for BOXER, will lead to more than £400 million in total economic benefit. Furthermore, the programmes will support investment in local supply chains and sustain highly skilled jobs. More widely, we are deepening equipment collaboration with Germany through the Trinity House Defence Agreement; this collaboration will lead to further economic benefit across the UK in the longer term.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with local authorities on enabling direct payment to care workers where providers have collapsed or ceased operations.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population. That is why, under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes encouraging a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate services which offer quality and value for money.
Where individuals are in receipt of local authority funded support, they may choose to receive their personal budget as a direct payment, which can be used to employ carers, or other staff, directly.
Care providers entering and exiting is a normal part of a functioning market, and local authorities should have appropriate contingency plans in place, depending on the services being provided. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities also have a temporary duty to ensure continuity of care in the event of business failure. This means that people continue to receive the care and support they need if their adult social care provider is no longer able to carry on delivering services.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) initiatives and (b) retraining opportunities are available for people returning to work after a career break for caring responsibilities.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government will provide approximately £1.4 billion in funding for the adult skills fund in the 2025/26 academic year. This includes funding the ‘Free courses for jobs’ offer, which gives eligible adults the chance to access high value level 3 qualifications for free, which can support them to gain higher wages or a better job.
The government will also support learners through our technical education offer, including through a range of apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps. Our new levy-funded growth and skills offer will introduce greater flexibility to employers and learners in England.
From September 2026, learners will be able to apply for funding from the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), which will be the new student finance system for courses and modules starting from January 2027 onwards. The LLE will allow people to develop new skills and gain new qualifications across their working lives, at a time that is right for them, such as those returning from a career break.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that social care providers recruiting (a) internationally and (b) within the UK comply with British (i) legal obligations and (ii) ethical standards towards their staff.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care works closely with regulators, local authorities, other departments, and enforcement bodies to share concerns and intelligence about illegal or unethical practices in adult social care. The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority investigates reports of worker exploitation and illegal activity, such as human trafficking, modern slavery, forced labour, and other labour market offences.
The Government is delivering legislation to improve employment rights, and the Fair Work Agency in the Employment Rights Bill will bring together existing state enforcement functions which, over time, will take on enforcement of a wider range of employment rights.
We are also committed to ensuring ethical and sustainable approaches to international recruitment. All providers should be meeting the clear ethical standards laid out in the Code of Practice for International Recruitment. The Code of Practice sets stringent ethical standards for recruiters and employers to follow to ensure that people coming from overseas are treated fairly and provided with the appropriate support. Any accusations of illegal employment practices will be fully investigated by the relevant authorities. Any business found guilty of serious employment law breaches will have action taken against them by the Home Office, up to and including having their visa sponsorship licences revoked. The Department of Health and Social Care is providing up to £12.5 million to 15 regional partnerships this financial year to support them to prevent and respond to unethical international recruitment practices in the sector. This includes support for international recruits to understand their employment rights to switch employers, to remain working in the care sector when they have been impacted by their sponsor’s license being revoked.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to enforce compliance among social care providers based (a) in the UK and (b) abroad that fail to pay (i) wages and (ii) pension contributions.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The law is clear: if you are a UK-based worker, you are entitled to rights under UK employment law, regardless of where your employer is based.
HMRC enforces the minimum wage on behalf of DBT. It considers all complaints from workers and where it finds underpayment orders employers to pay workers their money back, and a penalty to government. Since the minimum wage was introduced, the Government has overseen the repayment of over £186 million to 1.5 million workers, issued over £100 million in financial penalties and completed over 90,000 investigations.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has powers to take compliance action against employers who are found not to be paying employer pensions contributions, including, where necessary, through court action. The Pensions Ombudsman will consider complaints from individuals and award compensation when appropriate.
The Employment Rights Bill will create the Fair Work Agency to bring together employment rights enforcement. This body will provide better support for employers to comply with the law and will have powers to take tough action against the minority who flout it.
The Government has committed to establishing a new Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector, empowering worker representatives and employer representatives to negotiate fair pay and terms and conditions in a regulated and responsible manner.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect migrant social care workers from (a) substandard accommodation, (b) non-payment of wages, (c) contracts containing repayment clauses and (d) other exploitative employment relationships.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Government condemns the exploitation of international care workers by rogue employers in the adult social care sector and continues to take robust action against this unscrupulous behaviour.
We have recently implemented a prohibition on Skilled Worker sponsors recouping sponsorship costs from those they sponsor, and those doing so now risk losing their licence.
Sponsor licences can also be revoked if workers are not paid correctly and on 9 April we further clarified our Skilled Worker salary assessment rules to make clear that sponsors cannot inflate wages by including loans for the worker’s immigration application.
We are also working to ensure sponsorship and employment systems are more strongly aligned.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many scientific procedures involved the use of dogs from 2020- 2024.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of animals used in scientific research and testing, including dogs, is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit#statistics. Statistics for 2024 are scheduled for publication in July.
The Home Office assures that, in every research proposal, animals are replaced with non-animal alternatives wherever possible, the number of animals are reduced to the minimum necessary to achieve the result sought, and that, for those animals which must be used, procedures are refined as much as possible to minimise their suffering.
The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) is leading on a strategy to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternatives to animal testing which is scheduled for publication later this year.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether permission from her Department was required by Avanti West Coast to undertake its station rostering review.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Permission is not required to undertake a review of working practices made in the ordinary course of business. If potential staff rostering affected changes to ticket office opening hours, the train operator would need to follow the process of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement conditions and Secretary of State guidance.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has plans to introduce representation of independent (a) environmental experts and (b) clinicians on the Food Strategy Advisory Board.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A range of representatives from the food sector and NGOs were invited to sit on the Food Strategy Advisory Board. We kept it deliberately small, whilst reflecting the scope of the food supply chain.
The Board represents the first step in a wider stakeholder engagement strategy which will continue to ensure and demonstrate the joined-up and systems-wide approach for the food strategy. There is huge expertise, energy and commitment to work towards better food system outcomes, and all stakeholders need to be part of the solution. There will be multiple routes to share ideas as part of the co-design process in 2025 – we say more on this soon.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration her Department has given to including Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council in the cohort for the pilot on the kinship allowance trial scheme.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government announced a £40 million package to trial a new kinship allowance. The pilot will begin in autumn 2025 and the department will evaluate the pilot to build an evidence base on how best to deliver financial support for kinship families. We will confirm the process for selecting local authorities taking part in the pilot in due course.