Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she had made of the potential barriers to opportunity for adopted (a) children and (b) young people; and what steps her Department has taken to help tackle these in the last year.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department recognises that many adopted children have experienced trauma and neglect. As part of the government’s Plan for Change, we are working to remove barriers to opportunity for all children, including those who are adopted.
To support adopted children in school, we are prioritising their access to school admissions, providing Pupil Premium Plus funding, and ensuring support from designated teachers and virtual school heads.
This year, we have allocated £50 million to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund to provide essential therapeutic services for eligible children. Additionally, we have invested £8.8 million in Adoption England to improve adoption practices. This includes expanding multi-disciplinary teams to offer specialist support, introducing a new early support framework called ‘Becoming a family’ for the first 12 to 18 months of placement, and implementing an Adoption Support Plan to assess and guide families’ support needs.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has provided NHS equipment to help manage infection control in health settings in Gaza.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There have been no donations of National Health Service equipment specific to infection control. However, the Government recently announced a £7.5 million package to strengthen medical care in Gaza and the region, including additional funding for UK-Med and the World Health Organization in Egypt. The Government’s funding has provided 1.3 million items of life-saving medicines and enabled UK-Med to support over 500,000 patient consultations across Gaza.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide opportunities for NHS staff to work in (a) Gaza and (b) other conflict zones.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are options for National Health Service staff to voluntarily provide healthcare support on a humanitarian basis and separately to their NHS duties. For example, humanitarian medical charities such as UK Med are active in Gaza, with NHS clinicians volunteering to provide life-saving medical aid to people affected by the conflict.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations he has made to his Chinese counterpart on restrictions faced by (a) Christians and (b) underground churches in China.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The environment for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in China is restrictive, which includes the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities. Chinese regulations on religious activity severely restrict religious and cultural expression in China. This Government stands firm on human rights, including the right to FoRB. We raise our concerns at the highest levels: the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor and Energy Secretary all raised human rights recently with their Chinese counterparts.
More broadly, this Government champions FoRB for all abroad. We work to uphold the right to FoRB through our position at the UN, G7 and other multilateral fora, and through bilateral engagement.
The recent launch of our FoRB strategy on July 8 outlines our approach to promoting and protecting the right to FoRB globally, of which China is one of ten focus countries. We continue to do all we can to encourage FoRB across China.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will have discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing the level of ODA spend.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
To fund an increase in defence spending, the Government has taken the decision to reduce our ODA budget to 0.3% of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2027. This reflects the world we live in and the threats our country faces. We must do this to maintain economic stability - the foundation of this Government's Plan for Change. The Government is committed to returning to spending 0.7% of GNI on ODA when the fiscal circumstances allow.
The government will continue to monitor future forecasts closely, and each year will review and confirm, in accordance with the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015, whether a return to spending 0.7% GNI on ODA is possible against the latest fiscal forecast. The Office for Budget Responsibility's latest forecast shows that the ODA fiscal tests are not due to be met within the Parliament.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered updating the Statutory Guidance on Adoption, published on 18 July 2013.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department keeps all statutory guidance under regular review, including that relating to adoption, and considers updates where required.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of prospective adopters; and what steps her Department is taking to increase this.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government inherited a situation marked by a growing disparity between the number of children awaiting adoptive families and the number of approved adopters. In 2024/25, Adoption England launched a national recruitment campaign funded by the government, which led to a modest increase in approved adopters to 2,230, which is a rise of 0.5% from the previous year. We acknowledge that further efforts are needed to close the adopter sufficiency gap. That is why, this year, we have doubled the funding allocated to Adoption England for adopter recruitment, increasing it to £1 million.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the findings of the Coram quarterly data reports on adoption and special guardianship, published in March 2025.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Coram’s quarterly statistics on adoption and special guardianship orders provide a critical insight into how well local services are performing. The department regularly takes stock of where improvements are needed and works closely with Adoption England and kinship organisations such as Family Rights Group and Kinship to review policy priorities.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's consultation document Fair Funding Review 2.0 updated on 23 June 2025, what the funding formula used for the review is.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to chapter 4 of the Fair Funding Review 2.0 consultation which sets out the approach to assessing local authority demand through seven formulae. Government have also published detailed technical annexes for each formula.
We will publish our response to the consultation in the autumn, which will be followed by the publication of the provisional multi-year Settlement.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Independent - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with the Foreign Secretary on taking steps to help support Palestinians to access locations to verify their biometric data for UK visa applications.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
There are currently two UK Visa Application Centres operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in Ramallah and Jerusalem. The centres in Ramallah and Jerusalem are open twice per week and once every two weeks respectively for biometrics enrolment. The UK Visa Application Centre in Gaza has been closed since 7 October 2023 due to the conflict in the region and to ensure the safety of staff and customers. UKVI will continue to monitor the situation and work closely with the supplier, VFS, to re-open this centre when it becomes safe to do so. There are also Visa Application Centres in neighbouring countries, such as Egypt and Jordan, which are open daily if customers are able to travel to these locations.