Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what external oversight mechanisms are in place to ensure that publicly owned broadcasters investigate whistleblowing concerns independently of senior management.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our public service broadcasters are operationally independent of Government and so probationary periods rightfully remain a matter for them.
Employees of public service broadcasters, like most employees in Great Britain, who blow the whistle on certain types of wrongdoing are protected from retaliatory unfair dismissal and detriment under the Employment Rights Act 1996 if legislative conditions are met. This is a day one right, meaning employees do not need to satisfy any qualifying period of service to seek remedies in employment tribunals.
Employees of publicly owned broadcasters will be protected if they blow the whistle to Ofcom, the independent media regulator, if certain conditions in the legislation are met. Ofcom is a ‘prescribed person’ under the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Person Order) 2014. The Government is also exploring the addition of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) to this list and the Secretary of State continues to call on the television sector and wider creative industries to support the work of CIISA to improve standards of behaviour across industry.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of trends in the use of extension of probationary periods in publicly owned broadcasters to detriment whistleblowing employees.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our public service broadcasters are operationally independent of Government and so probationary periods rightfully remain a matter for them.
Employees of public service broadcasters, like most employees in Great Britain, who blow the whistle on certain types of wrongdoing are protected from retaliatory unfair dismissal and detriment under the Employment Rights Act 1996 if legislative conditions are met. This is a day one right, meaning employees do not need to satisfy any qualifying period of service to seek remedies in employment tribunals.
Employees of publicly owned broadcasters will be protected if they blow the whistle to Ofcom, the independent media regulator, if certain conditions in the legislation are met. Ofcom is a ‘prescribed person’ under the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Person Order) 2014. The Government is also exploring the addition of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) to this list and the Secretary of State continues to call on the television sector and wider creative industries to support the work of CIISA to improve standards of behaviour across industry.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to respond to correspondence from the hon. Member for Salford of 30 October 2025 on deaths in custody and prison management at HMP Forest Bank, reference number MC128673.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Department apologises for the delay in responding on this occasion and we regret that this falls short of expected standards. We are prioritising this and a response will be issued within the coming week.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of whistleblowing protections for employees of publicly owned broadcasters under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Our public service broadcasters, publicly owned or otherwise, rightfully remain independent of Government, but their employees like most in Great Britain are protected under the whistleblowing framework in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Public Interest and Disclosure Act 1998). This protects employees from detriment and dismissal if they blow the whistle on wrongdoing and certain conditions in the legislation are met.
More broadly, the Government acknowledges concerns that the UK whistleblowing framework may not be operating as effectively as it should be and recently announced, through the Anti-Corruption Strategy 2025, that it will explore opportunities to reform that framework.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish a list of organisations represented at his Department's conference on food poverty on 14 and 15 January 2026.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP Food Poverty Conference took place at the Abbey Centre on 15 January 2026.
Our aim was to bring together a range of local authorities, other government departments, charities and academics to share and discuss a range of good practice happening on the ground to respond to increasing need in relation to food poverty.
We received a high level of interest in the conference. Due to venue capacity, places were offered on a first come first served basis.
We saw over 30 local authorities represented from different regions across England. Examples include the Greater London Authority, Medway Council, Bristol City Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, North Yorkshire Council, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and East Lindsey District Council. Local government sat alongside over a dozen national third sector organisations – such as Trussell, Feeding Britain, Sustain and Community Shop – as well as officials from across five government departments, including DWP, DfE, Defra, DHSC and MHCLG.
We’ve been encouraged by the positive feedback on the conference and the strong engagement shown across sectors. As a result, we are exploring the possibility of hosting a second conference online later in the year to enable more organisations to participate. We will provide further details as plans materialise.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, which Horizon Shortfall Scheme payments are 1) exempt from tax and 2) subject to tax, and whether these taxation rules apply to all historical payments already paid out.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) is designed to put postmasters back into the position they would have been in ‘but for’ Horizon, and no one will pay more tax than at the time of the shortfalls. All fully assessed HSS awards are paid gross and taxable in the year in which redress is paid, unlike other schemes where awards are paid after tax deductions. To avoid claimants being unduly affected, HSS provides a tax top-up, so redress is not reduced. Postmasters also receive £1,200 for independent tax advice and help with tax returns. Payments related to the fixed-sum option on HSS, and associated top-ups, are tax exempt.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent progress her Department has made in ensuring British-Egyptian national Alaa Abd El-Fattah's safe travel to the UK.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As I stated in the latest session of FCDO Oral Questions on 2 December, the Prime Minister raised this case with President Sisi on 18 November, and the Foreign Secretary has pressed for Mr el-Fattah's return on multiple occasions with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, most recently on 25 November. Mr el-Fattah must be allowed to return to the UK and be reunited with his family.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the sanction of a Withdrawal of Implied Permission notice by one Train Operating Company is confined to the services of the train operating company applying that sanction.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Individuals who have been issued with a full Withdrawal of Implied Permission (WIP) will be banned from accessing the station the WIP was issued from and will be prohibited from using any train of that particular train operating company that passes through the same station.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which train companies contracted to her Department utilise Withdrawal of Implied Permission notices.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Usage of Withdrawal of Implied Permission (WIP) notices are an operational matter for the train operating company or Network Rail. The Department does not hold data on which operators utilise WIPs.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to support the development of a railway-wide Withdrawal of Implied Permission notice.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department keeps security under constant review, however no change of policy for Withdrawal of Implied Permission (WIP) is planned at this stage.