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, whether the Child Poverty Strategy will end the two-child limit on Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
The Child Poverty Taskforce will publish a Child Poverty Strategy in the autumn that will deliver measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy will look at all available levers, including social security changes, across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support especially in the early years.
The commitments we have made at the 2025 Spending Review and since are a downpayment on our Child Poverty Strategy, which will build on the expansion of free breakfast clubs, extension of free school meals to all households claiming Universal Credit, national minimum wage boost and the cap on Universal Credit deductions through the Fair Repayment Rate.
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, whether he plans to include targets on reducing child poverty within the planned child poverty strategy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish a Child Poverty Strategy in the autumn that will deliver measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The publication will set out how we intend to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the strategy from this year and in future years. Our focus is on bringing about an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, as part of a 10-year Strategy for lasting change. More details will be set out in the strategy publication.
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, what plans he has to allow for an adequate level of parliamentary scrutiny of the delivery of the planned child poverty strategy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce will publish a Child Poverty Strategy in the autumn that will deliver measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.
The Strategy publication will set out how we intend to monitor and evaluate delivery of the strategy from this year and in future years.
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 steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to (a) identify and (b) prevent forms of support that help to maintain unlawful occupation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 17 September to Question 73423.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department is providing to support the development of reliable prostate cancer screening tests.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee reviewed the evidence for prostate cancer screening in 2020 and recommended against it due to the insufficient reliability of the best available test, the prostate specific antigen test (PSA test).
The committee is currently undertaking a new evidence review of prostate cancer screening at both a population level and for targeted high-risk groups such as black men and men with a family history of prostate cancer.
However, the reliability of the PSA test remains an issue, which is why the Government has invested £16 million into Prostate Cancer UK’s TRANSFORM trial to investigate whether different tests and more modern treatments can both detect important prostate cancers and reduce the harm of a large scale, population screening programme.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of a national screening programme for prostate cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee reviewed the evidence for prostate cancer screening in 2020 and recommended against it due to the insufficient reliability of the best available test, the prostate specific antigen test (PSA test).
The committee is currently undertaking a new evidence review of prostate cancer screening at both a population level and for targeted high-risk groups such as black men and men with a family history of prostate cancer.
However, the reliability of the PSA test remains an issue, which is why the Government has invested £16 million into Prostate Cancer UK’s TRANSFORM trial to investigate whether different tests and more modern treatments can both detect important prostate cancers and reduce the harm of a large scale, population screening programme.
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, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendations for UN member states in the UN Human Rights Council Conference Room Paper of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel entitled Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, published on 16 September 2025.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 9 June 2025 to Question 55524.
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, what discussions he has had with businesses on the steps they are taking to (a) identify and (b) prevent forms of support that help to maintain unlawful occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in Palestine are illegal under international law. The overseas business risk guidance, available on gov.uk, states there are clear risks to UK operators related to economic and financial activities in the settlements. UK citizens and businesses should be aware of the potential reputational implications of involvement in economic and financial activities in settlements, as well as possible abuses of the rights of individuals that such activity may entail. We discourage such activity and advise that those contemplating any economic or financial involvement in settlements should seek appropriate legal advice. Separately, we are conducting a review of Responsible Business Conduct, focusing on the global supply chains of businesses operating in the UK, as outlined in our Trade Strategy.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of updating building (a) requirements and (b) regulations to make it mandatory to display a street building number on the outside of a building.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has made no assessment of the merits of updating Building Regulations to accommodate street building numbers on the outside of buildings.
Local authorities already use their legal powers to manage requirements for street and building numbering.
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, when she next expects to discuss the case of detained British national Alaa Abd el-Fattah with her Egyptian counterpart.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Alaa Abd El-Fattah was released from prison on 23 September 2025, following a Presidential pardon.