Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department's press release entitled UK continues to step up for Ukraine as new funding announced to bring war criminals to justice, published on 29 December 2024, if he will publish a summary of his Department's legal advice on war crimes committed by Russia during its war on Ukraine.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Since the start of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2021, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has recorded over 150,000 incidents of alleged war crimes committed during the conflict. The UK government is committed to supporting Ukraine in its efforts to document and investigate these atrocity crimes. As set out in our funding announcement of 29 December 2024, we are focussing efforts through practical support co-ordinated via the Atrocity Crimes Advisory group, established with our US and EU partners. We have also provided support to the International Criminal Court, which established its own investigation into the situation in Ukraine in March 2022, and been an active member of the Core Group of countries, working to explore options to establish a Special Tribunal on the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value is of grants provided by her Department under the Access to Work scheme in each financial year since 2020-21; and how much her Department plans to provide in the (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27 financial years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The most recently available data on Access to Work (AtW) outturn expenditure is available in the Access to Work official statistics. Expenditure on Access to Work elements, for financial years 2020/21 to 2023/24 was:
Financial year | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
Nominal Terms | £106,624,000 | £147,717,000 | £179,679,000 | £255,171,000 |
Real Terms (2023/24 prices) | £120,536,000 | £167,867,000 | £190,777,000 | £255,171,000 |
This includes expenditure on all AtW elements, including the Mental Health Support Service (MHSS), but excludes expenditure on the Transitional Employer Support Grant (TESG). Further information on AtW expenditure, including breakdowns of expenditure by AtW element type, is published in the Access to Work official statistics and currently covers financial years 2007/08 through to 2023/24.
The most recently available data on AtW grant expenditure forecast under the current policy is published here for 2025/26 and 2026/27: Access to Work grant expenditure forecasts - GOV.UK. These figures do not align with figures from the AtW official statistics as they exclude grant expenditure on MHSS and include expenditure on TESG.
The department has budgeted £385m for grants in 2025/26 based on the current expenditure forecast. The budget for 2026/27 has not been set.
The budget is subject to significant change due to the uncertainty in the forecast and based on affordability and departmental funding pressures
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Budget 2024, what estimate she has made of how much revenue will be raised by changes to the rules for (a) non-domiciled tax status, (b) capital gains tax and (c) inheritance tax in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Estimates of the exchequer impact of measures announced at Autumn Budget 2024 can be found in table 5.1 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-2024. This includes the revenue raised in each year of the forecast period.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his comments in an interview on the BBC Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme on 16 March 2025, on what evidential basis he said that there is an overdiagnosis of mental health conditions; and if he will publish the evidence used to make those comments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will open a public consultation on the measures not being consulted on in Annex A of her Department's Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We urgently need reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and protect disabled people. There are some measures announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper on the 18 March 2025 that we will not be consulting on.
Key reforms to improve the system, such as our ‘Pathways to Work’ support offer, reducing assessments for those with severe conditions and recording assessments, are needed urgently and not consulted on in this Green Paper.
This also includes changes to PIP. It is right that we bring this forward via Primary Legislation so that Parliament can fully debate and vote on these changes. In the Green Paper, we are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by this change, and we intend to launch a wider review of the PIP assessment. We will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that people with multiple sclerosis are supported through the Personal Independence Payment system.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is important that all claimants to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are able to access our services and that they do not face obstacles in applying and communicating with the Department and its providers. We have a variety of reasonable adjustments to make the claims process and communications easier for some of our most vulnerable customers.
The process is kept under continual review to ensure it meets the needs of claimants and helps the Department provide an accurate assessment of an individual’s entitlement. Since PIP was created, the Department has introduced, for example, dial-in-for third parties, a digital PIP 2 questionnaire and evidence upload function, email as a reasonable adjustment and telephone and video assessments in addition to paper-based and face-to-face assessments.
In the Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working published on 18 March we outline plans to improve the experience for people who use the health and disability benefits system, including exploring ways to use evidence from eligibility for other services to reduce the need for some people with very severe conditions to undergo a full PIP functional assessment.
Over the longer term, the Health Transformation Programme is modernising health and disability benefit services to improve the customer experience. The Programme will transform the entire PIP service, introducing an option to apply and track applications online.
We are exploring a case management model - a personalised approach for customers from initial contact through to the end of the application, including signposting to other benefits and services. This approach will help the Programme to better understand our customers, tailor their service, and help to build customer confidence and trust that their case is being progressed appropriately.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of welfare reform on people with multiple sclerosis.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course with some information published this week alongside the Spring Statement.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to spend at least £1 billion on humanitarian aid in each year of this Parliament.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Prime Minister has set out a new strategic vision for government spending on defence and security and Official Development Assistance (ODA). Detailed decisions on how the ODA budget will be used will be worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review based on various factors including impact, and value for money.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that changes to the Work Capability Assessment prevent disabled people from entering poverty.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Disability Green Paper published on 18th March 2025 outlines why we think removing the Work Capability Assessment and moving to using an amended version of the PIP assessment to determine what financial support people receive for health and disability in the Universal Credit system is the correct decision for the reformed system. We will be publishing estimated impacts on claimants for the changes announced on 18 March 2025 on the day of the Spring Statement or shortly after.
We understand that for some people, work is simply not possible. We will work through how, without a WCA, these people can be identified and appropriate protections put in place, such as considering award reviews. Engagement with employment support will be determined on a personal basis, according to needs.
Following the Green Paper consultation, we will bring forwards a White Paper in autumn 2025 to set out our full proposals.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposed reductions in official development assistance on the UK contribution to international climate finance.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The impact on international climate finance is being worked through following the decision to reduce UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.5 per cent of GNI today to 0.3 per cent in 2027. We will be taking a rigorous approach to ensure all ODA delivers value for money and will set out our spending plans following the completion of the Spending Review and departmental resource allocation process.