Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the expiration of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund on foster (a) carers and (b) children.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 1 April, the department announced that the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) would continue into 2025/26, with a budget of £50 million. A further announcement about arrangements for applications will be made as soon as possible. We remain committed to supporting families, who play an essential role in providing stable and loving homes for children in need. This funding will enable eligible families to apply for support in the coming year.
The ASGSF provides support for adopted children and those under special guardianship or child arrangement orders. The only group of foster carers and foster children who can access the ASGSF are those on the ‘foster to adopt’ pathway, where the plan is for the foster carer to adopt the child they are caring for if the court makes a placement order. Foster carers who obtain a special guardianship order can also ask that an application be made to the fund for a child they previously fostered.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure that large corporations pay the correct amount of tax.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Large Business team manages the tax compliance of the UK’s 2,000 largest businesses through a resource intensive Customer Compliance Manager (CCM) model because their tax at stake, their size and complexity mean that this is the most cost-effective way of ensuring they pay the right amount of tax. This approach is in line with international best practice on cooperative compliance.
CCMs are senior, highly trained compliance professionals, who lead teams of skilled specialists to scrutinise HMRC’s large business customers. This gives an in-depth knowledge of the business and the economic and commercial environment in which it operates, its appetite for tax planning and its internal governance, which allows HMRC to effectively identify and tackle tax compliance risk and ensure the right amount of tax is paid.
The UK Tax Gap in 2022 to 2023 (Measuring Tax Gaps 2024 Edition) was £39.8bn or 4.8% of total theoretical tax liabilities. The element of the Tax Gap relating to large businesses in 2022 to 2023 was £4.3bn (or 0.5% of the UK’s total theoretical liabilities) decreasing from £7.4bn (or 1.7% of the UK’s total theoretical liabilities) in 2005 to 2006. Whilst the UK tax gap for large businesses remains low (the latest figures showing this customer segment pays over 99% of its theoretical liabilities), HMRC continues to take a risk-based approach, focusing resources to close the Tax Gap.
HMRC subjects large businesses to an exceptional level of scrutiny, investigating around half of the UK’s largest businesses at any given time
As of 31 March 2024, HMRC’s tax under consideration for large businesses was £44.9 billion. Tax under consideration is an estimate of the amount at stake in open enquiries, which demonstrates that HMRC is very actively challenging large businesses on tax that may be due.
During 2023 to 2024, by effectively policing the tax rules as they apply to large businesses, HMRC successfully achieved compliance yield of £11.4bn
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the amount of corporation tax lost due to tax (a) evasion and (b) avoidance during the current financial year to date.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates the size of the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. The tax gap statistics are published annually. The latest estimates are available at: Measuring tax gaps 2024 edition: tax gap estimates for 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
In the tax year 2022 to 2023 the tax gap for Corporation Tax gap was 13.9% of the total theoretical Corporation Tax liability, or £13.7 billion in absolute terms. The amount of the Corporation Tax gap in 2022 to 2023 due to evasion is estimated to be around £2.9 billion, and due to avoidance, around £1.0 billion.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to manage the environmental impact of installing overground pylons.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Developers of transmission projects and all nationally significant infrastructure projects in England and Wales must assess the impacts of their proposals. This includes conducting assessments of projects’ impacts on the environment through Environmental Impact Assessments. Additionally, developers engage with statutory and non-statutory stakeholders through consultations to ensure their feedback is considered and incorporated into project proposals. These assessments are considered as part of the consenting process by the Secretary of State. Scottish planning requirements are a devolved matter but also require due and proper consideration of environmental and other impacts and the opportunity for public scrutiny within the planning process.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Meta's content reporting procedures.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act all in scope services, including Meta, will be required to have systems and processes to enable users and other affected persons to report instances of the types of content the services have responsibility for. This includes illegal content, and, where relevant, content that is harmful to children (where services are likely to be accessed by children).
The Act also requires Ofcom to review the efficacy of content reporting and complaints mechanisms once the above duties have been implemented.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing (a) artists, (b) musicians and (c) other people in creative industries to opt in, rather than opt out, to their intellectual property being used for the training of artificial intelligence.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government recognises the importance of the UKs copyright regime to the economic success of the cultural and creative industries, one of eight growth-driving sectors as identified in our Industrial Strategy. We also recognise the basic principle that rights holders should have control over and seek payment for their work, including when thinking about the role of AI. The current UK Copyright Framework enables creative right holders to prevent the use of protected works, but we are aware that this can be very difficult to implement in the context of AI, especially for individual firms and creators.
Responses to our consultation on the impact of AI on the copyright regime, which was published on 17 December and closed on 25 February, will inform our approach to the design and delivery of a solution to these issues. Our aim is to clarify the copyright framework for AI – delivering certainty through a copyright regime that provides creators with real control and transparency, and helps them licence their content, while supporting AI developers' access to high-quality material.
The consultation was published alongside an accompanying options assessment. The consultation sought to gather further evidence on the potential impact on the creative industries of both AI and any change to the copyright regime. We will now consider the full range of responses we have received through our consultation and if legislative changes are needed, a full economic impact assessment will be undertaken.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing statutory regulation of the veterinary profession.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials are actively engaging with key stakeholders, including representatives from the BVA (British Veterinary Association), as well as the RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons), BVNA (British Veterinary Nursing Association), and the Vet Schools Council to review opportunities for reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act (VSA). This core working group is looking at how changes to policy can support the profession, animals, and consumers in the future.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve diagnostic pathways for those suffering from persistent unexplained symptoms.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It's vital that the National Health Service is there when people need it, and that symptoms are investigated to provide a diagnosis promptly, to enable treatment.
That is why we are committed to fixing the front door of the NHS and improving access to general practices (GPs). We are bringing back the family doctor, and incentivising continuity of care so that patients can see the same doctor at each appointment, which can play an important role in identifying and managing health conditions. Additionally, we have announced a proposed £889 million uplift to the GP Contract in 2025/26, the largest uplift in years, with a rising share of total NHS resources going to GPs. We are also currently consulting on key proposals to improve GP access and recruitment.
Cutting waiting lists for diagnostic tests is a key priority for the Government. It is unacceptable that some patients are waiting over six weeks for a diagnostic test. Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, builds on the investments already made with an ambitious vision for the future of diagnostic testing. This will include more straight-to-test pathways, increasing and expanding community diagnostic centres, and better use of technology.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce incidents of diagnostic bias within the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to putting patients first. It is crucial that patients receive the right diagnostic tests, at the right time, in the right place.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, commits to transforming and expanding diagnostic services and speeding up waiting times for tests, a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the referral-to-treatment standard.
We have wasted no time in getting to work cutting National Health Service waiting lists and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care. We promised change, and we’ve delivered early, with a reduction in the waitlists of 160,000 pathways and over two million extra appointments provided, which includes diagnostic tests.
As part of a return to meeting performance standards, the Elective Reform Plan commits to continuing the roll out of the iRefer clinical decision support tool, which supports clinicians to facilitate appropriate diagnostic imaging referrals by using on-demand, real-time evidence-based guidance to improve health and healthcare delivery. This will support the reduction of diagnostic bias by promoting the ordering of the most clinically appropriate tests, especially for clinicians working in emergency medicine, and will reduce the number of unnecessary tests.
The Elective Reform Plan also commits to continuing the support for the education and training of clinicians, to support their development in independent clinical practice.
Very importantly, we know that biases in diagnostic services and other clinical services can lead to harm and worse patient outcomes. The Elective Reform Plan commits to reducing health inequalities by strengthening the accountability and oversight of providers addressing health inequalities in elective care, and by improving the reporting and monitoring of health inequalities and their impacts. This will support the NHS to better identify and address health inequalities.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with Royal Mail on recent service disruptions in the SW17 postcode.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ofcom is the independent regulator of postal services, and the Government does not collect or hold information concerning service issues in specific areas.
However, Ministers and officials have discussions with Royal Mail on a regular basis in its capacity as the universal service provider. In November, I met with Royal Mail’s CEO, Emma Gilthorpe, and stressed the importance of a reliable postal service.