Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make transitional relief on Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) available to first-time buyers in cases where completion has been subject to unexpected delays.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In September 2022, the previous government announced a change to the level at which purchasers of residential property start paying Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), from £125,000 to £250,000. This change was made temporary in November 2022, and the rate reverted to £125,000 on 1 April 2025. For first-time buyers, the nil-rate band had been temporarily raised to £425,000 and the purchase price limit for accessing the relief to £625,000. On 1 April 2025, after the rates reverted, first time buyers can still benefit from paying no SDLT up to £300,000 and will be able to claim relief on purchases up to £500,000.
Purchasers have had notice of these tax changes, as legislated for in the Stamp Duty Land Tax (Temporary Relief) Act 2023. In order to benefit from the temporary rates, purchasers will have needed to complete on their purchase by 31 March 2025. The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the usual tax policy making process.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support adoption services.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
On 2 April, the department confirmed funding of £8.8 million for Adoption England to improve the recruitment of adopters, matching of children, and family support during the 2025/26 financial year.
This includes funding to develop more Centres of Excellence as multidisciplinary teams across the country to provide specialist and therapeutic support to families and the development of national standards for adoption support. It also includes a new framework for an early support core offer, ‘Becoming a Family’, for the first twelve to eighteen months of placement and an Adoption Support Plan to guide assessments of a family’s support needs. All are designed to improve support and reduce the risk of an adoption breakdown.
Adoption England are also planning work to develop a national protocol on how children’s services, front door services and adoption support teams work together to better support families at risk of adoption disruption.
Adoption England and regional adoption agencies work closely with adopters to improve adoption support services. This includes considering the latest evidence of why adoption disruptions have occurred in their agencies and across the country.
Since its inception in 2015, the department has provided over £400 million through the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) to provide therapeutic interventions for around 52,700 children who have left care under an adoption, special guardianship or child arrangements order. The interventions are designed to help children and their families to deal with their trauma and attachment difficulties and have been independently assessed to have helped prevent adoption breakdowns.
On 1 April, it was announced that the 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.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent the public provision of personally identifiable information online.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
All organisations in the UK that process personal data must comply with the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).
The legislation sets out a series of principles with which organisations must comply. These include the need to process personal data lawfully, fairly, transparently and securely, unless certain limited exemptions apply. The legislation also gives people rights in relation to their personal data, such as the right to seek access to it, object to its processing or seek its erasure.
The legislation does not prevent individuals posting personal data online if it is done for domestic purposes, such as messaging friends, or sharing photos with their social networks, but the platforms that host the data will be subject to the legislation.
If individuals are concerned that organisations are processing their personal data unlawfully, they can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office which is responsible for regulating the legislation.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of the funding for the Bangladesh Collaborative, Accountable and Peaceful Politics programme is allocated to supporting individuals facing violations of freedom of religion or belief.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK-funded Bangladesh Collaborative, Accountable and Peaceful Politics (BCAPP) programme is a £27 million initiative designed to protect and promote freedom of religion or belief in Bangladesh. Through this programme, the Hunger project has organised a range of initiatives to foster inter-ethnic and religious peace, including peace events, consultation meetings with local authorities, and quarterly meeting focused on local conflict mediation. Whilst a specific breakdown of funding allocated to freedom of religion or belief is currently unavailable, the BCAPP programme helps ensure the rights of minorities are respected, and protected from discrimination.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the period of duration for spousal visas.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
A partner or spouse coming to or staying in the UK with their British or settled relative is granted permission for 33 or 30 months respectively. The temporary grant of permission allows the Home Office to confirm the relationship is ongoing and subsisting before an extension of permission to stay or settlement as a partner/spouse.
The Government will set out its approach to future policy on a range of immigration policy areas in the upcoming Immigration White Paper which will be published later this year.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to make public transport more affordable.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Delivering reliable and affordable public transport services is one of the government’s top priorities and we know how important this is for passengers and for local growth.
The government is investing over £150 million to deliver a new £3 cap on single bus fares in England outside London from 1 January until 31 December 2025 to help millions access better opportunities and promote greater bus use by passengers. In addition, the government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities. Local authorities can use this funding to introduce new fares initiatives, introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with manufacturers of Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy medication on supply shortages.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is in regular discussion with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) on latest stock availability and the actions that are being taken mitigate the supply issue that is affecting the whole of the United Kingdom. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes of PERT for 2025 for the UK. We are continuing to work with all suppliers to understand what more can be done to add further resilience to the market. The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.
In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers; if authorised these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to provide affordable childcare to parents in (a) work and (b) further education.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the department’s ambition that parents have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and childcare.
Next year alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, a more than 30% increase compared to 2024/25, as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements, so eligible working parents of children aged from nine months can access 30 hours of funded childcare.
From the start of September 2024, eligible working parents have been entitled to 15 hours a week of early education and care from the term after their child turns nine months old. So far, over 320,000 additional parents are now accessing a place.
The department is expanding the childcare entitlements so that from September 2025, eligible working parents can access 30 hours of early education and childcare a week, over 38 weeks of the year, from the term after their child turns nine months old until they start school.
As we grow the childcare system, it is important it remains fair and accessible to all parents. We have taken action to protect parents from reported instances of very high additional charges or ‘top-up fees’ on top of their entitlement, ensuring the funded hours remain accessible and affordable for families, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds where it makes the biggest difference. We have updated the statutory guidance on government-funded entitlements that relates to additional charges, helping local authorities ensure there is clarity and consistency for parents and providers.
Parents may also be eligible for childcare support through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit Childcare.
The department wants to ensure that parents are aware of and accessing all government funded childcare support they are eligible for. The department is raising awareness of the government funded childcare support available via the Childcare Choices website to stimulate increased take-up by eligible families.
Students who are parents are eligible for the universal 15 hours of free early education which is available to all three and four year-olds, regardless of family circumstances. Students who work in addition to studying are eligible for the working parent entitlement if they meet the income requirements. If they meet the eligibility criteria, students can apply for the Childcare Grant and Parental Learning Allowance.
Additionally, the Care to Learn scheme provides funding for childcare to help young parents, defined as those aged under 20, continue in education after the birth of a child. The scheme provides funding for childcare while the young parent is engaged in a study programme and is not able to provide care for their child. It can also help the young parent with any additional travel costs involved in taking the child to the childcare provider.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 implications for his policies of recent student and pensioner protests in Serbia.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are following closely developments in Serbia where large-scale peaceful street protests have been underway for several weeks, following the tragic collapse of a station canopy last November. When I visited Belgrade last month, I noted the Serbian government's commitment to transparency in investigating the incident and their undertaking to act against corruption. During my visit I discussed with the Serbian government and others the importance of respect for citizens' rights of freedom of expression and assembly.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will respond to the recommendations on the use of sodium valproate in the Hughes report, published 7 February 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report. The report sets out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s Report at the earliest opportunity.