Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to eradicate corridor care by the end of this Parliament, and whether he plans to publish a costed plan and timetable.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The specific information requested by the Hon. Member is not available, but on the wider issue of corridor care, I refer him to the answer I provided on 29 June 2026 in response to Question 12058.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce accident and emergency waiting times at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust is working with the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Integrated Care Board and NHS England to improve accident and emergency performance by reducing avoidable demand, improving patient flow, and expanding care closer to home.
Across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, approximately £7.5 million is being invested this year to strengthen urgent and emergency care through a neighbourhood-based approach. This includes expanding Same Day Emergency Care, improving urgent community response services, increasing same-day access in primary care, strengthening frailty services, improving discharge arrangements, and enhancing clinical triage so patients receive care in the most appropriate setting. Together, these measures are intended to reduce pressure on emergency departments and improve waiting times.
These local improvements are supported by national action through the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by over £450 million of investment in urgent and emergency care capacity. This includes publishing national clinical standards through the Model Emergency Department, Model Acute Pathway, and Model Discharge Pathway, to improve patient flow and support faster assessment, treatment, and admission or discharge.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients aged 60 and over waited 12 hours or more in accident and emergency departments in each of the last three years; and what assessment he has made of the effect of 12-hour waits on the level of patient mortality.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The specific information requested by the Hon. Member is not available, but on the wider issue of corridor care, I refer him to the answer I provided on 29 June 2026 in response to Question 12058.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on halting the E1 West Bank Settlement Plan.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is clear Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and undermine the viability of a two-state solution. On 20 August, the UK and international partners issued a statement condemning the publication of tenders for E1 settlement. We summoned the Israeli Chargé d’Affaires to FCDO and demanded an immediate reversal.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Strategic Defence Review provides for the use of autonomous weapons systems capable of selecting and engaging targets without human intervention.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Strategic Defence Review recognises the growing importance of autonomy and uncrewed systems in modern warfare and supports the increased adoption of these technologies across Defence. However, the UK remains committed to the responsible use of military capabilities and retains appropriate human involvement in decisions on the use of force. The Review does not provide for weapons systems operating outside the UK's established legal, ethical and policy frameworks.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage local authorities to provide appropriate waiting areas and toilet facilities for licensed taxi and private hire drivers.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the importance of clean, safe public toilet provision for all and has taken steps to support this. The Government will provide over £5.6 billion of new grant funding towards local government services, such as toilets, over the next three years. In addition, we continue to provide 100% mandatory business rates relief for separately assessed public toilets, reducing ongoing costs for local authorities.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of fare-setting practices by digital private hire operators on the financial sustainability of licensed private hire drivers.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The commercial arrangements between private hire vehicle drivers and the operators they work with or for are, subject to any legal requirements, a matter for those parties.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the impact of levels of Local Housing Allowance on a) poverty b) homelessness among Universal Credit claimants in Leicester South.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions reviewed Local Housing Allowance (LHA) at the 2025 Autumn Budget and announced that rates would be maintained at their current levels for 2026/27. A range of factors, such as rent levels across the country and poverty impacts, were considered against the fiscal context, including the level of housing support that Government provides overall.
LHA rates are reviewed annually and future decisions on LHA will be taken in the context of the Government’s welfare priorities, and the fiscal context.
Renters receiving housing support who face a shortfall in meeting their rent costs can apply for the Crisis and Resilience Fund Housing Payment from local authorities in England.
The causes of homelessness are multi-faceted and often complex; they interact dynamically making it difficult to isolate the relative importance of individual factors. DWP continues to work closely with MHCLG on interactions with homelessness.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of whether the current legal framework on employment status adequately protects licensed private hire drivers working through digital platform operators.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Entitlement to employment rights depends on the individual’s employment status.
Private hire drivers in the platform economy can be employees, limb (b) workers, or self-employed, depending on the reality of their working relationship.
The government recognises the potential for new technologies and business models to change the way we work, and our employment framework must continue to adapt and evolve.
We have committed to consult on employment status as soon as possible. The consultation will seek to address issues within the framework which can enable worker exploitation and leave vulnerable workers without core employment protections.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his policy is on international efforts to regulate lethal autonomous weapons systems.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK will continue to be an active participant in discussions on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems(LAWS) within the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Group of Government Experts (GGE), working closely with other states and civil society to set out potential norms of use and positive obligations to ensure autonomy in weapons systems can be used responsibly and legitimately in accordance with International Humanitarian Law. The UN CCW is the appropriate forum to consider the issue of emerging technologies in the area of LAWS. It is inclusive, expert and consensus based which means that as a forum its conclusions will have the most meaningful impact.