Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of linking stamp duty thresholds to regional house prices.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is a national tax in England and Northern Ireland charged using the same percentage rates across the country. This ensures stable and predictable revenue for the Exchequer while maintaining fairness for taxpayers. The current structure of SDLT ensures that those buying the most expensive properties contribute the most. Linking SDLT thresholds to regional house prices could increase complexity and create distortive effects around borders, impacting property markets.
More broadly, SDLT continues to be an important source of Government revenue, raising around £12 billion each year to help pay for the essential services the Government provides. Any reforms to SDLT would have to carefully consider impacts on the Exchequer alongside administrative costs and simplicity for the taxpayer. The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the usual tax policy making process.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on recruitment by businesses.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
The Office for Budget Responsibility also published the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO), with a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances.
We acknowledge that, as the OBR set out, this measure will have an impact on labour supply. With all policies considered, the OBR expect the employment level to increase from 33.6 million in 2024 to 34.8 million in 2029.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of HM Passport Office accepting multilingual standardised birth certificates as part of passport applications for the children of British parents born in Europe.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
His Majesty’s Passport Office requires customers to provide a full birth certificate, issued in the country of birth, as part of a passport application. Multilingual Standard Forms do not meet this criteria: they are an extract of a civil registration record translated into the language needed and are not a full original certificate.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of vehicular accidents involving drivers who have not disclosed age-related health conditions on their driving license renewals in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This information is not held by the Department for Transport.
The Department’s data on road injury collisions is based on information reported to the police via the STATS19 data collection system. STATS19 does not capture information on the health conditions of those involved in collisions.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to help retain alternatives to digital booking systems for GP appointments for those that cannot access online systems.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We understand that not all patients can or want to use online services. The GP Contract is clear that patients should always have the option of telephoning or visiting their practice in person, and all online tools must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, other channels for accessing a general practice.
The 2025/26 GP Contract includes a new requirement for practices to enable online appointment requests throughout the duration of core opening hours. In addition to improving online access, this will help free up phone lines for people who prefer to telephone.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to increase funding rates for early years provision of three and four year olds.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As usual, the hourly funding rates will vary between local authorities reflecting the different communities that local authorities serve. However, for the 2025/26 financial year, the national average three and four year-old hourly funding rate of local authorities is increasing by 4.1%. On top of this, eligible children can also attract additional funding through the early years pupil premium.
Early education gives all children, especially disadvantaged children, the best start in life. That is why the department is delivering the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium, increasing the rate by over 45% from 68p per hour in 2024/25 to £1 per hour in 2025/26, equivalent to up to £570 per eligible child per year.
Future spending decisions beyond 2025/26 will be announced following the next spending review.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of enabling carers receiving Carer's allowance who defer drawing state pension to receive the same uplift as those who do not.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Where a person has deferred claiming their State Pension, they cannot accumulate increments that will increase their State Pension amount if they have received certain social security benefits including Carer’s Allowance.
The underlying principle is to prevent a person earning an enhancement to their pension while drawing another benefit that would otherwise have not been payable had they been receiving their State Pension.
The Department encourages people to seek independent financial advice before making a decision not to claim their State Pension when they reach State Pension age and this is set out in GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/plan-retirement-income/get-financial-advice
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential benefits of creating an agency for supply teachers to standardise pay and conditions.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Supply teachers perform a valuable role and the department is grateful for their important contribution to schools across the country.
Schools and local authorities are currently responsible for the recruitment of their supply teachers and are best placed to make decisions on their approach to recruitment.
A supply teacher’s pay and working conditions will depend on who employs the supply teacher.
Supply teachers employed directly by a state maintained school or local authority must be paid in accordance with the statutory arrangements for teachers laid down in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document.
If a supply teacher is employed by a private agency or non-maintained school, the employer can set the rate of pay and conditions of employment.
The department does not have plans at this time to assess the potential benefits of creating an agency for supply teachers to standardise pay and conditions. Instead, we are focused on our central mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost life chances for every child by recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across our schools, both mainstream and specialist, and our colleges over the course of this parliament.
The department is already making progress towards this key pledge, including by accepting a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools, announcing a £233 million Initial Teacher Training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle, and confirming targeted retention incentives for shortage subjects worth up to £6,000 after tax. We will continue to work alongside the sector as we seek to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession that existing teachers want to remain in, former teachers want to return to, and new graduates wish to join.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she plans to complete the Pay Transparency pilot, launched on 8 March 2022.
Answered by Nia Griffith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales Office)
We are a mission-led government and women’s equality is at the heart of all our missions.
This means tackling the gender pay gap, where we are taking action much wider than just pay transparency. We are taking the first steps towards requiring employers to publish action plans alongside their figures, detailing the steps they are taking to narrow their gender pay gap and support employees during the menopause, as well as introducing stronger protections against sexual harassment.
Our plan to Make Work Pay will move further and faster to tackle the gender pay gap, improve access to flexible working and provide stronger protections at work. We are also expanding access to high-quality, accessible early years education with more free hours for working families.
Many employers understand that when women succeed, so does their business. As women’s equality and economic growth go hand in hand we need to ensure that every organisation is harnessing the talent, creativity and brilliance of women in their workforce.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Afghan counterpart on improving safe access to education for girls in that country.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We repeatedly condemn the Taliban's draconian restrictions on women and girls' rights, both bilaterally and internationally. Ministers do not engage with the Taliban. The UK Mission to Afghanistan in Doha continues to press Taliban acting ministers and Afghan officials on their grotesque human rights abuses, including the recent ban on female medical education. UK officials most recently visited Kabul in January 2025 to raise human rights issues with senior members of the Taliban, including their policies which limit women and girls' access to education. While in New York in January I publicly demonstrated my support for Afghan women and girls at the UN, ahead of the International Day of Education on 24 January.