Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how her Department interprets the word facilitate in Article 7 of the Arms Trade Treaty 2015.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We assess our relevant treaty obligations in accordance with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how her Department interprets the word facilitate in Article 7 of the Arms Trade Treaty 2015.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We assess our relevant treaty obligations in accordance with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the UK has any agreement with the Palestinian authorities to use Palestinian airspace for military purposes.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Yes. The Ministry of Defence has permission from the Palestinian Authority to transit and overfly Palestinian airspace.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that local authorities fulfil their statutory duties in respect of Education, Health and Care Plans for children with special educational needs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department and NHS England work together to support and challenge local areas to improve their special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) service delivery where required. This includes monitoring, supporting and challenging any areas of identified weakness, both following an area SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, or if those areas are identified outside of inspection timescales.
Where a local authority does not meet its duties, including in relation to securing provision in accordance with education, health and care plans, the department can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement. This includes a range of universal, targeted and intensive support through departmental programmes, such as our expert advisers and commissioners.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Royal Air Force was granted access to Palestinian airspace to conduct military exercises with fighter jets on 18 and 19 February 2026.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Yes. The aircraft were granted overflight of the relevant Flight Information Regions, as designated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, under routine Diplomatic Flight Clearance procedures. The Ministry of Defence also had permission from the Palestinian Authority for overflight of Palestinian airspace.
RAF aircraft transited Israel and Palestine on 18 and 19 February 2026 to undertake missions related to Operation Shader. Operation Shader is the ongoing RAF contribution to the military intervention against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, beginning in August 2014.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the use of non-medical clinical practitioners in primary care on patients’ ability to see a fully qualified doctor; and what steps he is taking to ensure newly qualified doctors are able to obtain appropriate posts within the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We hugely value the unique work carried out by general practitioners (GPs). The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure that the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.
GPs remain at the heart of general practice and primary care. However, there is a wide range of clinicians who are well suited to providing care in general practice as part of a multi-disciplinary team. For example, a patient with osteoarthritis might benefit from seeing a physiotherapist. In relation to physician assistants (still legally known as physician associates), Professor Leng’s recent review was clear that, with changes in line with its recommendations, there remains a place for these roles as supporting, complementary members of medical teams, including in general practice.
The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) provides funding for a number of additional roles, to help create bespoke, multi-disciplinary teams. All these roles are in place to assist general practice doctors in reducing their workload and assisting patients directly with their needs, allowing doctors to focus on more complex patients and other priorities, including continuity of care.
The Government has highlighted its commitment to GPs, and since October 2024, we have funded primary care networks with an additional £160 million to recruit recently qualified GPs through the ARRS. Over 2,600 individual GPs have now been recruited, preventing them graduating into unemployment. This was a measure to respond to feedback from the profession and to help solve an immediate issue of GP unemployment.
Over ten million more general practice appointments have been delivered in the 12 months to September 2025 compared to the same period last year, building capacity for continuity of care and improving access so that patients can be seen when they need to be in primary care.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people participating in hunger strikes in prisons became hospitalised for reasons associated with the strike in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
None of the requested data are centrally collated. They could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hunger strike incidents in prisons involved (a) three and (b) more persons collectively engaging in the strike in (i) 2024 and (ii) 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
None of the requested data are centrally collated. They could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hunger strikes in prisons lasted for over 40 days in (a) 2021, (b) 2022, (c) 2023, (d) 2024 and 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
None of the requested data are centrally collated. They could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how long has each hunger strike lasted in prisons in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
None of the requested data are centrally collated. They could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.