Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many and what proportion of civil servants in her Department are (a) on temporary contract and (b) consultants.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Information on the number of civil servants employed on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the quarterly Public Sector Employment statistics. Information can be accessed for September 2025 at the following web address:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/bulletins/publicsectoremployment/september2025.
Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Annual Report and Accounts. The latest report for Financial Year 2024/25 can be found at the following web address:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fcdo-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with regards to the Prime Minister's announcement on the 15th April 2025 to spend £120M in emergency aid Sudan, a) which governmental budget this originates from and b) which budgetary line emergency humanitarian aid appears under in the FCDO annual report and accounts published on the 31st March 2025.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The £120 million Sudan allocation announced in April 2025 is funded from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget.
Humanitarian ODA allocations are included in country programme budgets, as set out in the FCDO annual report and accounts (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fcdo-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025). Additional emergency humanitarian support comes from the crisis reserve, which is also set out in the FCDO annual report and accounts.
Data on ODA spend for 2020 to 2024 is published in Statistics on International Development (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-oda-spend-2024), including breakdowns by country and region.
Figures for 2025 and 2026 will be published in due course.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much total spend, and predicted spend in Sudan, originating from the FCDO ODA budget for bilateral aid there was, and will be, in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The £120 million Sudan allocation announced in April 2025 is funded from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget.
Humanitarian ODA allocations are included in country programme budgets, as set out in the FCDO annual report and accounts (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fcdo-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025). Additional emergency humanitarian support comes from the crisis reserve, which is also set out in the FCDO annual report and accounts.
Data on ODA spend for 2020 to 2024 is published in Statistics on International Development (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-oda-spend-2024), including breakdowns by country and region.
Figures for 2025 and 2026 will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether it is their official policy to omit mention of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai when ministers discuss the UK-Hong Kong bilateral relationship in the press.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
On the contrary, ministers and officials regularly raise the continued detention of Jimmy Lai, and China's obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in interviews with the media, statements to Parliament, public speeches, the government's Six-monthly Reports to Parliament on Hong Kong, and discussions we have with our Chinese counterparts. For example, the Foreign Secretary raised Jimmy Lai's case both in her working dinner with G7 foreign ministers in Canada on 11 November, and a phone call with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on 6 November.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what conversations she has had with her international counterparts on (a) the impact of global aid cuts to humanitarian aid and (b) the impact those cuts will have on landmine disposal.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government's Global Mine Action Programme has been funding clearance and risk education for over a decade, including in Africa, protecting lives and livelihoods, and supporting our broader humanitarian and development goals. In addition, the Foreign Secretary recently announced a further £4 million in funding for the United Nations Mine Action Service to help clear the estimated 7,500 tonnes of unexploded munitions which have been preventing the safe passage of aid into Gaza. Future allocations to demining activity will be announced in the usual way in due course.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of implementing a global programme supporting civilian victims of landmines.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government's Global Mine Action Programme has been funding clearance and risk education for over a decade, including in Africa, protecting lives and livelihoods, and supporting our broader humanitarian and development goals. In addition, the Foreign Secretary recently announced a further £4 million in funding for the United Nations Mine Action Service to help clear the estimated 7,500 tonnes of unexploded munitions which have been preventing the safe passage of aid into Gaza. Future allocations to demining activity will be announced in the usual way in due course.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of reducing humanitarian aid funding in Africa on landmine disposal.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government's Global Mine Action Programme has been funding clearance and risk education for over a decade, including in Africa, protecting lives and livelihoods, and supporting our broader humanitarian and development goals. In addition, the Foreign Secretary recently announced a further £4 million in funding for the United Nations Mine Action Service to help clear the estimated 7,500 tonnes of unexploded munitions which have been preventing the safe passage of aid into Gaza. Future allocations to demining activity will be announced in the usual way in due course.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if her Department will undertake a review of its explosive ordinance policies.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government's Global Mine Action Programme has been funding clearance and risk education for over a decade, including in Africa, protecting lives and livelihoods, and supporting our broader humanitarian and development goals. In addition, the Foreign Secretary recently announced a further £4 million in funding for the United Nations Mine Action Service to help clear the estimated 7,500 tonnes of unexploded munitions which have been preventing the safe passage of aid into Gaza. Future allocations to demining activity will be announced in the usual way in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to give councils powers to seize or impound vehicles linked to unpaid penalty charge notices; and what discussions they have had with governments of foreign countries about sharing vehicle data for the payment of those notices.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Local authorities are required under the Traffic Management Act 2004 to ensure that their parking policies are proportionate, support town centre prosperity, and reconcile competing demands for space whilst ensuring traffic moves freely and quickly on their roads and the roads of nearby authorities.
In line with the need for proportionality, there are no plans to allow councils to seize or impound vehicles for unpaid penalty charges.
However, under the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978,local authorities can remove abandoned vehicles on parking sites. Before a local authority can remove an abandoned vehicle, the authority must first give the landowner 15 days’ notice. This is done so the law protects individuals from having their property removed without due process.
Vehicle keeper data cannot be shared internationally for civil debt enforcement, and as such cannot be traced outside the UK. Where fines are due from foreign registered vehicles that have already left the country, parking companies and local authorities can and do use international debt collection agencies to pursue unpaid charges.
Asked by: Pam Cox (Labour - Colchester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders were in prison in England and Wales, by offence group as of 30 September 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
A breakdown of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) by offence group is published in the Annual prison population statistics and the most recent publication can be found here: prison-population-2025.ods. Please see Table_1_A_26, which shows the breakdown as of 30 June 2025.
As these statistics are published annually, we are not able to provide a breakdown as of September.
In the last year, we removed over 2,700 FNOs under the Early Removal Scheme, that is more than the number removed in the previous year, and a 74 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023. It will free up much-needed space in our prisons.