Written questions by Jogee.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness, (b) potential and (c) adequacy of relations between the UK and sub-Saharan Southern Africa.

The Foreign Secretary launched a five-month consultation to inform the UK's new approach to the African continent during a visit to Nigeria and South Africa in November 2024. Our goal is a fundamentally transformed partnership that delivers mutual long-term benefits, driving our domestic economic growth and addressing migration priorities. The UK enjoys warm relations with the different countries in sub-Saharan Southern Africa, illustrated by the numerous visits to the region by me, the Foreign Secretary and the Minister for Africa in 2024. The Minister for Africa has upcoming trips to Botswana and Tanzania in January 2025.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many times Ministers in his Department have engaged with the leadership of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) since 5 July 2024.

The Foreign Secretary spoke with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary General, Dr Carla Barnett, on 15 August. The Foreign Secretary expressed solidarity with the Caribbean following Hurricane Beryl. They also discussed the situation in Haiti and reaffirm the deep UK-CARICOM relationship, including the need to advance the UK-CARICOM Memorandum of Understanding. During visits to Grenada and Barbados, the Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean had a bilateral meeting with the then Chair of CARICOM, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell of Grenada. They discussed a number of issues, including disaster preparedness, climate finance and the ongoing challenges in Haiti.

What steps he is taking to help increase the (a) volume and( b) value of trade between the United Kingdom and Greece.

Reinvigorating the UK’s relationship with our European partners is a priority for this Government. The Prime Minister met with his Greek counterpart in December, when both underlined the importance of the bilateral relationship, and agreed that there were opportunities to deliver further trade and investment for both countries. HM Trade Commissioner for Europe’s visit to Athens in October 2024 also served to strengthen engagement with industry stakeholders. My officials continue to work to identify opportunities for UK businesses and address barriers to trade with Greece.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness, (b) potential and (c) adequacy of relations between the UK and East Africa.

East Africa and the UK have strong people-to-people ties, vital trading relations, critical security partnerships, and British institutions such as the BBC are hugely popular. We have a significant Official Development Assistance (ODA) portfolio - in October 2024, Lord Collins visited Ethiopia, where he announced £16m in funding to support the Demobilisation and Reintegration Programme, and Seychelles, to sign an ambitious economic security partnership on illicit finance. As penholder on Somalia at the UN Security Council, we delivered a mandate for the new African Union Stabilisation and Support Mission. With sufficient stability, East Africa has potential for greater commercial cooperation with UK and the new Africa approach will set out a distinctive UK offer which addresses shared interests and strengthens partnerships.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness, (b) potential and (c) adequacy of relations between the UK and North Africa.

The relationship between the UK and the countries of North Africa focuses on a range of shared interests, including trade and investment, working together on migration, regional stability, and people-to-people links. There is greater potential, including to increase trade from £11bn, and to meet demand for greater English language capacity. We are working to develop comprehensive partnerships to tackle irregular migration and have regular dialogues on regional stability, such as the importance of tackling Russian efforts to increase its presence in the region and aligning efforts to address the conflicts of the Sahel and wider Middle East.

Representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many formal recommendations the Committee has made to the Electoral Commission since 12 December 2019.

The Speaker's Committee has made no formal recomendations to the Electoral Commission since 12 December 2019.The Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission is a statutory body established in part to examine performance and to review and approve the Electoral Commission's annual estimates, and five-year plan. The Committee also recommends the appointments of the Chair of the Electoral Commission and Electoral Commissioners.As part of this statutory role, the Committee has reported on Commissioner appointments and the Commission's annual estimates.The Committee does not have the power to direct or intervene in the Commission's operational work, but there is regular engagement to keep the Committee informed about ongoing activity.

What discussions he has had with the Chemical Industries Association about the (a) access to and (b) regulation of safe and approved chemicals in Northern Ireland.

The Department for Work and Pensions is the policy lead with regard to chemical regulation across the UK, as sponsor of the Health and Safety Executive. In that role, the Department for Work and Pensions continuously assesses the adequacy of chemical regulation across the whole of the UK.

What steps he is taking to help increase the (a) volume and (b) value of trade between the UK and Jamaica.

The Department for Business and Trade is supporting UK firms to access opportunities in Jamaica across a variety of sectors, including critical infrastructure. In November 2024, the UK hosted Senator Aubyn Hill, the Jamaican Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, to discuss opportunities for deeper commercial collaboration following the first UK-Jamaica trade mission in September 2024. Later this month, the UK will meet Jamaica for the Trade and Development Council under the CARIFORUM-UK Economic Partnership Agreement to discuss further opportunities to grow trade.

What steps he is taking to help increase the (a) volume and (b) value of trade between the UK and Germany.

Reinvigorating the UK’s relationship with our European partners is a top priority for this Government. Germany is already the UK’s largest trading partner within the EU. Last summer, we launched negotiations for a bilateral treaty that will aim to strengthen bilateral cooperation on economic growth, and in a range of sectors including energy, defence and technology. Negotiations will resume after the forthcoming elections in Germany.

Whether he has had recent discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive on the health service in Northern Ireland.

Improving health outcomes across the UK is a priority mission for this Government. Although health is devolved in Northern Ireland, the Government wants to work with the Northern Ireland Executive to transform its public services and improve outcomes for people in Northern Ireland.Government Ministers regularly engage with Executive Ministers, including the Northern Ireland Health Minister, to discuss plans to improve public services in Northern Ireland.

What criteria he plans to use to appoint country-specific trade envoys.

Trade Envoys are appointed on their ability, relevant skills and experience. This can be based on market and or UK sector knowledge including previous government-to-government experience plus their commitment to support the Government’s trade and investment objectives and priorities when overseas.

How many children deemed to be at risk of abuse or neglect are home schooled in (a) Staffordshire and (b) England.

The department collects data on children in elective home education (EHE) from local authorities. The latest data, including at the local authority level, is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education.The data collection includes whether a child is defined as a child in need (CIN) and if a child is the subject of a child protection plan (CPP). In England, around 1% of children in EHE were recorded as CIN and just under 0.5% of children in EHE have a CPP (1,600 and 500 children respectively in autumn 2024). Local authority level data is suppressed to protect confidentiality due to small numbers.Local authorities have a legal responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area, including taking appropriate action where safeguarding concerns are identified.The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, introduced on 17 December, will place a duty on all local authorities in England to hold and maintain registers of children not in school in their area. These registers will help to identify those children who are not in school, including those who may be at risk of harm. Parents and certain providers of out-of-school education will be required to provide the local authority with the information needed for the registers and there will be sanctions for failing to do so. The Bill also includes a new requirement for parents to obtain local authority consent before they can home educate if their child is subject to a child protection enquiry or has a CPP. Local authorities will have new powers to require any home educated child to attend school if their home or learning environment is unsuitable. These proposals will strengthen the existing system of oversight for these children.

What plans he has to allow up-to date medical information to be shared between the NHS and care staff in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire.

At a national level, in partnership with NHS England, the Department is building the foundations for improved information sharing between care and health staff. Digital social care records, that contain a person’s care information, are now in use by more than 72% of Care Quality Commission-registered care providers, from a starting point of 41% in December 2021. We recently set out our ambition that all care providers will be fully digitised by the end of this Parliament.Within the coming months, all assured Digital Social Care Records will also enable medical information to be shared with social care providers through GP Connect, which provides a restricted view of a person’s general practice (GP) record to social care staff for direct care purposes, where there is consent for the data to be shared. Access to this information improves the quality and safety of care and saves time, currently spent on the phone waiting to speak to GP surgeries.In Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire, the One Health and Care shared care record enables medical information sharing for direct care purposes across health and social care. This initiative has been in place since 2020. There is not currently a consistent way for information held by social care providers to be shared, and from April 2025, we will begin work to establish a national shared platform that enables this essential information sharing and ensures health and care staff can access real-time social care, GP, and hospital data, providing access to essential medical information in a timely way. This could include when someone last took their medication, or whether there’s been a change to their care regimen. By linking up systems, NHS and care staff will have access to the latest information, speeding up and improving care both in health and in care settings.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will hold discussions with the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme on taking steps to protect the residents of Mallard Close, Madeley, from the effects of repeated flooding incidents.

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. The issues in the Mallards Close, Madeley, are related to surface water flooding. The responsible flood authority for surface water flooding is Staffordshire County Council. The Environment Agency is aware they are already responding to this issue and will be happy to support the council where they are able to.

What steps he is taking to help increase the (a) volume and (b) value of trade between the UK and Ireland.

Reinvigorating the UK’s relationship with our European partners is a top priority for this Government. As the Prime Minister has made clear, we are committed to building an ever stronger relationship with Ireland. The UK-Ireland Summit in March offers the opportunity to take forward key areas of mutual cooperation with Ireland, including increasing bilateral trade and investment in areas such as renewables, infrastructure and supporting small business. This will build on the meeting with Irish business leaders the Prime Minister and Taoiseach held in Dublin on 7 September, and my own visit to Dublin for bilateral talks with my counterpart and to speak at the British Irish Chamber of Commerce Annual Conference in October.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government has taken to help stop the loss of life in Gaza since 19 December 2024.

We have raised protection of civilians and the destruction of health infrastructure repeatedly with the Israeli government, most recently on 3 January. The UK has announced £112 million for the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) so far this financial year, including £41million for UNWRA, providing vital services to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, and to Palestinians across the region.  In July, we announced £5.5m in funding to UK-Med for operating their field hospitals. UK-Med have now provided vital care to over 300,000 Gazans since the start of the conflict.Securing an immediate ceasefire, the safe release of all hostages and urgent action to address the humanitarian crisis remains the UK's top priority.

Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Disabled Facilities Grant.

Government recognises how important home adaptations are in enabling older and disabled people to live as independently as possible in a safe and suitable environment. This is why on 3 January 2025 government announced an immediate £86 million in-year uplift to the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), taking the funding total to £711 million for 2024-25. This will allow 7,800 more eligible people to make vital improvements to their home allowing them to live more independent lives and reducing hospitalisations.Furthermore, government announced an £86 million additional investment in the DFG for the 2025-26 financial year at the Autumn Budget (bringing total funding for 2025-26 to £711 million).Government continues to keep all aspects of the DFG under consideration. As part of this process, we are reviewing the suitability of the current upper limit.Government does not hold data on how many people have received DFG funding. The table below sets out the number of completed grants for the (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire in each of the last 14 years, taken from voluntary, unaudited and incomplete data provided annually by local authorities in England. Due to changes in reporting mechanisms, completions data for financial year 2017-18 is not available.YearNumber of DFGs completed(a) Newcastle-under-Lyme(b)Staffordshire2010-20111309322011-201211610182012-2013Incomplete dataIncomplete data2013-201495Incomplete data2014-20151196832015-2016Incomplete dataIncomplete data2016-2017118Incomplete data2017-2018N/AN/A2018-20191207542019-2020756592020-2021605732021-20221357032022-2023878642023-202492984

Whether he has had recent discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive on the adequacy of road safety measures in Northern Ireland.

The Government regularly engages with the Northern Ireland Executive on the importance of infrastructure investment in Northern Ireland, including the road and transport network. Responsibility for road safety measures is devolved to Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure and I welcome the Minister for Infrastructure’s recent announcement that the upgrade of the A5, a vital artery of Northern Ireland’s road network where many lives have been lost over the years, will commence this year.

What steps he is taking to help increase the (a) volume and (b) value of trade between the UK and Norway.

The United Kingdom is committed to our strong trading relationship with Norway. The Prime Minister signed a Joint Declaration with Norway on our strategic partnership in December 2024. This declaration reaffirms our commitment to working together and using existing structures under the UK-EEA/EFTA Free Trade Agreement to identify further opportunities to increase the volume and value of our trade.The Secretary of State for Business and Trade recently met with his Norwegian counterpart, and officials held the third UK-EEA/EFTA Joint Committee trade meeting in December 2024 where they discussed how we can remove barriers and grow our trading relationship.

What steps he is taking to help increase the (a) volume and (b) value of trade between the UK and Indonesia.

Indonesia is an emerging economic powerhouse where UK companies see significant opportunities, particularly in renewable energy, infrastructure, education and health. In November 2024 the Prime Minister and President Prabowo of Indonesia agreed to work towards a new Indonesia-UK Economic Growth Partnership to drive increased trade and investment.The UK will also support Indonesia to deliver the reforms needed to join the OECD, which should address business environment issues to further increase trade and investment opportunities.