Written questions by Hanna.

What discussions his Department has had with the devolved administrations on development of a new HIV Action Plan.

Health is a devolved matter and it is the responsibility of individual governments to commission comprehensive healthcare based on population need. All four nations, however, are committed to reducing HIV transmissions.The new HIV Action Plan, which is due to be published in summer 2025, will apply to England only. Government officials in England meet regularly with their counterparts in the devolved governments, to share information and best practice on our response to HIV.

If he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the current age range for bowel cancer screening.

Based on advice from the UK National Screening Committee, NHS England committed in the Long Term Plan to extend the age range of people eligible for bowel screening using the FIT home testing kit from age 60 down to age 50.The age extension for bowel screening is already underway. NHS England started in April 2021 with the 56-year-old cohort and, based on modelling and clinical advice, has planned to gradually reduce to age 50 by 2025. This has been done to ensure that screening centres could manage any required increase in colonoscopy capacity.

What discussions he has had with the EU on the impact of General Product Safety regulations on small and medium businesses sending goods to Northern Ireland.

The Government maintains a dialogue with the EU on matters of mutual interest. The updated General Product Safety Regulation largely formalises the reality of how businesses are already operating in the UK and the measures are therefore likely to have limited impact. Where businesses need to make changes, we expect that they will be adapting anyway in order to continue trading with the EU. We are keeping this matter under careful review and are supporting small and medium businesses through providing detailed guidance and via regular engagement to ensure we are enabling them to trade freely across the whole of the UK.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he plans to take to help ensure the representation of women in political institutions in Syria.

In the UK's engagement with international partners and Syrian contacts, we have stressed the importance of inclusivity and respect for human rights, including for women.Senior FCDO officials recently travelled to Damascus, where they discussed the importance of an inclusive transitional political process, protecting the rights of all Syrians. The UK joined talks in Aqaba on 14 December, hosted by Jordan, with Arab, US, UN and EU partners, during which we collectively underlined the importance of respect for human rights, including for women.Support to women and girls is at the heart of the UK's policy and programmes in Syria, including through active engagement with women's rights activists, women-led organisations and women involved in the political process.

What steps the Government plans to take to monitor the impact of General Product Safety regulations on SME's and sole traders sending goods to Northern Ireland.

The Government is supporting SMEs to comply with the new General Product Safety Regulation. We have published guidance and have been engaging with businesses directly. We will keep the guidance under review and will continue to engage with businesses directly to monitor the situation and to ensure we are supporting them to trade freely across the whole of the UK.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he plans to take to help ensure that women's rights are protected in Syria.

In the UK's engagement with international partners and Syrian contacts, we have stressed the importance of inclusivity and respect for human rights, including for women.Senior FCDO officials recently travelled to Damascus, where they discussed the importance of an inclusive transitional political process, protecting the rights of all Syrians. The UK joined talks in Aqaba on 14 December, hosted by Jordan, with Arab, US, UN and EU partners, during which we collectively underlined the importance of respect for human rights, including for women.Support to women and girls is at the heart of the UK's policy and programmes in Syria, including through active engagement with women's rights activists, women-led organisations and women involved in the political process.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the report by Amnesty International entitled You feel like you are subhuman: Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

We are aware of the report by Amnesty International, entitled "You feel like you are subhuman: Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza". The UK is fully committed to international law. The UK Government's long-standing policy is that any formal determination as to whether genocide has occurred is a matter for a competent national or international court, such as the International Court of Justice, rather than for governments or non-judicial bodies. Since 2 September, the UK has suspended relevant export licences to Israel for use in military operations in the Gaza conflict, following a review which concluded there is a clear risk that UK export items might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of International Humanitarian Law. The UK remains resolute in our call for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages cruelly held by Hamas since 7 October 2023 and urgent action to address the humanitarian crisis.

How many people in Northern Ireland will be impacted by changes proposed to the Work Capacity Assessment.

Social security is transferred (devolved) to the Northern Ireland Executive where it is administered by the Department for Communities.

Whether the Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission will consider matters relating to Northern Ireland.

Energy policy is largely devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive (NIE). As such the Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission is focused on decarbonisation of the power system in Great Britain. However, we are keen to share learnings from this process with colleagues in Northern Ireland and will work with them to this end as NIE produces its own plan to decarbonise the power sector, which will receive UK government support.

Whether her Department will provide (a) guidance and (b) practical support to (i) charities, (ii) community groups and (iii) voluntary groups to assist them in complying with the requirements of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill.

Free, dedicated guidance and support will be provided to ensure that those in scope will understand how to meet the obligations of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill. Guidance is currently being designed so that it is self-explanatory and easy to follow. It will be published ahead of the Bill’s requirements coming into force.The Bill requires the production of two separate pieces of guidance: statutory guidance for the public to understand how they can meet the requirements of the legislation; and operational guidance which will set out how the regulator will discharge its duties. This will be freely available on the Security Industry Authority website and Gov.uk.We continue to engage with key stakeholders across relevant sectors including those in the voluntary and community sector in developing this guidance.In the interim, factsheets have been published on gov.uk which provide more detailed information on certain elements of the Bill Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill 2024: factsheets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). We also continue to encourage referral to the ProtectUK platform for the latest updates on the Bill.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill on (a) charities, (b) community groups and (c) voluntary organisations that organise events.

The Government is extremely mindful of the many community, voluntary-run and charity events that occur across the UK.The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill has been designed to achieve public protection outcomes whilst avoiding undue burden on businesses and other organisations.Many organisations will have procedures and measures in place for fire safety and health and safety legislation. This Bill’s proposals are based on similar concepts, following similar systems and processes. The ‘reasonably practicable’ standard of requirements in both tiers is designed to allow procedures and measures to be tailored to the specific circumstances of a premises or event. This will enable those responsible to consider what is within their control and the resources they have available to them, as well as what is suitable and appropriate for their premises or event.Dedicated guidance and support will be provided for those in scope of the Bill, to ensure that they have the required information on what to do and how best to do it. The guidance will be easy to follow, needing no particular expertise.

What progress she is making on returning the level of the aid budget to 0.7% of gross national income.

The Government remains committed to restoring Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending to 0.7% of GNI as soon as fiscal circumstances allow, but this isn’t currently affordable. The OBR’s latest forecast shows that the ODA fiscal tests are not due to be met within the Parliament. The Government will continue to monitor future forecasts closely, and each year will review and confirm, in accordance with the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act 2015, whether a return to spending 0.7% GNI on ODA is possible against the latest fiscal forecast.

Whether she plans to revise the upper purchase price on help to buy ISAs in line with the housing market.

This Government is committed to helping first time buyers own their own home, and will do this by building 1.5 million more homes.The Government keeps savings policy under review, any changes of this kind would be made at a relevant fiscal event.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to increase the proportion of Overseas Development Assistance spent on development and humanitarian work overseas.

The Government is taking measures to reduce the asylum backlog and end the use of expensive hotel accommodation. We expect these plans to enable a greater proportion of the ODA budget to be spent on our international development priorities overseas. The FCDO's ODA programme budget, including the Integrated Security Fund, is planned to be £9.24 billion in 2025/26 - the highest level in recent years and an increase of around £450 million from 2024/25.

Food and Rural Affairs, what the policy objective is of (a) extended producer responsibility and (b) packaging recovering notes; and what the relationship is between the two policies.

Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) is intended to make producers responsible for the costs of managing their packaging, incentivising them to use less packaging and make the packaging they do use more sustainable. The key pEPR obligations include paying local authority disposal costs for the management of packaging collected from households and public information campaigns, in addition to scheme administration and regulator fees. pEPR also includes a recycling obligation, which requires producers to obtain PRNs, based on the amount of packaging they have placed on the market, from accredited reprocessors and exporters. The cost of PRNs is intended to support the actual recycling of the collected packaging waste. Combined, pEPR disposal fees and the cost of PRNs support the collection, sorting and reprocessing of packaging, as well as the costs of disposing of packaging which is not recycled. A full explanation of how the pEPR system will operate can be found the Explanatory Memorandum published alongside the Producer Responsibility (Packaging and Packaging Wate) Regulations which were laid in Parliament on the 24th October The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 - Draft Explanatory Memorandum.

If her Department will take steps to increase (a) sustainable travel options and (b) (i) rail and (ii) sail provision between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The UK ferry market predominantly operates on a private sector, commercial basis without government support or intervention. As such decisions on increased services is a matter for the relevant operators, and we note that there are multiple routing options for ferry access between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government is considering options to decarbonise the domestic maritime sector which - alongside the expansion of the UK ETS to domestic maritime from 2026, will deliver more sustainable travel options between GB and NI. The Northern Ireland rail network is fully devolved, operated by Translink and provided grant capital from Department for infrastructure.

How many and what proportion of eligible households in Belfast South and Mid Down constituency are availing of the Tax Free Childcare scheme.

Data on Tax-Free Childcare users for 2024 parliamentary constituencies will not be published until May 2025. However, the number of families who used Tax-Free Childcare in 2023/24 in the three former constituencies that predominantly make up Belfast South and Mid Down was as follows: Belfast South - 1435Lagan Valley - 1580Strangford - 930 This data was published in table 11 of the Tax-Free Childcare Official Statistics in August 2024: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-june-2024 The number of families eligible for Tax-Free Childcare is not available by parliamentary constituency and so it is not possible to calculate the proportion that are using the scheme.

What Barnett Consequential have been calculated for the Northern Ireland Executive following the recent announcement of additional rates support for (a) retail, (b) hospitality and (c) leisure in the Autumn Budget 2024.

As a result of decisions taken at the Autumn Budget, the Northern Ireland Executive (NIE) is receiving £18.2 billion in 2025-26, including an additional £1.5 billion Barnett consequentials. The NIE’s settlement for 2025-26 delivers a real-terms increase and is the largest in real terms of any settlement since devolution. The NIE is funded above its independently assessed relative level of need of 124% in both 2024-25 and 2025-26, including the 2024 restoration financial package. The Block Grant Transparency publication, which sets out changes to devolved government funding in detail, will shortly be updated with changes made at Autumn Budget 2024. The most recent document was published in July 2023:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023

What discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Health Minister on ensuring pay parity for health workers in Northern Ireland with Great Britain.

Public sector pay is a devolved matter. It is for the Northern Ireland Executive to take decisions on pay awards.

If she will release funding to enable payment for the Pay Review Body recommendation for a 5.5% pay uplift for health workers in Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Executive (NIE) is being funded above its independently assessed relative need level of 124% in 2024-25 and 2025-26, including the 2024 restoration financial package. As a result of decisions taken at the Autumn Budget and Phase 1 of the Spending Review, the Northern Ireland Executive is receiving £18.2 billion in 2025-26. This represents the largest real-terms settlement since devolution. The NIE is responsible for deciding how to allocate their funding across their devolved responsibilities, including the provision of pay awards for health workers.