Written questions by Huq.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of applying home tuition fee status to students who hold a British National (Overseas) visa.

Higher education institutions in England are autonomous bodies and it is for them to assess whether the fees for students who do not meet the criteria for automatic home fee status should be reduced or waived in line with individual circumstances.To qualify for automatic home fee status in England, a person must have settled status or a ‘recognised connection’ to the UK. A recognised connection includes persons who are covered by the EU Withdrawal Agreement, have long residence in this country, or who have been granted international protection by the Home Office. There are also requirements associated with ordinary residence in the UK.The British National (Overseas) immigration route reflects the UK’s historic and moral commitment to those people of Hong Kong. Subject to meeting the normal eligibility requirements, Hong Kong British National (Overseas) status holders will be able to qualify for student finance and home fee status once they have acquired settled status in the UK.There are no plans to amend the eligibility requirements for Hong Kong British National (Overseas) status holders as these are in line with those that apply to most other persons on routes to settlement.

Whether her plans to increase the qualifying period for settled status will apply to British National (Overseas) visa holders.

The Government is committed to supporting members of the Hong Kong community who have relocated to the UK and those who may come here in future. The reforms set out in the White Paper will be delivered across this Parliament. Some measures will require primary legislation and further consultation, while others will be brought in more swiftly. There will be consultation on new earned settlement and citizenship rules later this year

What steps his Department is taking to improve (a) maternal and (b) post-natal care.

We continue to work with NHS England as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow the workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women and babies receive safe, personalised, and compassionate care. We know there is much more we need to do, however good progress has been made, including:improving access to specialist perinatal mental health services for women before, during, and after pregnancy. A record 63,345 women have accessed a specialist community perinatal mental health service or maternal mental health services in the 12 months to January 2025;implementing a revised package of interventions in the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and preterm birth, as well as initiatives to reduce inequalities;establishing 14 maternal medicine networks to ensure that women with chronic and acute medical problems related to pregnancy have access to specialist management and care;all Maternity and Neonatal units completing the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme, to establish a more compassionate culture in the National Health Service;putting women and families at the heart of local decision making, with increased funding for Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships; andpublishing new guidance so women are offered a general practice appointment six to eight weeks after birth, to provide personalised postnatal care and to solely focus on the physical and mental health of the woman.

What support his Department provides to women who have suffered from post-birth trauma.

The Department recognises the significant physical and psychological consequences of birth trauma and the devastating impact this can have on some women. We are fully committed to improving the quality and consistency of care for women throughout pregnancy, birth, and the critical months that follow, and ensuring that when a woman experiences a traumatic birth, there is a broad range of support available.The National Health Service is in its final year of implementing the Three-Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services. As part of this plan, there is a commitment to improving postnatal care for all women and babies, including those affected by birth trauma. This includes ensuring the provision of high-quality, personalised, and joined-up care throughout the postnatal period.NHS England has published guidance, written in collaboration with the Royal College of General Practitioners, on the six-to-eight-week postnatal check-up for all women who have given birth. This provides an important opportunity for general practitioners to listen to women in a discreet, supportive environment, to provide personalised postnatal care for their physical and mental health, and to support them with family planning. This includes an explicit reference to birth trauma for the first time. Additionally, a range of specialist mental health services have been made available to women during the perinatal period, as well as physical health services like Perinatal Pelvic Health Services. As of April 2025, 25 of the 42 local systems have perinatal pelvic health services in place, and NHS England is working closely with the remaining areas who are not compliant.

What steps her Department is taking to help support disabled people in the workplace.

It is vital that workplaces are inclusive so disabled people have the same opportunities to get work, stay in work and progress in their careers. That is why I have asked Sir Charlie Mayfield, the former boss of John Lewis, to lead an independent review into what more employers and Government can do together to support disabled people in work. His interim review was published last month, and his final report will be in the summer.

What assessment her Department has made of the variation in demand for adoption services across local authorities.

The adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) provides funds to local authorities and regional adoption agencies to pay for essential therapeutic services for adoptive, special guardianship order and child arrangement order children who were previously in care. It is not available for children who remain in care. This year the £50 million fund will enable eligible adoptive and kinship families to access a significant package of therapeutic support, tailored to meet their individual needs, including for those children who have experienced abuse, amounting to £3,000 per child. Where needed, local authorities and regional adoption agencies can use their own funding to increase the amount of therapy.While the department does collect and publish annual data on the demand for ASGSF services, no wider information about demand for adoption services is currently collected. The latest publicly available ASGSF data covering the period 2023/24 can be found here: https://www.coram.org.uk/resource/asgsf_2024_data_insights/.

What assessment she had made of the potential impact of changes to the Adoption and Guardianship Support Fund on of the adequacy of mental health support for children in care who have been victims of abuse.

The adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) provides funds to local authorities and regional adoption agencies to pay for essential therapeutic services for adoptive, special guardianship order and child arrangement order children who were previously in care. It is not available for children who remain in care. This year the £50 million fund will enable eligible adoptive and kinship families to access a significant package of therapeutic support, tailored to meet their individual needs, including for those children who have experienced abuse, amounting to £3,000 per child. Where needed, local authorities and regional adoption agencies can use their own funding to increase the amount of therapy.While the department does collect and publish annual data on the demand for ASGSF services, no wider information about demand for adoption services is currently collected. The latest publicly available ASGSF data covering the period 2023/24 can be found here: https://www.coram.org.uk/resource/asgsf_2024_data_insights/.

Whether her Department uses the family test; and what her Department's policy is on the publication of family test impact assessments.

DWP uses the Family Test during policy development and promotes its use across government.Family Test assessments are not routinely published by DWP. Decisions on the publication of Family Test assessments fall within the responsibility of each Government department.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the rapid support forces comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2736.

The UK continues to use all diplomatic levers at its disposal to press the parties, including the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), to comply with UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2736. Despite the Russian veto in November of a UK-Sierra Leone led resolution to build on UNSCR 2736, the UK continues to work with UNSC partners to galvanise Council action on Sudan. This includes securing a UNSC press statement on 17 April which called for the end of hostilities in El Fasher and full implementation of Resolution 2736.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the case brought by Sudan against the United Arab Emirates at the International Court of Justice which began on 10 April 2025.

We are fully committed to international justice and respect the independence of the International Court of Justice. We continue to call upon the warring parties to take concrete and immediate action to respect international humanitarian law and alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people.

If she will make transitional relief on Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) available to first-time buyers in cases where completion has been subject to unexpected delays.

In September 2022, the previous government announced a change to the level at which purchasers of residential property start paying Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), from £125,000 to £250,000. This change was made temporary in November 2022, and the rate reverted to £125,000 on 1 April 2025. For first-time buyers, the nil-rate band had been temporarily raised to £425,000 and the purchase price limit for accessing the relief to £625,000. On 1 April 2025, after the rates reverted, first time buyers can still benefit from paying no SDLT up to £300,000 and will be able to claim relief on purchases up to £500,000. Purchasers have had notice of these tax changes, as legislated for in the Stamp Duty Land Tax (Temporary Relief) Act 2023. In order to benefit from the temporary rates, purchasers will have needed to complete on their purchase by 31 March 2025. The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the usual tax policy making process.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help promote freedom of religion or belief in community engagement initiatives in Morocco.

The UK champions Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) for all. It is our firm opinion that no one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe. The recently appointed Special Envoy for FoRB, David Smith MP, will play a critical role in promoting this right for all, through and alongside our global diplomatic network, our engagement in multilateral fora, and our important bilateral work. On 25 March, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office officials met and discussed FoRB with the President of the National Human Rights Council of Morocco.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made representation to his Moroccan counterpart on including freedom of religion or belief during discussions on the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.

The UK champions Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) for all. It is our firm opinion that no one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe. The recently appointed Special Envoy for FoRB, David Smith MP, will play a critical role in promoting this right for all, through and alongside our global diplomatic network, our engagement in multilateral fora, and our important bilateral work. On 25 March, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office officials met and discussed FoRB with the President of the National Human Rights Council of Morocco.

What steps she is taking to support adoption services.

On 2 April, the department confirmed funding of £8.8 million for Adoption England to improve the recruitment of adopters, matching of children, and family support during the 2025/26 financial year.This includes funding to develop more Centres of Excellence as multidisciplinary teams across the country to provide specialist and therapeutic support to families and the development of national standards for adoption support. It also includes a new framework for an early support core offer, ‘Becoming a Family’, for the first twelve to eighteen months of placement and an Adoption Support Plan to guide assessments of a family’s support needs. All are designed to improve support and reduce the risk of an adoption breakdown.Adoption England are also planning work to develop a national protocol on how children’s services, front door services and adoption support teams work together to better support families at risk of adoption disruption.Adoption England and regional adoption agencies work closely with adopters to improve adoption support services. This includes considering the latest evidence of why adoption disruptions have occurred in their agencies and across the country.Since its inception in 2015, the department has provided over £400 million through the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) to provide therapeutic interventions for around 52,700 children who have left care under an adoption, special guardianship or child arrangements order. The interventions are designed to help children and their families to deal with their trauma and attachment difficulties and have been independently assessed to have helped prevent adoption breakdowns.On 1 April, it was announced that the ASGSF would continue into 2025/26, with a budget of £50 million. A further announcement about arrangements for applications will be made as soon as possible. We remain committed to supporting families, who play an essential role in providing stable and loving homes for children in need.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of the funding for the Bangladesh Collaborative, Accountable and Peaceful Politics programme is allocated to supporting individuals facing violations of freedom of religion or belief.

The UK-funded Bangladesh Collaborative, Accountable and Peaceful Politics (BCAPP) programme is a £27 million initiative designed to protect and promote freedom of religion or belief in Bangladesh. Through this programme, the Hunger project has organised a range of initiatives to foster inter-ethnic and religious peace, including peace events, consultation meetings with local authorities, and quarterly meeting focused on local conflict mediation. Whilst a specific breakdown of funding allocated to freedom of religion or belief is currently unavailable, the BCAPP programme helps ensure the rights of minorities are respected, and protected from discrimination.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent the public provision of personally identifiable information online.

All organisations in the UK that process personal data must comply with the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).The legislation sets out a series of principles with which organisations must comply. These include the need to process personal data lawfully, fairly, transparently and securely, unless certain limited exemptions apply. The legislation also gives people rights in relation to their personal data, such as the right to seek access to it, object to its processing or seek its erasure.The legislation does not prevent individuals posting personal data online if it is done for domestic purposes, such as messaging friends, or sharing photos with their social networks, but the platforms that host the data will be subject to the legislation.If individuals are concerned that organisations are processing their personal data unlawfully, they can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office which is responsible for regulating the legislation.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the period of duration for spousal visas.

A partner or spouse coming to or staying in the UK with their British or settled relative is granted permission for 33 or 30 months respectively. The temporary grant of permission allows the Home Office to confirm the relationship is ongoing and subsisting before an extension of permission to stay or settlement as a partner/spouse. The Government will set out its approach to future policy on a range of immigration policy areas in the upcoming Immigration White Paper which will be published later this year.

What discussions he has had with manufacturers of Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy medication on supply shortages.

The Department is in regular discussion with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) on latest stock availability and the actions that are being taken mitigate the supply issue that is affecting the whole of the United Kingdom. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes of PERT for 2025 for the UK. We are continuing to work with all suppliers to understand what more can be done to add further resilience to the market. The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers; if authorised these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.

What steps her Department is taking with local authorities to make public transport more affordable.

Delivering reliable and affordable public transport services is one of the government’s top priorities and we know how important this is for passengers and for local growth. The government is investing over £150 million to deliver a new £3 cap on single bus fares in England outside London from 1 January until 31 December 2025 to help millions access better opportunities and promote greater bus use by passengers. In addition, the government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities. Local authorities can use this funding to introduce new fares initiatives, introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities.

What steps she is taking to provide affordable childcare to parents in (a) work and (b) further education.

It is the department’s ambition that parents have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and childcare.Next year alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements, a more than 30% increase compared to 2024/25, as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements, so eligible working parents of children aged from nine months can access 30 hours of funded childcare.From the start of September 2024, eligible working parents have been entitled to 15 hours a week of early education and care from the term after their child turns nine months old. So far, over 320,000 additional parents are now accessing a place.The department is expanding the childcare entitlements so that from September 2025, eligible working parents can access 30 hours of early education and childcare a week, over 38 weeks of the year, from the term after their child turns nine months old until they start school.As we grow the childcare system, it is important it remains fair and accessible to all parents. We have taken action to protect parents from reported instances of very high additional charges or ‘top-up fees’ on top of their entitlement, ensuring the funded hours remain accessible and affordable for families, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds where it makes the biggest difference. We have updated the statutory guidance on government-funded entitlements that relates to additional charges, helping local authorities ensure there is clarity and consistency for parents and providers.Parents may also be eligible for childcare support through Tax-Free Childcare or Universal Credit Childcare.The department wants to ensure that parents are aware of and accessing all government funded childcare support they are eligible for. The department is raising awareness of the government funded childcare support available via the Childcare Choices website to stimulate increased take-up by eligible families.Students who are parents are eligible for the universal 15 hours of free early education which is available to all three and four year-olds, regardless of family circumstances. Students who work in addition to studying are eligible for the working parent entitlement if they meet the income requirements. If they meet the eligibility criteria, students can apply for the Childcare Grant and Parental Learning Allowance.Additionally, the Care to Learn scheme provides funding for childcare to help young parents, defined as those aged under 20, continue in education after the birth of a child. The scheme provides funding for childcare while the young parent is engaged in a study programme and is not able to provide care for their child. It can also help the young parent with any additional travel costs involved in taking the child to the childcare provider.