Vicky Ford: One of my Chelmsford constituents sent me a message that has been circulating recently. It suggests that asylum seekers are entitled to receive more in benefits than pensioners; I believe that is not accurate. For the record, will the Minister confirm what support is available for pensioners, compared with that for asylum seekers?
Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations in the report by Red Quadrant entitled Building the Right Support: An analysis of funding flows, published in July 2022.
Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help protect the safety of LGBT+ human rights activists in Uganda.
Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford of 13 April 2023, reference ZA49936.
Vicky Ford: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Sudanese applicants who were notified that they had been selected for Chevening scholarships will be granted visas to the UK.
Vicky Ford: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking to discourage regional and other external actors from aiding conflict in Sudan through provision of financial, logistical or military support to factions in that country.
Vicky Ford: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if his Department will impose targeted sanctions on the financial networks of the warring parties in Sudan and on Sudanese individuals (a) inside and (b) outside the country who are advocating the continuation of the war and disseminating hate speech against Sudan’s civilian and political pro-democracy leaders.
Vicky Ford: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure humanitarian aid arriving at Port Sudan is reaching its intended recipients; and what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the UN on the steps being taken to help ensure de facto Sudanese authorities are facilitating humanitarian agencies...
Vicky Ford: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking as a member of the Core Group of the Expanded Mechanism under the leadership of the African Union to help ensure that tangible measures are taken by the African Union to tackle the conflict in Sudan.
Vicky Ford: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the UK's position as the penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council, if he will call for the expansion of the UN arms embargo to the whole of Sudan.
Vicky Ford: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of establishing an informal Sudan Advisory Group which includes specialists on Sudan and on conflict and justice-related issues.
Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to allow disabled people who are in receipt of the standard mobility award for Personal Independence Payment to pay their vehicle tax to the DVLA through a direct debit scheme.
Matthew Pennycook: As ever, Dr Huq, it is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair. I start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Andrew Western) on securing this incredibly important debate and on his powerful opening remarks. He has served in this place only for a relatively short time, but he has already made a considerable impact. His commitment to advocating for all those...
Vicky Ford: May I thank my right hon. and gallant Friend for coming to Chelmsford and meeting the Afghan families who are still in the Atlantic hotel? Staying in a hotel indefinitely does not give stability or security to any of those families, and the Government are right to give a generous offer to help those families find themselves a home. Nevertheless, my Chelmsford local authority says that the...
Vicky Ford: I thank my right hon. Friend for his clarity, his calmness, his wisdom and his fortitude. We will miss him. It is clear that the tectonic plates of geopolitics have shifted and made the world a much more dangerous place for countries such as the United Kingdom and others that believe in freedom and democracy. How will his new global response force help us and our allies be able to react more...
Andrew Mitchell: ...and realisation of children's rights in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). We see meaningfully engaging with children and young people as a core part of this. For example, in 2022, my predecessor, Rt Hon Vicky Ford MP convened a roundtable with young people from conflict-affected countries to hear directly from their experience of crisis response. In May 2023,...
Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2023 to Question 191621 on Disability: Housing Improvement, what steps the Government is taking to implement the requirement that landlords make reasonable adjustments to the common parts of leasehold and commonhold homes.
Vicky Foxcroft: More than 100 other MPs and I wrote to the Foreign Secretary expressing our concern about Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been perilously close to death because of hunger and water strikes, and remains imprisoned in Egypt, in awful conditions. Members of Alaa’s family are in the Gallery today, hoping for a positive update. Will the Foreign Secretary commit to making a statement at the upcoming...
Vicky Ford: ...that humanitarian aid gets to those on the borders, and the financial sanctions that we introduced last week, will the ministerial team look further at ways to cut off the source of funding for this violence, in particular by sanctioning Al-Khaleej Bank and Omdurman National Bank, which are associated with the two warring generals?
Vicky Ford: I thank my right hon. Friend for making it clear that, if there is any doubt about the age of an unaccompanied child, they will be treated as a child. I also thank him for saying that, if a child is detained, it will be in an age-appropriate centre. However, on the issue of what is age-appropriate, I will just say that I have looked at the operating standards to which he referred. It is an...