Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the health risks presented by artificial hair braiding products, and how they plan to reduce or eliminate those risks.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Artificial hair braiding products are regulated by The General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR). The GPSR provides a baseline of safety, requiring that only safe products, in their normal or reasonably foreseeable use, can be sold.

To further safeguard consumer safety, Government is in the process of strengthening product safety regulation through the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill. That will provide new powers to allow us to reflect modern supply chains and create a proportionate regulatory framework to ensure UK consumers are protected from risk, regardless of product origin or where the product where the product was purchased.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to providing controls on the use of the terms non-toxic and quasi-ceramic in cookware.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Food Standards Agency recognises the importance of clear and accurate labelling in relation to food contact materials. Under the Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations 2012, all materials intended for contact with food must be safe and must not transfer substances to food in quantities that could endanger human health. This requirement applies regardless of the terminology used in marketing.

The terms “non-toxic” and “quasi-ceramic” are not defined or recognised as official terms under current food contact materials regulations. There are no plans to introduce specific definitions for them. Their use is instead subject to general consumer protection laws, which prohibit false or misleading claims.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 14 May (HL6764), whether (1) the Department of Health and Social Care, and (2) NHS England’s Workforce, Training and Education Directorate, either (a) hold data on the number of individual applicants for medical speciality training places, or (b) can extract such data from their existing systems.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England holds data based on the application process for medical specialty training, which allows for the identification of unique applicants. The following data is part of management information systems summarising information supplied in historic medical specialty training cycles and has not been quality assured for routine publication purposes. Applicants may have chosen to only apply to one specialty programme or may have made multiple applications within any year. The following table shows the data held on the number of unique applicants in rounds one and two of medical specialty training for each of the years 2020 to 2024 across the United Kingdom:

Source: NHS England Medical Specialty Programme Applications Data.

Round one of the medical specialty application process includes applications to first year specialty training and core training programmes, often referred to as ST1 and CT1, and some ‘higher’ medical specialty training programmes, usually at year three, often referred to as ST3. Round two is for entry to most ‘higher’ medical specialty training programmes, often referred to as ST3 or ST4. There will be a limited number of doctors who apply in a year to both rounds one and two, and therefore they will appear twice in the aggregated final column of this data.

The Department also has access to information held in the UK Medical Education Database (UKMED) which is managed jointly by the General Medical Council and the Medical Schools Council. NHS England submits specialty medical recruitment data to the UKMED. This includes more information on individual historical applications to medical specialty training, which underpins the data presented above.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the environmental, economic and practical benefits of mechanochemistry, and what financial support they are providing for research and commercial development in that area.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

UK Research and Innovation, via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), funds a diverse portfolio of pioneering research projects that explore the frontiers of chemistry which underpin sustainable and innovative chemical processes. This includes exploring new methodologies such as mechanochemistry.

Current live projects, totalling £1.7 million, that include a substantive mechanochemistry method development include:

• a novel mechanochemical method for hydrogen isotope separation;
• a mechano-enzymatic synthesis of key pharmaceutical building blocks;
• an automated reaction screening and optimisation protocol using mechanochemical platforms.

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Found: BARONESS BENNETT OF MANOR CASTLE 320_ After Clause 150, insert the following new Clause— “Maximum pay

Aid Match APPG
Monday 23rd June 2025

Found: Officers; Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, Martyn Day MP, Jo Gideon MP and Baroness Kidron OBE.