Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

The procurement was run through a fair and open competition with pre-agreed terms and conditions. Suppliers were required to declare any conflict of interest during the procurement and give a full account how they would avoid any future conflict of interest. All supplier responses were thoroughly reviewed by the evaluation panel, with no concerns raised.

The study is being conducted by the University of Cambridge but includes a wider consortium of experts from a range of universities. The project team will be led by Dr Amy Orben, a Programme Leader at the University of Cambridge.

The study’s objectives are to review existing research on the impact of social media and smartphones on children’s developmental outcomes, evaluate methodologies to develop causal evidence on the topic and to recommend an approach to produce causal evidence in the next 2-3 years.

This is an independent review, and Professor Sullivan is fully responsible for the report’s contents and for engaging with relevant stakeholders. Where stakeholders have been engaged since the general election, the decision was made by Professor Sullivan.

As per the Terms of Reference, a draft version of the report was submitted to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and to the Cabinet Office ahead of the final version of the report. Ministers have not been involved in the drafting of the report. As per usual practice, officials have provided light-touch, optional feedback on matters of drafting.

I refer the noble Baroness to the answer I gave to question HL1037 on 18 September.

The DWP’s standards of behaviour statement requires employees to dress in a professional and business-like way. Professional and business-like has a normal, everyday meaning.

The DWP’s standards of behaviour statement requires employees to dress in a professional and business-like way. Professional and business-like has a normal, everyday meaning.

We are committed to ensuring that the public receives the best possible contraceptive services. Contraception advice is delivered in sexual health services, general practice, some pharmacies, abortion and maternity services, and online. NHS England strives to ensure that this is integrated into a range of different health encounters that women are likely to have.

For example, sexual and reproductive health services in England provide a range of services, including contraception provision and advice, particularly for vulnerable groups and teenagers. These services are free, open-access, and confidential, to support people to make informed choices.

Contraception advice is provided during both antenatal consultations and at the time of postnatal discharge. Many maternity services also provide both user-based and longer acting methods of contraception at this opportunity.

The Three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services made a commitment to offer all women a personalised care and support plan by 2026, taking into account physical health, mental health, and social complexities, with a risk assessment updated at every contact.

NHS England has published guidance to support general practitioners to provide women with comprehensive mental and physical postnatal check-ups six to eight weeks after they give birth.

The postnatal consultation provides an important opportunity for contraceptive health needs to be assessed and for general practitioners to listen to women in a discrete, supportive environment. As per the guidance, women should be asked about contraception and supported to make planned choices about future pregnancies.

Women’s health hubs pilots are being rolled out across the National Health Service, together with sexual health services. These can provide a wider choice of options for women, including longer acting methods of contraception.

We are committed to ensuring that the public has equal access to the best possible contraceptive services. The women’s health area on the National Health Service website brings together over 100 different women’s health topics, including contraception, as a first port of call for women seeking health information. Education surrounding contraceptives should be delivered to all pupils via the Relationships, Sex, and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum. RSHE became compulsory in all schools in September 2020. The statutory guidance is clear that as part of the topic ‘intimate and sexual relationships’, pupils in secondary schools should know the facts about the full range of contraceptive choices, efficacy, and options available. These subjects should be taught to all pupils in schools, and teachers have the flexibility to deliver the curriculum in a way that meets the needs of their individual pupils.

Contraception is a core service for women’s health hub pilots. Women’s health hubs bring together healthcare professionals and existing services to provide integrated women’s health services in the community, centred on meeting women’s needs across the life course and reducing health inequalities. The Department has invested £25 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support the establishment of at least one pilot women’s health hub in every integrated care system.

To offer greater choice in how women can access contraception services across the country, the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service was launched in April 2023, enabling pharmacists to issue ongoing supplies of contraception, initiated in general practice surgeries and sexual health services. The service relaunched in December 2023 to enable community pharmacies to also initiate oral contraception.

Survey outputs from the 2023 Women’s Reproductive Health Survey will be used to inform future policy development and support strategy work by improving our ability to monitor changes and inequalities in women and girls’ access to contraceptives.

We are committed to ensuring that the public receives equitable access to the best possible contraceptive services. Contraception advice is delivered in sexual health services, general practice, some pharmacies, abortion and maternity services, and online. NHS England strives to ensure that this is integrated into a range of different health encounters that women are likely to have. For example, contraception advice is provided during both antenatal consultations and at the time of postnatal discharge. Many maternity services also provide both user-based and longer acting methods of contraception at this opportunity.

NHS England has published guidance to support general practitioners to provide all women with comprehensive mental and physical postnatal check-ups six to eight weeks after they give birth. The guidance, which was written in collaboration with the Royal College of General Practitioners, provides clear advice to address unwarranted variation for the delivery of safer, more equitable, more personalised care. This includes flexible appointment times tailored to a women’s needs.

The postnatal consultation provides an important opportunity for contraceptive health needs to be assessed. During this, women should be asked about contraception and supported to make planned choices about future pregnancies.

Contraception is commonly offered and provided by abortion services, in line with National Institute for Care and Excellence guidelines on abortion care, that were published in September 2019. The guidelines set out that commissioners and providers should ensure that a full range of contraceptive options is available for women on the same day as their surgical or medical abortion. Providers should also ensure that healthcare professionals have the knowledge and skills to provide all contraceptive options, including the contraceptive implant, injections, and intrauterine methods of contraception.

Following the death of a child, it may not always be a healthcare professional making the notification and therefore these questions may be answered by a range of different professionals, for instance those in healthcare, police, or social care. The questions will be answered based on what the professional knows at the time when they are making the notification of death. Therefore, if they do not hold any information on the gender identity of the child, this question will not be answered.

Parents would not be completing these forms. The purpose of the notification form is to give the basic information on what is known about the child by the professional at the time of death.

The Notification of Child Death Form, part of the National Child Mortality Database, continues to capture the sex of the child for anyone under 18 years old, in line with sex being a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

Although questions relating to gender identity already existed within one part of the National Child Mortality Database collection, specifically for suicide and self-harm, the change in October expanded these questions to all deaths. This was to capture the language used by young people and their families to improve system learning and to support the prevention of future deaths.