Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions Ministers and officials in the Department of Health and Social Care have had with representatives of the food and drink industry on the proposed healthy food standard since July 2026.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is regular engagement at all levels of the Department with industry and other stakeholders affected by existing or proposed health regulations and guidance. Details of all meetings that ministers and senior officials have with external bodies are published on a quarterly basis in the Department’s transparency returns.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to extend to school uniform requirements of a religious character the right of withdrawal which applies to collective worship under section 71 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
School leaders, including those of faith schools, are responsible for making decisions on the uniform requirements for their school. Where schools have faith-based policies, the department expects that those policies are clearly communicated, applied fairly and compliant with the Equality Act.
The department has published the non-statutory guidance ‘Developing school uniform policy’, which sets out schools’ obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010, as well as general equality and discrimination considerations.
Our guidance is clear that schools should aim for their uniform policy to be as inclusive as possible so that all pupils are able to wear the uniform. They should engage with parents and pupils when developing the policy. The department does not routinely gather data on individual schools’ uniform policies and does not hold information on schools requiring articles of religious clothing.
There are no current plans to update the guidance on school uniform in this respect, or to extend this to uniform of a religious character the right of withdrawal which applies to collective worship under section 71 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many state-funded schools in England have uniform policies which require pupils to wear items of religious dress.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
School leaders, including those of faith schools, are responsible for making decisions on the uniform requirements for their school. Where schools have faith-based policies, the department expects that those policies are clearly communicated, applied fairly and compliant with the Equality Act.
The department has published the non-statutory guidance ‘Developing school uniform policy’, which sets out schools’ obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010, as well as general equality and discrimination considerations.
Our guidance is clear that schools should aim for their uniform policy to be as inclusive as possible so that all pupils are able to wear the uniform. They should engage with parents and pupils when developing the policy. The department does not routinely gather data on individual schools’ uniform policies and does not hold information on schools requiring articles of religious clothing.
There are no current plans to update the guidance on school uniform in this respect, or to extend this to uniform of a religious character the right of withdrawal which applies to collective worship under section 71 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to revise the Department for Education’s guidance on school uniform to state that a state-funded school may not make the wearing of religious dress compulsory for any pupil.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
School leaders, including those of faith schools, are responsible for making decisions on the uniform requirements for their school. Where schools have faith-based policies, the department expects that those policies are clearly communicated, applied fairly and compliant with the Equality Act.
The department has published the non-statutory guidance ‘Developing school uniform policy’, which sets out schools’ obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010, as well as general equality and discrimination considerations.
Our guidance is clear that schools should aim for their uniform policy to be as inclusive as possible so that all pupils are able to wear the uniform. They should engage with parents and pupils when developing the policy. The department does not routinely gather data on individual schools’ uniform policies and does not hold information on schools requiring articles of religious clothing.
There are no current plans to update the guidance on school uniform in this respect, or to extend this to uniform of a religious character the right of withdrawal which applies to collective worship under section 71 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to amend section 104 of the Equality Act 2010 to allow political parties to exclude men from standing in their leadership elections.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Under section 104 of the Equality Act 2010, registered political parties in the UK are permitted to use positive action, including reserved places on shortlists, where proportionate to address the under representation of candidates with certain protected characteristics.
Section 104(7) currently provides a specific exception allowing for this to include single-sex shortlists commonly all-women shortlists) if it is proportionate to reduce unequal representation.
Political parties can reserve all the places on their shortlist for one sex if this will reduce unequal representation. If a political party had an under-representation of women, there could be a ‘women-only’ shortlist.
Positive action is voluntary and political parties cannot be forced to do it.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 26 February (HCWS1369), what steps (1) the Department for Health and Social Care, and (2) NHS England, are taking to ensure that all relevant clinics share data to facilitate the data linkage study.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has undertaken further due diligence on the data sources that will underpin the study, and taken time to re-engage with data-sharing organisations, on which the study will be dependent, including refining the study design and data sharing requirement following discussion with adult gender clinics.
We now expect all commissioned adult gender services to collaborate with the study to enable its successful completion.
The Department continues to support NHS England in progressing the study.
No disciplinary action has been taken.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 26 February (HCWS1369), whether disciplinary action has been taken within the NHS in relation to those clinics which refused to share data.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has undertaken further due diligence on the data sources that will underpin the study, and taken time to re-engage with data-sharing organisations, on which the study will be dependent, including refining the study design and data sharing requirement following discussion with adult gender clinics.
We now expect all commissioned adult gender services to collaborate with the study to enable its successful completion.
The Department continues to support NHS England in progressing the study.
No disciplinary action has been taken.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when NHS England plan to update the version of the Core Information Standard on its website to reflect changes made by the Professional Record Standards Body which make the recording of sex mandatory in electronic patient records.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Professional Record Standards Body’s (PRSB) updates to the sex and gender data item representation for clinical use in the Core Information Standard have not yet been updated in the NHS England Standards Directory repository. Although these changes leave the PRSB specification and the NHS England Standards Directory out of step, it is proposed that the work to update the Standards Directory will commence this week.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 26 February (HCWS1369), when they expect the data linkage study research approvals to be granted.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In common with other publicly funded research, the Data Linkage Study is subject to the formal approval of the Health Research Authority (HRA) before the study can begin. For the Data Linkage Study, this requires the consideration of an ethics committee and the Confidentiality Advisory Group.
As the study application remains in active progress with the HRA, and it remains important for the approvals process to be undertaken independently, it is unfortunately not possible to provide an expected date for the HRA approval process to be concluded.
The Department continues to support NHS England in progressing the study.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have considered reviewing the eligibility criteria for the Holiday Activities and Food programme to ensure support reaches children in working households experiencing poverty.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The holiday activities and food (HAF) programme is specifically targeted at children and young people eligible for free school meals (FSM) from households with annual earnings of £7,400 or less, focusing on families facing the greatest levels of disadvantage. The department is spending more than £200 million a year to provide free nutritious meals, enriching activities, and safe environments to eligible children during school holidays. This benefits their health, wellbeing and readiness to learn, with more than 500,000 children benefitting from HAF over the last year.
To ensure HAF reaches as many children who need it as possible, local authorities may also use up to 15% of their funding to provide free or subsidised places to children who do not meet the eligibility criteria but who the local authority believe could benefit from HAF, such as those with special educational needs and disabilities or other additional needs.
HAF sits alongside wider support for low-income families, including the expansion of FSM, free breakfast clubs, and broader action through the child poverty strategy.