Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to accelerate progress in combatting female genital mutilation worldwide.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK is utilising our policy, programmatic and diplomatic levers to accelerate global efforts to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Since 2019, the UK has funded Phase II of the Africa Led Movement (ALM) to end FGM programme in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Senegal. ALM is working with activists, communities and grassroots organisations to harness evidence-based solutions to take end-FGM efforts to scale. The UK also funds the UN Joint Programme on the Elimination of FGM, to influence legislation, policy, and norm change efforts across 17 countries.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding they provided to combatting female genital mutilation globally in each year from 2019 onwards.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Since 2019, the UK has committed up to £35.5 million towards the Supporting the Africa-Led Movement to End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) programme. This includes funding to the UN Joint Programme for the Elimination of FGM. Since 2019 we have also funded £20 million towards the Sudan Free of FGM programme. The breakdown of these investments by year is in the table below. In addition, the FCDO funds several programmes on ending gender-based violence (GBV) that include FGM. In total FCDO spent £53.4 million on ending GBV in 2023, including FGM.
Year | Total |
2019 | £505, 242 |
2020 | £1,499,174 |
2021 | £4,371,113 |
2022 | £1,609,123 |
2023 | £6,703,605 |
2024 | £11, 655,218 |
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to include a reference to Official Development Assistance support for sexual and reproductive health and rights to achieve gender equality in the National Statement at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in March 2025; and whether this reference will specify that this should be 10 per cent as recommended by the International Parliamentarian's Conference on the Implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK's National Statement at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will highlight our commitment to reaffirming the principles of the Beijing Declaration and putting women and girls at the heart of everything we do. This will include our commitment to defending and promoting their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
The FCDO is committed to maintaining a strong portfolio of SRHR programming and spend. There are currently no plans to set spending targets on SRHR.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are their priorities for combating global activism against sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK government is proud to defend and promote universal and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including safe abortion. In the face of increasing anti-SRHR activism we will harness UK political leadership and strategic funding to elevate the voices of those most marginalised in the global south, convene and coordinate likeminded and non-traditional partners and protect SRHR from rollback at both global and national levels.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what legislative action they plan to take to prevent the creation and distribution of deepfake non-consensual intimate images online, and to prevent the distribution of other AI-generated content that propagates hate speech or incites violence, including gender-based violence.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Women and children receive a disproportionate amount of online abuse and the exponential rise of AI has further exacerbated this threat. That is why tackling child sexual abuse and violence against women & girls (VAWG), including when these crimes take place online, remains a top priority for this government.
Under the Online Safety Act 2023, it is an offence to share or threaten to share intimate images without consent and this includes “deepfake” images. In September 2024, this Government made the sharing of intimate images without consent a ‘priority offence’ - the most serious class of online crime under the Online Safety Act. Companies in scope of the Act’s duties will now be required to proactively tackle this content on their platforms. This Government has also committed to banning the creation of sexually explicit “deepfake” images and is working at pace to identify a suitable legislative vehicle.
With regards to child sexual abuse imagery, UK law is very clear that it is an offence to produce, store, share or search for any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse. This prohibition also includes pseudo-imagery that may have been generated by artificial intelligence. Possession of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children carries a maximum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment. In addition, the offence of taking, making, distribution and possession with a view to distribution of any indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child under 18 carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.
Technology companies, including those developing generative artificial intelligence products, have a duty to ensure their products are designed with robust guardrails in place that prevent them from being misused by offenders to create artificially generated child sexual abuse material. This Government is fully committed to tackling the creation of CSAM online and will use every lever possible to prevent it.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to resolve the issues highlighted in the Care Quality Commission’s National review of maternity services in England, 2022–2024, including those concerning workforce planning and recruitment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) National Review of maternity services in England 2022 to 2024 shines a light on the serious issues that exist within maternity services.
The Government is taking the findings and recommendations made in the CQC’s report seriously and has committed to ensuring that trusts failing on maternity care are robustly supported into rapid improvement, whilst training thousands more midwives and setting an explicit target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap.
The Government will continue to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its 3-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow the maternity workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women receive safe, compassionate care.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will bring back the six-week post-delivery check for all mothers with their GPs, including questions on the mother’s physical and mental health as well as on the baby.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
In December 2023, NHS England published new guidance on the six-to-eight-week postnatal check-up for all women who have given birth. As a result of this guidance, all new mothers in England will receive a more comprehensive mental and physical check-up from their general practitioner (GP) in the weeks after they give birth. The check-up will cover a range of topics such as mental health, physical recovery, breastfeeding, and support with family planning.
The routine check-up provides an important opportunity for GPs to listen to women in a discrete, supportive environment, and to assess and support women not just in their physical recovery post-birth but also their mental health, making sure any woman needing extra mental health support can be referred, if appropriate, to a specialist straight away.
The six-to-eight-week postnatal check-ups should be offered by GP surgeries, but mothers can also request an appointment for a check themselves, especially if they have any concerns.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will bring forward an overarching national maternity strategy to aid the improvement of maternity services and prevent birth trauma.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS England Chief Executive Officer Amanda Pritchard both support the overarching recommendation from the Birth Trauma All-party Parliamentary Group inquiry report, for a comprehensive national strategy to improve maternity services. We will update on next steps in due course.
We are already making good progress on many of the individual recommendations set out in the inquiry report. This includes new guidance for general practitioners on the postnatal check-up that women should be offered six to eight weeks after giving birth, which is solely focused on the mother. We are also rolling out new physical and mental health services for new mums and mums-to-be so that they are available in all areas of England.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to (1) recruit, (2) train, and (3) retain, more midwives, obstetricians and anaesthetists to ensure safe levels of staffing in maternity services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The number of midwives has already increased by 21.5% since 2010 and by 5.8% in the past year. The Government is further increasing the number of midwives by funding an additional 160 new posts over three years to support the continued growth of the maternity and neonatal workforce.
The Government and the National Health Service are investing almost £35 million over three years to further improve maternity safety across England which will support specialist training for staff, additional numbers of midwives and support to ensure maternity services listen to and act on women’s experiences to improve care.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets an ambition to increase the number of nursing and midwifery training places to around 58,000 by 2031/32. We will work towards achieving this by increasing places to over 44,000 by 2028/29, with 20% of registered nurses qualifying through apprenticeship routes compared to the current 9% and 5% of midwives to train through an apprenticeship, compared to less than 1% currently.
The Plan also sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The Government is backing this Plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. This forms part of our ambition to expand the number of midwifery training places from 3,778 in 2022, to 4,269 by 2028, providing a substantial uplift in the workforce pipeline to meet future demands.
The NHS England's nursing and midwifery retention programme aims to support organisations in assessing and implementing a set of interventions aligned with the People Promise. This initiative focuses on promoting flexible working arrangements, fostering a supportive, inclusive, and compassionate workplace environment. For 2023/24, an investment of £5.75 million is being made in neonatal nurse quality roles, funding at least 98 full-time equivalent posts to support staff retention and learning from incidents, ensuring every trust has funding for this role.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when all mothers' health records will be digitalised and shared between all healthcare professionals to improve communications between health workers and mothers.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Currently all maternity services have the ability to create digital records, and the sharing of those records across all providers involved in the care of the individual is done by a platform called Connecting Care Records. Integrated care boards (ICBs) should share historical care records between National Health Service trusts and other providers of care within their system, such as general practices and local authorities.
By March 2025, many more Connecting Care Records platforms will be providing access to data held in other ICB shared systems, allowing authorised health and care professionals to have safe, secure access to patient data, where and when its needed, regardless of where the person resides or where the care is provided.