Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to expand the coverage of BBC World Service to enhance the UK's soft power.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The BBC is editorially and operationally independent and decides the most effective and efficient way of delivering the World Service. Expanding coverage would be a decision for the BBC in line with its operational and editorial independence although if this were to involve the creation (or closing) of a full language service, the Foreign Secretary would need to approve, as per Framework Agreement requirements.

The Government highly values the BBC World Service, which provides impartial accurate news to a global audience of 320 million. HMG is providing an uplift of £32.6million (or 31 per cent) for 2025/26 taking our total funding to £137million. This is a large funding uplift in a tough fiscal situation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to raise awareness about prostate cancer and to promote testing, especially among black men.

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

The Government understands that more needs to be done to improve outcomes for all people with prostate cancer, including for black men.

NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns in England to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging body awareness, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point. These campaigns are developed and tailored to reach and resonate with people who are more likely to experience health inequalities, such as black people. Cancer alliances across the country are engaging with their local communities to deliver campaigns, community engagement, and partnership activity to increase symptom knowledge and encourage earlier presentation.

To address disparities and find ways to better detect prostate cancer earlier, we have invested £16 million in the United Kingdom-wide TRANSFORM trial, aimed at helping find the best ways of detecting prostate cancer in men, even if they are not displaying any symptoms. This research will aim to address some of the inequalities that exist in prostate cancer diagnosis by targeting black men in trial recruitment, ensuring that one in ten participants are black men. This is vital as previous trials have not included enough black men to adequately demonstrate the harms and benefits of screening for this group specifically, despite their significantly higher risk.

In addition, following publication of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will develop a new National Cancer Plan. The plan will seek to improve outcomes and address disparities for people diagnosed with cancer, including for prostate cancer. A call for evidence, seeking contributions from individuals and organisations, including ideas on how to improve outcomes for prostate cancer, is available on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what advice they are giving to universities regarding their duties under the Equality Act 2010 alongside their duties in relation to freedom of speech and academic freedom.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The Office for Students will be publishing updated guidance for the higher education sector to support it to understand how to comply with its duties in relation to freedom of speech and academic freedom.