Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to invest in new technologies and innovations to enhance the efficiency and resilience of the UK’s blood supply chain.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England. The baseline price charged by NHSBT to hospitals for the blood they use is negotiated annually between NHSBT, NHS England, and the Department. This reflects the investments that NHSBT has made in blood supply in the previous year.

The Department provided seed-funding to support NHSBT’s work to increase collection capacity and resilience, including the new Brixton Donor Centre which opened in December 2024. A further donor centre will open in Brighton later this year, and NHSBT is developing business cases for additional mobile capacity across the West Midlands and North London. Plasma is collected as part of whole blood collection, as well as through dedicated plasma collection centres. Therefore, plasma collection will also be supported by this resilience work.

NHSBT, the Department, and NHS England are working together to ensure that hospitals are practicing effective stock management and resilience in order to respond to incidents through the Joint Blood Stocks Working Group. NHSBT plans to improve the efficiency of donor collection processes via the development of a Donor Session Platform, as this technology will improve the ability to “on board” donors and reduce deferrals.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department has made available to improve the UK's whole blood processing and plasma collection capacities.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England. The baseline price charged by NHSBT to hospitals for the blood they use is negotiated annually between NHSBT, NHS England, and the Department. This reflects the investments that NHSBT has made in blood supply in the previous year.

The Department provided seed-funding to support NHSBT’s work to increase collection capacity and resilience, including the new Brixton Donor Centre which opened in December 2024. A further donor centre will open in Brighton later this year, and NHSBT is developing business cases for additional mobile capacity across the West Midlands and North London. Plasma is collected as part of whole blood collection, as well as through dedicated plasma collection centres. Therefore, plasma collection will also be supported by this resilience work.

NHSBT, the Department, and NHS England are working together to ensure that hospitals are practicing effective stock management and resilience in order to respond to incidents through the Joint Blood Stocks Working Group. NHSBT plans to improve the efficiency of donor collection processes via the development of a Donor Session Platform, as this technology will improve the ability to “on board” donors and reduce deferrals.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has conducted a risk assessment on the potential impact of (a) future pandemics and (b) geopolitical disruption to the UK's blood stocks; and what contingency plans are in place for these scenarios.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are four blood services within the United Kingdom, namely the Welsh Blood Service, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, the Northern Ireland Blood Service, and NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). In England, NHSBT moves blood around the country to balance blood stocks in all areas, and works closely with the other UK blood services.

The risks and impacts posed by pandemic disease is closely monitored by NHSBT through a risk assessment and a pandemic disease contingency plan. NHSBT is largely self-sufficient in the supply of whole blood to hospitals in England, and isn't reliant on supplies from other countries. Beyond its ability to move blood stocks to where they are needed across the country, NHSBT mitigates geopolitical risks to blood stocks through commercial arrangements with suppliers of vital consumables from overseas, for instance by sourcing blood bags from multiple supply regions and flexing stock holdings.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the benefit of including measures to repair (a) poor-quality and (b) unsafe unsafe existing housing stock in the upcoming housing strategy,.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government intends to publish a long-term housing strategy later this year.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure the Warm Homes Plan reaches low-income households.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

As part of the Warm Homes Plan, the Government has committed an initial £3.4 billion over the next 3 years towards heat decarbonisation and household energy efficiency, including £1.8 billion to support fuel poverty schemes.

There are multiple targeted schemes in place to deliver energy efficiency measures to low income and fuel poor households. Current schemes include the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS). The Government recently announced Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund to support social housing providers and tenants, and the new Warm Homes: Local Grant to help low-income homeowners and private tenants with energy performance upgrades and cleaner heating. Both schemes are expected to deliver in 2025.

Support is also available through the Warm Home Discount schemes which provide eligible low-income households across Great Britain with a £150 rebate off their winter energy bill.

Further details on the Warm Homes Plan will be set out in due course.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on aligning the UK-wide bottle return scheme with the planned scheme for Wales.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is committed to deliver a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in England in October 2027 and to realise its benefits of reducing litter, increasing recycling, and creating high quality recyclate that will support the transition to a circular economy.

Following a period of joint development of DRS across all four nations, the Welsh Government made the decision to withdraw from this approach in November 2024.

Defra Ministers remain in close contact with Welsh Government counterparts through bilateral meetings, calls, and written correspondence. Officials remain in close working partnership with the Welsh Government as they take the decisions regarding a DRS in Wales.

The UK Government is keen to keep the door open to provide as much interoperability of schemes across the UK as possible.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing extended producer responsibility collection targets for glass bottles to 90%.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Collection targets are not a feature of the extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging (pEPR). However, the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, which implement pEPR, set challenging, but achievable, recycling targets for all glass packaging which rise year on year to 85% by 2030.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's planned timetable is for the completion of the migration of casework operations to the new ATLAS system.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Since mid-2024, Atlas has been the primary caseworking system for operational teams across Migration & Borders with the legacy CID (Case Information Database) caseworking system only being used for very small volume case types. Work to migrate legacy CID ‘work in progress’ cases across to Atlas has been in progress since late 2024, and the capability to handle those small volume case types is due to be completed by the end of April 2025, when it is currently scheduled to decommission CID.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle disparities in prostate cancer outcomes for Black men.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - 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.

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, 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 at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/shaping-the-national-cancer-plan/shaping-the-national-cancer-plan

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking through (a) recruitment and (b) retention practices to increase the diversity of the maternity healthcare professional workforce.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual National Health Service employers. NHS England’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion plan, published in 2023, includes a commitment to embed fair and inclusive recruitment processes and talent management strategies that target under-representation and lack of diversity.

Targeted retention work for midwives is being undertaken by NHS England and led by the Chief Nursing Officer. This includes a midwifery and nursing retention self-assessment tool, mentoring schemes, and targeted efforts to improve the diversity of the workforce through four nationally run programmes to develop staff from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the graduate route in promoting the UK as an international study destination.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The UK has a world-class higher education sector, with four universities in the world university rankings top 10 and 15 in the top 100, alongside a wide array of leading institutions which can offer a fulfilling and enjoyable experience to international students from around the world.

There are many factors that influence international students when they choose to study abroad. These include the range and quality of available courses, the visa rules that apply in countries they are considering, and the appeal of living and studying in those countries.

The graduate route enables international students who have successfully completed an eligible qualification to stay in the UK for two years, or three years for doctoral students. Former students who are on the graduate route may switch to another route, for example the skilled worker route, if the relevant requirements are met.

This government has made clear its approach to international students. We welcome international students who enrich our university campuses, forge lifelong friendships with our domestic students and become global ambassadors for the UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding has been allocated to community safety initiatives in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) Manchester Rusholme constituency in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not have a defined range of initiatives that fall under the umbrella term of ‘community safety’. Greater Manchester Police’s funding will be up to £871.2 million in 2025-26, an increase of up to £55.6 million when compared to the 2024-25 funding settlement.

It is for locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners, or in this case the Mayor of Greater Manchester, to make decisions on how they use their funding and deploy their resources using their knowledge of local need.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps her Department is taking to support the growth of small and micro businesses in the hospitality sector.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Small businesses are vital to our high streets and communities. The Government is committed to supporting the hospitality sector and we recognise the significant contribution they make to the UK economy.

The Government will introduce permanently lower tax rates for high street retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, with rateable values below £500,000, from 2026-27. In the meantime, the Government has prevented RHL relief from ending in April 2025 by extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business and frozen the small business multiplier.

The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no employer NICs at all next year.

The Government has committed £250m in 25-26 for the British Business Bank’s small business loans programmes, including Start Up Loans and the Growth Guarantee Scheme.

To drive further progress on our manifesto commitments, as part of the growth mission, the Government will bring forward a Small Business Strategy this year.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support SEND transport providers in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) nationally.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Manchester Rusholme to the answer of 7 February 2025 to Question 27291.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of levels of research and development funding for sickle cell disorder.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

I refer the Hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 4^th April to Question 42203.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding her Department has provided for local infrastructure projects related to housing development in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) Manchester Rusholme constituency in each of the last five years.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

£630 million is being devolved to Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Mayor Burnham through the integrated settlement for 2025-26 to support growth in the city region.

As the relevant local planning authorities, it is for Manchester City Council and GMCA to work together to consider infrastructure requirements in support of any new housing developments.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities to provide infrastructure alongside new housing developments in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) Manchester Rusholme constituency.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

£630 million is being devolved to Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Mayor Burnham through the integrated settlement for 2025-26 to support growth in the city region.

As the relevant local planning authorities, it is for Manchester City Council and GMCA to work together to consider infrastructure requirements in support of any new housing developments.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health services for special educational needs and disabilities children in Manchester Rusholme constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We know that too many children and young people, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, are not receiving the mental health care they need, and that waits for mental health services are too long across England, including in Manchester. We are determined to change that.

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future, we will provide access to a specialist mental health professional in every school in England, introduce open access Young Futures hubs in communities, and recruit 8,500 mental health workers to cut wait times and provide faster treatment.

Death of Pope Francis

Found: Liverpool (Chair); Juliet Campbell; Lord Dholakia; Tom Gordon; Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws; Afzal Khan

Found: Members present: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Chair); Lord Dholakia; Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws; Afzal Khan

Found: Alex Sobel Graeme Downie Rachael Maskell Afzal Khan Sir Iain Duncan Smith Ms Marie Rimmer Carolyn

The Joint Committee on Human Rights is conducting legislative scrutiny of the Crime and Policing Bill to assess its compatibility with international and domestic human rights standards.