Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will be responsible for commissioning gambling harm treatment services in relation to the portion of the Gambling Levy allocated for treatment; and what role his Department expects that NHS England will have in the commissioning of gambling harm treatment services in the long term.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the new statutory levy on gambling operators which came into effect in April, NHS England and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.
NHS England continues to lead work on the future design of treatment and support services in England, working closely with the other levy commissioners to ensure a co-ordinated approach to addressing gambling-related harms.
The Department of Health and Social Care will continue to work closely with NHS England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to fully consider the implications of the NHS England transformation announcement on the future statutory levy commissioning structure.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the (a) commissioning and (b) funding model for gambling harm treatment services is structured across England; and whether he plans to issue a Letter of Comfort to Providers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
At present, NHS England provides ringfenced funding to the integrated care boards for the commissioning of eight regional gambling harms services in England. The majority of other gambling harms treatment services in England, largely provided by the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector, are commissioned by GambleAware until 31 March 2026.
The new statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect in April 2025. Under the levy, NHS England, and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales, are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.
From 1 April 2026, NHS England will be taking on responsibility for the commissioning of the full gambling harms treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare. All services will be funded by the new levy, which will be ringfenced for services to reduce gambling harms. NHS England is currently working at pace to confirm future commissioning arrangements and aims to provide all stakeholders with an update in the autumn.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Road Safety Strategy will be published.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government treats road safety seriously, and we are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. The Department is developing our Road Safety Strategy with plans to publish it this year. We will set out more details in due course.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made a comparative assessment of penalty levels for uninsured driving in (a) the UK and (b) other European countries.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has not made a comparative assessment of penalty levels for uninsured driving in the UK and other European countries.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has considered including measures to combat uninsured driving in the Road Safety Strategy.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department is developing our Road Safety Strategy and will set out more details in due course.
All drivers must be insured to drive or ride the vehicle they are using and for the purpose it is used for. The Government takes uninsured driving seriously. Police forces work closely with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) to tackle this. This is achieved through Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE), a scheme where MIB and DVLA collaborate to identify uninsured drivers and police enforcement on the road.
There is also a national policing initiative known as Operation Tutelage to reduce the level of uninsured driving on our roads. The police send advisory letters to the registered keepers of vehicles seen on the road in circumstances where the current insurance status of the vehicle is unclear. The letter encourages the registered keeper to identify if there is a problem with the insurance for the vehicle, and to put things right.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of penalty levels for uninsured driving.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My department is developing our Road Safety Strategy and will set out more details in due course.
All drivers must be insured to drive or ride the vehicle they are using and for the purpose it is used for. The Government takes uninsured driving seriously.
My department is currently considering a range of policies relating to the motoring offences and their penalties.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many meetings the Secretary of State for Defence attended on (a) OP RUBIFIC and (b) the Afghan Response Route between September 2023 and 4th July 2024; and if he will provide the date of such meetings.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
When the Taleban seized control in 2021, many thousands of people who served and supported our British Armed Forces were left in Afghanistan.
The UK made a commitment to honour the moral obligation we owe to those Afghans who stood with us, there was cross party support for this at the time.
In February 2022, under the previous Government a spreadsheet with names of individual applicants for ARAP – the resettlement scheme for Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan – was emailed outside of official Government systems.
This was mistakenly thought to contain the names of a small number of applicants, but in fact the email contained personal information linked to c18,700 applicants of ARAP and its predecessor scheme, the Ex-Gratia Scheme (EGS). The data related to applications made on or before 7 January 2022.
A very small section of this spreadsheet appeared online on 14 August 2023, which is when the Government first became aware that the MOD's ARAP case working spreadsheet had been mistakenly included with the original email.
The previous government decided to seek an injunction concerning the breach on 25 August 2023. The High Court granted a super injunction as a result. The previous Government also set up a new secret resettlement route to bring those affected to the UK. Former Ministers started work on this in Autumn 2023 and it was up and running by April 2024.
This Secretary of State then commissioned an independent Policy Review from ex Deputy chief of Defence Intelligence Paul Rimmer. This began earlier this year and concluded and was presented to Ministers in June. The review examined the overall policy context in spring 2025, three years since the data incident and concluded that it appears “highly unlikely” that merely being on the dataset would be grounds for targeting.
As the Defence Secretary outlined in his oral statement dated 15 July 2025, the Rimmer review was a very significant element in the Government’s decision to change policy to close the ARR, though not the sole element. This was not a decision taken lightly. We have now made the matter public so it can be subject to full Parliamentary scrutiny. The policy decisions we have now taken, in contrast to maintaining the policies and schemes we inherited from the previous Government, will result in an estimated £1.2 billion reduction in costs to the taxpayer.
The previous Secretary of State was invited to attend ten meetings on OP RUBIFIC and the Afghan Response Route (ARR) between September 2023 and 4 July 2024. The dates of these meetings are outlined below. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic there may have been discussions on these topics that were not recorded.
20/09/2023
25/09/2023
05/10/2023
06/10/2023
18/12/2023
18/12/2023
19/12/2023
22/01/2024
28/03/2024
22/05/2024
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many meetings the Minister for Defence Procurement attended on (a) operation RUBIFIC and (b) the Afghan Response Route between August 2023 and 4 July 2024.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
When the Taleban seized control in 2021, many thousands of people who served and supported our British Armed Forces were left in Afghanistan.
The UK made a commitment to honour the moral obligation we owe to those Afghans who stood with us, there was cross party support for this at the time.
In February 2022, under the previous Government a spreadsheet with names of individual applicants for ARAP – the resettlement scheme for Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan – was emailed outside of official Government systems.
This was mistakenly thought to contain the names of a small number of applicants, but in fact the email contained personal information linked to c18,700 applicants of ARAP and its predecessor scheme, the Ex-Gratia Scheme (EGS). The data related to applications made on or before 7 January 2022.
A very small section of this spreadsheet appeared online on 14 August 2023, which is when the Government first became aware that the MOD's ARAP case working spreadsheet had been mistakenly included with the original email.
The previous Government decided to seek an injunction concerning the breach on 25 August 2023. The High Court granted a super injunction as a result. The previous Government also set up a new secret resettlement route to bring those affected to the UK. Former Ministers started work on this in Autumn 2023 and it was up and running by April 2024.
This Secretary of State then commissioned an independent Policy Review from ex Deputy chief of Defence Intelligence Paul Rimmer. This began earlier this year and concluded and was presented to Ministers in June. The review examined the overall policy context in spring 2025, three years since the data incident and concluded that it appears “highly unlikely” that merely being on the dataset would be grounds for targeting.
As the Defence Secretary outlined in his oral statement dated 15 July 2025, the Rimmer review was a very significant element in the Government’s decision to change policy to close the ARR, though not the sole element. This was not a decision taken lightly. We have now made the matter public so it can be subject to full Parliamentary scrutiny. The policy decisions we have now taken, in contrast to maintaining the policies and schemes we inherited from the previous Government, will result in an estimated £1.2 billion reduction in costs to the taxpayer.
The previous Minister for Defence Procurement was invited to attend seven meetings on OP RUBIFIC and the Afghan Response Route (ARR) between August 2023 and 4 July 2024. Four of these meetings scheduled on 24 August 2023 and three on 25 August 2023. Due to its sensitive nature, there may have been discussions on these topics that were not recorded.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the contracting process to enable established providers to apply for or maintain commissioned status for the commissioning of gambling harm treatment services will be through (a) open tendering, (b) direct awards, (c) partnership agreements and (d) a spot-purchasing framework; and whether that process will (i) be the same or (ii) vary across England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect in April 2025. Under the levy, NHS England, and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales, are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.
From 1 April 2026, NHS England will take on responsibility for the commissioning of the full gambling harms treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare. NHS England continues to work at pace on the design of the future commissioning approach, however, no decisions have yet been taken. The aim is to provide all stakeholders with a further update in the coming months. All contracting arrangements and their associated funding models will subsequently be confirmed by the appropriate commissioners.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding for gambling harm treatment services will be structured through (a) block funding, (b) activity-based models or (c) outcome-based models; what his Department's timetable is for (i) implementing its funding model and (ii) providing payments to providers; and whether his Department plans to provide (A) upfront or (B) staged payments for those providers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect in April 2025. Under the levy, NHS England, and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales, are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.
From 1 April 2026, NHS England will take on responsibility for the commissioning of the full gambling harms treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare. NHS England continues to work at pace on the design of the future commissioning approach, however, no decisions have yet been taken. The aim is to provide all stakeholders with a further update in the coming months. All contracting arrangements and their associated funding models will subsequently be confirmed by the appropriate commissioners.