Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of postnatal depression involved (a) engagement with and (b) mental health assessment of the woman’s partner by the relevant service in the most recent 12-month period for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally at this level of detail. The Government is committed to improving the support available to mothers, fathers, and partners who experience mental health difficulties, including postnatal depression, during the perinatal period.
Fathers and partners of women accessing specialist perinatal mental health services and maternal mental health services should be offered an evidence-based assessment for their mental health and signposted to sources of support as required. This can include NHS Talking Therapies services, which are available for anyone who needs support with their mental health. People can refer themselves online via the National Health Service website or by contacting their general practice.
In addition, in January 2025, the Department announced £126 million for the continuation of the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme in 2025/26 in 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation. This includes £36.5 million for bespoke perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support, including for fathers.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will publish data on the number of (a) fathers who have accessed perinatal mental health services and (b) maternity outreach clinics that offer (i) evidence-based mental health assessments and (ii) signposting.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally at this level of detail. The Government is committed to improving the support available to mothers, fathers, and partners who experience mental health difficulties, including postnatal depression, during the perinatal period.
Fathers and partners of women accessing specialist perinatal mental health services and maternal mental health services should be offered an evidence-based assessment for their mental health and signposted to sources of support as required. This can include NHS Talking Therapies services, which are available for anyone who needs support with their mental health. People can refer themselves online via the National Health Service website or by contacting their general practice.
In addition, in January 2025, the Department announced £126 million for the continuation of the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme in 2025/26 in 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation. This includes £36.5 million for bespoke perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support, including for fathers.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on support available for medical students.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care works closely with the Department for Education on an on-going basis, covering a wide range of matters to ensure the education system is supporting medical students.
For the 2025/26 academic year, the Government will increase the NHS Bursary tuition fee contributions, maintenance grants, and all allowances by 3.1%. For the 2025/26 academic year, the Government has also announced that maximum loans for living costs from Student Finance England, including reduced rate non-means tested loans for students in NHS Bursary years, will increase by 3.1%.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to increase availability of Givinostat for children.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department understands the impact that Duchenne muscular dystrophy has on those living with it and their families, and the urgent need for new treatment options. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS independently based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by the NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. The NICE is currently evaluating givinostat for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and its independent Appraisal Committee will meet to consider the evidence in July 2025.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
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 support NHS trusts to (a) recognise and (b) involve fathers as parents in (i) maternity and (ii) early childhood services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service’s three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services recognises that listening and responding to all women, their partners and families, is an essential part of enabling and delivering safe and high-quality care. There are multiple initiatives in place that recognise and involve the role of fathers and other parents. These initiatives include:
- ensuring that fathers’ perspectives shape improvements to services and care, through Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships;
- encouraging fathers’ involvement in the care for their babies in neonatal units, through Family Integrated Care, helping to strengthen the parent-infant bond and infant health outcomes;
- providing evidence-based assessments and support for partners, including fathers, through Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services. This has helped 5% to 10% of fathers experiencing mental health conditions during the perinatal period;
- health visiting services that are parent focussed and which include both mothers and fathers, and which are including in perinatal mental health support; and
- the Department announcing £126 million for the continuation of the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme for 2025/26 in 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation in January 2025. This includes £36.5 million for bespoke perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support, including for fathers.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
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 ensure that NHS services (a) engage with new fathers and (b) record their details alongside the mothers in their baby's health records.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Livingston on 31 March 2025 to Question 38280.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the safety of children online.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is implementing the Online Safety Act as quickly and effectively as possible, so children can be protected from criminal behaviour and harmful content online.
The illegal content duties are now in force, so platforms already need to act to protect their users.
The child safety duties will be in force from the Summer, at which point companies will need to further protect children from harmful content such as pornography, suicide and self-harm material.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to support climate technology start-ups.
Answered by Kerry McCarthy - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government provides significant support to climate start-ups, including through the £1.3 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. The Government will set out its full approach to seizing the growth opportunities from clean energy industries in the forthcoming Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when her Department's proposals for planning restrictions on heat pumps will be implemented.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Nationally set permitted development rights enable the installation of air and ground source heat pumps without the need to submit a planning application.
The previous government consulted on proposed changes to these rights, and on 21 November we announced our intention to amend the existing permitted development right for air source heat pumps in early 2025, to allow more flexibility in installation and size of heat pumps.
Further information can be found here.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department plans to take to reduce the backlog in driving tests.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times.
Measures in place to reduce waiting times for customers at all driving test centres (DTC), include the recruitment of new driving examiners (DE), conducting tests outside regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from DEs. DVSA also continues to deploy DEs from areas with lower waiting times into those where waiting times are longer.
The government is considering what further actions we can take to reduce waiting times for car practical driving tests.