Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of waiving fees charged by GP surgeries for (a) medical evidence letters, (b) certificates and (c) reports that are required by HM Passport Office to show that a patient has a disability that prevents them from attending a passport interview.

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

There are some medical evidence letters, certificates, or reports that general practices (GPs) may charge for, and others that they must not charge patients for. The legislation that sets this out is the General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services Regulations, which form the basis of the GP Contract with the National Health Service. There is no statutory limit to the level of such fees, as this is outside of core NHS work.

The Professional Fees Committee of the British Medical Association suggests guideline fees for such services, to help doctors set their own professional fees.

We are continuing to work across Government to cut red tape and improve ways of working, including work to improve the patient experience, such as removing the need to request unnecessary medical evidence where possible.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support the (a) creation and (b) growth of start-ups in (i) Mid Cheshire constituency, (ii) Cheshire and (iii) England.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

We will publish our Small Business Strategy later this year with a clear ambition to promote startups and encourage entrepreneurship, built around the new Business Growth Service.

Start Up Loans are available in Cheshire and across England, helping new and early-stage businesses access affordable finance. Mid Cheshire businesses have benefited from 168 of these loans between 2012 and January 2025.

Existing support offers include Help to Grow: Management - UK, providing practical ways to enhance small business productivity and growth, and the British Business Bank's Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II delivering a £660 million commitment of new funding to smaller businesses across the North.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of social media on perpetuating violence against women and girls.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) in all of its forms, including when it takes place online, is a top priority for this Government. Our upcoming VAWG Strategy will set out the strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver our unprecedented ambition to halve VAWG in a decade.

In addition, the Online Safety Act 2023 requires all in-scope companies, including social media platforms, to take swift and effective action against criminal online abuse. However, social media companies must still do more to protect women and girls. The Secretary of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has laid before Parliament the Government’s draft Statement of Strategic Priorities for Online Safety, which aim to ensure the Online Safety Act delivers improved online safety outcomes. This includes how the Act will deliver on tackling illegal and misogynistic content to ensure increased safety online for women and girls.

We are also taking action on non-consensual intimate image abuse. The Online Safety Act inserted new offences of sharing or threatening to share intimate images into the Sexual Offences Act 2003. These new offences apply to a broader category of image and in a wider array of circumstances than the previous offences. We are going further by introducing offences of taking an intimate image without consent or reasonable belief in consent and installing equipment with the intent to take intimate images without consent or reasonable belief in consent, via the Crime and Policing Bill. We are also introducing new offences to create or request the creation of intimate images without consent or reasonable belief in consent, via the Data (Use and Access) Bill. This will criminalise the creation of deepfake intimate images without consent.

Our efforts to tackle VAWG and child sexual abuse needs to evolve to meet changes in social media and technology head on. As such, in the dawn of an increase in AI- generated child sexual abuse (CSA), we are taking forward several measures through the Crime and Policing Bill to better safeguard children and young people at risk of sexual abuse. These measures are:

• CSA image generators - This offence will criminalise AI models that have been optimised to create the most severe forms of child sexual abuse material.
• AI paedophile manuals - This measure will ensure that offenders in possession of AI paedophile manuals – which provide guidance about using AI to abuse children sexually – will be criminalised.
• Moderators and administrators of CSA sites – A specific criminal offence targeting offenders who run sites dedicated to child sexual abuse. On these sites, offenders share child sexual abuse material (CSAM) content, or advice on how to groom children.
• CSAM at the Border - This measure will give Border Force officers the power to compel individuals reasonably suspected of posing a sexual risk to children to unlock their digital devices for inspection.

This Government is committed to tackling VAWG and CSAM and will remain agile to the threats and act accordingly.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of (a) unlawful employment practices and (b) labour exploitation in the nail salon industry.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government takes all reports of labour exploitation very seriously, and we remain committed to tackling the crime of modern slavery, – in which ever sector it occurs. We do not currently hold data for the number of victims of modern slavery and human trafficking within the nail salon industry. Nonetheless, we will continue to monitor the sector closely alongside the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, to ensure we target our work effectively.

The Government is establishing the Fair Work Agency, which will bring under one roof multiple agencies and bodies, including the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and HMRC’s National Minimum and Living Wage Team. This will ensure a more cohesive and streamlined response to exploitation across the economy. The Fair Work Agency will have enhanced powers and resources to identify and address labour exploitation more effectively.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of acrylate exposure from cosmetic nail treatments on (a) long-term health of people exposed and (b) NHS services.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Legislation is clear that cosmetics must be safe. To demonstrate that a product is compliant with the requirements in the Cosmetic Regulation, a safety assessment must be completed by a qualified safety assessor. This includes examining the systemic exposure to individual ingredients used. The safety assessor must be satisfied that the product is safe before it can be sold.

As the regulator for product safety, OPSS is responsible for ensuring that consumer products are safe. We will take effective action where non-compliant products are identified. However, as a department we do not hold information regarding impacts to NHS services.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of regulation on (a) products containing acrylates linked to serious allergic reactions and (b) other aspects of the operation of nail salons.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Cosmetics sold in the UK must meet some of the strictest safety requirements in the world. For products not covered by the Cosmetic Regulation, the General Product Safety Regulations provide a baseline of safety, requiring that only safe products, in their normal or reasonably foreseeable use, can be sold.

Nail salons are required to comply with various legislation including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act. This requires operators to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees and that their clients are not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of further regulation of domestic CCTV usage where cameras overlook neighbouring properties.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

If domestic CCTV captures someone else's property or communal space, the UK’s data protection legislation applies, as the images and voices of other people will be captured and this is classified as personal information.

The Information Commissioner's Office has published guidance on both the householder’s responsibilities under the legislation, and what people can do if they are concerned about a neighbour’s intrusive use of CCTV equipment. The government has no plans for further regulation.

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Found: Voaden Liz Jarvis Sarah Olney Vikki Slade Ian Roome Martin Wrigley Kim Johnson Naz Shah Andrew Cooper

Found: Not moved_NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis

Found: Not moved_NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis

Found: Voaden Liz Jarvis Sarah Olney Vikki Slade Ian Roome Martin Wrigley Kim Johnson Naz Shah Andrew Cooper

Found: _NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis Amanda

Found: Voaden Liz Jarvis Sarah Olney Vikki Slade Ian Roome Martin Wrigley Kim Johnson Naz Shah Andrew Cooper

Found: _NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis Amanda

Found: Voaden Liz Jarvis Sarah Olney Vikki Slade Ian Roome Martin Wrigley Kim Johnson Naz Shah Andrew Cooper

Found: _NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis Amanda

Found: Voaden Liz Jarvis Sarah Olney Vikki Slade Ian Roome Martin Wrigley Kim Johnson Naz Shah Andrew Cooper

Found: _NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis Amanda

Found: Voaden Liz Jarvis Sarah Olney Vikki Slade Ian Roome Martin Wrigley Kim Johnson Naz Shah Andrew Cooper

Found: _NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis Amanda

Found: Voaden Liz Jarvis Sarah Olney Vikki Slade Ian Roome Martin Wrigley Kim Johnson Naz Shah Andrew Cooper

Found: COMMITTEE STAGE Thursday 15 May 2025 54 _NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham

Found: Voaden Liz Jarvis Sarah Olney Vikki Slade Ian Roome Martin Wrigley Kim Johnson Naz Shah Andrew Cooper

Found: _NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis Amanda

Found: _NC40 Andrew Cooper Anna Dixon Connor Naismith Leigh Ingham Mrs Sarah Russell Daniel Francis Amanda