Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
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.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
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:
This Government is committed to tackling VAWG and CSAM and will remain agile to the threats and act accordingly.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
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.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the (a) level of use of AI by students to complete assessments in (i) secondary, (ii) further and (iii) higher education and (b) the potential impact of use on the validity of academic qualifications.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department policy paper on generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education sets out some of the opportunities and risks education establishments should be aware of when considering generative AI technologies, including use of AI in assessments. The policy paper can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-artificial-intelligence-in-education/generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-education.
The department is working to ensure teachers are equipped and supported to promote safe and appropriate use of AI.
Schools, colleges and awarding organisations need to continue taking reasonable steps, where applicable, to prevent malpractice involving the use of generative AI. Teachers know their pupils best and are experienced in identifying their individual pupils’ work.
A new departmental group will advise on digital, AI and technology to prepare children and young people for an AI and tech-enabled world, as well as promoting the use of AI and Edtech for better teaching and learning. Expert and evidence-informed recommendations will be produced.
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has published guidance on AI use in assessments. This guidance provides teachers and exam centres with information to help them prevent and identify potential malpractice involving the misuse of AI. The JCQ guidance can be found here: https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/malpractice/artificial-intelligence/.
Ofsted and Ofqual both published policy papers in April 2024 outlining their approach to AI and Ofsted are currently updating their AI Strategy. The Office for Students will be including actions relating to AI in its upcoming 2025 to 2028 Strategy.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the average time taken to process claims for transport support through the Access to Work scheme; and what steps she is taking to reduce that time.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to reducing waiting times for Access to Work and are considering the best way to deliver that for customers. Access to Work does not differentiate between applications. Applications are processed in date order except for applications from customers who are about to start a job or who are renewing, these are prioritised.
We are continuing to streamline delivery practices and have increased the number of staff processing claims. Since May 2024, 118 additional staff have been redeployed to support Access to Work.
In March 2025, DWP published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to consult on the future of Access to Work. Alongside this, we are considering further changes within the existing policy framework to reduce the backlog of applications.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of bringing town and parish councils into scope of the local government ombudsman.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) provides members of the public with a vital complaints resolution service for when things go wrong with the public services they rely on. Their investigations provide the public with personal redress and improve the delivery of these services by local authorities. Most of their complaints are about key public services, such as children’s services, adult social care and homelessness.
The Government has no plans to bring town and parish councils within the LGSCO’s scope.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of audit requirements for town and parish councils following the abolition of the Audit Commission in 2015.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In December 2024, the government launched a strategy to overhaul the local audit system in England. Through the strategy and subsequent consultation response, the government has committed to a number of measures in relation to smaller bodies including to review the effectiveness of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return process for smaller bodies. The government will introduce legislation to move away from audit regimes based solely on thresholds to ensure a risk based and proportionate approach. As part of the wider reforms, the government is establishing the Local Audit Office (LAO) to streamline and oversee the currently fragmented system. In the longer term, the LAO’s appointment and contract management function will expand to include the smaller authorities’ appointment and assurance framework to minimise fragmentation in the system.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of sanctions available to local government standards committees for the actions of town and parish councillors.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
In December the Government launched a consultation seeking views on a range of measures to strengthen the standards and conduct framework that applies to all types and tiers of local authorities in England. The proposals consulted upon included a requirement for all principal authorities to convene formal standards committees to make decisions on code of conduct breaches, and the introduction of suspension of members for serious misconduct. We are now in the process of analysing the responses to the consultation to ensure we are taking full account of sector views on all of the measures proposed, and the Government Response will be issued in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of compliance with the Mental Health Investment Standard by ICBs in each of the last four years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of integrated care boards (ICBs), formerly clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard, meaning that their investment in mental health services increased in line with their overall increase in funding for the year, from 2020/21 to 2024/25:
Year | Number of CCGs/ICBs meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard |
2020/21 | 135 out of 135 CCGs |
2021/22 | 106 out of 106 CCGs |
2022/23 | 41 out of 42 ICBs |
2023/24 | 42 out of 42 ICBs |
2024/25 | Information not yet available |
Source: NHS Mental Health Dashboard, NHS England
Note: between 2020/21 and 2021/22 there was a methodology change in how ICB/CCG base allocation was calculated.
The calculation of the Mental Health Investment Standard does not include spend on learning disabilities, autism, dementia, and specialised commissioning.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the Land Registry to (a) record and (b) publish a property owner's Company Registration Number on title register documents.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
HM Land Registry (HMLR) requires that the registration number of a company is supplied when a UK company is being registered. Company registration numbers are recorded in the proprietorship entry of the title register.
Copies of title registers are normally available from HMLR’s Search for land and property information page on gov.uk here.
HMLR publishes information about registered land and property in England and Wales owned by UK companies on gov.uk here.