Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help ensure registered providers of social housing meet their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 in their work with their (a) tenants and (b) employees.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
All registered providers of social housing are required to comply with the Equality Act 2010. This applies to their interactions with both tenants and employees.
Registered providers are also required to deliver the outcomes of the regulatory standards set by the independent Regulator of Social Housing. Under the Transparency, Influence and Accountability standard, registered providers are required to treat tenants with fairness and respect and take action to deliver fair and equitable outcomes for them as well as, where relevant, prospective tenants.
Since the introduction of the proactive consumer regulation regime in April 2024, the Regulator has begun carrying out regular inspections of large providers to ensure they are delivering the outcomes of its standards. The Regulator has strong enforcement powers to take effective action when it identifies serious failings.
Under the Regulator’s Governance and Financial Viability standard, registered providers must ensure governance arrangements adhere to all relevant law.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many complaints her Department has received from company directors unable to verify their identity using the One Log in system and app for which the latest data is available.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Since the onboarding of Companies House, GOV.UK One Login has received and replied to over one hundred pieces of correspondence. This includes complaints from users who are having difficulties proving their identity
GOV.UK One Login is currently used by 16 million users, therefore the number of complaints represents a small proportion of the service
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the GOV.UK One Login system and app in verifying the identification of company directors.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
GOV.UK One Login is being developed as the single sign-on and identity verification front door for accessing government services. Individual services are responsible for assessing whether it is suitable for their users.
Companies House has completed this assessment and determined that GOV.UK One Login is an appropriate and effective way for company directors to prove their identity. Users who are unable to use GOV.UK One Login are able to utilise Companies House’s alternative route, through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP).
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to increase UK humanitarian aid to protect (a) women and (b) children targeted by sexual violence in Sudan.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to the responses provided in the Urgent Question debate on the Conflict in Sudan on 5 November 2025.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to pages 37 of her Department's statutory guidance entitled Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education, updated on 15 July 2025, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of including first response for drug misuse as part of mandatory training for secondary school pupils.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education set out in the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.
The statutory RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, for example dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries, and pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, for example specifically how to administer CPR and the purpose of defibrillators and how to use them.
Schools also have the autonomy to decide how they teach first aid, including teaching additional topical content and which resources to use. Many schools incorporate additional content, which can include how pupils should deal with a first response emergency situation, including how to respond to knife wounds, drug misuse and road traffic injury.
The department’s defibrillator programme completed in 2023 and was the largest rollout of defibrillators across England to date and provided over 20,000 defibrillators to almost 18,000 schools, ensuring that all state-funded schools in England have access to a device.
Defibrillators are designed so they can be used by anyone with no prior training. As part of the department’s roll out, we provided awareness videos to schools showing how simple defibrillators can be to use, and asked schools to share these videos in staff meetings and assemblies.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to pages 37 to 38 of her Department's statutory guidance entitled Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education, updated on 15 July 2025, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of including first response for knife wounds as part of mandatory training for secondary school pupils.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education set out in the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.
The statutory RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, for example dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries, and pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, for example specifically how to administer CPR and the purpose of defibrillators and how to use them.
Schools also have the autonomy to decide how they teach first aid, including teaching additional topical content and which resources to use. Many schools incorporate additional content, which can include how pupils should deal with a first response emergency situation, including how to respond to knife wounds, drug misuse and road traffic injury.
The department’s defibrillator programme completed in 2023 and was the largest rollout of defibrillators across England to date and provided over 20,000 defibrillators to almost 18,000 schools, ensuring that all state-funded schools in England have access to a device.
Defibrillators are designed so they can be used by anyone with no prior training. As part of the department’s roll out, we provided awareness videos to schools showing how simple defibrillators can be to use, and asked schools to share these videos in staff meetings and assemblies.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 37 of her Department's statutory guidance entitled Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education, updated on 15 July 2025, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of including first response for road traffic accidents as part of mandatory training for secondary school pupils.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory health education set out in the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.
The statutory RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, for example dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries, and pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, for example specifically how to administer CPR and the purpose of defibrillators and how to use them.
Schools also have the autonomy to decide how they teach first aid, including teaching additional topical content and which resources to use. Many schools incorporate additional content, which can include how pupils should deal with a first response emergency situation, including how to respond to knife wounds, drug misuse and road traffic injury.
The department’s defibrillator programme completed in 2023 and was the largest rollout of defibrillators across England to date and provided over 20,000 defibrillators to almost 18,000 schools, ensuring that all state-funded schools in England have access to a device.
Defibrillators are designed so they can be used by anyone with no prior training. As part of the department’s roll out, we provided awareness videos to schools showing how simple defibrillators can be to use, and asked schools to share these videos in staff meetings and assemblies.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the British Library on resolving the industrial action by the Public and Commercial Services Union.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The British Library is an arms-length body, sponsored by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It is under the control and management of the British Library Board, whose responsibilities and functions are laid out in the British Library Act 1972.
The British Library is operationally independent of government and the day to day management of the Library - including staff pay - is a matter for the organisation to determine. DCMS is aware negotiations are taking place on this dispute and hopes for a speedy response.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that UK Border Force eGates are configured to permit entry to holders of Irish passport cards travelling from outside the Common Travel Area.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to the Answer I gave her on 8 April to Question 42838.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle people who commit fraud by developing fake romantic relationships on (a) Tiktok and (b) other steaming platforms and manipulate victims into transferring large sums of money.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Online Safety Act (OSA) was passed in November 2023 and requires all in-scope platforms to tackle fraud originating on their platforms. Fraud is included in the Act as an illegal harm, meaning in-scope companies must take proactive measures to stop fraudulent content appearing on the platform, and remove fraudulent material quickly when they become aware of it. In addition, the Act's Additional Duties for Categorised Services will require the largest companies to provides features for users to verify users on their platforms, and interact with other verified accounts.
Ofcom, acting as the independent regulator, will have the power to levy significant fines on companies who they deem are not doing enough to tackle fraud on their platforms. As of 17 March 2025, Ofcom's illegal harm duties are now in force, and the regulator will now start assessing platforms' compliance with their new obligations under the Act, and will launch enforcement action where they uncover concerns.