Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on introducing a Clean Air Act to enshrine the World Health Organisation's 2021 Air Quality Guidelines into law.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to cleaning up our air and protecting the public from the harm of pollution. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines inform our approach to improving public health. However, as the Guidelines do not take into account national circumstances or achievability, they cannot be readily adopted everywhere. We remain committed to continuous improvement and the WHO Guidelines will continue to inform our evidence when considering next steps.
Air pollution comes from many different sources and has wide-ranging impacts. Issues such as air quality, climate action, public health and nature recovery are closely linked, creating opportunities for policies that deliver benefits across all these areas. Because of this, every part of government has a role in shaping policies that help reduce air pollution and its effects. I will continue to work collaboratively with colleagues across government to tackle key sources of air pollution, such as through transport, health and energy policy.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what consideration she has given to (a) revising Daily Air Quality Index thresholds to align with health evidence and (b) expanding the air pollution alert system to include fine particulate matter 2.5.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is taking forward work to improve how air quality information is communicated to the public. Health advice accompanying the Daily Air Quality Index was updated in 2025, ensuring the advice is clinically accurate and aligns with the latest health evidence. Alongside the updated health advice, the Government is considering how the Daily Air Quality Index can be updated and is continuing work to improve digital systems and air quality alerts to ensure that information is timely, accessible, and presented in a clear and user‑friendly way. An expanded alerts service will be incrementally released over the course of the next 5 months which will incorporate all DAQI pollutants, including PM2.5.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the planned ODA funding within the Human Development thematic directorate will be for a) global health, b) women and girls, c) equalities, d) civil society, e) safeguarding, f) governance and g) education in 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the statement made to the House by the Foreign Secretary on 19 March outlining the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocations for the period up to 2028-29, and to the accompanying documents setting out the detail of those allocations. I also refer him to the evidence provided by the Foreign Secretary and the Minister of State for International Development at the International Development Committee on 24 March, where they addressed questions at length about the Government's ODA policies and allocation decisions.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence have been released from prison in each of the last seven years broken down by prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The requested data is provided in the attached file. The data provided covers the number of prisoners serving IPP sentences released for the first time, broken down by prison, for the period 2018 to 2024 in England and Wales. The data does not cover release decisions following recall.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Department has assessed the potential impact on the NHS in winter 2026-27 of providing the shingles vaccination programme to adults aged 80 in April 2027; and whether it has considered launching the programme in autumn 2026 alongside the seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In November 2024, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) provided advice on eligibility for the shingles vaccination programme for adults aged 80 years old and over. The Government continues to carefully consider the JCVI’s advice.
We are taking key steps to ensure the National Health Service is prepared for the colder months. This winter, approximately half a million more people were vaccinated against flu compared to the previous season, though we know there is further to go next winter. We are undertaking a comprehensive ‘lessons learned’ review to help us identify what worked well, where persistent pressures remain, and what actions we need to prioritise going into next winter.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans the government has to introduce legislation and investment to ensure better and more equitable access to decent public toilets.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh
The government recognises the importance of clean, safe public toilets. In keeping with our commitment to funding simplification, we have no current plans to introduce a statutory duty or ringfenced funding relating to toilet provision. We believe that local authorities are best placed to assess and mange toilet provision as they best understand local needs.
At the 2025 Spending Review, we committed more than £5 billion in new grant funding over three years for essential local services such as toilets. In addition, we continue to provide 100% mandatory business rates relief for separately assessed public toilets, reducing ongoing costs for local authorities and supporting the continued operation of these vital facilities.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle health inequalities impacting women.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to building a fairer Britain, to ensure people can live well for longer. Our reimagined National Health Service will tackle inequalities in both access and outcomes, as well as give everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, the means to engage with the National Health Service on their own terms. This financial year the Department has invested approximately £53 million in direct research awards on research to support the health of women. This includes conditions that are unique to women, such as endometriosis, and health topics that are relevant to women such as violence and abuse.
Significant progress has been made towards delivering the ambitions in the 2022 Women’s Health Strategy, for example improving women and girls’ awareness and access to services and driving research to benefit women’s health, but we know there is more to do.
That is why we are renewing the Women’s Health Strategy, to assess the progress that has been made so far and to continue progressing delivery.
The renewed strategy will update on the delivery of the 2022 Women’s Health Strategy and set out how the Government is taking further steps to improve women’s health as we deliver the 10-Year Health Plan. It will also address gaps from the 2022 strategy and drive further change on enduring challenges such as creating a system that listens to women and tackling health inequalities.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase access to women's health hubs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is encouraging integrated care boards (ICBs) to further expand the coverage of women’s health hubs and supporting them to use the learning from the women’s health hub pilots to improve local delivery of services to women and girls.
The 10-Year Health Plan set out our ambition for high autonomy to be the norm across every part of the country. ICBs are responsible for commissioning services that meet the healthcare needs of their local population and have the freedom to do so, and this includes women's health hubs and delivering the direction of the Women's Health Strategy. The Government is backing ICBs to do this through record funding. The 2025 Spending Review prioritised health, with record investment in the health and social care system.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the recruitment and retention of staff in women’s health services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals.
To support this ambition, the Government plans to introduce a new set of standards for modern employment in April 2026. The new standards will reaffirm our commitment to improving retention by tackling the issues that matter to staff including promoting flexible working, improving staff health and wellbeing, and dealing with violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the NHS workplace. They will provide a framework for leaders across the NHS to build a supportive culture that embeds retention.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of mass legal claims against publicly funded bodies, such as the Legal Aid Agency, on (a) vulnerable consumers and (b) levels of resource available for frontline services.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Public bodies are expected to identify material risks to vulnerable consumers or levels of resource available for frontline services, including due to any mass legal claims, and are responsible for managing their impact.
The Ministry of Justice has a partnership relationship with each of its funded public bodies that enables the body to escalate new risks as appropriate. The Department carries out an annual risk assessment of each of its public bodies, where significant upcoming risks can be identified and an assessment of the impact made.
Additionally, public bodies that receive funding from the Ministry of Justice are responsible for working collaboratively with the Department as it determines the level of funding that will be provided to them annually. Any pressures that can be predicted due to mass legal claims would be expected to be raised with the Ministry of Justice and levels of resource would be discussed with those bodies on an individual basis through existing financial allocation processes.
Other Government Departments are responsible for the assessment of risks to public bodies sponsored by them.