Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, How many blood donations were a)completed and b) deffered between a) 1st June 2024 - 31st May 2025 and b) 1 June 2025–31 May 2026, and whether he will provide the gender and ethnic breakdown of donors.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the data published by NHS Blood and Transplant on blood donations, attendances and deferrals available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/who-we-are/transparency/parliamentary-questions/
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, What was the gender and ethnic breakdown of donations deffered due to low Hb levels for the period between a) 1st June 2024 - 31st May 2025 and b) 1 June 2025–31 May 2026.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the data published by NHS Blood and Transplant on blood donations, attendances and deferrals available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/who-we-are/transparency/parliamentary-questions/
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the response to Freedom of Information request FOI2026/10371 of 11 September 2026, what action is taken in respect of an asylum claim where a summary produced by the Asylum Case Summarisation tool and used in that claim is subsequently assessed by Subject Matter Experts as having failed; and whether the decision-maker and the claimant are informed.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
ACS is a decision-making aid. An Asylum decision cannot be made by relying on a summary alone. The asylum decision quality assurance framework ensures that the overall quality of interviews and decisions is assessed, not just one element of the process. Decision Makers (DMs) maintain decision making authority, the summary cannot decide asylum claims and contains disclaimers to remind Decision Makers to check for accuracy. The DMs still have access to all relevant evidence to make a decision. ACS does not remove or replace any element of the DM role.
The DPIA for Asylum Case Summarisation and Asylum Policy Search states the Borders, immigration and citizenship: Privacy Information Notice - GOV.UK www.gov.uk informs applicants about the use of AI by the Home Office. Claimants are not currently further informed on an individual basis.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Counter Disinformation Unit is still in operation; and whether it has conducted any monitoring of a) sitting MPs, b) former MPs, c) political activists and d) political organisations since it was established.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Counter Disinformation Unit became the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT) in October 2023. NSOIT identifies and understands information threats to UK audiences, focusing on those which present a public safety or national security risk. The team conducts open-source analysis of narratives and trends in the online information environment; this does not include the monitoring of individuals. It would not be appropriate to comment on funding levels publicly as doing so would give malign actors insight into the scale of our capabilities.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding has been provided to the Counter Disinformation Unit since its formation.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Counter Disinformation Unit became the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT) in October 2023. NSOIT identifies and understands information threats to UK audiences, focusing on those which present a public safety or national security risk. The team conducts open-source analysis of narratives and trends in the online information environment; this does not include the monitoring of individuals. It would not be appropriate to comment on funding levels publicly as doing so would give malign actors insight into the scale of our capabilities.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department consulted the Information Commissioner’s Office before the operational deployment of (a) the Asylum Policy Search tool and (b) the Asylum Case Summarisation tool.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
The project teams consulted with identified necessary stakeholders regarding data protection, processes and security whilst compiling the DPIAs for both ACS and APS, noting ICO guidance.
As per the ICO guidance (How do we do a DPIA? | ICO), a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is a living document; we regularly review these documents throughout the project lifecycle.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Annex C to FOI2026/06089 entitled Interview Summarisation Tool – Pilot is the Data Protection Impact Assessment for the Asylum Policy Search tool.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
FOI2026/06089 is currently undergoing an internal review (HO IR ref IR2026/13467/ FoI ref: FOI2026/06089). An updated response will be sent to the requester.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) sitting MPs, (b) former MPs, (c) political activists and (d) political organisations have had their information collected by the Research, Information and Communication Unit since its formation.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
RICU provides analysis on terrorist and extremist use of propaganda and exploitation of the internet to inform the UK's counter-terrorism system. RICU supports ministers, policy makers and our partners by providing insight and analysis into online terrorist activity, emerging risks and radicalisation trends.
To support this objective RICU undertakes open-source monitoring to better understand the media, online and communications environment as it relates to terrorism and extremism. This open-source monitoring identifies a range of material that is shared and discussed within these spaces, including topics or media that terrorist and extremist groups are seeking to exploit.
All RICU data collection and analysis complies with relevant legislation. Ministers have authorised RICU’s work since it was established in 2007, and through subsequent updates to the CONTEST strategy (in 2011, 2018 and 2023) and regularly receive RICU outputs.
The work of RICU has been crucial to the delivery of Prevent and has helped to position the UK at the forefront of the battle against terrorist propaganda, particularly online terrorist content.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in what proportion of asylum decisions made since April 2026 the decision-maker was a different officer from the officer who conducted the substantive interview.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information is not published and could only be collected and verified at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish, before any decision is taken on the break clause, a list of all (a) meetings, (b) calls and (c) written communications between (i) Palantir, including Lord Watson, (ii) Ministers and (iii) senior officials in the (A) Department of Health and Social Care and (B) NHS England since 18 September 2026.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 27 October in response to Question 31148.