Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to restrict the online (a) advertising and (b) selling of (i) image and performance enhancing drugs and (ii) anabolic steroids to children and young people.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
It is not permitted to advertise prescription-only medicines such as anabolic steroids. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is responsible for regulating and investigating advertising in the UK, including online.
Additionally, the Online Safety Act requires all services in scope to take proactive steps to stop their services facilitating illegal sales of drugs. Beyond illegal sale of drugs, platforms also need to protect children from harmful content that encourages ingestion, inhalation or exposure to harmful substances.
Where substances are controlled drugs then the offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 would apply, including offences of supply and possession where relevant.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has plans to encourage the freeholders of multiple occupancy leasehold buildings to install solar panels when the lease does not permit the Right To Manage Company or individual leaseholders to install panels on the common roof area.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 38264 on 21 March 2025. The government remains committed to meeting its net zero emissions target by 2050 and recognises the important contribution that making buildings more energy efficient will play in doing so.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to implement the Digital Redbook nationally.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to transforming the way we deliver healthcare for parents and children and supporting the best start in life; digitisation of records is a key enabler of this.
The Department is working closely with officials in NHS England to ensure that plans for digitising the red book align with wider, ambitious plans for digitisation of patient records across the National Health Service. This will mean we deliver the benefits of a seamless experience for families as they access and manage their own health records and those of their children through the NHS App. Further information will be available in due course on the measures we are taking to deliver digital records for children.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
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 effectiveness of the Digital Redbook pilot in London.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The eRedbook product was commissioned by NHS England (London) for several years. A comprehensive evaluation was not undertaken, although registration volumes were reported. This has informed our ambition of a digital service to help parents and professionals access information and services to give children the best start in life. The NHS App will be central to delivering this ambition.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to encourage freeholders of buildings occupied by multiple leaseholders to install solar panels.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has commenced the Right to Manage measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. They came into effect on 3 March 2025.
These changes implement the Law Commission recommendation to increase the non-residential floorspace limit from 25 to 50 per cent for Right to Manage claims. This means that more leaseholders in mixed-use buildings will qualify for the right to manage, gaining control over the management of their building. Further changes mean that leaseholders making right to manage claims will no longer have to pay their freeholder’s process costs for that claim.
Taken together, these changes will give more leaseholders the opportunity to take greater control over the buildings they live in, enabling them to more easily progress the installation of rooftop solar where the lease in question permits this.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of the 3 February 2025 to Question 26386 on Children: Hearing Impairment, whether the expected apprenticeship in Sensory Impairment will be funded via the Apprenticeship Levy; and when course providers will be told the final decision on funding for the course so that they can start to accept applications for the planned September 2025 start.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to spreading opportunities and economic growth with the support of a strong skills system.
This government has an extremely challenging fiscal inheritance. There are tough choices that need to be taken on how funding should be prioritised in order to generate opportunities for young people that enable them to make a start in good, fulfilling careers. The government will therefore be asking more employers to step forward and fund a significant number of level 7 apprenticeships themselves. The department is taking advice from Skills England, who engaged with employers over the autumn, and the department expects to make a final decision on affected apprenticeships, including the pending level 7 apprenticeship in sensory impairment, shortly.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that Universal Credit advisers are aware that payments should be backdated when a change of circumstances relates to the award of a disability benefit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All DWP new entrant work coaches and case managers receive job role specific technical learning, which covers backdating. As changes of circumstances are notified, the Universal Credit system calculates many payments due automatically. Case Managers are supported by coaching and quality assurance.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that (a) deaf children and (b) their families receive support from specialist teachers of the deaf in (i) education and (ii) early years settings.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has developed a Sensory Impairment apprenticeship. The apprenticeship is expected to be available from September 2025 and will open up a paid, work-based route into teaching children and young people with sensory impairments. This will improve the supply of those qualified to teach this important cohort and further help to improve their outcomes.
It is also important that early years practitioners are able to identify and support children with SEND, including children with hearing impairment and deafness. The department wants deaf children to be able to thrive in their early years, which might sometimes mean that settings access specialist teachers for the deaf.
The Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life, including those with SEND. It stipulates that providers must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND. Maintained schools, maintained nursery schools and all providers who are funded by the local authority to deliver early education places must have regard for the SEND Code of Practice.
In November, the department published the updated early years foundation stage profile handbook, which includes a change to allow a child’s established or preferred mode of communication (including British Sign Language) to be used for all of the early learning goals, including speaking. The handbook can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-profile-handbook.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which Departments are working on the development of a food strategy; which Department is leading this work; what the strategy's aims are; and what his planned timetable is for the completion of the strategy.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Addressing the issues the food sector faces requires a whole-of-government effort, so while Defra is leading the strategy we will be working in very close collaboration with several government departments. Our ambitious food strategy will set and deliver clear long-term outcomes that create a healthier, fairer, and more resilient food system. We will provide details of how the process will operate, how industry can engage, and what the milestones will be in the coming months.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to increase access to affordable fresh fruit and vegetables in deprived communities.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government is committed to creating the healthiest generation of children ever, as set out in our Child Health Action Plan. The Healthy Start scheme was introduced in 2006 to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from very low-income households. It can be used to buy, or be put towards the cost of, fruit, vegetables, pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries have access to free Healthy Start Vitamins for pregnant women and children aged under four years old.
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) delivers the scheme on behalf of the Department. The NHSBSA is committed to increasing uptake of the Healthy Start scheme to ensure as many children as possible have a healthy start in life.
The NHSBSA promotes the Healthy Start scheme through its digital channels and has created free tools to help stakeholders promote the scheme locally. The NHSBSA has also reached out to stakeholders to see how it can support them in promoting the scheme. In December 2024, the Healthy Start scheme supported over 354,000 people.