Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to launch its consultation on settlement policy.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We will be consulting on the new settlement rules later this year. Following that, we will provide details of how this initiative will work.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to standardise the criteria for reservist call-out liability across the Armed Forces services.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

Under the forthcoming Armed Forces Bill, we will standardise some of the criteria governing this liability, for those personnel who will form the Strategic Reserve (personnel who leave Service and retain a liability to be called back into permanent Service). Call-out liability for personnel on leaving Regular Service is determined by individual circumstances. These include the Service they were part of, the individual commitment or contract that governed their Service, their age, and other specific terms of their discharge such as if for medical or disciplinary reasons.

The policies and processes that underpin call-out liability are under constant review, to ensure that they remain fit for purpose in the current geopolitical environment and beyond.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has conducted a recent audit of the skills and health readiness of ex-Regular personnel who may be called upon during national emergencies.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

In support of the Strategic Defence Review recommendation to step-up engagement with the Strategic Reserve, the Military Strategic Headquarters, in partnership with the Military Commands, is leading work to gather and assure the relevant information to ex Regular Service personnel who still hold a Strategic Reserve liability. This includes gathering updated contact details and employer information. We are improving our assurance of this information, such as through the UK exercise programme in coming years.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure the accuracy of data on the (a) location, (b) contact details, (c) health and (d) readiness of ex-Regulars held within the strategic reserve.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

In support of the Strategic Defence Review recommendation to step-up engagement with the Strategic Reserve, the Military Strategic Headquarters, in partnership with the Military Commands, is leading work to gather and assure the relevant information to ex Regular Service personnel who still hold a Strategic Reserve liability. This includes gathering updated contact details and employer information. We are improving our assurance of this information, such as through the UK exercise programme in coming years.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Defence Readiness Bill on balancing fefence mobilisation requirements with current and future industrial demand for specialist personnel working in (a) private sector industries critical to an effective national response to emergencies and (b) critical national infrastructure.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Strategic Defence Review set out the need for Defence Readiness legislation this Parliament to give the Government more robust or additional powers to make the UK safe. This could include measures to improve the preparedness of key industries including nuclear, to better protect our Critical National Infrastructure and to support the mobilisation of wider Defence, including industry reserves. As this Government set out to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy on 30 June, a Defence Readiness Bill is potentially a legislative vehicle for the wider Government, not just Defence. We are therefore working closely across Government through the Cabinet Office-led Home Defence programme to shape our key requirements, and understand and identify the measures needed. This will lay the groundwork to introduce legislation when Parliamentary time allows.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to publish a children’s health workforce plan.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. Ensuring that there is a robust children’s health workforce will be an essential component to delivering on this ambition.

We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service, including the children’s health workforce. It will be more empowered, more flexible and more fulfilled. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, including children, when they need it. There are no plans to publish a separate children’s health workforce plan.

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 potential impact of the Play well toolkit on children's health.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever, which includes ensuring that children receive the appropriate care and support whenever they need it.

We know that play is a vital part of childhood and health play services help build social-skills, support children’s wellbeing and improve outcomes. To ensure that children’s right to play is supported in healthcare settings, NHS England and Starlight, a national charity for children’s play in healthcare, co-published the Play Well Toolkit. NHS England encourages the use of this toolkit by managers of health play services across a wide range of healthcare environments accessed by children and young people. The Toolkit includes a checklist to support the auditing, monitoring, and evaluation of services.

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 implications for his policies of the evidence presented in Prostate Cancer Research’s report entitled Prostate Cancer Screening: The Impact on the NHS, on targeted prostate cancer screening for high-risk men; and if he will ensure that this is considered as part of the UK National Screening Committee’s review of prostate cancer screening options.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment his Department has made of the risk of wildfires crossing the rural-urban interface in London.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Outdoor fires, especially wildfires, are expected by many academics to increase in frequency and impact in the future, predominantly driven by climate change. Wildfires are difficult to predict as risk is based on many factors - such as weather and human activity - and can happen across a wide range of landscapes.

Each fire and rescue authority, including the London Fire Commissioner, is required to plan for the foreseeable risks in their area (including wildfire), through their Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP), and having regard to the views of other key local responders.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) works closely with a wide range of stakeholders including the National Fire Chiefs Council, England and Wales Wildfire Forum and other Departments and Agencies including DEFRA and the Met Office to promote planning and prevention for wildfire incidents in England. This includes working closely with partners to consider options for enhancing forecasting, monitoring and public communications around wildfire.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Health and Social Care on 17 June 2025, Official Report col 352, what his planned timescale is for a decision of the NHS England Clinical Priorities Advisory Group in relation to commissioning of abiraterone acetate plus prednisone for hormone-sensitive non-metastatic prostate cancer, following the sharing of updated cost impact modelling from Prostate Cancer UK.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In regard to funding for abiraterone specifically, abiraterone is not licensed for use in the treatment of high-risk, non-metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, and as such cannot be evaluated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for routine use on the National Health Service. NICE makes recommendations for the NHS in England on the vast majority of new medicines and significant licence indications for existing medicines, but does not evaluate medicines that are used outside their marketing authorisations or “off-label”.

Funding decisions for off-label medicines are the responsibility of NHS commissioners, who are required to make decisions on the basis of the available evidence. For cancer medicines, NHS England is the responsible commissioner and has an established mechanism to do so through its clinical prioritisation process. NHS England considered abiraterone as an off-label treatment for the treatment of hormone sensitive, non-metastatic prostate cancer through its clinical policy development process in 2024/25. Through this process, NHS England confirmed that there was sufficient supporting evidence to support the routine commissioning of abiraterone in this indication and it was ranked as the top priority for routine commissioning. However, NHS England has not been able to identify the necessary recurrent funding to support the commissioning of abiraterone, or any other treatments within the prioritisation round. This position in being kept under review and will be progressed as soon as recurrent funding is identified.

This position takes into account the need to ensure the affordability of introducing any new routine commissioning policies, alongside maintaining existing services for patients, and of meeting their legal requirement to fund all NICE approved drugs. Abiraterone for the treatment of high-risk, hormone sensitive, non-metastatic prostate cancer remains the top priority for routine commissioning.