Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make it her policy to ensure that (a) all cars sold in the UK must have had safety tests undertaken on them that include specifically-female crash dummies in both the driver and passenger seats and (b) data from such tests is (i) recorded and (ii) published.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The latest international vehicle regulations covering frontal impact protection developed under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) currently use a crash test dummy representative of a female occupant in the front passenger seat. The Government is currently considering mandating this regulation in Great Britain as part of an extensive package of vehicle safety measures.

The UNECE has also established a group of experts, in which the Department for Transport is an active member, which is reviewing its Regulations to ensure all vehicle occupants benefit from comparable levels of protection irrespective of their sex, age or stature. This is likely to require testing with a greater number of female occupant locations.

The Department for Transport remains a member of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP). This programme is complementary to regulation and includes impact tests using crash test dummies representative of a female occupant in the driver and opposite rear passenger seating positions.

Data from regulatory testing is recorded by the Type Approval Authority responsible for approval, but the data is highly technical and not routinely published. Summarised data from Euro NCAP testing is translated into easily understood safety information and is always published on its website - www.euroncap.com

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with Artificial Intelligence developers to ensure they do not introduce gender bias in their algorithms.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

It is crucial that AI systems are developed and deployed in a fair, inclusive and responsible way. That is why we have designated AI assurance as a key pillar of support for meeting the commitments made in government’s response to the AI Opportunities Action Plan.

As part of our work on AI assurance, we recently concluded our Fairness Innovation Challenge, which provided over £465,000 to fund the development of novel solutions to address bias and discrimination – including gender bias – in AI systems across four different sectors.

The Secretary of State and his department will continue to engage with AI developers on a range of matters related to model development and deployment.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy that publicly-funded medical trials (a) must be balanced by sex and (b) results must be sex-disaggregated.

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

Medical trials, wherever possible, should always be balanced by sex, however, certain clinical trials are designed to investigate conditions that are only specific to one sex, so enforcing a balance would not make sense on those occasions.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). As outlined in the Research Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027, the NIHR is committed to exploring an approach which enables and encourages the research community to integrate sex and gender into their research design, including in the disaggregation of research findings. The Research Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027 is available at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/who-we-are/research-inclusion/strategy-2022-27

On 10 March, the NIHR launched its sex and gender policy, which is expected to come into force later in 2025, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/integrating-sex-and-gender-health-and-care-research

Implementing such a policy will ensure that research accounts for sex and gender across every stage of the research cycle, thus facilitating both funding into topics that impact males and females, and a greater understanding of how they might be impacted differently by the same health condition.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to provide free menstrual products to homelessness shelters.

Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government does not directly commission homelessness shelters or services. In 2025/26 the Government is investing £1 billion in homelessness services, an increase of £233 million on the previous year. Local authorities can use this funding to provide a range of services to meet local need, which may include the provision of menstrual and other sanitary products.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the impact of (a) diamorphine assisted therapy, (b) safe consumption rooms and (c) needle and syringe exchange services on rates of skin and soft tissue infection.

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

The Department does not collect information on the impact of diamorphine assisted therapy (DAT), safe consumption rooms and needle and exchange services on rates of soft skin tissue infections (SSTI). The Department is aware of the dangers of SSTI to people who inject drugs and in 2021 issued guidance for commissioners and providers of drugs services on being ‘wound aware’. This recommends that a range of local services can help prevent SSTIs and stop them getting worse through early identification and treatment.

DAT is an option that remains open to local areas under the existing legal framework, where the relevant licences are obtained from the Home Office. There is good evidence that needle and syringe programmes alongside opioid substitution treatment are associated with reduced rates of HIV and hepatitis C infection in the target population. The review of the evidence is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/drug-misuse-treatment-in-england-evidence-review-of-outcomes

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2025 to Question 61211 on Asbestos: Ovarian Cancer, if she will direct the Health and Safety Executive to collect data on asbestos-related ovarian cancer cases.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Collecting data on individual cases of asbestos-related ovarian cancer is not feasible due to difficulties attributing them to historic exposure with confidence. Significant resource would be needed to produce estimates based on epidemiological evidence. These are likely to be small in comparison to other asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma (which is more clearly linked to past exposure) and would have considerable associated uncertainty.

Outsourced cleaners on Tyne and Wear Metro

Apprenticeships strategy

Antisemitism and Holocaust inversion

Government policy on the Hillsborough Law

Safe Inside Prisons Charter

Found: _NC1 Sarah Champion Nadia Whittome Charlotte Nichols Irene Campbell Siân Berry Ellie Chowns Dawn

Found: _NC1 Sarah Champion Nadia Whittome Charlotte Nichols Irene Campbell Siân Berry Ellie Chowns Dawn

Found: _NC1 Sarah Champion Nadia Whittome Charlotte Nichols Irene Campbell Siân Berry Ellie Chowns Dawn

Found: _NC1 Sarah Champion Nadia Whittome Charlotte Nichols Irene Campbell Siân Berry Ellie Chowns Dawn

Found: _NC1 Sarah Champion Nadia Whittome Charlotte Nichols .

Found: REPORT STAGE Wednesday 18 June 2025 80 Not called_9 Sarah Champion Apsana Begum Charlotte Nichols