Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will conduct a review of surgical menopause care.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government will prioritise women’s health as we reform the National Health Service, ensuring that all women experiencing the menopause can access the care that they need. We have taken urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan. In gynaecology, the plan supports innovative models offering patients care closer to home, and the piloting of gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres for patients with post-menopausal bleeding.

Women’s health hubs also have a key role in shifting care out of hospitals and improving the care women receive. Menopause assessment and treatment is a core service that all hubs are expected to provide. As of December 2024, 39 out of 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) reported to NHS England that they had at least one operational women’s health hub. We continue to engage with and encourage ICBs to use the learning from the women’s health hubs pilots to improve local delivery of services to women. At present there are no plans to conduct a review of surgical menopause care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Understanding Menopause guidance by Menopause Support UK will be published.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Menopause Support UK is an independent organisation, and the Department cannot advise on when this guidance will be published. NHS England routinely considers how they signpost to other sources of healthcare guidance. For example, the National Health Service’s website page on menopause signposts users to further sources of information.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to launch a public health information campaign for menopause.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We know that more needs to be done to support women experiencing the menopause. The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we reform the National Health Service and women’s equality will be at the heart of our missions.

It is important that all women experiencing the menopause have access to information and options to enable them to choose the best care to suit them.

NHS England has created a menopause self-care factsheet to help women understand and manage symptoms and know how to seek help. There is also a women’s health area on the NHS website which contains over 100 health topics, and provides information for women on a range of health issues including periods, gynaecological conditions, menopause, and hormone replacement therapy medicines.

In recent months the NHS has also used its Instagram channel to provide users with information on a range of reproductive health issues, including menopause.

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 ensure that GPs have the necessary (a) equipment and (b) training to (i) support people experiencing the menopause and (ii) signpost the appropriate support for each patient.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

A range of training, guidance, and resources are available to help primary care professionals to support women experiencing menopause symptoms.

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has a holistic curriculum of training that all general practitioners (GPs) must cover before they are able to pass the examination to become a member of the RCGP and work independently as a GP. There is a specific section on women’s health, including menopause. To support practicing GPs, the RCGP has developed a Women’s Health Library drawing together educational resources and guidelines on women’s health so primary healthcare professionals have the most up-to-date information. This includes a specific section on menopause. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published their updated guideline in November 2024, which recommends more treatment choices for menopause symptoms.

There are also a range of resources and support that GPs can signpost patients to, for example the National Health Service’s website and the NHS menopause factsheet.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he taking to increase the recycling rates of soft plastics not normally collected at the kerbside.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Recyclable plastic film and flexible packaging is to be collected for recycling from both households and businesses across the UK by 31 March 2027.

Waste is a devolved policy area. This will be implemented as part of Simpler Recycling in England, and the devolved administrations will have similar arrangements.

In the lead up to this requirement, existing kerbside, front of store and postal take back collections of plastic films for recycling will continue and are expected to increase in response to certainty over the timing of the introduction of this new collection requirement. Investment in new UK plastic reprocessing facilities is also expected.

To support our ambitious goals to recycle plastic film, Defra alongside the Flexible Plastic Fund, UK Research and Innovation and Zero Waste Scotland, is funding a multi-million-pound pilot project on flexible plastic kerbside collections.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure wraparound childcare is sufficiently funded in areas with high SEND staffing requirements.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department knows that parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) need childcare provision that meets their and their children’s needs. This government is determined to help these parents and has funded the national wraparound programme to support working families and improve the availability of before and after school childcare, to ensure that parents have the flexibility they need to care for their children.

Wraparound programme funding includes resource for additional staffing to support inclusive provision, including for pupils with particular needs. Local authority allocations are varied to take account of regional differences in the number of pupils with SEND.

The Childcare Act 2006 places a legal duty on local authorities to ensure there are enough childcare places within its locality for working parents or parents who are studying or training for employment, for children aged 0 to 14, or up to age 18 for disabled children. All local authorities should be able to demonstrate how they have discharged this duty and should include specific reference to how they are ensuring there is sufficient childcare to meet the needs of children with SEND, as per the statutory guidance. This should be available from the local authority.

The wraparound programme is helping local authorities discharge this duty, by distributing funding to ensure that local areas can increase the supply of wraparound places. Local authorities across England can decide how best to use the funding to set up or expand wraparound childcare in their area to meet the needs of their local community, including children with SEND.

​The government is also committed to making quick progress to deliver on our commitment to offer breakfast clubs in every primary school. Departmental officials are working closely with schools and sector experts to develop a programme that meets the needs of all children, including those with SEND.

In order to test and learn about how best to support schools in implementing new free universal breakfast clubs, we have selected 750 early adopter schools to deliver from April 2025, ahead of the national roll out to all schools with primary aged children. This includes 50 special schools and alternative provision settings. These settings will receive a higher funding rate, in addition to the fixed termly payments and set up cost funding, in recognition of the need for higher staff to pupil ratios.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of removing VAT for all school uniform sold to primary school-aged children irrespective of whether it is labelled for children under 14.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

No VAT is charged on the sale of children’s clothing and footwear designed for children who are less than 14 years of age. This means that school uniform for primary-school aged children is already free from VAT, provided it falls within the tabled measurements of children up to the eve of their 14^th birthday, as this is when body dimensions begin to merge with those of the general adult population. The UK is one of only two countries among the 37 OECD member countries to maintain a VAT relief for children’s clothing.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on the potential merits of expanding the Online Safety Act 2023 to tackle violence against women ans girls.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

I refer the Honourable Member to the Answer I gave on 10 February to Question UN 27910.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the contribution of youth services in preventing and tackling violence against women and girls.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

As referenced in my response to the answer I gave to question UIN 28128, the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy will set out our strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver our ambition to halve VAWG in the next decade.

We are considering a range of policy options across government to prevent these crimes including education for young people around healthy relationships and consent, community interventions and tackling online VAWG. That includes looking at how we can work most effectively with youth services and through the Young Future Hub programme to deliver this ambition.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what role Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will play in the government's plans to tackle violence against women and girls.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government has committed to the creation of a new Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships, to intervene earlier to ensure vulnerable and at-risk children and young people are identified and offered support in a more systematic way, as well as creating more opportunities for young people in their communities, through the provision of mental health and careers support.

The new Young Futures Hubs will bring together the support services that tackle the underlying needs of vulnerable children and young people and make them more accessible to those that need them. In doing so, the hubs will promote children and young people’s development, improve their mental health and wellbeing, and prevent them from being drawn into crime.

Prevention Partnerships will drive local multi-agency partnership working, improve evidence-based commissioning via existing and innovative mapping exercises and ensure the right support is available to children at-risk of knife crime, ASB and violence against women and girls.

Coalfields Regeneration Trust funding

Keeping transport workers safe

120th anniversary of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary

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Found: _NC7 Ms Stella Creasy Charlotte Nichols Sorcha Eastwood Christine Jardine Abtisam Mohamed Alex Brewer

Found: _NC7 Ms Stella Creasy Charlotte Nichols Sorcha Eastwood Christine Jardine Abtisam Mohamed Alex Brewer

Found: _NC7 Ms Stella Creasy Charlotte Nichols Sorcha Eastwood Christine Jardine Abtisam Mohamed Alex Brewer

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Found: _NC7 Ms Stella Creasy Charlotte Nichols Sorcha Eastwood Christine Jardine Abtisam Mohamed Alex Brewer

Found: _NC7 Ms Stella Creasy Charlotte Nichols Sorcha Eastwood Christine Jardine Abtisam Mohamed Alex Brewer

Found: _NC7 Ms Stella Creasy Charlotte Nichols Sorcha Eastwood Christine Jardine Abtisam Mohamed Alex Brewer

Found: _NC7 Ms Stella Creasy Charlotte Nichols Sorcha Eastwood Christine Jardine Abtisam Mohamed Alex Brewer

Found: _NC7 Ms Stella Creasy Charlotte Nichols Sorcha Eastwood Christine Jardine Abtisam Mohamed Alex Brewer