Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what information her Department holds on the proportion of chatbots deployed in the UK that use search-based functionality as part of their responses; and what assessment she has made of the whether AI chatbot users in the UK are adequately protected from harmful content.

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

Generative AI services, including chatbots, that allow users to share content with one another or that search live websites to provide search results are regulated under the Online Safety Act and must protect users from illegal content and children from harmful and age-inappropriate content.

The Secretary of State confirmed in Parliament this week that the government is considering how AI chatbots interact with the Act and also urged Ofcom to use its existing powers to ensure that AI chatbots are safe for children.

Where evidence demonstrates that further action is necessary to protect children and the wider public, we will not hesitate to act.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward a strategy for dental health research.

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

The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Whilst there are currently no plans to develop a dental health research strategy, the NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dental research. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.

The Department, through the NIHR, funds clinical academic training for doctors and dentists through the Integrated Academic Training Programme. This includes Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) at the pre-doctoral level and Clinical Lectureships (CLs) at the post-doctoral level. Over the last five years, 91 ACFs and 24 CLs were recruited in dentistry.

The Department also funds the NIHR Oral Health Research Incubator, which is a researcher-led initiative aimed at building dental research capacity at the national level.

Ongoing research at Newcastle University is investigating the roles and skill utilisation of professionals in dental practice.

In addition, investments in NIHR infrastructure support the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry. For example, through the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre’s Oral and Dental Medicine research theme.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November 2025 to Question 83750 on Health Services: Innovation, what mechanisms are in place to monitor and evaluate the successful adoption and diffusion of health innovations across the NHS; which bodies are responsible for measuring this impact at (a) national and (b) regional levels; and how these findings inform future commissioning and policy decisions.

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

No organisations hold a statutory responsibility specifically to monitor or evaluate the rates of the successful adoption and spread of health innovation in the National Health Service. However, the NHS Business Services Authority, on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences, publishes the Innovation Scorecard every six months. This is of significant use to the NHS and has been published since January 2013.

The Innovation Scorecard reports on the use of medicines and medicine groupings in the NHS in England, which have been positively appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). It reveals what NICE-recommended treatments are available at a local level within trusts and integrated care boards, as well as at national and NHS England region levels. Data limitations mean it cannot be used for performance management, but it does allow the NHS to identify variation, which, through discussion, can be explained, challenged, or acted upon.

Several organisations organise additional detailed evaluations for specific groups of health innovations. For example, the Health Innovation Network (HIN) oversees numerous national programmes which monitor the uptake and spread of selected health innovations. This helps them, and NHS England, determine how best to improve the uptake of these innovations.

Regionally, HINs also undertake monitoring and evaluation for selected innovations that they support. Integrated care boards and providers may also choose to conduct their own evaluations, using local data to understand whether innovations deliver expected improvements in outcomes or efficiency.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will take steps with the Office for Product Safety and Standards to ensure that regulations and repairability indexes for small electrical devices promote not only professional repair services but also end-user self-repair.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information Regulations 2021 require manufacturers of a number of products to provide certain spare parts to end-users as well as professional repairers. The Government continues to review ecodesign and energy labelling regulations for other small electrical devices as part of our ongoing programme of work. We are committed to introducing repairability measures, including those designed to support end-users, where doing so is appropriate.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether Innovate UK will resume its Smart Grants funding stream to support innovation-led start-ups.

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

The Smart grants programme has been paused while Innovate UK redesigns its funding programmes to best suit the needs of innovative businesses and align to the objectives of the Government’s Industrial Strategy.

However, Innovate UK has launched a new £130 million ‘Growth Catalyst’ Innovate UK scheme focused on scaling innovative businesses in Industrial Strategy growth sectors. This offers grants, aligned private sector investment, and tailored support to companies, and this approach has a track record of driving 10:1 follow-on investment.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to align the UK with EU Directives 2024/1781/EU, 2024/1799/EU and 2024/825/EU.

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

The Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy and is actively looking for opportunities to learn from and build on international best practices to explore what levers and interventions could work domestically.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department provides to school trusts to safeguard against cyber attacks and to protect children's personal data.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department provides guidance to help schools build their cyber resilience in our Cyber Security Standards, which address the core principles of cyber governance, processes and strategy.

We have also introduced a free interactive assessment tool, Plan Your Technology, to help schools understand if they meet our Cyber Security Standards and support schools to achieve them. We have incorporated the cyber security standards into Keeping Children Safe in Education and the Academy Trust Handbook. The department also has a small, dedicated sector cyber security team to support schools. This team provides appropriate advice and guidance via regular targeted and broad communications and more specific incident signposting when required.

The department’s Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) added cover for cyber incidents from 2022. With over 60% of schools RPA members, in the event of a cyber incident they have access to a 24/7 Incident Response Service.

We also work closely with the National Cyber Crime Security Centre (NCSC), who offer cyber security tools and guidance for schools, including free Protective Domain Name Service.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has she made of the implications for UK waste disposal and consumer product policy of the levels of unwanted electrical items discarded annually by households which could be reused or repaired.

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

We have not undertaken this assessment. The WEEE Regulations 2013 are designed to minimise the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) incinerated or sent to landfill sites. The regulations require producers of electrical equipment to take financial responsibility for products they place on the market when they become waste and to ensure they are properly collected and treated. The Government is committed to move towards a Circular Economy where we keep products in use for longer and waste is designed out. In the new year, we will publish the Circular Economy Growth Plan that sets out how the Government will deliver this transition in sectors right across the economy, including electricals.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December to Question 96656, if she will make an assessment of the a) the proportion of chatbots which use search and b) the characteristics of chatbots which use search.

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

Chatbots that use search capabilities are designed to generate responses for users by actively searching the live web. This functionality means they would be captured by the Online Safety Act’s duties as a search service.

The Secretary of State confirmed in Parliament that the government is considering how AI chatbots interact with the Act and has also urged Ofcom to use its existing powers to ensure that AI chatbots are safe for children.

As part of this work, the government continues to assess the prevalence and nature of chatbot services.

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Found: Letter dated 17/12/2025 from Baroness Lloyd of Effra to Chi Onwurah MP regarding further information

Hair and beauty products (chemicals applied to the hair or body for cosmetic purposes) and treatments (cosmetic procedures typically performed by specialists) can cause harm to consumers if they contain unregulated ingredients or if they are improperly administered.  The inquiry will respond to recent research which has led to concerns about the current scientific evidence base and regulation for these products, as well as the required training and qualifications of specialists performing treatments.  The inquiry will also investigate the growing concern that certain products that are commonly used by marginalised groups, such as creams to ‘relax’ afro-type hair and synthetic hair, can contain harmful chemicals.

On 15 July 2025 the Defence Secretary told the House of Commons about a large-scale data breach that had taken place in 2022, when a Ministry of Defence official emailed a spreadsheet to an external contact, unaware that it contained details relating to 18,700 Afghan nationals applying for relocation.