Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps her Department is taking to coordinate across the Home Office, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Education to ensure that English language testing used for immigration and education purposes aligns with the United Kingdom’s national interest.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The government supports adults aged 19+ in England who speak English as a second or additional language to access English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision, funded through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), subject to the eligibility requirements laid out in the ASF.
The English language requirement ensures that people coming to the UK have the language skills they need, whether that is to work or study in the UK or to live with their family. Being able to understand, speak, read and write in English is an important part of a person’s overall ability to integrate and engage with the wider community in the UK.
Work is also underway in the Department for Education to review ESOL content to ensure adults can gain the language skills they need for life, work and further study.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what steps he is taking to help improve the performance of the delivery of first class letters in the North East region.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
While it is welcome that Royal Mail’s most recently released quality of service figures, for Q1 26/27, show an improvement, I have been frank in my conversations with Royal Mail’s leadership that the service has been unacceptable for too long and the pace of improvement must increase, including for customers in the North East.
Ofcom, as the independent regulator, is responsible for setting, monitoring and enforcing Royal Mail’s service standards under the universal service obligation.
Ofcom continues to monitor Royal Mail’s quality of service data closely and will take regulatory action where necessary to hold the company to account for improving service standards.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2026 to Question 5917 on London North Eastern Railway: WiFi, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact on regional productivity of this timescale.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The DFTO has developed the Business Case in accordance with Transport Appraisal Guidance, assessing the economic benefits that arise through improvements in rail passenger productivity and the likelihood of additional rail journeys. The DFTO’s assessment has been undertaken on an individual train operating company level.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of targeted wholesale discounts by Openreach on alternative network providers' investment in full-fibre infrastructure.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Ofcom, the independent regulator, is responsible for regulating the UK’s wholesale telecoms market. As part of this, it has powers to impose pricing remedies on Openreach to promote competition and protect consumers. The Government’s Statement of Strategic Priorities for Telecommunications steers Ofcom to closely monitor Openreach’s commercial terms and pricing to ensure fair competition, whilst supporting investment, economic growth and the roll out of high-quality digital infrastructure. My department engages with Ofcom regularly on matters related to this market.
On 1 June 2026, Openreach notified Ofcom of its proposed wholesale offers. This was in accordance with Ofcom’s requirement for Openreach to provide at least 120 days’ notice of wholesale discounts. To inform its assessment of the offers, Ofcom has published a Call for Inputs to determine whether the discounts raise any competition concerns and is expected to reach a decision after the summer.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with Ofcom on the potential impact of Openreach pricing on the Government’s strategic priorities for the telecoms sector.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Ofcom, the independent regulator, is responsible for regulating the UK’s wholesale telecoms market. As part of this, it has powers to impose pricing remedies on Openreach to promote competition and protect consumers. The Government’s Statement of Strategic Priorities for Telecommunications steers Ofcom to closely monitor Openreach’s commercial terms and pricing to ensure fair competition, whilst supporting investment, economic growth and the roll out of high-quality digital infrastructure. My department engages with Ofcom regularly on matters related to this market.
On 1 June 2026, Openreach notified Ofcom of its proposed wholesale offers. This was in accordance with Ofcom’s requirement for Openreach to provide at least 120 days’ notice of wholesale discounts. To inform its assessment of the offers, Ofcom has published a Call for Inputs to determine whether the discounts raise any competition concerns and is expected to reach a decision after the summer.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether (a) her Department and (b) its Arm’s Length Bodies have financially supported the development of any technical solutions to protect the creative industries from unauthorised AI scraping.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Department has not financially supported the development of any technical solutions to protect the creative industries from unauthorised AI scraping. The Government published a report on AI and copyright on 18 March outlining steps on the use of copyright works in AI training. This includes publishing a review of the mechanisms available for creators to control their works online.
Additionally, UK Research and Innovation funds various investments across Responsible AI development and adoption, including DECaDE: Centre for Decentralised Digital Economy. DECaDE undertook research across technologies to develop robust content fingerprinting, distributed provenance registries, and Trustmark, an open-source watermarking technology.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of a) the US Cloud Act and b) the EU AI Act; and whether she has plans to bring forward similar legislation.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The UK’s starting point is relying on existing rules and regulations and empowering our regulators to consider how best to manage the opportunities and risks of AI. We continue to refine our approach to regulating AI and ensuring our law enforcement authorities have the powers they need to keep people safe. DSIT closely monitors international AI legislation from across the US, EU and elsewhere to ensure the UK’s regulatory approach remains suitable.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his department spent on research into improving the (a) accessibility and (b) cost of dentistry in the last 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds clinical, public health, and social care research and works in partnership with the National Health Service, universities, local government, other research funders, patients, and the public, and has funded a range of investigative studies, including for dentistry. In the last 12 months, the Department, via the NIHR, has spent at least £9.1 million on many aspects of dental research including improving access for vulnerable populations and assessing the cost-effectiveness of preventative and workforce-led interventions. Further information about the awards can be found at the following link:
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/?query=dentistry
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many robots are deployed in the armed forces and how much funding for robotic development has his department made available.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence does not have a single agreed definition of the term 'robot'. While we operate a wide variety of autonomous platforms, the Department's policy is not to publish detailed information on certain specific capabilities on the grounds of operational security.
I want to see greater use of drones and autonomous systems across our Armed Forces to enhance their lethality and survivability. The Defence Investment Plan includes measures to support this ambition.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department plans to take to support (a) Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (b) Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to become accredited as Living Wage Employers.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual National Health Service organisations are free to make local decisions to enhance pay and may choose, at their own discretion, to pursue Living Wage Employer accreditation. The Department does not have plans to provide direct support to foundation trusts to become accredited Living Wage Employers.
Following acceptance of the NHS Pay Review Body recommendation on headline pay for 2026/27, the Agenda for Change (AfC) entry hourly rate in England now sits 21p per hour above the National Living Wage.
Negotiations on reforms to the AfC pay structure are undertaken through the NHS Staff Council. We are working in partnership with them to agree changes in 2026/27, backdated to 1 April 2026.