Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what is the proposed timetable for the Post Implementation Review of the Online Safety Act.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State is required under section 178 of the Online Safety Act to review the regulatory framework between two and five years after the last of the provisions of Part 3 come into force. Part 3 of the Act includes key duties for regulated services, including the additional duties for categorised services which are not yet in force. These timelines ensure the review takes place once the regime is fully operational and its impact can be properly assessed. Additional monitoring and evaluation work is already underway to ensure we have robust evidence on the Act’s effectiveness and impact.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what are the key differences between the National Security Online Information Team and its predecessor, the Counter-Disinformation Unit.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Counter Disinformation Unit became the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT) in October 2023. The name more accurately reflects the team’s revised remit and function, which is to identify and understand information threats to UK audiences, focusing on those which present a public safety or national security risk.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the ratio of community hospital beds to acute hospital beds is in (a) England (b) Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and (c) the Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on both general and acute beds and intermediate beds at a national and regional level is published monthly on the NHS England website.
Data on general and acute beds is available at the following link:
Data on intermediate care beds is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/intermediate-care/
Trust-level data is not published for intermediate care beds.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, which postcodes are in scope in the Hampshire CityFibre contract in East Hampshire constituency.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As part of Project Gigabit, CityFibre is delivering a contract to bring gigabit-capable broadband to thousands of rural and hard-to-reach premises across Hampshire. In the East Hampshire constituency, approximately 5,100 premises are currently included in this contract.
Information on premises in the Hon. Member’s constituency included in the contract's initial scope can be found in the attached spreadsheet. This data is based on the January 2025 Open Market Review (OMR) process.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department issues guidance on a target ratio of step-down beds to acute beds in an acute hospital’s catchment area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Neither the Department nor NHS England have issued specific guidance on a national fixed target ratio for step-down beds to acute beds. The number of step-down beds should be determined by local population needs and patient flow assessments.
Since 2024, NHS England supports this local determination by making available data on the use and occupancy of community beds, which may provide step-down or step-up care, available to systems and service providers.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in each Integrated Care Board area, (a) what the resident population is and (b) how many full-time equivalent clinical staff are employed in (i) community hospital in-patient care and (ii) home-based care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for National Statistics publishes population estimates for health geographies, including integrated care board. The data is available at the following link:
The Department does not hold information on the number of clinical staff in community hospital in-patient care and home-based care. Staff are employed by National Health Service trusts and may be employed across a more than one type of setting over the course of their work.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
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 average waiting times were for discharge pathways (a) 0, (b) 1, (c) 2 and (d) 3 in (i) England, (ii) Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ICB area and (iii) Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on the average wait times for individual discharge pathways is not held centrally.
Data on the number of adult patients in acute hospital beds who are medically ready for discharge but not discharged, is published monthly by NHS England. For patients with a length of stay of at least 14 days, the average number of patients experiencing delayed discharge is broken down by reason for delay, some of which relate to specific discharge pathways. The publication also reports the number of people discharged onto each discharge pathway each month. This data is available at an England, integrated care board, and National Health Service trust level, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
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 legislative proposals to mandate the installation of automated external defibrillators in retirement (a) villages and (b) homes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces and reducing inequalities in access to these life saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED fund, launched in September 2023, the Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the Fund.
The Department selected a joint bid from Smarter Society as its independent partner to manage grant applications. Smarter Society reviewed funding applications, against requirements specified by the Department. These requirements were to ensure that the resource was allocated where there was the greatest need, e.g. remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.
At present, there are no plans to introduce legislation requiring the installation of AEDs in retirement villages and homes. Additionally, the Department has not conducted a formal assessment of the number of AEDs currently in place within these facilities. As noted above, this is because AEDs are allocated based on greatest need, and collecting this data would not likely be decision relevant.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of retirement (a) villages and (b) homes without automated external defibrillators.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces and reducing inequalities in access to these life saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED fund, launched in September 2023, the Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the Fund.
The Department selected a joint bid from Smarter Society as its independent partner to manage grant applications. Smarter Society reviewed funding applications, against requirements specified by the Department. These requirements were to ensure that the resource was allocated where there was the greatest need, e.g. remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.
At present, there are no plans to introduce legislation requiring the installation of AEDs in retirement villages and homes. Additionally, the Department has not conducted a formal assessment of the number of AEDs currently in place within these facilities. As noted above, this is because AEDs are allocated based on greatest need, and collecting this data would not likely be decision relevant.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2025 to Question 65243 on Prisoners' Release, what data her Department holds on trends over time in the average length of time spent on recall for (a) determinate sentenced prisoners and (b) all prisoners.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The requested information for the average length of time spent on recall for indeterminate prisoners can be found in Table 5_Q_11 of the Department’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/680923bf148a9969d2394f58/licence-recalls-Oct-to-Dec-2024.ods.
The corresponding information for determinate sentenced prisoners is only obtainable at disproportionate cost as it requires data matching between different data systems (namely prison recall information from the Public Protection Unit Database, and prisoner release information from prison-NOMIS).