Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the answer of 9 December to Question 96093, what steps the Government is taking to safeguard individuals from non-sexually explicit deepfakes, digital impersonation, and the misuse of personal identity.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Solutions that help to determine what media is real and what is AI-generated are key to tackling a range of AI risks. The government is undertaking work to explore the potential methods for detecting AI-generated content.
The UK’s Online Safety Act has introduced duties on in scope services to tackle digital impersonation where it amounts to an existing offence, including false statements about a candidate's character or conduct ahead of or during an election.
The UK also has strong data protection laws to help tackle the misuse of personal identity, through the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. These laws require that any personal data processing is lawful, fair and transparent.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to safeguard individuals in response to rapid developments in artificial intelligence, including protecting 1) the general public and 2) Members of Parliament from deepfakes, digital impersonation, and the misuse of personal identity.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government takes the threat posed by harmful deepfakes, including to MPs, very seriously. Deepfakes are captured by the Online Safety Act where they are shared on an in-scope service and constitute illegal content or content harmful to children.
Sharing a deepfake intimate image without consent is a criminal offence under the Act. Government has also legislated to criminalise the non-consensual creation of sexually explicit deepfake images.
The AI Security Institute (AISI) works to build an evidence base on the potential risks advanced AI systems could pose, to inform government decision making and help make AI more secure and reliable.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
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 (a) address shortages in tuberculosis (TB) medications, including drugs for preventive and active TB treatment and (b) ensure that patients are not put at risk due to disrupted access to treatment.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is currently a shortage of some medicines used to treat tuberculosis (TB), non-tuberculous mycobacteria, and other conditions. However, as a result of measures taken, the supply position has significantly improved. Supplies to the market were delayed following regulatory requirements that increased the complexity of the manufacturing process to address serious quality concerns. This was compounded by delivery delays and increased pressure on the products that remain available.
On 21 July 2025, the shortage was designated by the Medicines Shortage Response Group (MSRG) as Tier 4, the highest impact on patients and the system, given the risk to patient and public health. Following a Medicines Supply Notification (MSN) to the system in April, a National Patient Safety Alert was published on 29 July 2025. This provided guidance to clinical teams on prioritising patient care and managing stock. Updates to the issue, including the current status and resupply dates, are regularly maintained via the online Medicines Supply Tool managed by NHS England and the Department.
The situation has improved following ongoing engagement with suppliers and enhanced support from importers. There is now sufficient stock for the treatment of latent TB to continue as normal, and MSRG agreed on 13 October that the issue should be deescalated to a Tier 3, and a new MSN was issued to the system on 23 October 2025.
An Incident Management Team managed the shortage in its most acute phase, led by NHS England and with a broad wider stakeholder group, including the Department and the UK Health Security Agency, and a Supply Chain Management group has co-ordinated the allocation and distribution of the available stock across all four nations.
Thanks to this cross-system collaboration and clinically-led strategy to manage current supplies, the sourcing of additional stock, and the effective prioritisation of the existing supply, the stock levels of many licensed products have improved.
NHS England continues to engage with all relevant suppliers to understand usage and expected resupply dates as well as with specialist importers of unlicensed products to understand their ability to cover the initial and future deficit. Plans are underway to ensure that when further licensed stock becomes available, we can control allocation via wholesalers to enable fair distribution of stock.
Medium to longer-term planning is underway to address ongoing and future challenges in TB medicine supply.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of devolving powers to Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities to allow them to introduce overnight accommodation levies.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Tax policy is a matter for fiscal events.
The Government keeps all tax policy under review.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made recent progress on processing applications for (a) asylum and (b) other forms of settlement made by people from Syria.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The pause on processing asylum claims and settlement protection applications from Syrian nationals has been lifted.
We are working through the outstanding cases in line with the relevant published policy guidance taking into account the latest published country policy information on Syria. Each application will be considered on its individual merits and some cases may require further consideration and evidence gathering.
We will not remove anyone to their own or any country where they would face persecution or serious harm.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Palantir will have (a) exclusive and (b) other access to NHS patients’ DNA data as part of its contracts with the Government.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No data relating to patients’ DNA is included in the datasets processed in the NHS Federated Data Platform provided by a consortium led by Palantir. Faculty had no access to patient DNA data as part of any contract with the Department of Health and Social Care or NHS England.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Faculty will have access to NHS patient DNA data through Government contracts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No data relating to patients’ DNA is included in the datasets processed in the NHS Federated Data Platform provided by a consortium led by Palantir. Faculty had no access to patient DNA data as part of any contract with the Department of Health and Social Care or NHS England.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which companies were contracted by her Department to develop an IT system for the Rwanda scheme; and how much was spent with each company.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The department has set out the costs of the scheme and provided further details to clarify this: Breakdown of Home Office costs associated with the MEDP with Rwanda and the Illegal Migration Act 2023 - GOV.UK.
For a variety of reasons, including issues around commercial sensitivities, we do not expect to provide a further breakdown of IT-related expenditure, but as the Home Secretary has made clear, our work now is to repurpose as much of this money as possible to clear the asylum backlog and move out of hotels.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many contracts (a) the NHS and (b) her Department has with companies owned by Frank Hester.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the value is of her Department's contracts with companies owned by Frank Hester.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.