Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of (a) data centres and (b) AI infrastructure on demand for water in the next 10 years.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency will be publishing its updated National Framework for Water Resources in 2025. This will reflect the expectation that regional water resources plans explore opportunities to deliver cross sector mutual benefits, as set out in a joint letter from Government and water regulators to regional water resources groups in January 2023.
This will include the need to work with data centre and AI industries to establish and understand their potential water demands, seeking to identify potential mutually beneficial solutions.
In some parts of England which are designated as water stressed, water companies may not be able to supply the required volume of water. The data centre and AI industry will need to investigate and plan for alternative sources of water, including on site water storage and water recycling.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the number of (a) data centres and (b) AI infrastructure on demand for electricity in the next ten years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government does not project demand by type of end use. Instead, it projects forward total electricity demand by sector, based on trends in past data and the observed past relationship with economic drivers, such as price and economic growth. We therefore do not have projections of electricity demand from data centres and AI infrastructure. This would however be picked up in the future through the statistical analysis if increases in consumption from these sources lead to significant deviation from past trends and relationships.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children in the Borough of Halton are waiting for (a) autism and (b) ADHD assessments; and what the average waiting times are for such assessments.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data on the number of children on a waiting list for an assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not held centrally, but may be held locally by individual National Health Service trusts or commissioners. The Cheshire and Merseyside integrated care board (ICB) has provided data on the number of children awaiting an ADHD assessment, and state that at the end of January 2024, there were 230 children awaiting an assessment in Halton. The longest wait time for an ADHD assessment in Halton is 53 weeks, with an average wait time for assessment and outcome or diagnosis of 46 weeks.
The Department is exploring options for improving national data collection and reporting on waiting times for ADHD assessments, to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way, and in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline on ADHD. The National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned a research project to provide initial insights into local ADHD assessment waiting time data collection.
With respect to autism, NHS England publishes data on how many people are waiting for an autism diagnosis and for how long, which provides useful information nationally and locally to support local areas in improving their performance and reducing assessment and diagnosis waiting times. Data is not available publicly for the Borough of Halton, but is available publicly for the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, and therefore the ICB has provided data on numbers of children waiting for autism assessments in Halton. As of the end of January 2024, they state there were 848 children awaiting autism assessment in Halton. The longest wait time for an autism assessment panel and outcome or diagnosis in Halton is 107 weeks.
The NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB advises that it is working with providers to increase capacity, and has put waiting list initiatives in place to help reduce waiting times for autism assessments. The ICB also commissions pre and post diagnosis support for children and young people on autism and ADHD waiting lists, and is planning on commissioning a coordinator role to support families whilst they are waiting for neurodevelopmental assessments.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients in Halton constituency have been waiting for elective care more that (a) 12 and (b) 18 months.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not held in the format requested. Data is collected on patients waiting over 52 weeks, 65 weeks and 78 weeks, with more information available at the following link:
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many meetings ministers in his Department have had with representatives of SMEs that are developing (a) defence-related artificial intelligence and (b) artificial intelligence with potential defence capacity in each year since 2015.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of police officers recruited between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2023 have since resigned in (a) Cheshire and (b) England.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect information on the length of service of police officers leaving the police service.
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of police officer leavers in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.
Information on the number of police officer leavers, by Police Force Area, between the years ending 31 March 2007 and 2023, can be found in the ‘Leavers Open Data Table’ here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64ba76662059dc000d5d27c0/open-data-table-police-workforce-leavers-260723.ods. The data does not include length of service to identify when the individual joined the police service.
Voluntary resignation rates in both Cheshire and England, at around 3%, are low compared to other sectors.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers in (a) Cheshire and (b) England have been assaulted in each year since 2016.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Data on the number of police officer assaults is collected and published by the Office for National Statistics as part of their quarterly ‘Crime in England and Wales’ police recorded crime series. This can be accessed here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice.
Information on the number of police officers assaulted in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area, for the year ending 31 March 2013 onwards, can be found in police recorded crime open data table here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65afb470bc0de3000d187340/prc-pfa-mar2013-onwards-tables-250124.ods.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of police offers in Cheshire who have taken sick leave have been diagnosed with a mental health condition in each year since 2016.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect information on how many and what proportion of police officers who have taken sick leave have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of police officers on long term absence, which includes sickness, as at 31 March each year, in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.
Information on long term absences, by Police Force Area, and the reason for absence, between the years ending 31 March 2007 and 2023, can be found in the ‘Absences Open Data Table’ here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64ba613a2059dc00125d2782/open-data-table-police-workforce-absence-260723.ods.
The data are broken down by absence type which includes sickness. However, the reason for sick absence is not collected and as such it is not possible to determine how many police officers on sick absence have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much and what proportion of his Department's budget was spent on AI development in each year since 2016.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence AI Centre is monitoring over 250 projects and programmes that are exploring the use of AI technologies as part of a capability or system. However, it is difficult to calculate the Department’s overall spend on AI as cost data for these component elements is typically integrated within broader programme costs. Work is underway to better delineate this investment across MOD and improve our understanding over time.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to engage with small and medium-sized enterprises that express interest in developing defence-related AI technologies.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to the defence AI supply chain and we are pursuing several initiatives to more clearly communicate our AI requirements, address barriers to frictionless collaboration, and incentivise engagement and co-creation with small and medium-sized enterprises.
In addition, MOD published its SME Action Plan in 2022 outlining specific commitments to improve engagement with smaller businesses including improving visibility of opportunities and simplifying our procurement approach. We are also encouraging our major suppliers to publish their own sub-contract opportunities through the Defence Sourcing Portal, making it easier for SMEs to find and bid for defence work.