Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had discussions with her counterpart in Nigeria on the detention of eight children from the Du Merci Christian orphanage; and whether she is taking diplomatic steps to secure their release.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK government welcomed the return of eight children to the custody of the Du Merci Centre. We are aware that a further eight children remain in the custody of Kano State authorities as court proceedings are ongoing. We have raised this case at senior official level with the Nigerian authorities and stressed the need to prioritise the welfare of the children involved. The enforcement of the court ruling is however a matter for the Nigerian authorities.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will make it her policy to reduce the Passive Infrastructure Access charges to broadband providers installing their own cabling parallel to existing Openreach broadband infrastructure.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As the independent regulator for telecommunications, Ofcom is responsible for making regulatory decisions in the fixed telecoms sector, including on the Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product.
PIA rental charges are set by Ofcom and based on the total cost of the physical infrastructure that Openreach needs to recover. While we are engaging with Ofcom on this issue, it is for the regulator to assess the fair level of these rental charges and DSIT has not made any formal assessment with regard to PIA charges.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, following the Memorandum of Understanding with the Palestinian Authority of April 2025, what step she is taking to help to ensure that content which promotes (a) hatred and (b) is excluded from the Authority's school curriculum.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided to question 83047 on 29 October 2025.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has been selected to represent (a) midwifery, (b) obstetrics and (c) neonatal care for his Independent Maternity and Neonatal Investigation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The list of Expert Advisers supporting Baroness Amos is published in the terms of reference. They include:
a) Professor Julia Sanders and Lesley Sharkey, both midwives.
b) Professor Alex Heazell and Dr Christine Ekechi, both obstetricians.
c) Dr Edile Murdoch and Dr Alison Bedford-Russell, both neonatologists.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the murder of Christians in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria on 14 October 2025; and what discussions she has had with her Nigerian counterpart on taking steps to end targeted attacks on Christians.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer provided by Baroness Chapman to question HL10250 on 23 September.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the length of NHS waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Waiting lists have fallen by over 206,000 since we came to office, and we’ve delivered 5.2 million extra appointments in our first year – more than double what we promised.
Our Elective Reform Plan sets out how we will return to the 18-week standard for elective care by the end of this Parliament, through a combination of investment and reform.Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had discussions with her counterpart in Burkina Faso on violence towards Christian communities in that country; and what steps she is taking to promote religious freedom in Burkina Faso.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to supporting efforts to address the root causes of violence and discrimination in Burkina Faso.
I also refer the Right Hon. Member to the answer Minister Falconer gave on 9 July to Question 63385, concerning UK calls for action on human rights abuses, the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish (a) the long list of NHS trusts considered by the Chair for inclusion in the Independent Maternity and Neonatal Investigation and (b) the selection criteria used by the Investigation team to assess those trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 14 National Health Service trusts to be looked at in the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation were announced on 15 September 2025. There are no plans to publish the long list of NHS trusts considered by the Chair for inclusion in the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation.
The 14 NHS trusts were selected by the independent investigation based on a variety of factors, including results from the Care Quality Commission’s Maternity Patient Survey and Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK’s Perinatal Mortality Rates, in addition to variation in case mix, trust type, geographic coverage, provision of care to individuals from diverse backgrounds, and family feedback.
Three of the trusts have been included due to their inclusion in previous investigations or reviews, these three trusts being the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what metrics are used to assess the efficiency of the Army recruitment system; and what estimate he has made of the most recent assessment of the efficiency of the Army recruitment system.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The efficiency of the British Army Recruitment pipeline is constantly measured on a daily, weekly and monthly basis through various key performance indicators (KPI) throughout the recruitment process to the end of basic training.
These KPIs vary depending on stage of the process but make assessments based on numbers of registrations, Army briefings and their effectiveness, questionnaires, assessment centre attendance, individual career discussions and the success, fail, defer and conversion rates of basic training.
The assessment process has recently helped enhance areas of the recruitment system including an improved and updated website and candidate portal, digitised collection of the primary health care records (PHCR) and the implementation of AI to scrutinise each PHCR.
The British Army has a continuous early initiative to seek improvements of the process and system.
Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to engage faith leaders and organisations who are unaware of the Civil Society Covenant framework launch.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Civil Society Covenant Framework was launched in October 2024 and used as the basis for extensive engagement with over 1,200 organisations across government and civil society’s full diversity, including many faith and interfaith groups. These insights and experiences have helped ensure that the Covenant is inclusive of organisations of all purposes, sizes, geographical locations, and those that are led by underrepresented groups.
The Civil Society Covenant was launched by the Prime Minister in July 2025 at a major civil society summit. As we move forward, we will continue to work with our government and civil society partners, including faith organisations, to raise awareness across their members and networks and drive engagement with the Covenant at national, local and grassroots levels. MPs are encouraged to make organisations in their constituencies aware of the Covenant.