Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Justice on protecting maternity safety campaigners from Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There have been no discussions between my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice on protecting maternity safety campaigners from Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with telecommunications providers on improving the resilience and security of newly installed infrastructure; and whether she plans to introduce updated (a) regulation and (b) penalties relating to the theft and resale of telecommunications cable.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government recognises the significant distress and disruption that cable theft and vandalism cause for individuals, businesses and critical national infrastructure.
That is why we work closely with the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP), which brings together policing, law enforcement and industry partners, including from the telecommunications sector, to tackle metal and cable theft through intelligence sharing and crime prevention activity. In March 2026, the policing minister met NICRP representatives to understand the scale of infrastructure crime and explore how Government can support the partnership’s work.
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like tackling the theft and resale of telecommunications cables.
We have hit our target of 3,000 more neighbourhood officers in March and our target remains 13,000 by the end of this Parliament. Police reforms and wider crime prevention measures are intended to ensure that forces have the capability and flexibility to work with communities and business to deploy specific security technologies as required.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent repeat theft of telecommunications cables in the same location; and whether additional (a) policing resources and (b) surveillance measures are being deployed in areas experiencing persistent incidents.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government recognises the significant distress and disruption that cable theft and vandalism cause for individuals, businesses and critical national infrastructure.
That is why we work closely with the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership (NICRP), which brings together policing, law enforcement and industry partners, including from the telecommunications sector, to tackle metal and cable theft through intelligence sharing and crime prevention activity. In March 2026, the policing minister met NICRP representatives to understand the scale of infrastructure crime and explore how Government can support the partnership’s work.
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like tackling the theft and resale of telecommunications cables.
We have hit our target of 3,000 more neighbourhood officers in March and our target remains 13,000 by the end of this Parliament. Police reforms and wider crime prevention measures are intended to ensure that forces have the capability and flexibility to work with communities and business to deploy specific security technologies as required.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what protections are in place to ensure that individuals who raise concerns about NHS services are not subject to inappropriate access to their personal medical records.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department takes the issue of inappropriate access to anyone’s medical records seriously. There are various safeguards used in the National Health Service to prevent unauthorised access to patient records.
NHS England is developing guidance which is focused on inappropriate access to patient records. The guidance will be aimed at NHS organisations and highlights the importance of ensuring that patient records are only ever accessed for legitimate purposes and any inappropriate access is likely to be considered a significant data breach. The guidance will be published in the coming months.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what the annual expenditure by the UK Research and Innovation on research workforce development programmes, including fellowships, training awards and capacity-building initiatives, was in each financial year from 2019–20 to 2024–25; and what proportion of that expenditure was allocated to (a) dementia, (b) cancer, (c) stroke and (d) coronary heart disease research, where such categorisation is held.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) supports and encourages the development of researchers’ skills and knowledge at all career stages across all its investments through dedicated skills, talents, and training investments.
The table below shows total annual UKRI spend from 2019-20 to 2024-25. Data relating to capacity-building initiatives is not recorded by UKRI.
Total UKRI Spend (£M) | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Training grants | 414 | 429 | 415.7 | 421.1 | 436.2 | 465.5 |
Fellowships | 165.1 | 217.2 | 223.9 | 260.1 | 261.1 | 282.7 |
Total | 579.1 | 646.2 | 639.6 | 681.2 | 697.3 | 748.2 |
Expenditure breakdowns are not available for dementia, cancer, stroke and coronary heart disease research.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 20 April 2026 to Question 126112 on Service Pupil Premium, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Service Pupil Premium in meeting the additional needs of pupils who are the children of service personnel.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Service Pupil Premium (SPP) provides extra funding to help schools meet the pastoral and educational needs of children from service families. It is designed to help schools respond to the specific challenges associated with service life, including mobility, parental deployment and periods of family separation.
Schools have flexibility in how they use SPP funding, and there are many examples of it being used constructively to support service children. The department works closely with the Ministry of Defence to provide joint guidance for schools and share good practice. It is important that schools remain attentive to the potential impacts of service life on pupils’ educational experience and their wider wellbeing.
As a group, service children’s academic attainment is broadly comparable to that of non‑Service, non‑free school meals pupils, and their rates of progression to further education, employment or training after key stage 4 are also similar.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which industry partners were consulted as part of the process for the development of options to replace VPAG under the US-UK pharmaceutical deal.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The arrangement between the United States and United Kingdom has been received positively by industry so far and will continue supporting greater investment in UK life sciences.
The Government and the UK life sciences industry have launched a Joint Taskforce to drive innovation in the UK’s commercial environment for medicines. As part of the delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan and Life Science Sector Plan, the Government has established a sprint process with the pharmaceutical sector to consider options for accelerating progress towards the Government’s ambitions for the UK being the third most important Life Science economy by 2035.
The process will involve key agencies such as NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and will engage with charitable and patient groups to ensure a broad range of views are considered. Industry is represented by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and a sample of their members companies. A full list of these companies is provided below.
The Joint Taskforce process will not represent formal voluntary scheme negotiations but acts as a precursor to develop options for the future of the voluntary scheme and look at the broader medicines pricing system.
With regard to the pilots, the Arrangement commits that the pilots should be agreed by 30 June this year and be launched by 1 September. The sprint process to consider options, including pilots, continues as planned. Industry sprint representatives are as follows:
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the government will meet its target piloting replacement options for VPAG under the US-UK pharmaceutical deal by 30 June 2026.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The arrangement between the United States and United Kingdom has been received positively by industry so far and will continue supporting greater investment in UK life sciences.
The Government and the UK life sciences industry have launched a Joint Taskforce to drive innovation in the UK’s commercial environment for medicines. As part of the delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan and Life Science Sector Plan, the Government has established a sprint process with the pharmaceutical sector to consider options for accelerating progress towards the Government’s ambitions for the UK being the third most important Life Science economy by 2035.
The process will involve key agencies such as NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and will engage with charitable and patient groups to ensure a broad range of views are considered. Industry is represented by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and a sample of their members companies. A full list of these companies is provided below.
The Joint Taskforce process will not represent formal voluntary scheme negotiations but acts as a precursor to develop options for the future of the voluntary scheme and look at the broader medicines pricing system.
With regard to the pilots, the Arrangement commits that the pilots should be agreed by 30 June this year and be launched by 1 September. The sprint process to consider options, including pilots, continues as planned. Industry sprint representatives are as follows:
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to NHS trusts on accessing patient medical records outside of direct clinical care; and what safeguards are in place to prevent unauthorised access.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s website provides a range of information governance guidance to the National Health Service on the secure and appropriate use of medical records, including guidance on the use of records outside of direct care. This can be found at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/information-governance
There are various safeguards used in the NHS to prevent unauthorised access to patient records. These include:
role based access control, meaning users are restricted in what they can access, so that it is appropriate to their role;
multi-factor authentication, meaning users are required to prove their identify with at least two details;
shielding records, meaning as records can be hidden from normal view, and only accessed by contacting an authoriser, or via an alert triggered by attempted access;
organisational policies determined at local level; and
auditing, with systems recording who has accessed a record and when, in case this needs to be reviewed/investigated.
Staff accessing systems are bound by employment contract and professional codes of conduct to ensure their access to data is necessary and appropriate. All organisations handling patient data should have training in place to ensure staff are aware of their responsibilities.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to implement exemptions of sites below 0.2 hectares from BNG requirements.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Government intends to bring forward secondary legislation to implement the 0.2ha BNG exemption before summer recess 2026, subject to parliamentary scheduling.