Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding and workforce capacity, including (a) specialist teachers, (b) teaching assistants, (c) therapists and (d) other support staff, to deliver the SEND support proposals in the Schools White Paper; and whether additional ring-fenced funding will be provided to local authorities and schools to recruit, retain, and reward qualified SEND professionals.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department is investing to ensure all settings have the capacity, expertise and resources to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
We are already seeing positive signs, the latest School Workforce Census reported strong growth in special school teachers, with a 3.9% increase on the previous year, 1,100 more teachers, reflecting the government’s determination to ensure that children with SEND receive the high-quality support they need and deserve.
On 15 April 2026 we announced the Experts at Hand & Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund. The overall grant provides £1.8 billion in Experts at Hand funding and £200m in transformation funding over the course of the three-year spending review period.
To support delivery, we are investing over £40m in the specialist workforce, including £26m to train more educational psychologists and £15m to support more speech and language therapists to work in education settings.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact on health inequality of the Plan B put to the GP Committee.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We recognise that the British Medical Association (BMA) may choose to ballot its members on a range of issues. Such ballots are a matter for the organisation and do not in themselves determine Government policy. The National Health Service, including general practice, will always remain free at the point of use.
We remain committed to working constructively with the general practice profession, including the General Practitioners’ Committee for England of the BMA, to ensure that general practice is sustainable and continues to deliver high-quality care for patients.
The United Kingdom faces significant health inequalities, with life expectancy and healthy life expectancy varying widely both within and between communities. Through our 10-Year Health Plan, we are committed to tackling the social determinants of health, improving healthy life expectancy for everyone and halving the gap between the richest and poorest regions.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
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 the implications for his policies of a) the vote by the BMA GP Committee in favour of the GP Committee for England to explore an alternative strategy for general practice; and b) their commitment to ballot their membership on this issue.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We recognise that the British Medical Association (BMA) may choose to ballot its members on a range of issues. Such ballots are a matter for the organisation and do not in themselves determine Government policy. The National Health Service, including general practice, will always remain free at the point of use.
We remain committed to working constructively with the general practice profession, including the General Practitioners’ Committee for England of the BMA, to ensure that general practice is sustainable and continues to deliver high-quality care for patients.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with Ofcom regarding its ongoing investigations into alleged breaches of due impartiality and material misleadingness by licensed broadcasters; and whether her Department has assessed the wider potential implications of such cases for levels of public confidence in broadcasting regulation.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code includes rules to ensure news, in whatever form, is reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality. Factual programmes must also not materially mislead the audience. While ministers and officials have regular discussions with Ofcom on a range of issues, Ofcom, by law, carries out its regulation of licensed broadcasters independently of the Government. The Government does not intervene in Ofcom's operational decisions, including ongoing investigations which must remain impartial and free from interference.
Nevertheless, the Government is deeply concerned about the blurring of news and fact with opinion and polemic in the broadcast media environment. As the Secretary of State has set out, it is a dangerous place for democracy if people cannot trust what they see and hear. The Government is therefore exploring what action can be taken in this space, to ensure that audiences know whether what they are watching is fact or opinion.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a statutory right to food for people in poverty.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
While the right to food is not codified in UK domestic law, the Government is taking action to improve access to good, nutritious food.
We have announced action to expand free school meals, support parents with the cost of healthy food in the school holidays with the Holidays and Activities and Food Programme and launched the Crisis and Resilience Fund, which enables local authorities to design schemes that address food poverty.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assurance mechanisms are in place to safeguard patient-identifiable data within the Federated Data Platform (FDP) operating across NHS trusts and the Integrated Care Board in Cheshire and Merseyside; and what independent audit or verification processes are undertaken to ensure compliance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) is built with robust security and privacy controls to ensure that access to National Health Service data is tightly governed and independently auditable.
The NHS FDP Information Governance Framework clearly lays out the roles and responsibilities relating to breach notification and management, defining organisations’ responsibilities in this area.
All user activity within the NHS FDP environment is logged for auditing purposes. These logs are monitored by both the suppliers platform team and the NHS Cyber Security Operations Centre to detect and respond to any malicious activity.
The NHS FDP contract includes audit provisions that allow NHS England to validate and confirm that contractual requirements are being met. These rights of audit are standard within NHS commercial agreements and provide assurance that the platform operates in accordance with NHS England’s expectations and legal obligations, including compliance with UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what contractual safeguards and sanctions are contained within the Federated Data Platform (FDP) agreement to address any breach of data protection obligations by the contracted technology provider or any subcontractor; and what mechanisms exist for independent external scrutiny of compliance.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) is built with robust security and privacy controls to ensure that access to National Health Service data is tightly governed and independently auditable.
The NHS FDP Information Governance Framework clearly lays out the roles and responsibilities relating to breach notification and management, defining organisations’ responsibilities in this area.
All user activity within the NHS FDP environment is logged for auditing purposes. These logs are monitored by both the suppliers platform team and the NHS Cyber Security Operations Centre to detect and respond to any malicious activity.
The NHS FDP contract includes audit provisions that allow NHS England to validate and confirm that contractual requirements are being met. These rights of audit are standard within NHS commercial agreements and provide assurance that the platform operates in accordance with NHS England’s expectations and legal obligations, including compliance with UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what statutory and contractual reporting requirements apply where an information governance breach relating to the Federated Data Platform (FDP) occurs; what oversight arrangements ensure compliance with the 72-hour reporting requirement to the Information Commissioner’s Office; and what action is taken if that requirement is not met.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The Information Governance Framework for the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) is published at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/federated-data-platform-information-governance-framework/
Data breaches are determined in line with the guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office. In the event of an actual or suspected security breach or data loss incident (incident) in any instance of the NHS FDP or NHS Privacy Enhancing Technology (NHS-PET), any party who becomes aware of the incident will notify NHS England.
In the case of the platform contractor, such a notification will be made in accordance with its obligations under clause 20, which is regarding authority data and security requirements, clause 23, regarding protection of personal data, and/or Schedule 2.4, regarding security management, of the agreement, as well as clause 6 of the FDP Data Processing Agreement. In addition, in the case of the NHS-PET Contractor, such a notification will be made in accordance with its obligations under clause 17, regarding protection of personal data, Schedule 3, regarding cyber security and information governance, of the Contract, and/or clause 6 of the NHS-PET Data Processing Agreement.
The NHS FDP contractor will notify NHS England of all incidents. The NHS FDP Contractor and user organisations will co-operate with NHS England’s service bridge, cyber, security, data protection, and incident management teams in the investigation, management, mitigation, rectification, restoration, and resolution of the incident in accordance with the NHS FDP Incident Management Protocol.
The relevant controller will report any personal data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office in line with its responsibilities under UK General Data Protection Regulation.
NHS England and the NHS FDP contractors will co-operate with the local NHS FDP user organisation’s cyber, security, data protection, and incident management teams in the investigation, management, mitigation, rectification, restoration, and resolution of the incident in accordance with the NHS FDP Incident Management Protocol.
Brief details of all personal data breaches, including their root cause, will be reported by NHS England, the NHS FDP contractor, or the local NHS FDP user organisation, depending on who the controller and processor is in relation to the personal data breach, to the Data Governance Group. Each party will co-operate with the other impacted parties in the production of the reports.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether a standardised definition of an information governance breach applies across all NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards in relation to the Federated Data Platform (FDP); what criteria are used to classify breaches as serious or major; and who is responsible for determining that classification.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The Information Governance Framework for the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) is published at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/federated-data-platform-information-governance-framework/
Data breaches are determined in line with the guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office. In the event of an actual or suspected security breach or data loss incident (incident) in any instance of the NHS FDP or NHS Privacy Enhancing Technology (NHS-PET), any party who becomes aware of the incident will notify NHS England.
In the case of the platform contractor, such a notification will be made in accordance with its obligations under clause 20, which is regarding authority data and security requirements, clause 23, regarding protection of personal data, and/or Schedule 2.4, regarding security management, of the agreement, as well as clause 6 of the FDP Data Processing Agreement. In addition, in the case of the NHS-PET Contractor, such a notification will be made in accordance with its obligations under clause 17, regarding protection of personal data, Schedule 3, regarding cyber security and information governance, of the Contract, and/or clause 6 of the NHS-PET Data Processing Agreement.
The NHS FDP contractor will notify NHS England of all incidents. The NHS FDP Contractor and user organisations will co-operate with NHS England’s service bridge, cyber, security, data protection, and incident management teams in the investigation, management, mitigation, rectification, restoration, and resolution of the incident in accordance with the NHS FDP Incident Management Protocol.
The relevant controller will report any personal data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office in line with its responsibilities under UK General Data Protection Regulation.
NHS England and the NHS FDP contractors will co-operate with the local NHS FDP user organisation’s cyber, security, data protection, and incident management teams in the investigation, management, mitigation, rectification, restoration, and resolution of the incident in accordance with the NHS FDP Incident Management Protocol.
Brief details of all personal data breaches, including their root cause, will be reported by NHS England, the NHS FDP contractor, or the local NHS FDP user organisation, depending on who the controller and processor is in relation to the personal data breach, to the Data Governance Group. Each party will co-operate with the other impacted parties in the production of the reports.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what role Senior Information Risk Owners and Caldicott Guardians play in overseeing data governance for the Federated Data Platform (FDP) within Integrated Care Boards and NHS trusts; and whether those roles are held by executive board members.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
Every integrated care board and National Health Service trust board, who are data controllers for data held within their own individual instance of the NHS Federated Data Platform, has responsibility for data governance and managing risk.
Integrated care boards in the NHS are mandated to appoint both a senior information risk officer and a Caldicott Guardian. These roles are essential for ensuring compliance with patient data confidentiality, information governance, and the secure handling of information within the organisation.
Information on whether or not Caldicott Guardians are Executive Board members is not held centrally.