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 adequacy of endometriosis services in London.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health and improving the care received by those suffering from gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis. We have taken urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan. In gynaecology, the plan supports innovative models offering patients care closer to home, and piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres.

We encourage any woman or girl with symptoms of endometriosis to contact their general practitioner (GP). Women’s health hubs also have a key role in shifting care out of hospitals and reducing gynaecology waiting lists and are being rolled out across areas in London. For example, in North East London, there are women’s health hubs based in City and Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and in Redbridge. These can be accessed by all residents from across North East London including Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Newham as the model is developed further.

NHS North East London has also developed clinical management guidelines to support National Health Service trusts and GPs across North East London caring for patients presenting with symptoms related to endometriosis. A new pathway for referring patients experiencing pelvic pain that could be endometriosis is being developed and run by clinicians specialising in the management of endometriosis in North East London.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help ensure that employers support women managing menopause.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government has introduced the Employment Rights Bill which [if passed] would require large employers with more than 250 employees to produce Menopause Action Plans on how they will support employees through the menopause. Alongside this we have committed to publishing guidance, including for small employers, on measures to consider relating to uniform and temperature, flexible working and recording menopause-related leave and absence. The Secretary of State has also appointed Mariella Frostrup as the Government’s independent Menopause Employment Ambassador. The Menopause Employment Ambassador will work closely with employers across the country to improve workplace support for women experiencing menopause.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the average time taken for visa applications to be processed for (a) adults and (b) children.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Visa processing times are published on the UKVI website at Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

UKVI are currently processing applications on the overwhelming majority of its visa routes within their published customer service standards.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to designate misogyny as a hate crime.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government and we have set out an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

The Government is carefully considering how best to tackle hate crime. We will set out next steps in due course.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of closing the gender pay gap for women in Ilford South constituency.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

This Government is committed to transforming the lives of working women across the country, regardless of geographical location; this includes going further and faster to close the gender pay gap.

Tackling the gender pay gap will put more money in women’s pockets and help deliver on our Plan for Change, increasing household income.

Amongst a range of measures in the Employment Rights Bill which will support the lives of all working people, we are taking the first steps towards requiring employers to publish action plans alongside their gender pay gap figures. These action plans will detail the effective steps employers are taking to improve gender equality in their workplace, and narrow their gaps.

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 ensure the NHS Long Term Plan will focus on improving the respiratory health of people in (a) Redbridge, (b) Ilford South constituency and (c) England.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver the three big shifts the National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to improving respiratory health in all parts of the country. More tests and scans delivered in the community, better joint working between services, and greater use of apps and wearable technology will all help people manage their long-term conditions, including respiratory conditions, closer to home. Moving from sickness to prevention will help us reduce the causes of the biggest killers, and provide treatment earlier, rather than only intervening when conditions deteriorate.

In advance of the 10-Year Health Plan, NHS England has established 13 respiratory clinical networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.

As part of the work to develop a 10-Year Health Plan, we have launched a significant public engagement process and we would encourage all those with an interest in respiratory health care services to take part in that process, so that we can fully understand what is not working as well as it should and what the potential solutions are. More information on the process is available at the following link:

https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department taking to make government digital services as accessible as possible, including for those without strong digital skills.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government wants to put digital inclusion at the heart of how we deliver better designed, time-saving public services, to ensure as many people as possible can access public services digitally. Our ambition is for everyone in the UK to have the access, skills, support and confidence to participate in our modern digital society, whatever their circumstances.

On accessibility, there is a globally recognised standard for accessibility for Web Content, and though digital accessibility is an important part of designing an inclusive service, meeting the standards does not guarantee an inclusive service. We will be exploring how to extend the scope of the standards beyond central government into the wider public sector and looking at revising them to include inclusive service design.

Promoting digital inclusion is a priority for this Government, and we will be working closely with key partners in charities, businesses and local authorities to make sure that no one is left without the tools to engage fully in society. We hope to announce more on this soon.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to provide support to victims of sexual and domestic violence.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

This Government has set out an ambition to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) within a decade and will treat it as the national emergency that it is. We will deliver a cross-government, transformative approach, underpinned by a new VAWG Strategy published later this year.

The Government has made several commitments to transform the criminal justice response to sexual offences. This includes embedding domestic abuse specialists into 999 control rooms as part of Raneem’s Law, rolling out Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, introducing free, independent legal advice for victims of adult rape and fast-tracking rape cases. The Ministry of Justice funds the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, providing free, confidential emotional support for all victims of rape and sexual abuse aged 16 and over in England and Wales.

We also understand the importance of specialist and ‘by and for’ services in providing support to victims of VAWG, including domestic abuse. The Home Office have already confirmed a number of grants for organisations delivering vital frontline support to victims.

On 28th November 2024, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced a funding increase of £30 million, meaning a total investment of £160 million in the Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Grant in 2025/26. This will enable local authorities to invest in essential support for victims in safe accommodation.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking through Young Futures Hubs to help tackle violence against women and girls.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government has set an ambitious target to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. To achieve this, we plan to reduce the current levels of offending and reoffending and prevent abuse from happening altogether.

This focus on prevention also sits at the heart of the Young Futures programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures prevention partnerships.

Young Futures Hubs will be set up across the country, bringing together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes and enabling young people to thrive.

Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will bring local partners together to intervene earlier to ensure that vulnerable children at risk of being drawn into a variety of crime types, including anti-social behaviour, knife crime and violence against women and girls, are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.

Officials from across government, including the Department for Education, the Home Office, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice are working together using their various bodies of evidence of what works to shape Young Futures Hubs.

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 increase participation in women’s sport in Ilford South.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is dedicated to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport. We want to break down the barriers that exist and prevent women and girls from being active including but not limited to kit, facilities, time and cost. This Girl Can, which recently celebrated its ten year anniversary, is an inspiring campaign that has promoted women’s sport, challenged prejudice and made clear that sport is for everyone.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Separately, as a government, we are investing £123 million in inclusive grassroots sport facilities that will support more women and girls to take part in the sports that they love.

In the last financial year, 2023-24, Sport England awarded over £75,000 to Ilford South constituency.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of funding levels for research into the (a) detection and (b) treatment of heart diseases.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds research in response to proposals received from scientists rather than allocating funding to specific disease areas. The NIHR continues to welcome high quality applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including the detection and treatment of cardiovascular and heart diseases.

Over the past five financial years, from 2019/20 to 2023/24, the NIHR has invested £145.4 million on cardiovascular and heart diseases and stroke research directly through NIHR research programmes. Our wider investments in NIHR infrastructure, by strengthening specialist facilities, workforce, and support services to enable research in the health and care system, have enabled significant cardiovascular and heart diseases and stroke research funded by other funders to take place.

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 adequacy of palliative care services available (a) Redbridge and (b) Ilford South constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Palliative care services are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including North East London ICB, which covers Redbridge and Ilford South, must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

We have committed to develop a 10-Year Health Plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, by driving three shifts in the way health care is delivered. We will carefully be considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our stakeholders as we develop the plan.

I recently met with key palliative and end of life care, including hospice, stakeholders to discuss the long-term sustainability of palliative and end of life care, within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.

We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices.