Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help increase global immunisation rates.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is one of the largest donors to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We have committed £1.65 billion to the current strategic period covering 2021-2025, supporting Gavi to immunise 300 million children and save up to 8 million lives from vaccine preventable diseases. Since 2000, Gavi has vaccinated more than 1 billion children, saving over 18 million lives. Furthermore the UK supports polio eradication and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Since 1995, we have contributed £1.4 billion, reducing polio cases by over 99 per cent and limiting endemic countries to Pakistan and Afghanistan. GPEI's efforts have enabled over 20 million people to walk who might have been paralysed by polio.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of Pakistan's record on implementing human rights commitments under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences on (a) freedom of religion, (b) blasphemy laws and (c) the treatment of religious minorities.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Promoting human rights is a core part of the UK's diplomatic engagement in Pakistan. I raised issues including the rights of religious minorities and blasphemy accusations when I met Pakistan's Minister for the Interior, Talal Chaudhry, on 31 March. Under the UK's Developing Countries Trading Scheme (which replaced the Generalised Scheme of Preferences in 2023), Pakistan benefits from duty free exports on the condition that it ratifies and effectively implements specified international conventions on human rights and environmental degradation.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many registered chiropractors there are in the UK.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The General Chiropractors Council (GCC) is responsible for collecting data on the numbers of chiropractors in the United Kingdom. They publish an annual report which provides the number of chiropractors in the UK, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gcc-uk.org/about-us/publications
In the GCC 2023 annual report, it states that there were 3,752 chiropractors on the register.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2025 to Question 28481 on Dialysis Machines: Per Capita Costs, if he will provide a breakdown of the figures by (a) in centre and (b) home therapies dialysis treatment in the last three years; what the total annual cost was to the NHS per dialysis; and what assessment he has made of how these align with NHS England guidance on Best Practice Tariffs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This data is not available in the requested format. Best Practice Tariffs are regularly updated to ensure they incentivise National Health Service providers to move from usual care to best practice, by creating a price differential between agreed best practice and usual care.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the number and proportion of military personnel who are female.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Our thoughts remain with Gunner Jaysley-Louise Beck’s loved ones at this difficult time. Jaysley was a young and promising soldier who should have had the opportunity to thrive in a supportive and safe environment. Her death in December 2021 was and still is a tragedy, and we are deeply sorry for the failure to protect her.
There is no place for any abuse within the military. I am deeply troubled that women in the Armed Forces continue to be subject to unacceptable behaviours during their service in the Armed Forces.
Our Armed Forces personnel play a vital role in protecting the nation, and we are committed to making changes that create a more inclusive environment and enable cultural reform. The Service Chiefs fully endorse and support this work. A range of substantive measures – many already introduced – will help to build a safer, more inclusive environment for them and ensure that their concerns are listened to and swift appropriate action is taken. These measures include robust policies with powerful sanctions which tackle bullying, harassment and discrimination, including zero-tolerance policies on unacceptable sexual behaviour, sexual offences and sexual relationships between instructors and trainees, sexual exploitation, and abuse. This Government is also establishing an Armed Forces Commissioner as a new independent champion with the power to investigate issues raised by Service personnel and their families.
To protect our people, we established the Defence Serious Crime Unit (DSCU) in 2022 and the Victim and Witness Care Unit (VWCU) in 2023. Anyone who has been a victim of serious crime in the Defence community can contact the DSCU who operate a Public Protection Unit with officers trained to handle serious sexual offences, ensuring victims are safeguarded, supported, and referred to support organisations. The VWCU provides an independent, single point of contact for victims and witnesses of serious crimes committed by Service personnel in the UK and overseas; it puts victims and witnesses at the heart of the investigative process, providing a specialist end-to-end service, from initial contact through to court and beyond.
We encourage anyone who feels they are the victim of a crime to come forward and report it, calling the Service Police on 02392 285 180 (24/7) or through their confidential crime line on 0800 085 0658. Crimestoppers can also be contacted to anonymously report a crime or suspicious behaviour by phone 0800 555 111 or online: https://crimestoppers-uk.org/
Additionally, anyone wanting to discuss victim support can contact the VWCU, which operates independently from the single Service Chain of Command, on 07974 074259 or via email people-dscc-vwcugroup@mod.gov.uk. Any information provided to the VWCU will be treated in confidence and individuals can discuss their options for reporting any allegations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that new treatments for (a) Alzheimer’s disease and (b) other dementias are made available to people in the UK.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service in England on whether new medicines should be routinely funded, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NICE evaluates all new medicines, including medicines for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and aims to publish guidance for the NHS as close as possible to licensing. The NHS in England is legally required to fund recommended treatments, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.
The NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have piloted enhanced information sharing arrangements for the new disease modifying dementia treatments, which have enabled the organisations to fully align their processes and will enable faster decision making for future treatments that may come to market.
To prepare for the new generation of dementia treatments in development, NHS England is working to ensure the diagnostic and treatment capacity, clinical pathway redesign and investment are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and NICE-recommended treatments as soon as possible.
Health is a devolved matter and decisions on the availability of medicines are a matter for the respective devolved administrations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 improve children's facilities in hospitals.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever across the United Kingdom. This involves ensuring that children receive the appropriate care and support whenever they need it. To make children’s services better, we are changing the National Health Service through our 10-Year Health Plan, to make it fit for the future. The plan will be published in June 2025.
Health is a devolved matter, and it is the responsibility of the individual devolved administrations to commission comprehensive healthcare based on population need.
Guidance has been provided to the NHS on the provision of children’s facilities in hospitals in the best practice guidance, Hospital accommodation for children and young people, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/HBN_23.pdf
NHS England has work currently ongoing with the Starlight Foundation to produce recommended guidelines, standards, and checklists for designing health play services for babies, children, and young people.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the number of university applications in the last five years.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
There has been a 5.9% increase in the number of main scheme UCAS applications between 2020 and 2024.
Main scheme applications for UK students are up 7.7% but down 0.7% for international students.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of university fees on students.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The government has published an equality impact assessment of changes to fees on students with protected characteristics and students from disadvantaged groups for the 2025/26 academic year. This can be accessed at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/263/impacts/2025/41.
The department needs to put our world-leading higher education (HE) sector on a secure footing, in order to face the challenges of the next decade, and to ensure that all students have confidence that they will receive the world-class HE experiences they deserve.
This is why, after seven years of frozen fee caps under the previous government, this government took the difficult decision to increase maximum tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation based on the Retail Prices Index excluding mortgage interest payments inflation index. Eligible students will continue to be able to apply for up-front fee loans to meet the full cost of their tuition in 2025/26.
This government will set out its plan for HE reform this summer.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the policies of China on Falun Gong practitioners.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The environment for freedom of religion or belief in China is restrictive, which includes the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. This Government stands firm on human rights, including the right to freedom of religion or belief. We raise our concerns at the highest levels: the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor and Energy Secretary all raised human rights recently with their counterparts (President Xi, Foreign Minister Wang, Vice Premier He and Vice Premier Ding respectively).
This Government champions freedom of religion or belief for all abroad. We work to uphold the right to freedom of religion or belief through our position at the UN, G7 and other multilateral fora.