Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department spends annually on taxi travel for children to and from schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Local authorities are responsible for arranging home to school travel for eligible children. They deliver their duty through a mix of in-house services, passes for free travel on public transport and contracts with private transport operators. Such contracts are a matter for the council and the operator, but the department encourages councils to have robust arrangements in place.
The department has not routinely collected data on how much local authorities spend on different modes of transport. It is working to improve this picture and launched a voluntary data collection on home to school travel arrangements in February 2025.
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, if he will take steps to ensure that patient data is seamlessly shared between the NHS in (a) England and (b) the devolved Administrations.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Government is committed to ensuring that people across the United Kingdom live more independent, healthier lives for longer, and will continue to work closely with the Devolved Administrations as needed to achieve this. That is why we will be engaging in the future with the Devolved Administrations on the implications of the forthcoming Health Bill, and the single patient record, to support appropriate cross-border referrals, and appropriate information sharing to inform good decision-making, support healthcare, and minimise risk to patients.
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 people aged between 18 and 25 have epilepsy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held in the format requested. However, the following table shows a count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) and distinct patients where there is a primary diagnosis, or any diagnosis, of epilepsy, where the patient was aged 18 to 25 years old on admission, in 2024/25, in English National Health Service hospitals:
| Primary diagnosis | Any diagnosis | ||
Year | Admissions | Patients | Admissions | Patients |
2024/25 | 3,717 | 2,708 | 18,409 | 9,839 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS England
Notes:
Please be aware that this data does not represent the total number of people aged between 18 and 25 years old who have a diagnosis of epilepsy. This data only represents the number of patients aged between 18 and 25 years old with epilepsy who required hospital admission in 2024/25. The data presented here will, therefore, only represent a small proportion of the total number of people aged between 18 and 25 years old who have a diagnosis of epilepsy.
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 raise awareness of sarcoma.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns in England to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and to address the barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging body awareness, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers, including sarcoma, at an earlier point.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the Department will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment. Having consulted with key stakeholders and patient groups, the plan will be published early in the new year. It will ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The plan will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care, to improve the experiences and outcomes for people with cancer, including sarcoma.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been arrested for non-fatal strangulation in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the data requested.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, including reason for arrest, as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical series. The data is available here: Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK
However the data is collected by wider offence group, for example “Violence against the person”, therefore data on arrests for non-fatal strangulation is not available.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign nationals have been deported in the last five years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on FNO returns in the quarterly Immigration System Statistics release. Quarterly data on enforced, voluntary and port FNO returns (of which ‘deportations’ are a legal subset) are published in table Ret_D03 of the Returns detailed datasets accompanying the release.
Information on FNOs who have been deported more than once, or who have returned to the UK after deportation, is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
A deportation order requires a person to leave the UK and prohibits them from lawfully entering the UK while it remains in force. Entering in breach of a deportation order is a criminal offence under section 24(1)(a) of the 1971 Act, with a maximum sentence of five years under section 40 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.
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 help reduce ADHD diagnosis times.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has recognised that, nationally in England, demand for assessments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown significantly in recent years and that people are experiencing severe delays accessing such assessments. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will make the National Health Service fit for the future, recognising the need for early intervention and support.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to ADHD assessment and treatment, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
NHS England established an ADHD taskforce which brought together those with lived experience with experts from the NHS, education, charity and justice sectors to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing services and support. An interim report was published on 20 June 2025, with the final report expected later this year, and we will carefully consider its recommendations.
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, whether he plans to introduce the use of AI to detect skin cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a wide range of opportunities to help change our health and care system for the better. One opportunity for AI in the National Health Service is to support with diagnostics, including detecting skin cancer.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) routinely evaluates medical technologies, including innovative AI-enabled technologies, and makes recommendations on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of products for the health and social care services in England. NICE has recommended the use of an AI technology for assessing and triaging skin lesions for patients in the NHS suspected skin cancer pathway.
This AI tool, DERM, can distinguish between benign and cancerous skin lesions with nearly 99.7% accuracy, and is now being used in 25 NHS trusts as a part of the NHS's rollout of ‘teledermatology’. Further evidence on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the tool is currently being collected.
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 increase the availability of donor organs.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organisation responsible for organ donation in the United Kingdom. NHSBT is working to improve the availability of donor organs by encouraging more people to record their wishes on the Organ Donor Register. Current activity includes:
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 assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Teplizumab in slowing the development of type 1 diabetes; and when he plans to roll-out that drug on the NHS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Teplizumab was licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in August 2025, to delay the onset of Stage 3 type 1 diabetes in adult and paediatric patients 8 years of age and older with Stage 2 type 1 diabetes. Newly licensed medicines are appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which is the independent body responsible for developing evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on new medicines which represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. NICE aims wherever possible to issue draft guidance on new medicines close to the time of licensing and the NHS in England is legally required to fund NICE-recommended medicines, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.
NICE is currently evaluating teplizumab and has published draft guidance for consultation in which it was unable to recommend teplizumab for delaying the onset of stage 3 type 1 diabetes in people 8 years and over with stage 2 type 1 diabetes. Final guidance is due to be published on 26 November 2025.