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 potential impact of the extension to the Healthy Start scheme to families with no recourse to public funds.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department ran a consultation, Eligibility for Healthy Start for groups that have no recourse to public funds or are subject to immigration controls, which provided examples of the potential impacts of extending Healthy Start to families with no recourse to public funds. The consultation has now closed, and the Department is currently considering options following the consultation. Further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to publish a further equalities impact assessment of the Child Poverty Strategy, which will include the potential impact of the strategy on groups at highest risk of poverty.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A full summary Equalities Analysis was published alongside the Strategy and is available at: Child Poverty Strategy: Summary Equalities Analysis - GOV.UK.
The impacts of policies contributing to the Child Poverty Strategy will be kept under review and monitored on an ongoing basis by departments using their own established approaches to considerations made under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).
The ongoing Monitoring and Evaluation of the Child Poverty Strategy will also continue to assess the poverty risk and prevalence for groups with protected characteristics, as far as the data and evidence gathering allow. The Monitoring and Evaluation framework published alongside the Strategy set out that a baseline report will be published in Summer 2026, with annual reporting on progress thereafter.
As set out in our Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, published alongside the Strategy, we will continue to work closely with the devolved governments to complement existing monitoring and evaluation activity, and consider how best to feed in their own findings to track progress at both the local and national level, particularly where powers are devolved.
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 information her Department holds on whether the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia plans to declare independence from Algeria on 14 December 2025.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We were aware of the intention of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia to make a declaration of independence on 14 December, which they have since done. I refer the Hon. Member to the responses I provided in February regarding the situation in Kabylia and confirm that we continue to monitor developments closely.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including targets and milestones for reducing child poverty in legislation.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Monitoring and Evaluation framework published alongside the Strategy set out that a baseline report will be published in Summer 2026 with annual reporting on progress thereafter and Government already has a statutory duty to publish poverty statistics annually. We have put these clear reporting arrangements in place so that the progress we make is transparent for all.
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 received spirometry testing in community diagnostic centres in 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of December 2025, community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are now delivering additional tests and checks on 170 sites across the country.
Spirometry with bronchodilator response is a minimum test requirement of all standard and large CDCs. It is therefore expected that all fully operational standard and large CDCs offer this service.
CDC programme funded diagnostic test activity is reported from management information collected monthly. Spirometry test activity is included as part of the ‘other respiratory’ category. 307,866 ‘other respiratory’ tests have been delivered between January 2025 and the end of October 2025, the latest published data. Spirometry is not recorded separately and so individual testing volumes are not held in the format requested. CDC management information, including a list of tests categorised under the ‘other respiratory’ grouping, can be found at the following link:
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 community diagnostic centres have spirometry equipment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of December 2025, community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are now delivering additional tests and checks on 170 sites across the country.
Spirometry with bronchodilator response is a minimum test requirement of all standard and large CDCs. It is therefore expected that all fully operational standard and large CDCs offer this service.
CDC programme funded diagnostic test activity is reported from management information collected monthly. Spirometry test activity is included as part of the ‘other respiratory’ category. 307,866 ‘other respiratory’ tests have been delivered between January 2025 and the end of October 2025, the latest published data. Spirometry is not recorded separately and so individual testing volumes are not held in the format requested. CDC management information, including a list of tests categorised under the ‘other respiratory’ grouping, can be found at the following link:
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 she has made of the potential implications for her policies of reports of the persecution of Christians in Kashmir.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to promoting and defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) as a core element of our foreign policy, and India is one of the UK's priority countries for promoting FoRB. Where we have specific concerns, we raise them with the Government of India.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on the forthcoming guidance to local authorities on statutory duties under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989; and what steps she is taking to ensure that safeguarding and the best interests of the child are explicitly embedded in that guidance.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This Government remains firmly committed to safeguarding children from a range of harms. This includes ensuring that statutory safeguarding partners, including the police, have the right resources, tools and training to identify and respond and work together effectively.
I have continued to discuss these important issues with cross-government Ministerial colleagues and will be writing a joint letter out to safeguarding partners on this important issue, alongside ensuring relevant guidance remains up to date.
The new Centre for VAWG and Public protection will also ensure that the response by police continues to be improved, including supporting best practice in working together to ensure a robust multiagency response in supporting children.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of electricity prices.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The department publishes official estimates of electricity prices within Quarterly Energy Prices. These statistics are published quarterly and provide our most recent estimates of domestic and non-domestic electricity prices. These include a time series, through which trends can be assessed.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of derelict buildings across the UK.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Derelict buildings can blight communities and the Government is committed to giving communities the tools to revitalise them. The National Planning Policy Framework encourages and supports the development of under-utilised land and buildings, especially if this would help to meet identified needs for housing where land supply is constrained.
The Government’s Pride in Place programme will provide up to £5 billion to help the most deprived communities thrive, which could include restoring derelict buildings. Phase 1 of the programme included funding for Northern Ireland and corresponding funding will be made available for Phase 2.
Regeneration policy levers are largely devolved. In England, the Government has introduced High Street Rental Auction powers, giving councils the power to auction the lease of long-term vacant properties.