Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, in what way he plans to appoint the Chairs of the technical sub-groups on (a) AI and (b) copyright; and what criteria will be used to ensure their impartiality.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We have committed to establishing technical working groups to inform our approach to copyright and AI. They will be designed to bring together a range of experts and stakeholders. The initial groups are being jointly chaired by SoS DSIT and SoS DCMS. Details on the subsequent meetings will be set out in due course.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will publish the (a) membership, (b) minutes and (c) Terms of Reference of the (i) working groups on AI and copyright and (ii) technical sub-groups.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We have committed to establishing technical working groups to inform our approach to copyright and AI. They will be designed to bring together a range of experts and stakeholders. A full list of attendees and Terms of Reference will be published in due course.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of cancer patients receive treatment within 62 days in (a) England and (b) Maldon constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest data for England shows that 67.1% of people started treatment within 62 days of referral. Data on the 62 day referral to treatment cancer waiting time standard is available by integrated care board (ICB) area, but not by constituency. The Maldon constituency falls within the Mid and South Essex ICB, and therefore the following table shows the proportion of cancer patients who receive treatment within 62 days in June 2024 and June 2025, and the change over this 12 month period, for both England and the Mid and South Essex ICB:
Cancer | 62 day standard (85% standard) | |
June 2025 | National | 67.1% |
ICB | 43.5% | |
June 2024 | National | 67.9% |
ICB | 47.8% | |
12-month change | National | -0.8% |
ICB | -4.3% | |
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
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 publicise the need for vaccination against (a) influenza and (b) covid-19.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This year, we are carrying out a major campaign aimed at eligible people, encouraging them to take up their vaccinations, supported by millions of targeted emails, texts and letters sent nationally. The winter vaccination national booking service is opening earlier than ever for advance bookings, supported by a press and social media launch.
The Department works closely with partners at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England to produce a variety of influenza and COVID-19 communication tools and materials including translation of information and guidance materials into over 30 languages; in accessible formats including braille, audio, large print, Easy Read and British Sign Language; dedicated products for target population groups for individual vaccine programmes; and focused work with relevant third sector organisations ahead of major campaigns.
For the 2025-26 flu season, we are encouraging those most at risk of serious illness to get vaccinated. Targeted communications to pregnant women and the parents of eligible children started this month. The campaign for other eligible groups will run from October 2025 and will consist of TV, radio advertising, digital advertising, both social and display, supported by search and partnership activity.
Additionally, NHS England has developed an enhanced campaign aimed at improving flu uptake among frontline health and social care workers, using multiple ways to reach staff including workplace communications, partnerships with unions and professional bodies, and materials tailored for different healthcare roles.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure that investors in 79th Group receive adequate compensation.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
As an important point of principle, the Government does not step in to pay compensation in respect of failed financial services firms that fall outside of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Doing so would create the wrong set of incentives for individuals and an unnecessary burden on the taxpayer. The Government does not ordinarily step in to pay compensation to consumers in relation to allegations of fraud, investment losses, mis-selling or mis-buying of investments.
However, in some cases of fraud, individuals may be able to seek reimbursement from their bank. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is the independent regulator with responsibility for Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud reimbursement. The PSR’s mandatory reimbursement regime, for APP scams taking place over the Faster Payment system, came into force on 7 October 2024 and covers transactions occurring on or after that date. It requires payment service providers to reimburse victims of APP scam losses up to the value of £85,000. The PSR has committed to commission an independent post implementation review of its policy after 12 months of the policy being in force.
Transactions that occurred before 7 October 2024, may be governed by the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM), a voluntary code signed by the UK’s largest banks and building societies that came into force in May 2019. However, it is important to note that not all banks or building societies are party to the CRM code. The CRM code is overseen by the Lending Standards Board and more information can be found on their website.
Where a reimbursement claim is unsuccessful, victims may have access to recourse through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). This includes fraud, providing the activity is within the FOS’s jurisdiction, which is set by the FCA. Any criminal investigation would be a matter for the police. Unfortunately, the Government is unable to intervene in individual cases, but I would encourage victims to continue to engage with their banks directly in order to seek a timely resolution to this matter.
However, it is important to prevent fraud from happening in the first place. HM Treasury is working with colleagues in the Home Office as they develop a new, expanded Fraud Strategy. This will be published in due course as part of the Government’s Plan for Change and in line with our manifesto commitments.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of Financial Conduct Authority support for victims of financial fraud in the context of the insolvency of 79th Group.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
As an important point of principle, the Government does not step in to pay compensation in respect of failed financial services firms that fall outside of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Doing so would create the wrong set of incentives for individuals and an unnecessary burden on the taxpayer. The Government does not ordinarily step in to pay compensation to consumers in relation to allegations of fraud, investment losses, mis-selling or mis-buying of investments.
However, in some cases of fraud, individuals may be able to seek reimbursement from their bank. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is the independent regulator with responsibility for Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud reimbursement. The PSR’s mandatory reimbursement regime, for APP scams taking place over the Faster Payment system, came into force on 7 October 2024 and covers transactions occurring on or after that date. It requires payment service providers to reimburse victims of APP scam losses up to the value of £85,000. The PSR has committed to commission an independent post implementation review of its policy after 12 months of the policy being in force.
Transactions that occurred before 7 October 2024, may be governed by the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM), a voluntary code signed by the UK’s largest banks and building societies that came into force in May 2019. However, it is important to note that not all banks or building societies are party to the CRM code. The CRM code is overseen by the Lending Standards Board and more information can be found on their website.
Where a reimbursement claim is unsuccessful, victims may have access to recourse through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). This includes fraud, providing the activity is within the FOS’s jurisdiction, which is set by the FCA. Any criminal investigation would be a matter for the police. Unfortunately, the Government is unable to intervene in individual cases, but I would encourage victims to continue to engage with their banks directly in order to seek a timely resolution to this matter.
However, it is important to prevent fraud from happening in the first place. HM Treasury is working with colleagues in the Home Office as they develop a new, expanded Fraud Strategy. This will be published in due course as part of the Government’s Plan for Change and in line with our manifesto commitments.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Authorised Push Payment framework in tackling financial fraud.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
As an important point of principle, the Government does not step in to pay compensation in respect of failed financial services firms that fall outside of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Doing so would create the wrong set of incentives for individuals and an unnecessary burden on the taxpayer. The Government does not ordinarily step in to pay compensation to consumers in relation to allegations of fraud, investment losses, mis-selling or mis-buying of investments.
However, in some cases of fraud, individuals may be able to seek reimbursement from their bank. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is the independent regulator with responsibility for Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud reimbursement. The PSR’s mandatory reimbursement regime, for APP scams taking place over the Faster Payment system, came into force on 7 October 2024 and covers transactions occurring on or after that date. It requires payment service providers to reimburse victims of APP scam losses up to the value of £85,000. The PSR has committed to commission an independent post implementation review of its policy after 12 months of the policy being in force.
Transactions that occurred before 7 October 2024, may be governed by the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM), a voluntary code signed by the UK’s largest banks and building societies that came into force in May 2019. However, it is important to note that not all banks or building societies are party to the CRM code. The CRM code is overseen by the Lending Standards Board and more information can be found on their website.
Where a reimbursement claim is unsuccessful, victims may have access to recourse through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). This includes fraud, providing the activity is within the FOS’s jurisdiction, which is set by the FCA. Any criminal investigation would be a matter for the police. Unfortunately, the Government is unable to intervene in individual cases, but I would encourage victims to continue to engage with their banks directly in order to seek a timely resolution to this matter.
However, it is important to prevent fraud from happening in the first place. HM Treasury is working with colleagues in the Home Office as they develop a new, expanded Fraud Strategy. This will be published in due course as part of the Government’s Plan for Change and in line with our manifesto commitments.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas were issued to citizens of the Russian Federation to visit the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by nationality and visa type in the Immigration system statistics publication. Data on visas issued are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the ‘detailed entry clearance dataset’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates up to the end of March 2025.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether chemostat can be prescribed by the NHS for the treatment of patients with ocular melanoma.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Chemosaturation therapy, often referred to as chemostat, is used to treat cancer that has spread to the liver arising from ocular melanoma. It is not used to treat ocular melanoma alone.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published guidance in 2021, through its interventional procedures programme, that recommends that chemosaturation can be used for patients with secondary liver metastases resulting from a primary ocular melanoma.
NHS England considered the case for the commissioning of chemosaturation for liver metastases from ocular melanoma in 2016. At that time, NHS England concluded that there was insufficient clinical evidence to support the proposal to make the treatment available for patients with ocular melanoma in the National Health Service.
In December 2024, NHS England announced the roll out of a new treatment across England called tebentafusp, which is now available for patients with uveal melanoma, which is the most common form of ocular melanoma.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to chapter 2, section 1 of the Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, published on 18 March 2025, whether Universal Credit claimants currently in receipt of the health element will continue to receive the health element after the Work Capability Assessment is abolished in the 2028-29 financial year if they do not qualify for the Personal Independence Payment daily living component.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our Pathways to Work Green Paper set out why we are scrapping the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). We want to end the binary categorisation of groups and labelling as either ‘can or can’t work’. Instead, any extra financial support for health conditions in UC will be assessed via a single assessment – the PIP assessment – and be based on whether someone is receiving any Daily Living award in PIP, not on capacity to work. This will de-couple access to the health element in from work status, so people can be confident that the act of taking steps towards and into employment will not put their benefit entitlement at risk.
The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill we recently introduced will freeze the health top-up at its current rate for existing claimants for the rest of this Parliament. This is twinned with delivering the first ever sustained, above-inflation rise to the standard allowance, with a cash increase of around £725 a year for single claimants aged 25 and over by the end of this Parliament. This is around £250 higher than an inflation-only increase.
Alongside these changes we are also looking to provide financial protection in Universal Credit for people with the most severe, life-long health conditions and those who are nearing the end of their lives. This will mean that anyone who meets the Severe Conditions Criteria (existing criteria for people with life-long conditions who can never work); and/or the Special Rules for End of Life (existing rules for people with 12 months or less to live to get faster, easier access to certain benefits) will continue to receive the existing, higher health top-up in Universal Credit over this Parliament. In addition, people who meet the Severe Conditions Criteria will never face a reassessment for Universal Credit, as we committed to do in the Green Paper – removing unnecessary stress, anxiety and uncertainty. As a result, we estimate more than 200,000 people with the most severe, life-long conditions will be protected by the end of the Parliament.