Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish a substantive Answer to Question 20914 on Gender Dysphoria: Surgery, tabled on 18 December 2024.

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

A response to Parliamentary Question 20914 has now been provided; we apologise for the delay.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps to ensure (a) social media companies and (b) website providers that have been found to have hosted illegal content viewed by people that have subsequently committed serious crimes face financial sanctions.

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

The Online Safety Act 2023 places duties on social media companies and search services. These include duties to tackle illegal content on their services. These services will need to put systems and processes in place to reduce the risk that users post this illegal content. They will also need to take it down where it does appear. If companies fail to comply with any of these duties, Ofcom has a range of strong enforcement powers, including issuing fines and applying to the court to initiate business disruption measures.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the totals of students on (a) all BSc nursing degree courses, and (b) specific courses for the degree of BSc Nursing (Learning Disabilities) since 2016; what percentage of students on BSc Nursing (Learning Disabilities) degree courses were in receipt of NHS bursaries in the year prior to the discontinuation of such bursaries; and what percentage of students currently on BSc Nursing (Learning Disabilities) degree courses are in receipt of apprenticeships.

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

The National Health Service continues to offer rewarding careers, with many thousands of people choosing to study nursing and midwifery every year. The Department monitors the information published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) which shows that healthcare courses were in high demand during the pandemic and now we are seeing a decrease in number of applicants across these programmes. The following table shows the number of acceptances to undergraduate nursing courses in England, from 2019 to 2024:

Source: data is from UCAS, and is available at the following link:
https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-end-cycle-data-resources-2024

While the data from UCAS is not detailed enough to report acceptances to individual branches of nursing, the Office for Students tracks the number of starters on learning disabilities nursing routes, through their Higher Education Students Early Statistics Survey. The following table therefore shows the number of undergraduate starters on learning disabilities nursing courses from 2016 to 2023:

Source: data is from the Office for Students, and is available at the following link:
https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/data-collection/get-the-heses-data/

Prior to the student funding reforms in 2017, nursing, midwifery, and allied health professions training places were centrally commissioned by Health Education England (HEE). All students on HEE commissioned places would have been in receipt of a non-means tested NHS Bursary and had their tuition fees paid. However, the Department does not hold the information that is able to confirm the proportion of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Learning Disabilities) students who were in receipt of means tested elements of the National Health Service’s bursaries scheme or other allowances available to students in the year prior to their discontinuation.

The Department does not hold information on the percentage of students currently on Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Learning Disabilities) degree courses who are in receipt of apprenticeships.

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 implications of the differential effects of the changes in last year's budget to National Insurance Contributions on employers of Learning Disabilities nurses who work (a) directly for the NHS and (b) for independent health and social care suppliers who are contracted by the NHS to give support to its patients.

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

We have taken tough decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at Autumn Budget, and this enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26. The employer National Insurance rise will be implemented from April 2025, and NHS England has set out the approach to funding providers in planning guidance for the next financial year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason NHS hospitals have not commissioned beds available in care homes to restore capacity on hospital wards by enabling patients to be discharged.

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

Local authorities should determine the volume and type of services, including care home beds, that are required to meet their responsibilities under the Care Act 2014. National Health Service integrated care boards, local authorities, and providers should work together to ensure that efforts to discharge individuals from hospital into social care are joined up and make best use of the available resources, in line with the duty to cooperate as set out in Section 82 of the NHS Act 2006.

In December 2024 there were, on average, 12,000 adult patients in acute hospital beds per day with delayed discharges, 5% fewer than in December 2023.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information his Department holds on how much and what proportion of the annual budgets of the BBC (a) World Service and (b) Monitoring Service are funded by FCDO; and what discussions he has had with the BBC on preventing cuts in those services.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Government provides approximately one-third of the funding for the BBC World Service, with the remainder funded from the BBC Licence Fee. The BBC are operationally and editorially independent and set the budget for the World Service. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) provided £104.4 million of grant funding to the World Service in 2023/24, the most recent year for which there are published audited accounts.

FCDO Ministers engage routinely with the BBC on the World Service. The BBC discussed their plans for the World Service in 2025/26 with the FCDO, as part of the Spending Review process.

HMG does not provide any funding for BBC Monitoring.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she made an assessment of the potential merits of including within the terms of reference for the Independent Review of the Loan Charge consideration of the (a) mis-selling by scheme promoters, (b) advice on legality given by accountants, (c) impact of retrospective pursuit on mental health and welfare and (d) measures for protection against recurrence in future; and if she will take steps to revise the terms of reference to include those matters.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

On 23 January, the Government launched the Independent Review of the Loan Charge, honouring a commitment made at the Budget.

The objectives of the review are to help bring the matter to a close for those affected; ensure fairness for all taxpayers; and ensure that appropriate support is in place for those subject to the Loan Charge. The terms of reference for the review have been published here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-the-loan-charge.

As I set out in my letter to the reviewer, we want the review to bring the Loan Charge to a close for those people who still owe substantial amounts of money but can see no way to resolve their debts. It is now for the reviewer to conduct his review and make recommendations to the Government.

The Government is also taking action to prevent disguised remuneration in the future. At the Budget, the Government announced the most ambitious ever package to close the tax gap, raising £6.5 billion of additional tax revenue in 2029-30. The package includes measures to tackle promoters of tax avoidance schemes and to address non-compliance in umbrella companies, where most disguised remuneration now takes place.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent steps he has taken to facilitate the (a) recovery and (b) disclosure of medical records held in (i) the Merlin database and (ii) other Departmental archives of service personnel present at UK atomic bomb tests.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

The Government is deeply grateful to all those who participated in the UK nuclear testing programme. We recognise their Service and the huge contribution they have made to the UK’s security.

I have asked officials to look seriously into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority, and this is now underway.

This work will enable us to better understand what information the Department holds in relation to the medical testing of Service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests.

Preventing sudden deaths from undiagnosed heart conditions

Australia Day

Open Doors 2025

Julia and Clive Davies: 35 years of volunteering with Headway Swansea

Found: with local councillors and also recently received backing from our Member of Parliament, Sir Julian Lewis

Found: ://t.co/VLZHlyQEU2" / X 3 Dr David Healy https://davidhealy.org/if-you-wake-at-midnight/ 4 Sir Julian Lewis

Found: Sarah Champion MP Lord Dannatt Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP Bill Esterson MP Baroness Fall Sir Julian Lewis

Found: Rebecca Long Bailey, Liz Jarvis and Sir Julian Lewis. VI. Lloyd Hatton. VII.

Found: James Cleverly Helen Hayes Antonia Bance Naz Shah Dame Meg Hillier Paulette Hamilton Sir Julian Lewis

Found: James Cleverly Helen Hayes Antonia Bance Naz Shah Dame Meg Hillier Paulette Hamilton Sir Julian Lewis

Submit Evidence (by 6 Mar 2025)

Undersea cables form the backbone of the world’s internet. The UK has around 60 cables which connect us to the outside world, carrying 99% of our data. Concern has been growing about the risk of these cables being sabotaged by foreign states. The consequences would be extensive. This inquiry will examine the UK’s ability to defend our undersea infrastructure, alongside the UK’s national resilience in the event of a major, protracted disruption to our internet connection.