Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration has the Government given to the potential merits of rescinding policies preventing early supplementation while breastfeeding.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are committed to giving every child the best start in life by ensuring that all families can access consistent, high-quality and non-judgmental infant feeding support that meets their needs, regardless of how they choose to feed their baby. Informed consent and shared decision-making are established principles of healthcare and reflected in national antenatal and postnatal guidance. The guidance supports women and parents to make informed choices about infant feeding, based on relevant evidence-based information and their individual needs, circumstances, and preferences. National guidance does not prevent early supplementation while breastfeeding. Where supplementary feeds are being considered, healthcare professionals should provide relevant information and support and discuss the woman’s circumstances and preferences, and agree an appropriate feeding plan.

I refer the Hon Member to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance on antenatal and postnatal care, which is available at the following two links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng201/resources/antenatal-care-pdf-66143709695941

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng194/resources/postnatal-care-pdf-66142082148037

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration has the Government given to adopting principles of informed consent and shared decision making as part of infant feeding policy.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are committed to giving every child the best start in life by ensuring that all families can access consistent, high-quality and non-judgmental infant feeding support that meets their needs, regardless of how they choose to feed their baby. Informed consent and shared decision-making are established principles of healthcare and reflected in national antenatal and postnatal guidance. The guidance supports women and parents to make informed choices about infant feeding, based on relevant evidence-based information and their individual needs, circumstances, and preferences. National guidance does not prevent early supplementation while breastfeeding. Where supplementary feeds are being considered, healthcare professionals should provide relevant information and support and discuss the woman’s circumstances and preferences, and agree an appropriate feeding plan.

I refer the Hon Member to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance on antenatal and postnatal care, which is available at the following two links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng201/resources/antenatal-care-pdf-66143709695941

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng194/resources/postnatal-care-pdf-66142082148037

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what national preparations have been made for geomagnetic storms, as well as other space weather-related incidents.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government treats severe space weather, including geomagnetic storms, as a national resilience risk. Preparations include continuous monitoring and forecasting by the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre, cross-Government coordination led by UK Space Agency in BIST, and sector engagement through severe space weather governance groups.

Government is refreshing the National Severe Space Weather Preparedness Strategy to strengthen preparedness, response and recovery arrangements and will publish in due course. Work is also under way with government departments, regulators, industry and international partners to improve impact assessments, contingency planning, exercising and public communications.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that park home residents who purchase electricity through their site owners benefit from the removal of VAT from electricity bills from 1st October 2026.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

To support households with the cost of living, the Government is removing VAT from electricity bills this winter. Around 29 million households across the UK are expected to benefit from this change.

The new zero VAT rate for domestic electricity will replace the existing reduced VAT rate (5%). Anyone currently benefiting from the reduced rate will benefit from the new zero rate.

Some park home residents purchase their electricity from the park home site owner rather than directly from a licensed energy supplier. Where electricity is not individually metered and charged based on actual consumption, the electricity supply may be treated as part of the pitch fee and can therefore be subject to the same VAT treatment as that charge.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she would consider the potential merits of appointing clinical research nurses to work only on brain cancer clinical trials.

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that National Health Service organisations have the appropriate workforce to support the delivery of clinical trials, including trials of brain cancer treatments.

Decisions about the composition and deployment of clinical research teams are for individual host organisations, based on their research portfolio, clinical priorities, patient population, and workforce requirements. This may include the appointment of research nurses with specialist expertise in particular disease areas where this is appropriate.

The Government does not currently mandate a particular staffing model but provides support with funding through the National Institute of Health and Care Research to develop the capacity and capability to deliver research, expecting host organisations to ensure that they have the appropriate resources and expertise to deliver the clinical research undertaken at their sites.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of cybersecurity requirements applying to hardware wallets used to store private keys for cryptoassets.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government legislated in February of this year to establish a financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets. This regime requires firms to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) where they are undertaking regulated activities in or to the UK. The new regulated activities include safeguarding cryptoassets that are in scope of the regime, and this extends to private keys. Firms authorised by the FCA must meet robust standards, including on risk management, operational resilience, and financial crime controls.

Found: Ms Polly Billington (Labour; East Thanet) Sir Christopher Chope (Conservative; Christchurch) Lizzi Collinge

Found: Ms Polly Billington (Labour; East Thanet) Sir Christopher Chope (Conservative; Christchurch) Lizzi Collinge

Found: sitting Members present Bill Esterson, in the Chair Polly Billington Sir Christopher Chope Lizzi Collinge

Found: Q246 Lizzi Collinge: I want to keep going on the flexibility thing for a moment.

Found: Q246 Lizzi Collinge: I want to keep going on the flexibility thing for a moment.

Found: Q246 Lizzi Collinge: I want to keep going on the flexibility thing for a moment.

Found: sitting Members present Bill Esterson, in the Chair Polly Billington Sir Christopher Chope Lizzi Collinge

Found: suicidal would be “no bar” to being judged to have capacity for the purposes of assisted dying.54 Lizzi Collinge