Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds data on the number of ransomware attacks against schools and colleges in the last three years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Educational settings in England are responsible for maintaining their IT systems and cyber security. There is currently no mandatory reporting requirement legislation for schools to report a cyber attack and no central register of cyber attacks exists. However, the department has been notified of 53 ransomware cases across the sector over the last 3 years.
The department has a small, dedicated sector cyber security team to support the education sector. The team provides appropriate guidance and advice, via regular targeted and broad communications, to help schools adhere to and maintain good cyber security standards. The department provides guidance for schools and colleges on how to help protect against a cyber incident, which can found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/cyber-security-standards-for-schools-and-colleges.
The department also works closely with the National Cyber Crime Security Centre (NCSC) and Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to ensure that up-to-date cyber security guidance is shared with schools, colleges and universities.
Further guidance on cyber security for schools can be found at: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/education-skills/cyber-security-schools.
The department’s Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) has more than 9,900 member schools, which is 52% of eligible schools in England, and is including cover for cyber incidents as standard from the 2022/23 membership years. In the event of a cyber incident, RPA members have access to a 24/7 Incident Response Service.
The department’s dedicated sector cyber security function provides advice in response to cyber security enquiries and incident reports from the sector, liaising with the affected institution following an incident to advise on steps to mitigate the threat and provide guidance on recovery.
The department adheres to the NCSC guidance on payment of ransoms and does not encourage, endorse nor condone the payment of ransom demands in response to a ransomware attack. This guidance is outlined at: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/mitigating-malware-and-ransomware-attacks.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent people under 18 years old from committing anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.
The Government has committed to the creation of a new Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships, to intervene early and ensure this cohort is identified and offered support in a more systematic way, as well as creating more opportunities for young people in their communities.
Prevention Partnerships will identify children and young people who are vulnerable to being drawn into crime and violence such as knife crime and ASB and divert them by offering them suitable support in a more systematic way.
The Government’s Plan for Change, announced by the Prime Minister on 5 December, sets out our plan to reduce ASB. This will include a dedicated lead officer in every police force across England and Wales working with communities to develop a local ASB action plan. We are also delivering on our commitment to bring back and strengthen neighbourhood policing, ensuring thousands of additional officers are visibly out patrolling in our town centres and communities to make our streets safer.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support regional crime units to tackle (a) fraud and (b) cybercrime.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
A new National Fraud Squad (NFS) has been established, consisting of a network of 400 new investigators across the National Crime Agency, City of London Police and Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs). The NFS is transforming the law enforcement response by taking a proactive, intelligence-led approach to identifying and disrupting the most serious fraudsters, domestically and overseas, jointly with government and industry.
The Home Office has provided funding to create a coordinated police Fraud Protect Network, made up of local, regional and national law enforcement officers and is designed to reduce the threat of fraud and revictimisation by providing consistent safeguarding advice to the public.
The Home Office also funds the Regional Cyber Crime Units (RCCUs) across England and Wales. These regional policing teams investigate and pursue serious cyber offenders, including supporting organisations during live ransomware attacks to get them back online as soon as possible. They also support businesses by providing cyber security support to help them reduce their vulnerability and threat of attack.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of improving product labelling on sugar content in food for children under the age of two.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children’s early years provide an important foundation for their future health and strongly influences many aspects of well-being in later life. Data shows that babies and young children are eating too much sugar, and that some commercial baby foods, particularly finger foods, contain added sugar or high sugar ingredients. This does not align with the recommendations from the independent Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition on the diets of children aged one to five years old.
It is vital that we maintain the highest standards for foods consumed by babies and infants, which is why we have regulations in place that set nutritional and compositional standards for commercial baby food. The regulations also set labelling standards to ensure consumers have clear and accurate information about the products they buy. We continue to keep these regulations under review to ensure they reflect the latest scientific and dietary guidelines.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is aware of supply issues with Felodipine medication; and whether he has had discussions with with (a) suppliers and (b) pharmacists to minimise patient impact.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is currently not aware of any supply issues affecting any strength of felodipine. While we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, we have a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise, to mitigate risks to patients. These include close and regular engagement with suppliers, use of alternative strengths or forms of a medicine to allow patients to remain on the same product, expediting regulatory procedures, sourcing unlicensed imports from abroad, adding products to the restricted exports and hoarding list, use of Serious Shortage Protocols, and issuing National Health Service communications to provide management advice and information on the issue to healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, so they can advise and support their patients.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of processing times for manual Disclosure and Barring Service certificates; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of adding manual certificates to the DBS update service.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Manual certificates are only used in rare circumstances when an automated DBS certificate cannot be issued, for example if the applicants’ name or relevant information from the Police National Computer exceeds a certain number of characters, or for certain applications which are submitted via the Sensitive applications route.
DBS aims to complete them within the usual published processing standards which can be viewed at: DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, the DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK.
Given the small numbers involved and their alignment to the automated checks processing times, there are currently no specific concerns relating to manually processed certificates. As manual certificates are produced offline, they cannot be added to the Update Service as there is no automated facility to continuously monitor the certificate status.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will take steps to support the School Games Organisers Network.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Our mission-led Government puts children and young people at the heart of our priorities. This includes breaking down barriers to opportunity for every child to access high-quality sport and physical activity, especially those who are less likely to be active.
The School Games Organisers are essential in ensuring that all children have the opportunity to take part in local and accessible sport and physical activity. The Government has confirmed funding for the School Games Organisers (SGOs) until the end of the 2024/25 Academic Year. Funding beyond then will be confirmed ahead of the start of the 2025/26 Financial Year, with funding from April 2026 onwards subject to the ongoing Spending Review.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of existing health and safety standards on (a) electric vehicles and (b) their batteries.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All vehicles used on UK roads must comply with rigorous safety requirements. The UK is actively involved in the ongoing development of international regulations for road vehicle approval at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. These regulations consider novel risks and potential safety concerns associated with hybrid and electric vehicles.
The crashworthiness regulations have been reviewed and amended accordingly, whilst a specific regulation dealing with electrical safety of vehicles has been updated to include provisions for the mechanical and electrical testing of the battery, its fire resistance, and electrical insulation.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) improvements in stroke care services and (b) the introduction of mechanical thrombectomy services at York and Scarborough Foundation Teaching NHS Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no current plan to introduce mechanical thrombectomy for the acute treatment of strokes at the York and Scarborough Foundation Teaching NHS Trust. Thrombectomy is a specialist treatment that is only offered in a few tertiary centres across the country. Patients attending the York and Scarborough Foundation Teaching NHS Trust requiring a mechanical thrombectomy will be referred to the Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust as the tertiary centre catering to the population who require this service.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle intermittent shortages of Efudix and (b) improve access to alternative medications to Efudix.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of the intermittent shortages of Fluorouracil (Efudix) 5% cream, which are expected to last until March 2025 and are due to the manufacturer having constrained capacity. The Department is working with the manufacturer of the impacted product to bring forward future supplies and increase quantities where possible. We have also worked with manufacturers of alternative products and specialist importers to meet the increased demand, and have supported bringing more stock into the United Kingdom. Working with National Health Service specialists we have provided management advice for this supply issue, advising healthcare professionals on how to manage patients during this time.