Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that student midwifes graduating this year can find employment in the profession.

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

Decisions on recruitment and employment are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts, which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers, and educators to improve transition into the workforce.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support she is giving to the new government of Syria to combat ISIS.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Hon Member to my written statement to the House on 29 April (HWCS1552). We are working closely with the Syrian and Iraqi Governments, as well as our US and European partners, to protect our shared national security interests and ensure Daesh's territorial defeat endures.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help replace aluminium and PVC medical blister packs with recyclable polypropylene blister packs.

Answered by Mary Creagh

Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging is designed to incentivise producers to use packaging that is easier to recycle, including through fee modulation from year two of the scheme.

All medical packaging, including blister packs, must be assessed under the Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM), and may incur higher fees if it is less recyclable. However, some medical packaging is subject to regulatory requirements which may limit the use of more recyclable alternatives. Where medical packaging is assessed as ‘red-rated’ according to the RAM, solely because of such regulatory requirements, it may be reported as ‘amber-medical’ for fee modulation purposes.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of reports of Russia deploying (a) hybrid non-kinetic attacks and (b) irregular migration.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

This Government condemns the growing recklessness of Russian aggression — both in Ukraine and through its hybrid activity across Europe. We are working closely with allies, including through NATO, to hold Russia to account; counter the threat from Putin’s regime; and strengthen our resilience to state threats (sometimes referred to as hybrid or non-kinetic threats).

The UK is taking robust action to defend the UK against state threats, including sanctioning the GRU (Russian military intelligence), exposing malicious cyber activity, and targeting illicit finance. This Government also placed Russia on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), meaning anyone working for the Russian state in the UK must declare what they are doing or risk jail.

The Government has recently introduced the National Security (State Threats) Bill, which will enable the Government to designate and disrupt organisations involved in state threats activity. New criminal sanctions will apply to designated bodies, including proxies, being used by states to carry out their hostile activities in the UK.

We are also working closely with international partners, including those at the EU’s external border, to understand and respond to the use of irregular migration as a tool of destabilisation. We continue to assess the risks posed by so‑called “weaponised migration” and coordinate responses accordingly – which has included sanctions on individuals and entities connected to human trafficking and the use of migration to undermine European security.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what plans she has to ensure the safety of products sold online.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

UK product safety law is clear: all products must be safe, including those sold online. My Department’s Office for Product Safety and Standards takes action to address non-compliant products online, including monitoring marketplaces, test purchasing and taking appropriate enforcement action.

In addition, Government recently consulted on reforming the product safety framework to ensure it works for modern supply chains and addresses new risks. This included proposals for clear duties on online marketplaces to take proactive steps to identify, prevent and remove unsafe products from their sites. We are now considering feedback and will set out our response in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to appoint a men's health ambassador.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales

The Department published England’s first ever Men’s Health Strategy on 19 November 2025, to coincide with International Men’s Day.

The strategy includes tangible actions to improve access to healthcare, provide the right support to enable men to make healthier choices, develop healthy living and working conditions, foster strong social, community, and family networks, and address societal norms. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention, respiratory illness, prostate cancer, and heart disease.

The strategy recognises the importance of meeting men where they are. This includes investment in community-based health and suicide prevention programmes and a new partnership with the Premier League to ensure men know where to go for mental health support.

We are now turning our focus to implementing the commitments set out in the strategy, including how partnerships and stakeholders can support and champion the strategy and its implementation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to reduce diagnosis times for leukaemia in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson

Early diagnosis is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan. The Government is committed to supporting the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including leukaemia, as early and quickly as possible and to improve outcomes for patients.

To support earlier diagnosis of blood cancers, including leukaemia, NHS England has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients presenting with symptoms such as unexplained weight loss and fatigue that do not clearly align to a particular tumour type. Blood cancers, including leukaemia, are among the most common cancers diagnosed through these pathways.

Recognising that leukaemia is not captured by the current stage-based measure of early diagnosis, the National Cancer Plan commits to publishing regular data on the number of these cancers diagnosed in emergency settings, as a proxy for late or ineffective diagnosis. Adding this to the basket of early diagnosis metrics will help incentivise systems and providers to focus on earlier diagnosis of blood cancers.

The National Cancer Plan also includes measures to strengthen diagnostic services by investing in diagnostic capacity and expanding access to tests and scans. Community diagnostic centres are playing an important role in supporting earlier diagnosis, with 109 centres now open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, offering at least one diagnostic test during extended hours. The Government also plans to open four additional community diagnostic centres, helping more patients access diagnostic services closer to home and at times that fit around work and family commitments.

The plan will also support earlier diagnosis through the wider use of innovative technologies, including artificial intelligence, where supported by evidence, and by ensuring every patient who would benefit from a genomic test can receive one within a clinically relevant timeframe.

Recognising that blood cancers such as leukaemia do not behave like many other cancers and are not captured by stage-based early diagnosis metrics, the National Cancer Plan also commits to publishing regular data on the number of these cancers diagnosed in emergency settings. This will improve understanding of diagnostic performance, help identify where further intervention is needed, and support earlier diagnosis of leukaemia and other blood cancers.

Found: Private Secretary Nia Webb – Private Secretary Tal Michael – Special Advisor Apologies Cllr Mark Pritchard