Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people aged 16 - 24 not in education, employment or training were disabled in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2024/25, the latest year of available data, there were approximately 401,000 disabled people aged 16 -24 who were not in education, employment or training (NEET), which is 45.0% of all young people who are NEET.
The figures on the employment of disabled people was published here.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance she has issued to NHS bodies on embedding co-design with blind and partially sighted people throughout the development, testing and ongoing improvement of digital health services.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon Member to the National Health Service guidance available at the link below, which includes the steps taken to recruit users of digital services with different disabilities to test and improve the accessibility of each service:
The guidance is set out in the NHS Service Standard, which requires NHS digital services to be designed so that everyone can use them, including through involving people with disabilities in user research, testing, and service improvement activities.
NHS England applies these principles in the development of the NHS App. The NHS App team follows an inclusive design approach and involves people with lived experience of disability in user research and service development, including engagement with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and people with sight loss to help shape and test services. The team works with specialist organisations and representative groups, and co-designs and tests new features with users who have a range of access needs, including blind and partially sighted people.
The team also undertakes regular independent accessibility audits, tests services against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA standards, and operates dedicated Accessibility Labs to support the development of accessible and inclusive digital services. NHS England has also strengthened its accessibility and inclusive design capability to help ensure that accessibility is considered throughout the development and improvement of digital health services.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure blind and partially sighted people are involved in the design and testing of NHS digital services, including the NHS App.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon Member to the National Health Service guidance available at the link below, which includes the steps taken to recruit users of digital services with different disabilities to test and improve the accessibility of each service:
The guidance is set out in the NHS Service Standard, which requires NHS digital services to be designed so that everyone can use them, including through involving people with disabilities in user research, testing, and service improvement activities.
NHS England applies these principles in the development of the NHS App. The NHS App team follows an inclusive design approach and involves people with lived experience of disability in user research and service development, including engagement with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and people with sight loss to help shape and test services. The team works with specialist organisations and representative groups, and co-designs and tests new features with users who have a range of access needs, including blind and partially sighted people.
The team also undertakes regular independent accessibility audits, tests services against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA standards, and operates dedicated Accessibility Labs to support the development of accessible and inclusive digital services. NHS England has also strengthened its accessibility and inclusive design capability to help ensure that accessibility is considered throughout the development and improvement of digital health services.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the proposals in the consultation on Assistive software funded through the Disabled Students' Allowance, which closed on 18 June 2026.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is currently analysing the responses to the consultation and assessing the implications for its policies. This evidence, alongside an updated Equality Impact Assessment, will inform decisions on any changes to the provision of assistive software funded through Disabled Students’ Allowance.
No final policy decisions have been made. The department intends to publish the consultation response in due course.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to ensure accessibility and communication needs are recorded once and shared consistently across NHS services through the Single Patient Record and the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This is something that should routinely happen across all National Health Service digital services, via the Reasonable Adjustment Flag process, details of which can be found at the link below and which will be rolled out as a core element of each new digital service:
https://digital.nhs.uk/services/patient-flags-service/reasonable-adjustment-flag
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to enable additional voluntary-sector and commercial organisations to participate in the delivery of Action 66 of the Women’s Health Strategy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the Renewed Women's Health Strategy, we will establish the women’s voices partnership, a new space for organisations representing women to inform national decision making. The partnership will focus on women most excluded from traditional services.
Action 66 will be delivered through engagement with organisations in the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector and private sector partners. An update on the workstream will be announced in due course.
We are considering how best to keep stakeholders informed of progress in implementing the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy and will provide updates through appropriate channels as implementation progresses. We will provide further updates to the House in the normal way in due course.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish a list of organisations involved in the Women’s Voices Partnership established under Action 1 of the Women’s Health Strategy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the Renewed Women's Health Strategy, we will establish the women’s voices partnership, a new space for organisations representing women to inform national decision making. The partnership will focus on women most excluded from traditional services.
Action 66 will be delivered through engagement with organisations in the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector and private sector partners. An update on the workstream will be announced in due course.
We are considering how best to keep stakeholders informed of progress in implementing the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy and will provide updates through appropriate channels as implementation progresses. We will provide further updates to the House in the normal way in due course.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress she has made on delivering Action 66 of the Women’s Health Strategy.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the Renewed Women's Health Strategy, we will establish the women’s voices partnership, a new space for organisations representing women to inform national decision making. The partnership will focus on women most excluded from traditional services.
Action 66 will be delivered through engagement with organisations in the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector and private sector partners. An update on the workstream will be announced in due course.
We are considering how best to keep stakeholders informed of progress in implementing the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy and will provide updates through appropriate channels as implementation progresses. We will provide further updates to the House in the normal way in due course.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to publish the next update on progress in delivering the Women’s Health Strategy; and whether she plans to make a statement to the House on that progress.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the Renewed Women's Health Strategy, we will establish the women’s voices partnership, a new space for organisations representing women to inform national decision making. The partnership will focus on women most excluded from traditional services.
Action 66 will be delivered through engagement with organisations in the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector and private sector partners. An update on the workstream will be announced in due course.
We are considering how best to keep stakeholders informed of progress in implementing the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy and will provide updates through appropriate channels as implementation progresses. We will provide further updates to the House in the normal way in due course.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to what extent organisations involved in the Women’s Voices Partnership are representative of women excluded from and underrepresented in traditional engagement and consultation processes.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the Renewed Women's Health Strategy, we will establish the women’s voices partnership, a new space for organisations representing women to inform national decision making. The partnership will focus on women most excluded from traditional services.
Action 66 will be delivered through engagement with organisations in the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector and private sector partners. An update on the workstream will be announced in due course.
We are considering how best to keep stakeholders informed of progress in implementing the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy and will provide updates through appropriate channels as implementation progresses. We will provide further updates to the House in the normal way in due course.