Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to regulate the a) use of management contracts on OnlyFans, b) responsibility of OnlyFans to ensure creators on their platform are protected from unfair and manipulative contracts and c) responsibility of platforms such as OnlyFans to allow content creators freedom to leave sites and absolve contracts with management agencies.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS is working with law enforcement and the Home Office to tackle drivers of sexual exploitation.
Any platform that provides services to UK users must abide by UK law, and will face enforcement action if they do not. Ofcom has DCMS’s full backing to use all powers available to them where platforms are in breach of the law.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to reduce waiting times for gynaecological care.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health, and cutting waiting times across all specialities, including gynaecology, across the country.
To reduce waiting times for gynaecology care we are introducing innovative models of care that deliver services closer to home and piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres for conditions such as post-menopausal bleeding. We are also prioritising gynaecology pathways for NHS Online when it launches next year.
In April, we published the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England. The strategy represents a decisive shift towards addressing longstanding failings in women’s health outcomes, experiences, and access to care. The strategy is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewed-womens-health-strategy-for-england
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to launch the Curriculum and Assessment Review Programmes of Study consultation in summer 2026.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The national curriculum and GCSEs are being updated for the first time in over a decade, with a public consultation on the draft programmes of study and subject content for the first group of GCSEs opening this September.
The revised curriculum will be published next spring, with support to begin first teaching in September 2028. The first updated GCSEs will be taught from September 2029.
The expertise, insight and experience of the education sector will be vital in shaping these reforms, and we look forward to working together throughout the process.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what consideration she has given to repurposing social media algorithms whereby feeds recommend high-quality, age-appropriate content from a diverse range of trusted sources for child accounts.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, services that are likely to be accessed by children must prevent children from encountering the most harmful content and provide age-appropriate experiences. Ofcom has recommended measures to comply with the Act, including ensuring algorithms filter out content that is harmful.
On 2 March, the government launched a consultation on further measures to ensure children’s experiences online are safe and enriching. This consultation seeks views on whether specific functionalities, like algorithms, should be age-restricted, the benefits of positive online content for children, and how cross‑sector and voluntary efforts could enable access to it. The government will respond by Summer.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of (a) trends in the level of child morning hunger across early years, primary and secondary school settings and (b) the potential impact of child morning hunger on school readiness and attendance in the Forest of Dean constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The government is committed to tackling child poverty and delivering meaningful action to support children and families. We recognise the importance of a healthy breakfast at the start of the day for pupils and the impact this can have on attendance and readiness to learn. This is why we are rolling out free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England, so all children, regardless of background, can have the best start in life.
School leaders report that free breakfast clubs are improving punctuality, attendance, behaviour and concentration. Since April 2025, the programme has delivered seven million meals and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country, with two of our early adopter schools located in the Forest of Dean constituency.
We are investing a further ÂŁ80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027. We have also committed to continued funding of breakfast provision from September 2026 for secondary schools in disadvantaged areas which are currently participating in the National School Breakfast Programme.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve consular support for British nationals overseas.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Providing consular support is a vital public service, with more than 20,000 British people given tailored assistance each year.
We are continually investing in improvements, including integration of AI to improve efficiency, alongside staff training and crisis exercising to give a better service.
We are determined to reassure families that their voices are heard, which is why Ministers have held well over 20 meetings with the families of Brits detained abroad, and continually raise their cases with foreign governments at the highest levels.
In the last full financial year, the FCDO answered over 400,000 requests for consular support from British nationals overseas, and provided more tailored assistance in over 22,000 cases, including support for the families of more than 6,000 British nationals who had died overseas, and 3,500 who had been hospitalised.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what action is being taken to address ongoing illegal tipping a) across the country, and b) in the Forest of Dean constituency.
Answered by Mary Creagh
This Government is committed to tackling waste crime from the fly-tippers who blight our towns and villages to the serious and organised crime groups who are exploiting the waste sector. Defra is making policy and regulatory reforms to close loopholes exploited by criminals and have increased the Environment Agency’s (EA’s) budget for waste crime enforcement by over 50% this year to £15.6 million.
The EA focuses on tackling large-scale waste crime, often linked to organised criminal activity while fly-tipping is managed by local authorities.
The EA is tackling waste crime across the West Midlands region, including the Forest of Dean. All reports are taken seriously, investigating each one and determining the most appropriate intervention, based on the level of risk to communities and the environment. EA Officers use a wide range of prevention and disruption techniques and are not hesitating to use these and to take enforcement action where necessary on any illegal waste sites in the Forest of Dean.
Defra also works with a wide range of interested parties through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG) to promote good practice, including advice on preventing fly-tipping on private land.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review the eligibility criteria for pupil premium funding so that all children from families receiving Universal Credit are entitled to support.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity so that all our children have the freedom to achieve and thrive in education.
We are providing over ÂŁ3 billion of pupil premium funding in financial year 2025/26 to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England.
Pupil premium is allocated on the basis of economic disadvantage, using free school meals claims, and to support children looked after or previously looked after by their local authority
Pupil premium will continue to be allocated using the current free school meals threshold of ÂŁ7,400 for financial year 2026/27.
Over the longer term, we are reviewing how we allocate pupil premium and related funding to schools and local authorities to ensure it is targeted to those who need it most, while maintaining the overall amount we spend on these funding streams.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of making UK AISI / Thorn's guidance entitled Recommended Practice for AI-G CSEA Prevention, published in December 2025, mandatory for AI developers to prevent the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government recognises the importance of tackling AI-generated CSAM. Creating, possessing, or distributing CSAM, including AI Generated CSAM, is illegal. The Online Safety Act requires services to proactively identify and remove this content. We are taking further action in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise CSAM image generators, and to ensure AI developers can directly test for and address vulnerabilities in their models which enable the production of CSAM.
The AISI / Thorn joint publication guidance (Recommended Practice for AI-G CSEA Prevention) sets out practical steps that AI developers, model hosting services and others in the AI ecosystem can take to reduce the risk that their systems are misused to generate CSAM. This guidance is informed by input from industry and child protection organisations, and many of the world’s leading AI developers (including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta) have signed up to the principles of earlier forms of this guidance.
The Government is clear: no option is off the table when it comes to protecting the online safety of users in the UK.
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
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 ensure specialist emotional and practical support is available for parents caring for children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
We recognise the challenges families caring for a seriously ill child face, which is why NHS England have published statutory guidance and service specifications on commissioning children’s palliative care and end of life care. This specifically references access to emotional support and practical advice for parents and loved ones. Local authorities and ICBs jointly commission short‑breaks packages for children with life‑limiting conditions, and provide respite care where necessary. Additionally, from April 2025, the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit increased from £151 a week to £196 to support carers. The Minister for Care also chairs a cross-government meeting with DWP, DBT and DfE ministers to consider how we can provide carers with better recognition and support.