Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to review the adequacy of the GP Contract at reflecting (a) increases in demand, (b) inflation and (c) additional responsibilities.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

General practices (GPs) are valued independent contractors who provide over £13 billion worth of National Health Services. Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking into account demand and the cost of delivering services.

We have started the 2026/27 GP Contract consultation, and we look forward to listening to a range of stakeholders to help strengthen policy making, ensuring that GPs work for staff and patients.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of allowing an exemption from Selective Licensing Schemes to be granted to leaseholders whose properties are within the Cladding Safety Scheme.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

My Department has made no such assessment. We will continue to keep selective licensing regulations under review.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his department has plans to implement the recommendations in Turn2us's report entitled From stigma to support, published in October 2025.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are testing changes to the Jobcentre Plus environment to make it more welcoming for customers. We are exploring how services can be delivered in community settings, including via vans, pop-ups and collaboration with partner services. We are introducing trauma-informed approaches across the DWP, and all frontline DWP colleagues are trained to identify and support vulnerable customers. As part of the new Jobs and Careers Service, we are shifting the focus of the customer-work coach relationship away from compliance and box-ticking to more personalised, and career-focused discussions. We are testing this in our first Pathfinder, based in Wakefield.

We are building towards a guaranteed Pathways to Work offer of personalised employment, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits. We have also launched the Timms Review to ensure PIP is fair and fit for the future. We are co-producing the Review with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, and other experts. Once in place, the Review’s steering group will agree the approach to considering evidence and gathering input.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his department is taking to ensure that members of the armed forces are not penalised in child maintenance claims where they are unable to meet contact night thresholds due to the obligations of active service.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The aim of shared care arrangements is to make an allowance for direct costs incurred by ‘non-resident parents’ when children are staying with them for part of the time. For shared care to be considered in child maintenance calculations, the paying parent must have the child or children stay overnight at the same address as them.

This requirement is set out in Regulation 46 of the Child Support Maintenance Calculation Regulations 2012, which provides that:

• A night counts where the non-resident parent has care of the qualifying child overnight and the child stays at the same address as that parent.
• The non-resident parent is regarded as having care when they are looking after the child.
• If, on a particular night, the child is a boarder at a boarding school or an in-patient in hospital, the person who would normally have care of the child for that night is treated as having care.

If a parent feels that a decision taken by the Child Maintenance Service is incorrect, they can ask it to look at the decision again. This is known as a mandatory reconsideration. This can include the CMS looking at variation decisions and decisions to refuse a variation. If a parent still feels that the decision taken is incorrect after they receive a mandatory reconsideration notice, they will be able to appeal to an independent tribunal.

DWP is fully committed to the Armed Forces Covenant and CMS engages regularly with defence stakeholders to make sure its policies, caseworker training, and communications reflect Service specific constraints.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the number of serving police officers taking their own lives is recorded.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not currently collect information centrally on the number of police officer suicides. The Office for National Statistics publishes data on the number of suicides registered in England and Wales by occupation. The latest available data can be found here: Suicide by occupation in England and Wales: 2023 and 2024, provisional - Office for National Statistics

This Government has been clear that the health and wellbeing of our police workforce is a priority, and we are committed to making improvements in wellbeing support for officers and staff. This includes exploring options to improve the current monitoring and data recording processes for police officer suicides.

The National Police Wellbeing Service has created a national suicide action plan which aims to educate and support the workforce, reduce stress and improve data recording. In addition, the Service has put in place a 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Support Line to provide urgent support for our police when they need it the most.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms will ensure accountability for primary care outcomes within merged ICBs, particularly where decision-making is centralised elsewhere.

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

The NHS Oversight Framework will continue to provide the approach to assessing integrated care boards, including in relation to primary care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that smaller systems, such as Gloucestershire, do not lose visibility or influence within larger merged ICBs which include urban centres.

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

Across larger integrated care board (ICB) footprints there will be a renewed focus on the local level as part of our commitment to deliver care closer to home. As outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan, neighbourhood health plans will be created, including for Gloucestershire, and will be brought together as part of the ICBs’ plans to improve population health locally.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his department has made of the potential merits of recognising humanist marriages using existing powers.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Government announced on 2 October that it intends to reform weddings law when parliamentary time allows. The reforms reflect a commitment to making weddings law fairer, simpler and more modern, whilst also protecting the solemnity and dignity of marriage. We want to create a level playing field for all groups, including allowing Humanist weddings to be legally recognised for the first time. We will be consulting on the details early next year.

The Government is of the view that using the existing order-making power under section 14 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 legally to recognise Humanist weddings would mean introducing new inequalities into existing law. This is because Humanists would gain more freedoms in relation to how they marry than those available to most religious groups. The Government has decided to enable Humanist weddings as part of comprehensive reform that ensures all groups are treated fairly.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has his Department made of the potential impact of ICB mergers on continuity and access in rural and semi-rural areas.

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

Across larger integrated care board (ICB) footprints there will be a renewed focus on the local level as part of our commitment to delivering care closer to home, and this includes rural and semi rural areas. As outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan, neighbourhood health plans will be created and will be brought together as part of the ICBs’ plans to improve population health locally.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are his department taking to ensure the that upcoming GP Connect requirements support confidentiality and data integrity.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

GP Connect helps clinicians to gain access to general practice (GP) patient records during interactions away from a patient’s registered practice and makes their medical information available to appropriate health and social care professionals when and where they need it, to support the patient’s direct care. From a privacy, confidentiality, and data protection perspective, GP Connect provides a method of secure information transfer and reduces the need to use less secure or less efficient methods of transferring information, such as email or telephone.

Access to GP Connect is governed by role-based access and organisational controls, and only people who need to see the GP patient record for a patient’s direct care should be able to see it. Data integrity is ensured by the GP Connect Application Programming Interface sharing an accurate, consistent, and real time complete copy of specific data held in the source GP record. All systems that allow the use of GP Connect must undergo a robust compliance process.

All organisations applying to use GP Connect must comply with the National Data Sharing Arrangement (NDSA) and end-user agreement that sets out their responsibilities and confidentiality obligations. Further information is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/gp-connect/national-data-sharing-arrangement-for-gp-connect

The NDSA and its terms and conditions stipulate that any information received or accessed about a patient for direct care purposes must remain confidential.

NHS England has published a Privacy Notice and a Data Protection Impact Assessment for GP Connect, which can be found, respectively, at the following two links:

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/gp-connect/gp-connect-in-your-organisation/gp-connect-privacy-notice/impact-assessment

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/gp-connect/gp-connect-in-your-organisation/gp-connect-privacy-notice

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential implications for its policies of the Carnegie UK report entitled Life in the UK 2025.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

This government is already strongly committed to ensuring that everyone, no matter their background, can thrive. Our mission-led government is delivering on our Plan for Change to secure opportunity for all, economic stability, and improved living standards.

We are progressing our mission on opportunity for all to break the link between background and success. We are fixing the foundations of our education and care systems, hiring more teachers, social workers and nursery staff. We have also launched our Best Start in Life strategy and are rolling out Best Start Family Hubs investing £1.5 billion.

More widely, this government is investing £820 million creating 350,000 workplace opportunities to support young people not in education or training under the Youth Guarantee; and £5bn in the Pride of Place programme to empower local people to shape the future of their neighbourhoods.

Work is also underway to deliver our manifesto commitment to commence the socio-economic duty in England. The duty will require specified public bodies to actively consider how their strategic decisions might help to reduce the inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage.

Convention on Cluster Munitions and preventing UK involvement in their production

Accommodation standards for people seeking asylum

Winter NHS corridor care