Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 impact of the prescription of weight loss drugs on the NHS without associated prescriptions of exercise and physical activity on muscle mass.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Weight loss drugs, including semaglutide, tirzepatide and liraglutide, are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as clinically and cost-effective treatment options on the National Health Service for obesity. The guidance from NICE states that these drugs should be prescribed alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, and that healthcare professionals should arrange information, support, and counselling on additional diet, physical activity, and behavioural strategies when these drugs are prescribed. As such, healthcare professionals in the NHS should not be prescribing weight loss drugs without arranging information and support on physical activity and exercise. The Government has therefore not made an assessment of the potential impact of the prescription of weight loss drugs on the NHS without ‘associated prescriptions’ of exercise and physical activity on muscle mass.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 healthcare practitioners prescribe exercise when weight loss injections are prescribed for anti-obesity treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Weight loss drugs, including semaglutide, tirzepatide and liraglutide, are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as clinically and cost-effective treatment options on the National Health Service for obesity. The guidance from NICE states that these drugs should be prescribed alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, and that healthcare professionals should arrange information, support, and counselling on additional diet, physical activity, and behavioural strategies when these drugs are prescribed. As such, healthcare professionals in the NHS should not be prescribing weight loss drugs without arranging information and support on physical activity and exercise. The Government has therefore not made an assessment of the potential impact of the prescription of weight loss drugs on the NHS without ‘associated prescriptions’ of exercise and physical activity on muscle mass.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has had discussions with Ofcom on the adequacy of levels of news bulletins in the BBC’s proposals for new DAB radio stations targeted at younger audiences.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The BBC is operationally and editorially independent of the government. It is for Ofcom, as the BBC’s independent regulator, to hold the BBC to account in meeting its obligations to provide duly accurate and impartial news to audiences across its services.
Ofcom is also responsible for assessing changes to BBC services that may have a significant impact on fair and effective competition. Ofcom is currently considering the BBC’s proposals for the new DAB+ stations and published their provisional findings on their website in April this year. Their final decision on the BBC’s proposal is expected to be issued by 4 July 2025.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her planned timetable is for unitarisation in areas where local elections were not postponed from May 2025.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government will work with these areas to hold elections for new unitary councils as soon as possible as is the usual arrangement in the process of local government reorganisation. The exact timings and detail will depend on the proposals received and the decision taken on which proposal, if any, to implement. We anticipate that, subject to many external factors, there could be elections to ‘shadow’ unitary councils in May 2027, ahead of “go live” of new councils on 1 April 2028.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when he plans to publish a response to the Copyright and Artificial Intelligence consultation, which closed on 25 February 2025.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government’s consultation on copyright and AI received over 11,500 responses. Our priority now is to review these thoroughly to help inform its approach to copyright and AI, and a response will be published when this work has been completed.
Meanwhile, the Government will continue to engage extensively as it considers next steps.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with R&A on the hosting of the Open Championship in 2028.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Sporting bodies operate independently of the Government. Decisions on tournament hosting venues are rightly a matter for the relevant sporting bodies, in this case the R&A and its operational team.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of Chinese-made drones used by police forces on cyber security.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions on operational equipment are made independently by police forces, who are best placed to assess their own operational needs while ensuring they have the tools necessary to protect the public.
The Government takes national and cyber security extremely seriously and regularly reviews risks, including from Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS). The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) have issued guidance for security professionals across public and private sector organisations on the appropriate security measures which should be taken to manage potential security risks via UAS technologies, including drones.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of levels of access to medication by neurodivergent people who have been diagnosed (a) by the NHS and (b) privately.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition, related to how the brain develops, rather than an illness. Although some approaches are particularly helpful for autistic people, and medication may be prescribed for co-existing issues, autism is not treated directly, including through medication.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards in England to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to medication services for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
It is for the responsible clinician to decide on the most appropriate treatment plan to manage ADHD in discussion with their patient. This decision is based on the clinician’s expertise regarding treatment options, evidence, risk and benefits and the patient’s personal circumstances as part of a shared decision-making process. The NICE guidelines on ADHD set out the considerations that healthcare professionals should account for when considering treatment options.
Shared care within the National Health Service refers to an arrangement whereby a specialist doctor formally transfers responsibility for all or some aspects of their patient’s care, such as prescription of medication, over to the patient’s general practitioner (GP). The General Medical Council (GMC) has issued guidance on prescribing and managing medicines, which helps GPs decide whether to accept shared care responsibilities. The GMC has made it clear that GPs cannot be compelled to enter into a shared care agreement. GP practices may decline such requests on clinical or capacity grounds. If a shared care arrangement cannot be put in place after the treatment has been initiated, the responsibility for continued prescribing falls upon the specialist clinician; this applies to both NHS and private medical care.
We have taken swift action to improve the supply of ADHD medications and, as a result, many issues have been resolved. However, some issues remain, and we are working with the relevant manufacturers to help resolve them, as soon as possible.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department made of the potential impact of the use of Chinese-made drones to survey critical national infrastructure sites on cybersecurity.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence takes the security of all its assets very seriously, but we do not comment on details as these could be useful to potential adversaries.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 increase capacity for training new GPs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training thousands more general practitioners and will ensure that there is sufficient capacity in the National Health Service to deliver this.
To reform the NHS and make it fit for the future, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan as part of Government’s five long-term missions. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.