Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of continued professional development on the ability of teachers to tackle misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories in the classroom.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The initial teacher training and early career framework sets out the foundational core content that defines great teaching. This includes anticipating common misconceptions within particular subjects, which is an important aspect of curricular knowledge. In the context of misinformation, this can help teachers to spot pupil misconceptions that may arise from various sources. Beyond this, providers can design a curriculum which is responsive to participant needs, including additional training where necessary.
In October 2024, Ofcom published its three-year media literacy strategy, which commits to supporting teachers through continuing professional development, evaluation of training outcomes and stronger collaboration with regional partners to share learnings and effective practices.
The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report was published on 5 November 2025 and includes recommendations for reform to the curriculum, which the government has accepted. Vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy will be embedded into the revised curriculum from 2028.
To support schools in the meantime, Oak National Academy provides adaptable, optional and free curriculum support for schools, including resources for computing and secondary citizenship, which can be found here: https://www.thenational.academy/.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of initial teacher training on the ability of teachers to tackle misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories in the classroom.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The initial teacher training and early career framework sets out the foundational core content that defines great teaching. This includes anticipating common misconceptions within particular subjects, which is an important aspect of curricular knowledge. In the context of misinformation, this can help teachers to spot pupil misconceptions that may arise from various sources. Beyond this, providers can design a curriculum which is responsive to participant needs, including additional training where necessary.
In October 2024, Ofcom published its three-year media literacy strategy, which commits to supporting teachers through continuing professional development, evaluation of training outcomes and stronger collaboration with regional partners to share learnings and effective practices.
The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report was published on 5 November 2025 and includes recommendations for reform to the curriculum, which the government has accepted. Vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy will be embedded into the revised curriculum from 2028.
To support schools in the meantime, Oak National Academy provides adaptable, optional and free curriculum support for schools, including resources for computing and secondary citizenship, which can be found here: https://www.thenational.academy/.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to require all publicly accessible defibrillators to be registered on the Circuit network.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
According to the British Heart Foundation, there are now over 110,000 registered defibrillators in the United Kingdom, which is an increase of 30,000 since September 2023.
The Government does not currently have plans to bring forward such legislative proposals. Local communities obtaining automated external defibrillators do so on a voluntary basis and introducing legal requirements could disincentive this voluntary action.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Correspondence entitled HM Land Registry Chair’s letter, published 6 March 2025, what progress the Land Registry has made on (a) opening up existing data and information on land and (b) reforms to deeper transparency of land ownership in (i) Southport constituency and (ii) across the country.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
HM Land Registry (HMLR) already provides public access to information on individual property titles for a small fee, and it received 27.8 million information service requests in 2024-25. It also provides a mix of free and paid-for data services through its “Use land and property data” service on gov.uk. The Use land and property data platform, which can be found on gov.uk here, now sees more than 6,000 users downloading datasets every month.
HMLR is committed to maximising the value of the data it holds and making it findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, while ensuring that risks to personal information and ownership security remain well controlled.
The information HMLR holds is complex and in a variety of formats. Its economic and social value cannot be fully realised without the investment HMLR is already putting in to digitise the data. HMLR has an ambitious programme of transformational activity, such as the award-winning Local Land Charges programme, that uses AI to accelerate the pace of change.
This year, one of HMLR's flagship programmes – Geospatial and Data Transformation – is going to deliver a change that will make land ownership data more accessible and valuable to people. HMLR has worked with GeoPlace to improve the way in which Unique Property Reference Numbers (or UPRNs) can help in matching ownership records, which are map-based, with other property data that is address-based.
HMLR will then be able to add these links into more of its published datasets in 2026, in addition to those that already contain the UPRNs, such as the UK and Overseas Ownership and Price Paid Datasets. The National Polygon Service and Registered Leases will be prioritised for this enhancement to their accessibility and utility. We will also ensure that INSPIRE polygons – showing ownership boundaries – are also easy to relate to other property data. This will allow users to match and merge HMLR data with other government data sources. HMLR has also established a dedicated team to develop and improve the way that its data can be accessed through automated requests (via APIs) that software providers in the PropTech market use. This will enable better and faster services for consumers and business.
Alongside its transformation activities, HMLR is supporting the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in the delivery of a new policy around the Contractual Controls Dataset. This will offer all stakeholders a reliable and accessible information source regarding land ownership controls beyond the usual freehold and leasehold ownership information.
HMLR's recently published Strategy 2025+, which can be found on gov.uk here, sets out its ambitions to further support the property market and beyond with its data over the next 10 years. All HMLR’s data on property ownership can be publicly accessed today and the investment it is engaged in will increase the ease and speed with which it can be obtained and used.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of including (a) misinformation, (b) disinformation and (c) conspiracy theories in the guidance entitled Keeping children safe in education, published on 1 September 2025, on schools; and whether she plans to update the guidance to include information for teachers on tackling this issue.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In response to stakeholder feedback, an amendment was made to paragraph 135 in the statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’. This came into force on 1 September 2025, and provided further examples of content risks.
The department recognises the significant risks these issues pose to children’s safety and wellbeing, as they can distort understanding, undermine trust and expose pupils to harmful narratives online.
The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review highlighted the importance of all pupils developing the skills they need to identify and challenge misinformation. In making changes to the curriculum, we will support this by strengthening media literacy content in citizenship and English and making citizenship compulsory in primary school so that all children are introduced to this vital content at an early stage.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
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 publish a national strategy for palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. I am pleased to confirm the continuation of circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, for the next three financial years, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive, to be distributed again via integrated care boards. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that funding for alternative learning and skills provision will be available after UK Shared Prosperity Fund comes to an end in March 2026.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This Government is establishing a new local growth fund, provided for specific mayoral city regions in the North and Midlands, with the highest productivity catch and agglomeration potential, which can be used to support skills interventions.
This sits alongside Government’s continuing investment in education and skills training for adults (19 and over) through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), spending £1.4 billion in the 2025/26 academic year, ensuring that adults can access the education and training they need to get into employment or progress in work.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make alternative funding available for community organisations after the UK Shared Prosperity Fund comes to an end in March 2026.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is taking a new approach to local funding, replacing multiple funding pots with long-term certainty for places. This will be led by sustained and predictable support for local authorities through the Local Government Finance Settlement and complemented by targeted interventions designed to drive local growth and strengthen communities.
Strong communities are vital to drive growth, yet many communities have been left behind and let down by years of decline and systemic under-investment. While there are no current plans to directly replace the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Government has announced a new local growth fund for specific mayoral city regions in the North and Midlands as part of its strategy for regional investment, supporting areas with the highest productivity catch-up and agglomeration potential’
On top of this, every part of the country will benefit from our whole of government Pride in Place strategy, which focuses on three overarching objectives: building stronger communities; creating thriving places; and helping communities to take back control of their own lives and areas. You can find the strategy here: Pride in Place Strategy - GOV.UK
As part of the strategy the Government announced, the Pride in Place programme and Pride in Place Impact Fund, both have been designed to target the most in-need places. We have used metrics that identify ‘double-disadvantaged’ neighbourhoods – those suffering from a combination of material deprivation and low social capital.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had recent discussions with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of introducing an exemption from the higher business rates multiplier for (a) cultural and (b) entertainment venues.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has met with a wide range of stakeholders on business rates reform.
As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government will introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure properties with rateable values (RVs) below £500,000 from 2026/27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that eligible cultural and entertainment venues benefit from much-needed certainty and support.
This tax cut must be sustainably funded, and so the Government will introduce a higher rate on the most valuable properties in 2026/27 – those with RVs of £500,000 and above. These represent less than one per cent of all properties, but cover the majority of large distribution warehouses, including those used by online giants.
The final design, including the rates, for the new business rates multipliers will be announced at Budget 2025, so that the Government can factor the revaluation outcomes and broader economic and fiscal context into decision-making.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of funding allocated by his Department for research and innovation for (a) less survivable and (b) other cancers.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), with cancer as one of its largest areas of spend reflecting its high priority.
An example of this is the NIHR investing £2.4 million into the miONCO-Dx trial, which seeks to develop a blood test designed to detect 12 different cancers, that could transform how cancer is diagnosed in the National Health Service.
The NIHR is also funding a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered radiology analysis service, designed to develop and evaluate the use of AI in medical imaging to improve the detection of cancers. The use of this technology will help to speed up response times and provide more accurate diagnoses and better-targeted treatments, ultimately improving outcomes for patients.
Whist no assessment has been made specifically on the adequacy of the research into less survivable cancers, the NIHR continues to welcome further high-quality proposals from researchers to inform approaches to prevention, treatment, and care in relation to less survivable cancers.
Furthermore, the Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with rare cancers, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments. The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the NHS will improve diagnosis and outcomes for all cancer patients in England, including for rare and less common cancers.