Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ban the advertising of nicotine products in (a) Formula One and (b) other sports; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of nicotine advertising on public health.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

Vaping can play a role in helping adult smokers to quit, but the Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children, with youth vaping tripling in the last three years and one in five children having now used a vape. This is extremely worrying given the unknown long-term health impacts and the addictive nature of the nicotine contained in vapes.

Collectively, the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, the Communications Act 2003, the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising, and the Broadcast Code outline restrictions on the marketing and promotion of vapes. This includes a ban on advertising on television, radio, and through information society services, such as internet advertising or commercial email.

It is still concerning, however, that vapes are still being marketed and advertised to children, including in sports settings. As the Government stated during the Commons Committee Stage of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, we have committed to explore the steps we can take to further restrict vape advertising and sponsorship, and we will revert with further updates on proposals for the Report Stage.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of trends in the level of nicotine gum usage (a) across the whole population and (b) by young adults below the age of 18.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

When accompanied by behavioural support, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) has proven to be effective for smoking cessation, including for adolescents, although to a lesser degree. Since 2008, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends prescribing slow acting NRTs, such as patches and gum, for young smokers aged 12 to 17 years old, combined with behavioural support. Further information on the use of NRTs, which includes nicotine gum, in local NHS Stop Smoking Services is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/statistics-on-nhs-stop-smoking-services-in-england/april-2021-to-march-2022/part-3---stop-smoking-services.

In 2022/23, 360,619 NRTs were dispensed, a decrease from 2021/22, in which 374,169 NRTs were dispensed. The number of NRTs prescribed has been decreasing for a number of years, and is now less than a quarter of the total dispensed items in 2010/11, which was 1.5 million. However, the Department does not hold data on the level of nicotine gum usage specifically, for either adults or children.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an estimate of the number of people who start smoking tobacco as a result of using vapes.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

There is no current evidence to show a significant gateway effect from vaping into smoking, and no data to show the number of people who start smoking, as a result of vaping. Youth and adult smoking rates continue to fall and are at an all-time low, although they remain significant. Recent evidence shows that, for many adult smokers, vapes are an effective tool in supporting smoking cessation, especially when combined with expert support. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub7/full

However, youth vaping has tripled in the last three years, with one in five children having now used a vape. The health advice is clear, young people, and those who have never smoked, should not vape. We have a duty to protect our children from the potential harms associated with underage vaping, while their lungs and brains are still developing. This is why we are committed to reducing the access, appeal, and affordability of vapes and tobacco through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, to stop future generations of smokers and nicotine users.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many providers have contracts with her Department to provide education on alcohol in (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools, (c) colleges and (d) universities; what information her Department holds on the number and proportion of those providers that receive funding (i) directly and (ii) indirectly from the alcohol industry; and whether this information is required to be disclosed on tender applications.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

​​The department does not have any contracts with providers to provide education on alcohol in schools, colleges or universities, nor does the department hold information on providers of alcohol education in schools and higher education (HE) institutions.

The department does not direct schools on which resources, external speakers or organisations to use, and does not endorse or promote resources to schools other than those produced by other government departments.

It is for further education colleges to determine what material they use to support the health and wellbeing of students.

HE providers in England are autonomous and independent and they make decisions on the courses that they will run. In making these decisions, providers will adapt their offers to the interest of students and demand from employers. The department cannot therefore comment on their choices.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number and proportion of providers of alcohol education in (a) schools and (b) higher education institutions in the last five years that received funding (i) directly and (ii) indirectly from the alcohol industry; and what the value was of contracts issued to providers that received such funding from the alcohol industry.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

​​The department does not have any contracts with providers to provide education on alcohol in schools, colleges or universities, nor does the department hold information on providers of alcohol education in schools and higher education (HE) institutions.

The department does not direct schools on which resources, external speakers or organisations to use, and does not endorse or promote resources to schools other than those produced by other government departments.

It is for further education colleges to determine what material they use to support the health and wellbeing of students.

HE providers in England are autonomous and independent and they make decisions on the courses that they will run. In making these decisions, providers will adapt their offers to the interest of students and demand from employers. The department cannot therefore comment on their choices.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will implement a public health approach to preventing (a) violence and (b) sexual violence for (i) boys and (ii) men.

Answered by Laura Farris

Since 2019, the Government has invested over £160m in 20 Violence Reduction Unit’s (VRUs) in England and Wales. VRUs are expected to deliver a ‘whole system’, public health approach to tackling violence, bringing together key partners to identify the local drivers and root-causes of serious violence and implementing a multi-agency response to them. VRUs are supported to adhere to the six key pillars of the public health approach to reduce violence, as set out by Public Health England (now OHID).

The Youth Endowment Fund was established in 2019, which will invest £200m over 10 years to identify, and build an evidence base around, what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violence and making this information accessible to practitioners.

The Serious Violence Duty introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSC 2022), requires a range of specified authorities, such as, the police, local government, youth offending teams, health, and probation services, to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities, enabled by new powers to share data and information. Specified authorities are encouraged to take a public health approach in executing their responsibilities under the Act. The PCSC Act does not define serious violence for the purposes of the Duty but makes clear that local areas may also consider domestic abuse and sexual offences as part of their strategies, particularly where preventative activity is directed at risk factors which are shared between these crimes and public space youth violence.

The Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (published July 2021) and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan (published March 2022) contain over 100 cross government commitments and take a whole system approach to tackling these crimes. Commitments in these strategies cover all victims, including men and boys.

In 2021, we published the Rape Review Action Plan and set out a series of commitments to deliver cross-system improvements in the criminal justice response to rape. The National Operating Model, developed through Operation Soteria, provides policing with new training and tools to build strong cases and understand patterns of sexual offending, and seeks to support officers to building stronger cases, understand sexual offending behaviour and ultimately identify and disrupt offenders at the earliest opportunity.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of ending the use of vapes for smoking cessation.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

Recent evidence shows that, for many adult smokers, vapes can be an effective tool in supporting smoking cessation, especially when combined with expert support.

However, the health advice is clear: young people and those who have never smoked should not vape. We have a duty to protect our children from the potential harms associated with underage vaping, while their lungs and brains are still developing. This is why we are committed to reduce the access, appeal and affordability of vapes and tobacco through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to educate young people on the potential health impacts of (a) vaping and (b) nicotine pouches.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

The department has included a specific reference to the dangers of e-cigarettes in the amended relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance, which was published for consultation on 16 May 2024. On 1 June 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, announced an intervention which will take steps to prevent children obtaining e-cigarettes illegally.

The current RSHE statutory guidance, which sets out the topics the subjects should cover, already states that in primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks. This includes smoking, alcohol use and drug taking, as well as supplements drug education which is part of the National Curriculum for Key Stages 2 and 3 science.

To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the department published a suite of teacher training modules, including on drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which makes specific reference to e-cigarettes.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make it his policy to promote healthy role models in masculinity.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The Government continues to challenge stereotypes that can limit opportunities and cause harm, in health and elsewhere. For example, in the draft Relationships, Sex and Health Education Statutory Guidance, currently under consultation, we make it clear that pupils should have the opportunity to identify positive male role models.

To help dispel taboos and stigmas among men about their general health, the government is appointing the UK’s first Men’s Health Ambassador. Alongside the work of the first Men’s Health Task and Finish Group, they will help us to identify how to get more men to engage with their health. The group includes behavioural scientists, men’s health campaigners, health experts and academics.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of incorporating elements of shared parental leave models used in (a) Sweden and (b) other countries into her policies on shared parental leave.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade

The Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme gives working families more choice and flexibility about who cares for their child in the first year, and when.

In 2019, the Government consulted on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay and considered international evidence which suggested a range of factors that encourage parents to share work and childcare more equally.

We sought views on the benefits, costs and trade-offs that would flow from any such reform. The consultation and Government response are published below -

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/good-work-plan-proposals-to-support-families

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether waiting times to see (a) asthma specialists and (b) respiratory consultants have increased in the last 12 months; and whether there has been an increase in the number of asthma (i) deaths and (ii) acute presentations in the last 12 months.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government has taken to (a) understand the potential risk of and (b) prevent future health system failures similar to those that led to the infected blood scandal.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

The final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry describes the many failings of successive governments, including historic failings in the Department and its predecessor departments. The Department will study the report to make sure the lessons of Sir Brian’s inquiry are learned, and that these mistakes can never be repeated.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the impact of (a) integrating SEND children in mainstream schools and (b) sending SEND children to specialised schools on the (i) educational outcomes and (ii) general wellbeing of those children.

Answered by David Johnston

The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan sets out a vision for a single, national inclusive SEND and AP system where all children, no matter their need, receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life. This requires high-quality mainstream provision where children and young people have their needs identified early and can access prompt, evidence-based, targeted support. This should be alongside improved access to timely, high-quality specialist provision, where this is appropriate.

The department continues to monitor the literature and latest research on the impact of inclusion.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take legislative steps to end the marketing of all nicotine products.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

Current evidence suggests that whilst nicotine pouch use is low amongst adults, it is increasing, especially with the younger male audience. Nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches, are not currently subject to advertising restrictions.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill proposed measures to prohibit the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 January 2009, as well as enabling product requirements to be imposed in connection with tobacco, vapes, and other products. However, the bill did not receive Parliamentary approval prior to the prorogation on 24 May 2024.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the (a) availability and (b) trends in the use of nicotine pouches in the last 12 months.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

Current evidence suggests that whilst nicotine pouch use is low amongst adults, it is increasing, especially with the younger male audience.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of trends in the level of non-tobacco nicotine product usage in the last five years.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

Current evidence suggests that whilst nicotine pouch use is low amongst adults, it is increasing, especially with the younger male audience.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that (a) clinical and (b) other data held by (i) the NHS and (ii) her Department is used to help identify poor clinical practice in the NHS; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using (A) AI and (B) machine learning to identify such concerns.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

Machine learning is in active use in the national patient safety learning system, known as the Learn from Patient Safety Events service, which has been rolled out across the National Health Service in England. The service provides a modern platform upon which technological advances such as machine learning can now operate. Named Entity Recognition is already aiding in the anonymisation of records, so that they can be used for learning activities without risk of identification of individuals.

Ongoing work is also being undertaken to explore how machine learning can support the analysis of data relating to patient safety events captured from across healthcare, and to look at how machine learning can identify new, emerging, and under recognised risks to patient safety. Future plans are also in place to enable support for the automated theming of unstructured free text, which will lay the foundations for targeted topic-specific improvement and guidance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the Swedish model of providing mother tongue lessons to children of new communities as they migrate into mainstream classes.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

Schools are responsible for ensuring that all pupils, including those with a first language other than English, can access the full school curriculum and have the opportunity to realise their full potential in education. It is for individual schools to determine how to support those pupils with a first language other than English in developing proficiency in the English language, as they are best placed to understand and respond to the specific needs of those pupils. Schools have flexibility over their budgets, including any funding allocated through the English as an Additional Language factor in the national funding formula for schools, in order to put appropriate measures in place to support pupils with English language development needs.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides to schools on engaging with parents of children of (a) primary and (b) secondary school age in the event that there is persistent absence or school refusal.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

The department has a comprehensive strategy to support schools, trusts, and local authorities to tackle school absence, and is supporting schools to engage effectively with parents.

The department’s ‘working together to improve school attendance’ guidance for schools, trusts, and local authorities, which will become statutory in autumn 2024, is clear that engaging with parents and families is central to taking a ‘support first’ approach. The guidance outlines how schools should build strong relationships and work jointly with families, listening to and understanding barriers to attendance and working in partnership with families to remove them. The guidance can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.

To support schools and local authorities to engage parents, the department has:

• Published a toolkit with practical examples to help schools communicate with parents and carers about school attendance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance/toolkit-for-schools-communicating-with-families-to-support-attendance.
• Delivered a series of webinars and training sessions for schools over the summer term to support embedding the new attendance guidance.

• Shared, in collaboration with the Anna Freud Centre, resources for school staff, parents and carers, and children and young people that support attendance and mental health wellbeing: https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/attendance-and-mental-wellbeing-school-college/.

Additionally, as part of the department’s national communication campaign to parents on the importance of school attendance, it has provided schools and local authorities with resources to amplify the campaign and support their communication with parents, which can be found here: https://dfegovukassets.blob.core.windows.net/assets/Attendance%20campaign/Attendance%20campaign%20commuications%20toolkit%20for%20schools.pdf, and here: https://dfegovukassets.blob.core.windows.net/assets/Attendance%20campaign/Attendance%20communications%20toolkit%20for%20local%20authority%20attendance%20teams%20and%20other%20stakeholders.pdf.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department takes steps to monitor levels of parental engagement in schools.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

The department values the wealth of support parents and carers can provide schools and it strongly supports schools in their engagement with them. Many parents and carers regularly engage with schools as school governors, through parents’ associations and through everyday contact. The department does not routinely monitor levels of parental engagement in schools, but it encourages all schools to have a strategy in place which allows the views of parents and carers to be considered.

As part of government business, the department engages parents and carers to deliver effective policymaking, such as through consultations. The department also engages with a range of stakeholder organisations, some of whom represent parents and carers. For example, the parents, pupils and learners panel regularly surveys parents of primary and secondary school pupils and college learners (in classroom-based education). The panel provides robust, rapid-turnaround evidence to support the department in assessing the ongoing views and experiences of parents and pupils.

Policy teams also engage with parents and carers to gather views and feedback on specific areas. For example, the special educational needs and disabilities teams work with the National Network of Parent Carer Forums, the independent national voice for parent carer forums.

In addition, the department regularly uses its Education Hub website to communicate key updates to parents and carers. This includes popular topics, questions and answers and case studies.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the prevalence of the use of child labour in the production of nicotine products.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson

The United Kingdom is committed to working with partners to deliver on commitments from the Call to Action at the Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour in 2022 including eliminating child labour from global supply chains. The UK supports voluntary human rights due diligence approaches by our businesses to respect human rights and the environment across their operations and supply relationships, as steered by the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises.  The Government is clear that it expects all UK businesses to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UNGPs.

Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires commercial organisations that supply goods/services and have a total turnover over £36 million to publish a transparency statement annually to set out what steps they have taken to ensure that modern slavery is not occurring in their supply chains.

The Department of Health and Social Care has pledged to put an end to modern slavery in the National Health Service by meeting the Secretary of State’s duty to assess and mitigate modern slavery risk in NHS supply chains. New regulations will require public bodies procuring goods or services for delivering health services in England to assess the risk of modern slavery and implement reasonable steps to procurement and contracting activities with a view to eradicating the use of goods and services tainted by modern slavery.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will establish a representative panel consisting of (a) victims and (b) victims' families to scruitnise the contaminated blood compensation scheme.

Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General

The Infected Blood Compensation Scheme is subject to further engagement with a group of key representatives from the infected blood community. This will be led by the interim chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, Sir Robert Francis KC. Additionally, the Government has committed to utilise the provision in the Victims and Prisoners Bill to ensure there is representation of the Infected Blood community on the Infected Blood Compensation Authority’s committees and subcommittees.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will undertake a study on trends in alcohol use among young people.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

NHS England holds several data sources covering alcohol use for people aged under 18 years old, including the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People survey. This data is collected every two years, and the next survey report is due Autumn 2024, and will include 2023 survey data.

The guidance from England’s Chief Medical Officer for healthcare professionals is clear, an alcohol-free childhood is the healthiest and best option. The Department promotes this through online platforms such as the NHS.UK website, and the Talk to FRANK online resource. Local authorities promote these guidelines as part of their public health duties.

Alcohol or drug dependence is rare in children and young people under the age of 18 years old, although they may be drinking problematically. For those that do need support, the Department has allocated £532 million of additional funding through to 2024/25 to support improvements in treatment, including facilitating 5,000 more young people into age-appropriate alcohol and drug treatment.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to (a) monitor and (b) manage risk across the public sector.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

The Cabinet Office provides leadership to the whole system of resilience across Government, with Secretaries of State responsible for specific risk areas, in line with the Lead Government Department model. The Government’s assessment of the most serious risks to the nation are set out in the National Risk Register, which is now more transparent than ever before.

The Government has also taken steps to further develop risk management effectiveness across government. This includes updating the Orange Book (which contains principles for managing risk) to include a new risk control framework. The Civil Service Board also considers emerging risks to the public sector.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure public accountability for decision making in government.

Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General

Accountability to Parliament and to the public is one of the core values of this government. That is why within the Cabinet Office we have taken significant steps to ensure that ministers and civil servants act with integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level. For example, each of 244 major government projects in the Government Major Projects Programme now has a publicly named senior responsible officer accountable for project delivery. Departments and agencies are required to publish in their Annual Reports and Accounts public performance updates against their priority outcomes, ensuring that public scrutiny of departmental delivery is embedded across Whitehall.The accountability of arm’s length bodies has been sharpened up by the public bodies reviews programme and by updating the arm’s length body sponsorship code of good practice.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential role of gender discrimination in (a) violence and (b) sexual violence against women and girls.

Answered by Laura Farris

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Avoidable deaths

The West Highland Way

Skin cancer awareness month

Protecting Our Democracy from Coercion report

Essentials guarantee and minimum income guarantee

Children's Hospice Week

Royal Fleet Auxiliary pay settlement

The Venerable Tricia Hillas

Imperial War Museums and union derecognition

Youth mobility visas

World Hypertension Day 2024

Diagnosing Coeliac disease

World Inflammatory Bowel Disease Day 2024

19th Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony

Energy transition treaty

Scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and arms exports to Israel

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Found: Withdrawn after debate _24 Bob Blackman Rachael Maskell .