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 newly qualified nurses are not prevented from accessing band 5 roles within the NHS due to (a) experience requirements and (b) such roles only being advertised internally.

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

Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.

NHS England is working with employers, universities, and regional nursing leads to ensure support is in place to help graduating nurses find a role as soon as possible after qualification, aiding their transition into the workplace.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62457 on HMP/YOI Downview, how many of the seven males held on E Wing have access to the general women's estate for (a) work and (b) other services.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

As noted in the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62457, prisoners on E Wing are located separately from all other prisoners at HMP/YOI Downview. Supervised access to activities in the main prison’s regime, including work, is provided only where a local risk assessment has determined this to be appropriate.

Given the small number of prisoners held on E-Wing, it would not be appropriate to provide information about the management of the individuals in question.

We are reviewing the transgender prisoner policy in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling and will set out any changes to our approach in due course.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will take steps to recruit additional driving examiners through gov.uk.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) advertises for driving examiner (DE) vacancies, as well as other roles across the agency, on the Civil Service jobs website, which is part of GOV.UK.

DVSA’s latest DE campaign was advertised on its homepage on GOV.UK on 15 July. Further campaigns will also be launched using the same approach in September 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the reason that over 4,100 women from the poorest backgrounds in the UK have donated their eggs since 2011.

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

The Department has not undertaken an assessment, however, academic research in the United Kingdom has consistently found that donating eggs and sperm is driven by altruism.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) published data shows that egg and sperm donors in England from 2011 to 2020 lived in similar or more affluent socio-economic areas than the general population.

The following table shows the number of egg donors living in each of the multiple deprivation deciles in England at time of registration, between 2011 and 2020:

Source: the HFEA report, Trends in egg, sperm and embryo donation 2020.

Notes:

1. this data includes donors with a postcode in England only;
2. multiple deprivation deciles were calculated using 2015 data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and post code information from the HFEA register; and
3. data provided is from a live register and may not match data published elsewhere.

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 allowing young women to be solicited for egg donations by for-profit fertility clinics utilising adverts which do not list known health risks on their safety.

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

No such assessment has been made. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the United Kingdom’s fertility sector regulator, sets out strict requirements in its Licence Conditions and Code of Practice in relation to the recruitment of donors and the information that must be given to egg donors in advance of donating at United Kingdom licensed fertility clinics, which includes information about the potential immediate or longer-term health risks and the psychological consequences of being a donor, as well as offering counselling to everyone involved.

The HFEA’s Code of Practice states that advertising should be designed with regard to the sensitive issues involved in recruiting donors and should follow the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes. This includes that advertising or publicity aimed at recruiting gamete or embryo donors, or encouraging donation, should not refer to the possibility of financial gain or similar advantage, although it may refer to compensation permitted under relevant HFEA Directions.

The ASA and HFEA issued a joint enforcement notice in 2021 to ensure fertility clinics and others were aware of the advertising rules, which remains in place.

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 potential impact of £985 per cycle payments to egg donors on the level of incentive to women from the poorest backgrounds to donate eggs because of financial need.

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

The compensation rate for egg donation is set by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), as provided for in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The HFEA has advised that the donor compensation levels originally set in 2011 followed a thorough ethical review, which identified a set of principles that ensured altruism remained at the heart of donation and that there were not any unjustifiable barriers to donation. The HFEA has advised that the increase in donor compensation from 1 October 2024 to £985 per cycle reflects the rise in inflation since the compensation rates were first introduced in 2011.

Academic research in the United Kingdom has consistently found that donating eggs and sperm is driven by altruism, and HFEA published data shows that egg and sperm donors in England from 2011 to 2020 lived in similar or more affluent socio-economic areas than the general population.

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 running long term studies in to the impact on women's bodies of egg retrieval.

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

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)’s Scientific and Clinical Advances Advisory Committee (SCAAC) recently reviewed the published evidence of health outcomes for those having fertility treatment, including egg donors. The last 10 years of evidence were reviewed and the HFEA will update relevant information on its website as needed.

The HFEA also set out strict requirements in its Licence Conditions and Code of Practice relating to the information that must be given before egg retrieval takes place in United Kingdom licensed fertility clinics, whether for the patient’s own use or to donate to others. This includes information about the potential immediate or longer-term health risks and the psychological consequences of being a donor, as well as offering counselling to everyone involved.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost of the Border Force Seasonal Worker programme was for the last financial year of its operation.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

As of the 1^st of April 2024, there were 449 Seasonal Workforce staff in contract. The Seasonal Workforce (SWF) was a temporary staffing resource used to support operational delivery during periods of peak demand and recruited under exemptions from the normal civil service recruitment procedures. In 2024, a decision was taken to cease the use of the SWF, recruited under CSC exemptions, and instead recruit permanent resource Border Force Officers in line with the Civil Service recruitment principles of fair and open recruitment and improved strategic workforce planning. The use of the SWF ended by 31 January 2025.

In September 2024, Border Force launched the Alternative Working Campaign, which was introduced in part to replace the use of the SWF and better align staffing to operational peaks. Border Force advertised 67 of these roles nationally. In accordance with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, all recruitment under this scheme is conducted using a sifting process where all identifying information is removed and all appointments were made on merit through open and fair competition. As a result, it is not possible to determine whether any candidates were previously part of the seasonal workforce.

All costs for Border Force staffing are accounted for in the 2024-25 Home Office annual report and accounts at Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Border Force workers were employed on Seasonal Workforce Contracts in 2024.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

As of the 1^st of April 2024, there were 449 Seasonal Workforce staff in contract. The Seasonal Workforce (SWF) was a temporary staffing resource used to support operational delivery during periods of peak demand and recruited under exemptions from the normal civil service recruitment procedures. In 2024, a decision was taken to cease the use of the SWF, recruited under CSC exemptions, and instead recruit permanent resource Border Force Officers in line with the Civil Service recruitment principles of fair and open recruitment and improved strategic workforce planning. The use of the SWF ended by 31 January 2025.

In September 2024, Border Force launched the Alternative Working Campaign, which was introduced in part to replace the use of the SWF and better align staffing to operational peaks. Border Force advertised 67 of these roles nationally. In accordance with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, all recruitment under this scheme is conducted using a sifting process where all identifying information is removed and all appointments were made on merit through open and fair competition. As a result, it is not possible to determine whether any candidates were previously part of the seasonal workforce.

All costs for Border Force staffing are accounted for in the 2024-25 Home Office annual report and accounts at Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many former Border Force seasonal workers have gone on to be employed by Border Force since the termination of the seasonal workforce programme.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

As of the 1^st of April 2024, there were 449 Seasonal Workforce staff in contract. The Seasonal Workforce (SWF) was a temporary staffing resource used to support operational delivery during periods of peak demand and recruited under exemptions from the normal civil service recruitment procedures. In 2024, a decision was taken to cease the use of the SWF, recruited under CSC exemptions, and instead recruit permanent resource Border Force Officers in line with the Civil Service recruitment principles of fair and open recruitment and improved strategic workforce planning. The use of the SWF ended by 31 January 2025.

In September 2024, Border Force launched the Alternative Working Campaign, which was introduced in part to replace the use of the SWF and better align staffing to operational peaks. Border Force advertised 67 of these roles nationally. In accordance with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, all recruitment under this scheme is conducted using a sifting process where all identifying information is removed and all appointments were made on merit through open and fair competition. As a result, it is not possible to determine whether any candidates were previously part of the seasonal workforce.

All costs for Border Force staffing are accounted for in the 2024-25 Home Office annual report and accounts at Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many vacancies for full time Border Force roles were being advertised at the point at which the Border Force Seasonal Workforce programme was discontinued.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

As of the 1^st of April 2024, there were 449 Seasonal Workforce staff in contract. The Seasonal Workforce (SWF) was a temporary staffing resource used to support operational delivery during periods of peak demand and recruited under exemptions from the normal civil service recruitment procedures. In 2024, a decision was taken to cease the use of the SWF, recruited under CSC exemptions, and instead recruit permanent resource Border Force Officers in line with the Civil Service recruitment principles of fair and open recruitment and improved strategic workforce planning. The use of the SWF ended by 31 January 2025.

In September 2024, Border Force launched the Alternative Working Campaign, which was introduced in part to replace the use of the SWF and better align staffing to operational peaks. Border Force advertised 67 of these roles nationally. In accordance with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, all recruitment under this scheme is conducted using a sifting process where all identifying information is removed and all appointments were made on merit through open and fair competition. As a result, it is not possible to determine whether any candidates were previously part of the seasonal workforce.

All costs for Border Force staffing are accounted for in the 2024-25 Home Office annual report and accounts at Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of allowing inquests into cases of child death by suicide to sit in private.

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

The Government is committed to putting the bereaved at the heart of the inquest process, and we are particularly conscious of the importance of this for those who have suffered the unimaginable distress of losing a child through suicide.

However, in line with the principle of open justice - which applies in all courts including the coroner’s court - it is important that justice is administered in public, that everything said in court is reportable, and that any departure from this approach is closely regulated.

Accordingly, there are strict limitations on the coroner’s powers to sit in private, to withhold the names of witnesses or Interested Persons, or to prevent the reporting of matters heard in court. In particular, the public and media may only be excluded from an inquest hearing in the interests of national security.

Chapter 8 of the Chief Coroner’s Guidance for Coroners on the Bench (Chapter 8: Open Justice - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary) provides guidance for coroners on the principle of open justice and the application of any statutory powers to depart from it.

Found: Brewer David Burton-Sampson Rosie Duffield Kirith Entwistle Natalie Fleet Christine Jardine Rebecca Paul

Found: Burton-Sampson; Kirith Entwistle; Natalie Fleet; Catherine Fookes; Christine Jardine; Samantha Niblett; Rebecca Paul

Found: Burton-Sampson; Rosie Duffield; Kirith Entwistle; Natalie Fleet; Catherine Fookes; Christine Jardine; Rebecca Paul

Found: whatever choice they make in whatever role they have.5 An amendment to new clause 10, tabled by Rebecca Paul

Found: whatever choice they make in whatever role they have.5 An amendment to new clause 10, tabled by Rebecca Paul

Submit Evidence (by 30 Sep 2025)

The Committee is following up its previous work on women’s reproductive health, with a focus on better meeting the needs of girls and young women. It is assessing progress in diagnoses, treatments and pain management of conditions including endometriosis, adenomyosis and heavy menstrual bleeding.