Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many records of individual immigration status have been shared by NHS England with the Personal Demographics Service.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts must indicate on a patient’s NHS record whether they are an overseas visitor, whether an exemption from charges applies to that overseas visitor, and the date on which the latest assessment of their chargeable status took place, under regulation 3A of the charging regulations.
The Personal Demographics Service (PDS) is the national electronic database of all NHS patients, who are born in or have received NHS care in England, Wales, and the Isle of Man, or who are an overseas visitor.
It helps healthcare staff identify patients, match them to their care records, and keep their details up to date. If the person is an overseas visitor, information obtained via the PDS is used to help NHS trusts understand if a patient has an immigration status to make NHS charging decisions.
The Home Office provides data to the PDS when a new immigration record is created or approved, including the Home Office Reference Number, visa dates, and charging status.
This is used to enable an NHS Overseas Visitor Manager in an NHS trust to check when an overseas visitor accesses NHS services, when they need to confirm their charging status, and uses NHS systems linked to Home Office systems to check the relevant status. Access to this data on the PDS via NHS systems is limited to this purpose.
NHS England is directed to collect and analyse the data necessary to deliver this service under the Cost Recovery Collection, Processing and Dissemination of Overseas Visitor and UK Patient-Level Data Directions 2021, and the Health and Social Care Information Centre (Immigration Health Charge) Directions 2021.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether data from Cost Recovery Collection in the NHS can be accessed by the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data collected as part of the NHS Cost Recovery Collection is not accessible by the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP). The NHS FDP does not hold, process, or provide access to data relating to an individual’s immigration or residency status, nor does it ingest data from the Cost Recovery Collection.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has assessed if there is a clear risk that arms exports licensed by the UK government might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law by Israel in Iran.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Prime Minister has been clear that the conflict in the Middle East is not our war. We are responding to this crisis with clear and calm leadership to protect our national interests without being drawn in to the conflict.
Export licence applications are rigorously assessed against the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, including criterion 2(c) which states that we will not grant a licence if there is a clear risk that the items under that licence might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law. We also keep all existing licences under continual review on the same basis. This means that all these issues are kept under continuous review.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has assessed if there is a clear risk that arms exports licensed by the UK government might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law by Israel in Lebanon.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Prime Minister has been clear that the conflict in the Middle East is not our war. We are responding to this crisis with clear and calm leadership to protect our national interests without being drawn in to the conflict.
Export licence applications are rigorously assessed against the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, including criterion 2(c) which states that we will not grant a licence if there is a clear risk that the items under that licence might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law. We also keep all existing licences under continual review on the same basis. This means that all these issues are kept under continuous review.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has assessed if there is a clear risk that arms exports licensed by the UK government might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law by the US in Iran.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Prime Minister has been clear that the conflict in the Middle East is not our war. We are responding to this crisis with clear and calm leadership to protect our national interests without being drawn in to the conflict.
Export licence applications are rigorously assessed against the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, including criterion 2(c) which states that we will not grant a licence if there is a clear risk that the items under that licence might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law. We also keep all existing licences under continual review on the same basis. This means that all these issues are kept under continuous review.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, (a) on what date Morgan McSweeney was granted Developed Vetting clearance; (b) whether Morgan McSweeney handled documents for which he would require Developed Vetting clearance prior to that date.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
We do not comment on the details of individual clearances or national security as a matter of course.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, which (a) departmental officials, (b) external academic partners, and (c) private contractors were responsible for designing the methodology and key performance indicators (KPIs) of the 6-week digital wellbeing pilot studies currently being conducted by the Government.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The pilots were developed by professional analysts within DSIT, with advice from the Government Office for Science. This included a roundtable convened by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Dame Angela McLean, of academics and Chief Scientific Advisers from FCDO, DfE and College of Policing. Private contractors were not involved in designing the methodology.
The pilots are qualitative studies, intended to generate in‑depth insights into young people’s navigation and experience of social media. The research is not designed to be statistically representative, so KPIs are limited to delivery logistics, such as recruitment targets, rather than impact measures.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of whether F-35s were used in the Israeli strikes on Lebanon conducted on 8 April.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has, along with 18 other countries, condemned Israel's strikes on Lebanon, as well as the attacks of Hizballah against Israel. I have discussed the situation in Lebanon directly with my Israeli and other international counterparts, including to call for civilians and civilian infrastructure to be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law. As part of longstanding convention, we do not comment on military operational details.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with her international counterparts on the compliance of Israeli strikes on Lebanon on 8 April 2026 with the laws of war.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has, along with 18 other countries, condemned Israel's strikes on Lebanon, as well as the attacks of Hizballah against Israel. I have discussed the situation in Lebanon directly with my Israeli and other international counterparts, including to call for civilians and civilian infrastructure to be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law. As part of longstanding convention, we do not comment on military operational details.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what the selection process was for the appointment of experts to the academic panel for the digital wellbeing consultation; and what criteria were used to ensure a balance of multi-disciplinary expertise in child psychology, data science, and social media harms.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Professor Russell Viner, former Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department for Education, will chair the academic panel. The government will announce further members once all checks, including security checks, have concluded. Declarations of conflicts of interest will also be published.
Officials worked with the Government Office for Science and Department for Education to identify potential academic panel members with relevant expertise to consider the digital safety issues explored in the ‘Growing up in the online world’ consultation, including AI, education, paediatrics, psychology, psychiatry, and social research.