Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what role rural digital connectivity will have in the industrial strategy.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

As set out in the Industrial Strategy Green Paper, access to fast, secure, and reliable digital connectivity is essential to enabling economic growth and to reap the transformational productivity benefits of digitalisation and the adoption of AI. Improvements in infrastructure, including digital infrastructure, will be foundational to success across our growth-driving sectors and to addressing place-specific constraints to growth across the country.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of recent changes to Meta guidelines on hateful conduct which allow Facebook users to refer to LGBT+ people as mentally ill.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government is aware of the changes Meta has made to its guidelines. This change does not affect the strong protections the Online Safety Act will bring in for UK users online. The Act will oblige all social media companies to remove illegal content and content harmful to children and will give adult users more control over the type of content they see, including that which is hateful or abusive.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of challenges of accessing mental health provision in rural communities.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Waiting lists for those wanting to access mental health provisions are too high across England, in areas with fewer mental health services and including those in rural communities.

People with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they deserve or need, which is why we will fix the system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health and that people can be confident of accessing high quality mental health support when they need it.

Nationally, we plan to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across children and adult mental health services in England to reduce delays and provide faster treatment. We will also introduce access to a specialist mental health professional in every school.

In addition, people of all ages who are in crisis or who are concerned about a family or loved one can now call 111, select the mental health option, and speak to a trained mental health professional. National Health Service staff can guide callers with next steps such as organising face-to-face community support or facilitating access to alternative services, like crisis cafés or safe havens, which provide a place for people to stay as an alternative to accident and emergency or a hospital admission. It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to commission care to meet the needs of their local population.

Found: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee member also present: Sam Carling.

Found: Members present: Simon Hoare (Chair); Richard Baker; Markus Campbell- Savours; Charlotte Cane; Sam Carling

Found: Sam Carling: That is right, yes. David Gold: Again, you are absolutely right.

Found: Members present: Simon Hoare (Chair); Richard Baker; Markus Campbell- Savours; Charlotte Cane; Sam Carling