Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to undertake a review of the regulation, oversight, funding and advertising practices of Crisis Pregnancy Centres operating outside the NHS.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is required to register providers who carry out regulated activities as set down in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Counselling of the kind typically provided by crisis pregnancy centres is not a regulated activity, and there are no plans at present to bring such services within the remit of the CQC.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the medical accuracy and clinical governance of information provided by Crisis Pregnancy Centres.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is required to register providers who carry out regulated activities as set down in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Counselling of the kind typically provided by crisis pregnancy centres is not a regulated activity, and there are no plans at present to bring such services within the remit of the CQC.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will amend the Heating Oil/LPG element of the Crisis and Resilience Fund support scheme announced on 16 March 2026, by broadening the eligibility criteria to include low and middle income households, advertising the scheme better and making it easier to apply for.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF), including the additional £27 million of heating oil support, is delivered by local authorities in England. As with the wider CRF, heating oil support is targeted at low-income households.

Within this and the broad scope of DWP’s national CRF guidance, local authorities have discretion over scheme design, eligibility criteria, and publicity of the available support. Crisis Payments can also be used to support energy costs for any form of fuel used for domestic heating, cooking, or lighting, including oil and LPG.

The CRF guidance includes clear requirements on accessibility and application routes for local authority schemes, to ensure support is available to those who may face barriers to applying and receiving support.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether criminal record checks and investigations are made when considering an indefinite leave to remain application.

Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

All applications under the Immigration Rules are processed by staff in UKVI under the UKVI Operating Mandate which sets out clearly the baseline requirements for UKVI staff in terms of carrying out a range of identity and security checks for every application made under the immigration rules. This includes criminal records checks where appropriate.

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that (a) disabled and neurodivergent children have meaningful opportunities to participate and develop in grassroots sport and (b) accountability exists when clubs’ practices are not inclusive.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to ensuring every child, including disabled and neurodivergent children, has access to inclusive opportunities in grassroots sport and physical activity.

Our arm’s length body Sport England invests in targeted programmes aimed at making sport more inclusive, such as Neurodiverse Sport and Autism Action. It also funds partners like Activity Alliance to understand the barriers to participation for disabled and neurodiverse people, and support sports organisations to offer inclusive activity.

In addition, the Government’s new approach to school sport, the PE and School Sport Partnerships Network, aims to ensure more young people have access to high quality PE and school sport and break down barriers for children who are less active, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The Government expects all sports bodies and clubs to fulfil their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010. Any failure to comply with the law is not acceptable and undermines the goal of promoting inclusive and welcoming environments for all.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to reduce the NHS Right to Choose medication waiting list.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The independent review into the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, led by Professor Peter Fonagy, was published on 9 October, providing analysis and recommendations across a wide range of issues relating to the current provision of services in this area, including those accessed via the Right to Choose.

The Government issued an initial response on the day of publication, available at the link below, but we will set out the full action we are taking in response to the review recommendations in our new Mental Health Strategy to be published later this year, including in relation to the issues raised by the Hon Member.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-pledges-earlier-support-to-tackle-mental-health-crises

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take as a result of demand for Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 exceeding the budget available.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Window 2 was open to all eligible farmers and land managers, and we recognised that demand could be high. In anticipation of strong demand, the Government increased the funding available for Window 2, with an additional £50 million announced by the Prime Minister on 15 August 2026 and a further £20 million added before the window opened. This took the total budget for new SFI26 agreements to £310 million. We also published updates on budget allocation during the application window. There will be future SFI offers and, in keeping with the Farming Roadmap 2050, we plan to make an SFI27 offer available. Following the closure of SFI26 Window 2, we are working with farming representative organisations and the wider sector to consider how we refine the scheme for SFI27.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to support farmers with Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier and Higher Tier agreements expiring in December 2026 who have not secured a Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 agreement.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Natural England are contacting Higher Level Stewardship agreement holders whose agreements expire before 31 March 2027 and who may wish to apply for a Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) agreement. Farmers with a Mid-Tier agreement expiring in December 2026 can express an interest in certain types of CSHT agreements, e.g. species-rich grassland.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average annual payment per hectare is for agreements entered into under Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the criteria for formally recognising the Armenian Genocide compared to regional and European parliaments; and what assessment he has made of the potential diplomatic merits to UK foreign policy in the South Caucasus of doing so.

Answered by Uma Kumaran - Assistant Whip

I refer the Hon Member to the answer given on 14 July 2026 to question 15997.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to revoke the visas of individuals where her Department has made a mistake in issuing those visas and the individual concerned has gone to the family courts.

Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

If the SSHD has issued a visa in error, The Immigration Act 1971 gives the SSHD an implied power to correct that error if it is appropriate to do so.

Additionally, the Immigration Rules provide for a person's permission to be cancelled where they fail to comply with the conditions attached to their visa or commit Criminal offences.

More information can be found at:

Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules: Part Suitability - Guidance - GOV.UK

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether it remains his Department's policy to introduce binding regulatory requirements on companies developing the most powerful AI models, and what requirements he is considering introducing.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)

The government is ensuring that the UK is ready for both the challenges and opportunities that AI will bring. We have taken important steps to ensure that many AI systems are already regulated at the point of use by our existing expert regulators. This is both through sector-specific regulations such as medicines regulation, and cross-cutting legal safeguards including data protection, competition, product safety, and equalities laws. The safety of the British public is a non-negotiable priority. Where new protections are needed, we will act, legislating wherever necessary.

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) AI-generated personas on social media platforms that present idealised and sexualised physical appearances while performing stolen material on users, particularly young people and men and (b) such personas on expectations placed on and potential harms to real performers, particularly women; what routes to redress are available to grassroots creatives whose work has been reproduced without permission by such accounts to build audiences, generate revenue and direct users to adult subscription services; and whether she plans to introduce measures requiring platforms and the operators of such accounts to (i) compensate and (ii) restore reach to creators affected by such reproduction.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government supports UK creators and believes they should be paid fairly for their work. Where material is used without permission, existing copyright and passing off laws may apply, and creators are therefore encouraged to seek independent legal advice. In addition, since March 2025, the Online Safety Act (OSA) requires platforms to introduce proactive measures to protect users from user-generated fraud. The OSA lists fraud as a priority offence and regulates AI-generated media in the same way as ‘real’ content.

We know this is an area of concern to many creatives and are considering whether further action is needed, including through a consultation on digital replicas and a taskforce on labelling AI-generated content - both of which will launch by the end of the year.

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to protect UK creative talent, particularly comedians, from the unauthorised reproduction of their work by AI-generated accounts on social media platforms; what discussions she has had with social media platforms on the removal of such content; what guidance her Department provides to creators seeking its removal; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of mandatory labelling of AI-generated accounts and content.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government supports UK creators and believes they should be paid fairly for their work. Where material is used without permission, existing copyright and passing off laws may apply, and creators are therefore encouraged to seek independent legal advice. In addition, since March 2025, the Online Safety Act (OSA) requires platforms to introduce proactive measures to protect users from user-generated fraud. The OSA lists fraud as a priority offence and regulates AI-generated media in the same way as ‘real’ content.

We know this is an area of concern to many creatives and are considering whether further action is needed, including through a consultation on digital replicas and a taskforce on labelling AI-generated content - both of which will launch by the end of the year.

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals, including a criminal offence, to address misappropriation of creative professionals' work and likeness by AI-generated personas on social media and subscription platforms; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the law of passing off in protecting creative professionals in such cases.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government supports UK creators and believes they should be paid fairly for their work. Where material is used without permission, existing copyright and passing off laws may apply, and creators are therefore encouraged to seek independent legal advice. In addition, since March 2025, the Online Safety Act (OSA) requires platforms to introduce proactive measures to protect users from user-generated fraud. The OSA lists fraud as a priority offence and regulates AI-generated media in the same way as ‘real’ content.

We know this is an area of concern to many creatives and are considering whether further action is needed, including through a consultation on digital replicas and a taskforce on labelling AI-generated content - both of which will launch by the end of the year.