Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with her counterparts in the Greek Government on (a) loaning and (b) donating the Elgin Marbles to Greece.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

I met Greece’s Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni on 4 November for a meeting regarding tourism, when she raised the Parthenon Sculptures among many other matters.

Decisions relating to the care and management of the Parthenon Sculptures are a matter for the British Museum Trustees, acting within the law.

We have no plans to change the law that would permit a permanent move of the Parthenon Sculptures.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with representatives of the British Museum on the Elgin Marbles.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

As the British Museum is a DCMS Arm’s Length Body, both the Secretary of State and I have recently met its Chair and Director. The sculptures were one of a number of issues
discussed.

Decisions relating to the care and management of its collection are a matter for the British Museum Trustees, acting within the law.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of recent pay rises for police officers on trends in the level of police numbers.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The independent Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) and Senior Salaries Review Body (PRRB) make recommendations to the Government on the appropriate level of pay and allowances for police officers. In reaching their recommendations, the Review Bodies consider the need to recruit and retain officers.

On 29 July, the Government announced it had accepted the PRRB’s and SSRB’s recommendations to award officers a consolidated pay award of 4.75% with effect from 1 September. The Home Office has provided £175 million of additional funding in 2024-25 towards policing to help with the cost of this pay increase.

The Government is committed to working with policing to improve public confidence and prioritise frontline services. This includes ensuring there are 13,000 more police officers, police community support officers and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles by the end of this parliament.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the £264 million additional core grant funding for police will support police stations to remain open.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The 2025-26 provisional police funding settlement provides funding of up to £19.5 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. This is an overall increase of up to £1 billion when compared to the 2024-25 settlement, and equates to a 5.5% cash increase, and 3% real terms increase in funding.

Total funding to police forces will be up to £17.4 billion, an increase of up to £987 million compared to the 2024-25 police funding settlement.

The Government recognises the importance of accessibility to the police, and police stations remain one of many important methods where incidents can be reported by members of the public. It is the responsibility of locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to take decisions around their resourcing and estates including police stations, based on their local knowledge and experience.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the report by (a) Baroness Cumberlege entitled Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, published 8 July 2020 and (b) Dr Henrietta Hughes entitled Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published on 7 February 2024; and whether he plans to establish a taskforce to improve patient advocacy services for those affected by vaginal mesh implants.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review’s overarching conclusion was that the system failed to listen to patients or put patients at the centre of their care. Subsequent work has focussed on improving how the system listens to and responds to concerns raised by patients, strengthening the evidence base on which decisions are made, including through making sure the right data is collected and used, and improving the safety of medicines and devices.

The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report, which builds on some of the issues identified by Baroness Cumberlege in the IMMDS Review. The Hughes Report sets out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, including a proposal on advocacy services. We will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report at the earliest opportunity.

Found: through the themes of DSIT, the department organised a ministerial visit and digital content for Saqib Bhatti