Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to prohibit all forms of physical punishment of children in England.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department continues to look closely at the legislative changes made in Wales and Scotland but has no plans to legislate to remove the reasonable punishment defence in England at this time. It is right that we protect all children at risk of harm, but it is also right that we do not intervene in family life when children are safe, loved and well supported.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will provide greater protection for children who are at risk of abuse and neglect. We have also launched plans for a new Child Protection Authority and are providing £2.4 billion funding for the Families First Partnership programme to support families who need targeted support. In addition, we are rolling out Best Start Family Hubs, backed by over £500 million, to ensure families in every part of the country have access to a range of universal services, including evidence-based interventions for parenting.

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 help improve access to specialist stroke rehabilitation and community-based support services for stroke survivors in England.

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

As set out in the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan, we are committed to improving services for patients locally by increasing the provision of services outside of a hospital setting that are delivered closer to home in the community.

The National Stroke Service Model provides best practice for stroke care, including post-discharge, which should include comprehensive rehabilitation and personalised care and support.

The National Stroke Quality Improvement in Rehabilitation programme is helping to transform community-based care by increasing access to specialist stroke rehabilitation at home.

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 (a) prevalence and (b) potential impact of the use of hospital corridors and other non-designated spaces for patient care in NHS hospitals.

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

We recognise the challenges facing the health service and are serious about tackling them. The Government is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the National Health Service constitution by the end of this Parliament.

Corridor care refers to care delivered in non-designated clinical areas and is not an acceptable standard of care. We are committed to eliminating this practice in the National Health Service and ensure all patients receive high quality safe care, and we are taking serious, sustained action to achieve this. It is one of the most visible and distressing symptoms of a broken NHS, fixing it will require fixing several of the systems and processes that sit across the whole of the pathway, all of which we are working on.

NHS England has been working with trusts since 2024 to monitor corridor care, implementing new reporting arrangements and providing targeted support to the most challenged hospitals. In March, we published a clear definition of corridor care. As committed to in the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, we will publish data on the prevalence of corridor care for the first time. This new definition will enable us to start publishing clear validated data on its prevalence to drive improvement and transparency.

Where corridor care cannot be avoided, we have published updated guidance to support trusts to deliver it safely, ensuring dignity and privacy is maintained to reduce impacts on patients and staff. This means that corridor care areas must uphold the same high standards of care for patients as those in planned clinical settings. Patients are seen based on how urgent their needs are, not where they are. All patients being considered for corridor care should be appropriately risk assessed by senior clinical teams during triage with their condition monitored by named nurses.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of women killed in domestic homicides in their own homes.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

This Government is committed to protecting women and girls in all environments, public or private. The recently published ‘Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy’ sets out the steps we are taking to drive system-wide change, so that no life is lost to violence and abuse that could have been prevented.

The Home Office is working to develop the evidence base on domestic abuse related deaths by funding the Domestic Homicide Project, which captures information all domestic abuse related deaths, including homicides, from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The project aims to improve our understanding of these deaths and identify how the response to domestic abuse can be improved.  Further information can be found at the following link: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/.

In addition, Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) offer a vital opportunity for national and local agencies, local communities and society as a whole to learn lessons from domestic abuse related deaths and treat every death as preventable. We are currently reforming the DHR process to ensure learning is effectively identified and implemented to improve policy and practice and ultimately, prevent future deaths.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to speech and language support for children with communication needs in schools.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Speech and language therapists (SaLTs) break down communication barriers, but too often, children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) wait too long to receive support from them.

As part of our new £1.8 billion investment, schools will be able to access support from professionals such as SaLTs through the Experts at Hand offer. These experts will work directly with school staff to equip them with skills and strategies to better meet need.

We are also investing £15 million to establish new SaLT advanced practitioners in every integrated care board area to support more SaLTs to work with educational settings, upskill speech and language support workers, and promote the SaLT apprenticeship route.

This is in addition to £3.4 million being invested this year in the Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) programme, helping to identify and respond to speech and language needs, continued investment in the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, which has demonstrated significant impact on speech and language skills particularly for disadvantaged pupils, and an expansion of English Hubs support to include specialist early language support from the 2026/27 academic year.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the sufficiency of the level of refuge accommodation provision for victims of domestic abuse.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government is committed to ensuring victims of domestic abuse and their children can access the support in safe accommodation they need to rebuild their lives. This is part of the Government’s strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, with improved support for victims.

Under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, local authorities must assess the need for and provide support to victims and their children in safe accommodation. It is for each local authority to determine the right mix of safe accommodation, including refuges, dispersed accommodation, and sanctuary schemes (in which a victim’s own home is made safe) to meet local needs. To support delivery, MHCLG provided authorities in England with £160 million in 2025/26, a £30 million uplift from the previous year. In the recent Local Government Finance Settlement, MHCLG committed to increase investment by a further £19 million to £499 million over the next three years.

The department collects data on the number of refuge bedspaces and the number of individuals supported in safe accommodation. This data is published annually, the most recent data is available here: Support in domestic abuse safe accommodation: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for refuge accommodation under the Safe Accommodation Duty.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government is committed to ensuring victims of domestic abuse and their children can access the support in safe accommodation they need to rebuild their lives. This is part of the Government’s strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls, with improved support for victims.

Under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, local authorities must assess the need for and provide support to victims and their children in safe accommodation. It is for each local authority to determine the right mix of safe accommodation, including refuges, dispersed accommodation, and sanctuary schemes (in which a victim’s own home is made safe) to meet local needs. To support delivery, MHCLG provided authorities in England with £160 million in 2025/26, a £30 million uplift from the previous year. In the recent Local Government Finance Settlement, MHCLG committed to increase investment by a further £19 million to £499 million over the next three years.

The department collects data on the number of refuge bedspaces and the number of individuals supported in safe accommodation. This data is published annually, the most recent data is available here: Support in domestic abuse safe accommodation: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of social security assessment and application processes on the mental health of claimants.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Pathways to Work Green Paper set out our commitment to get the basics right and improve the experience for people who use the system of health and disability. This includes exploring ways to improve trust and transparency in PIP and WCA through reviewing our approach to safeguarding, recording assessments to increase trust in the process, and moving back to having more face-to-face assessments while continuing to meet the needs of people who may require different methods of assessment.

We have also launched the Timms Review, the first ever full review of PIP, to ensure we have a system that supports disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence, including through employment. The Review is being co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, carers, clinicians, experts, MPs and other stakeholders, so a wide range of views and voices are heard.

The Review will consider how PIP can enable disabled people to live independently; whether the assessment effectively captures the impact of long-term health conditions and disability in the modern world; and whether it should consider any other evidence. It will also look at how the assessment could ensure people access the right support at the right level.

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 is taking to reform water companies regulation in response to sewage pollution.

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

The Government is committed to tackling the root causes of sewage pollution. As part of this, we will ensure that legislation, the regulatory framework and funding support ‘pre-pipe’ solutions, aimed at reducing the volume of rainwater and pollutants entering the sewerage system. This includes better management of our rainwater – collecting it for reuse and diverting it away from the sewers using sustainable drainage systems – and measures to tackle sewer misuse.

The Government has set out its new vision for water through a White Paper published on 20 January 2026. The White Paper sets out once in a generation reforms that will transform the water system for good, with a renewed focus on securing a fair deal for customers, investors and the environment, to rebuild trust and secure a water system that works for everyone.

Furthermore, we will end operator self-monitoring, transfer oversight to the new regulator and transition to open monitoring to increase transparency and help restore public trust.

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 improve access to specialist care and support for people living with motor neurone disease.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England commissions the specialised elements of motor neurone disease (MND) care that patients may receive from 27 specialised neurology centres across England. Within these specialised centres, neurological multidisciplinary teams ensure patients can access a range of health professionals and specialised treatment and support, according to their needs.

At the national level, there are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with MND, including the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit.

In August 2025, NHS England updated its service specification for specialised adult neurology services. It outlines a number of minimum service requirements for key specialties, including neuromuscular disorders like MND.

Baroness Casey has set out that the Government must take immediate action on motor neurone disease. Where someone has a severe, reasonably predictable, and life-limiting condition, it is essential that we provide rapid access to the support they need, and we will take forward immediate work to develop a fast-track process, or “passport”, that speeds up assessments and access to care for people diagnosed with MND. We will consider how best to safely implement a process that expedites assessments and gets people with MND the care and support they need more quickly.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that infant feeding advice provided in healthcare settings is independent of commercial influence.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Infant feeding is critical to a baby’s healthy growth and development. The Government is committed to giving every child the best start in life and that includes helping families to access support to feed their baby.

The Department has policy responsibility for infant formula regulations in England.  Legislation covers the composition, labelling, and standards, including marketing, to ensure infant formulas provide all the nutrients a healthy baby needs for development and growth and to ensure consumers are informed correctly about their contents so that families receive clear, accurate, and non-misleading information about their use. The legislation makes clear that any infant formula used in health care settings must be provided without any form of commercial promotion. Labels or information supplied to healthcare professionals must be strictly factual and scientific, with no marketing claims.

The majority of maternity services are either accredited under or are working towards the quality standards of UNICEF-UK’s Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI). The BFI sets out quality standards for complying with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. This includes requiring maternity services to avoid commercial influence and prohibit promotion of substitutes to families.

The Department is also taking action to ensure parents and carers receive proactive information on the nutritional sufficiency of infant formula, regardless of its price. In response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendations on the infant and follow-on formula market, the four governments of the United Kingdom will work with the National Health Service in England, Scotland, and Wales, the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland, and other relevant bodies to develop and test clear, impartial messaging on the nutritional sufficiency of infant formula. This will include reviewing existing channels used in healthcare settings, such as online content and supporting materials provided to parents, to ensure messaging is delivered effectively and consistently.

Found: (Liberal Democrat; Tiverton and Minehead) Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat; Chesham and Amersham) Sarah Hall

Found: (Liberal Democrat; Tiverton and Minehead) Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat; Chesham and Amersham) Sarah Hall

Found:

Found: people with lived experience with HIV To discuss the HIV Action Plan Ashley Dalton 10/12/2025 Sarah Hall