Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will estimate how many four year-olds live in families that would be eligible for Healthy Start vouchers had their child not become ineligible on their fourth birthday.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Healthy Start scheme helps to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from low-income households. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. The NHSBSA does not hold data relating to children aged four years old and over.
Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the annual cost to the public purse of the Healthy Start scheme; and what proportion of this cost is attributed to (a) administration and (b) payments to families.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Healthy Start is a demand led scheme, and therefore, the cost of the scheme differs from year to year. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) delivers the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. In the financial year 2023/24, the cost to the public purse for the NHSBSA to administer the scheme was £9,620,000.
In the same financial year, the cost to the public purse for payments made to families in receipt of Healthy Start was £86,382,173.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children live in families eligible for Healthy Start vouchers; and how many and what proportion of those children are in receipt of those vouchers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
In April 2025 there were 361,122 people on the digital scheme, and of these there were 328,798 claims supporting children under four years old.
The NHSBSA does not currently hold data on the number of children living in families that are eligible for Healthy Start.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to tackle workplace sexual harassment.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds
The Office for Equality and Opportunity is working closely with the Home Office to deliver on our landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
We are also working with the Department for Business and Trade to progress the Employment Rights Bill. As part of this, we will strengthen protections against harassment and sexual harassment in the course of employment, by introducing three amendments to the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many pressurised metered dose inhalers were prescribed by the NHS in the last year for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information provided by the NHS Business Services Authority gives the quantities of each medicine dispensed in the community in England. The total number of pressurised inhalers that were dispensed in England from October 2023 to September 2024 was 42.3 million.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he plans to implement the provisions of the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to implementing the provisions of the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 as soon as possible. Once in place, up to 12 weeks of paid leave will be available to all eligible parents of babies who are admitted into neonatal care.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of pressurised metered dose inhalers were manufactured in pharmaceutical production facilities (a) in the UK and (b) overseas in the last year for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of reported incidents of violence against retail workers employed in home delivery; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of this violence on the well being of those workers.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level, up 29% on year up to June 2024, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this.
Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job and this government is committed to taking retail crime seriously.
We will introduce a new specific offence for assaults on shopworkers to protect them from violence and abuse. The scope of the legislation is still under consideration and will be confirmed when legislation is brought forward.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Universal Credit minimum income threshold on trends in the level of childminder (a) recruitment and (b) retention, in the context of recent changes to free childcare allowances.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is no plan to assess the potential impact of the Minimum Income Floor specifically for self-employed childminders on Universal Credit.
The department does not systematically collect data about the sector self-employed customers work in. Universal Credit treats all forms and sectors of self-employment in the same way, focusing on the level of the customer’s earnings rather than the sector. There is no link between the sector that a customer works in and the level of their Minimum Income Floor.