Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve freedom of religion for Baháʼís globally.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains strongly committed to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all abroad. It is our firm opinion that no one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe in. We are championing the right to FoRB and promoting tolerance and mutual respect through our engagement in multilateral fora, our bilateral work, and our programme funding.
The continued systematic targeting of the Baha'i community, which includes unfair arrest and detention, land grabs, and denial of burial rights, is unacceptable. We are committed to working with international partners to hold countries to account for its repression of the Bahai's, and other religious or belief minorities, including at the United Nations.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the persecution of Baháʼís in (a) Iran and (b) the Middle East.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We condemn any instance of state repression against Baha'is globally. The UK was instrumental in delivering the Iran Human Rights resolution, adopted by the United Nations Third Committee in November 2024, which spotlighted Iran's appalling treatment of Baha'is and called on Iran to release all religious practitioners imprisoned for their membership in or activities on behalf of a minority religious group, and to ensure that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief.
We also track the treatment of the Baha'is across the Middle East, including in Yemen through meeting their representatives in the UK and lobbying the relevant authorities. The Government strongly condemns the continued persecution of the Baha'is and other religious minorities. We are working with our international partners to raise these concerns directly with the Houthi authorities and urge the release of all Yemenis detained for their beliefs or nationality.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the detention of Mahvash Sabet by Iranian authorities.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We condemn the unfair detention of all religious minorities in Iran. The UK was instrumental in delivering the Iran Human Rights Resolution, adopted by the United Nations Third Committee in November 2024, which called on Iran to release all religious practitioners imprisoned for their membership in or activities on behalf of a minority religious group, and to ensure that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief. We will continue to work with international partners to hold Iran accountable for its severe and unacceptable repression of Baha'is.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
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 impact of the roll-out of Oxevision in mental health hospitals on patient wellbeing.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has commissioned a rapid evidence review of vision based monitoring systems, which is available at the following link:
https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-024-03673-9
These insights have been used to work in partnership with people with lived experience, clinicians, and stakeholders to develop national guidance, which will be published imminently.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
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 lobular breast cancer outcomes.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including lobular breast cancer, is a priority for NHS England. We will improve cancer survival rates and hit all National Health Service cancer waiting time targets, so that no patient waits longer than they should.
The NHS Breast Screening Programme offers all women in England between the ages of 50 years old and their 71st birthday the opportunity to be screened every three years for breast cancer, to help detect abnormalities and intervene early to reduce the number of lives lost to invasive breast cancer.
The Department invests £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24, reflecting its high priority.
We are proud to have invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre in 2022, supporting their efforts to strengthen research into cancer, including lobular breast cancer. Wider investments into breast cancer research include a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, including lobular breast cancer.
The NIHR funds research on cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment and care, which saves lives. NIHR funds research in response to proposals received and would welcome applications from researchers on lobular breast cancer.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of changes in the numbers of Permitted Development Rights.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government acknowledge the concerns that exist about the quality of residential units created through permitted development rights, particularly office-to-residential conversions. We will continue to keep permitted development rights under review.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of an opt-out for AI and copyright on digital competition.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.
This consultation seeks views on a number of issues relating to copyright and AI, including on how to give rights holders of creative works greater control over use of their material.
Information and evidence on the impact of a rights-reservation (or “opt-out”), including the impact on digital competition, is welcomed to help shape Government’s thinking.
The consultation closes on 25 February.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that local magazine publishers (a) nationally and (b) in Southampton Test constituency can access licensing deals with AI developers.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Copying protected material will infringe copyright unless it is licensed, or an exception to copyright applies.
The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.
The consultation seeks views on how to give rights holders of creative works greater control over use of their material. Where rights holders reserve their rights, they can license their works for AI training, if they wish. The consultation seeks views on whether more should be done to support good licensing practice.
The consultation closes on 25 February.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local magazine publishers (a) nationally and (b) in Southampton Test constituency are protected against copyright infringement from AI developers.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Copying protected material in the UK will infringe copyright unless it is licensed, or an exception to copyright applies.
The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.
The consultation seeks views on how to give rights holders of creative works greater control over use of their material, and greater transparency about when their material is used to train AI models, while supporting the development of world-leading AI models in the UK.
The consultation closes on 25 February.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
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 impact of an opt-out for AI and copyright on smaller and medium-sized publishing businesses.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.
One of the proposals in the consultation is for a rights-reservation, or “opt-out”, approach to the use of copyright material for AI training. The government wants to ensure that any measures are practical and effective for businesses of all sizes.
Information and evidence is welcomed from all sizes of business, to help shape the Government’s thinking.
The consultation closes on 25 February.