Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of unlawful number plates on (a) the ability of the police to trace hit-and-run drivers and (b) efforts to reduce the proportion of untraced driver claims handled by the Motor Insurers' Bureau.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
While those specific assessments have not been made, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other government departments to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime. On-road enforcement of number plate and insurance offences is a matter for the police.
The Government published its Road Safety Strategy on 7 January, setting out its vision for a safer future on our roads for all. As part of this, the Department for Transport is reviewing motoring offences and has published a consultation which seeks views on the introduction of penalty points and vehicle seizure for the offence of being in charge of a motor vehicle with an incorrect/altered/false number plate. The consultation can be found online at: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-penalties-for-motoring-offences.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration he has made of the need for a national bladder cancer audit.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In regards to a National Bladder Cancer Audit consideration, I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to the Hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell on 10 December 2025 to Question 96365.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2025 to Question 98632, how many visits the DVSA has made to retailers selling e-scooters; and how many incidences the DVSA have recorded of e-scooters being sold illegally or without proper guidance of legal restrictions.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The table below shows the number of retailers the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has checked from March 2022 to April 2025.
2022-2023 | 93 |
2023-2024 | 58 |
2024-2025 | 47 |
The table below shows many incidents DVSA has recorded of e-scooters being sold illegally or without proper guidance of legal restrictions, for the same time period.
2022-2023 | 79 |
2023-2024 | 41 |
2024-2025 | 42 |
Please note, high level of non-compliance found in 24-25 FY is due to poor levels of compliance being found in the on-line marketplace. In that year DVSA’s market surveillance unit (MSU) looked into higher proportions sold in on-line markets due to apparent shifts in the way such items are sold.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what interactions the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has had with food delivery companies in reference to vehicles used by delivery drivers.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) recognises that last-mile delivery, including food delivery services, presents specific safety and compliance challenges. To address these challenges, DVSA has engaged with representatives from the sector and continues to collaborate on the development of guidance and best practice, including hosting a last mile delivery summit.
Operational enforcement activity is also undertaken where appropriate, particularly in relation to light commercial vehicles used within this segment.
In addition, DVSA does support police investigations – for example, by conducting technical assessments of modified “last-mile” fast-food delivery bicycle fitted with electric motors.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that newly recognised refugees who are survivors of trafficking, domestic abuse or torture are not left destitute or homeless when asylum support ends.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is committed to supporting individuals granted leave to remain to successfully transition from asylum accommodation to mitigate the risk of homelessness.
The government is aware of the need for a smooth transition between asylum accommodation and other accommodation for those asylum seekers who are granted leave to remain. The Home Office is working to identify and implement efficiencies to support this process and mitigate the risk of homelessness.
Additionally, the Home Office has also placed Asylum Move On Liaison Officers (AMLOs) in over 50 Local Authorities across the UK, working alongside the Migrant Help and NGOs to support individuals who will be leaving asylum accommodation, and ensure a successful transition.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many people granted refugee status have presented to local authorities as homeless or have slept rough within three months of the termination of asylum support in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government publishes homelessness and rough sleeping data for England on gov.uk here. This includes data on the number of people owed a homelessness duty due to leaving asylum accommodation and the number of people seen sleeping rough who had left asylum accommodation within the last 85 days.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve pre-release planning to ensure that prison leavers do not become homeless or sleep rough following release.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are committed to ensuring that robust pre-release plans are created for those leaving custody, so that accommodation needs are identified early and the right support is put in place. Dedicated Pre-Release Teams in prisons work closely with individuals to identify immediate needs, coordinate referrals to relevant services, and support continuity between custody and the community.
In the National Plan to End Homelessness, the Government has committed to reduce the proportion of people released from prison homeless by 50% by the end of this parliament. 50 prison-based Strategic Housing Specialists (SHS) across England and Wales work with probation teams and Local Authorities to enable a multi-agency approach to securing housing before release, including by establishing pre-release accommodation panels with appropriate Local Authorities. We are also investing in integrating digital community accommodation services to make it easier to identify and match individuals to the right housing-related support at the right time.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an equivalent of the EU Safe Hearts Plan in the UK.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We note the recently published European Union’s Safe Hearts Plan and support the EU’s ambition to tackle cardiovascular diseases. Too many lives are lost prematurely to heart disease and stroke, and the Government is committed to reducing premature mortality from heart disease and stroke by 25% in the next 10 years. To accelerate progress on this ambition and tackle unwarranted variation across the country, we will publish a cardiovascular disease Modern Service Framework in 2026, which will identify the best evidenced interventions and drive innovation in prevention, treatment, and care.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his department has considered the impact of NICE’s severity modifier, introduced in 2020, on NHS England’s access to innovative cancer medicines which were previously eligible under the end-of-life weighting.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for the methods and processes that it uses in the development of its recommendations. The severity modifier was introduced in January 2022 as part of a number of changes intended to make NICE’s methods fairer, faster and more consistent.
NICE carried out a review of the implementation of the severity modifier in September 2024 and found that it is operating as intended with a greater proportion of medicines recommended than under NICE’s previous methods. Since then, NICE has continued to monitor how the severity modifier is being applied. The latest figures include data from technology appraisals published up until the end of September 2025 and show that the proportion of positive decisions has increased since the severity modifier was implemented and since data was published in September 2024. 87.0% of decisions taken since the severity modifier was implemented, compared with 82.5% when the end-of-life modifier was being used. NICE is also recommending a greater proportion of new cancer treatments overall, 86.3% compared to 75.0%, and advanced cancer treatments specifically, 84.8% compared to 69.1%.
NICE has commissioned research to gather further evidence on societal preferences that will inform future methods reviews.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department made an impact assessment of the effect of NICE’s severity modifier, introduced in 2020, on the ability of cancer medicines to meet the new ‘high severity’ threshold for approval.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for the methods and processes that it uses in the development of its recommendations. The severity modifier was introduced in January 2022 as part of a number of changes intended to make NICE’s methods fairer, faster and more consistent.
NICE carried out a review of the implementation of the severity modifier in September 2024 and found that it is operating as intended with a greater proportion of medicines recommended than under NICE’s previous methods. Since then, NICE has continued to monitor how the severity modifier is being applied. The latest figures include data from technology appraisals published up until the end of September 2025 and show that the proportion of positive decisions has increased since the severity modifier was implemented and since data was published in September 2024. 87.0% of decisions taken since the severity modifier was implemented, compared with 82.5% when the end-of-life modifier was being used. NICE is also recommending a greater proportion of new cancer treatments overall, 86.3% compared to 75.0%, and advanced cancer treatments specifically, 84.8% compared to 69.1%.
NICE has commissioned research to gather further evidence on societal preferences that will inform future methods reviews.