Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has considered the potential merits of introducing transparency obligations on generative AI companies to facilitate the appropriate (a) licensing and (b) enforcement of music rights; and whether her Department has considered the potential merits of requiring the clear labelling of content solely generated by AI.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government held a consultation earlier this year to consider how the copyright framework should apply in the context of generative AI, including the merits of transparency obligations and labelling AI generated content. That consultation received a wide range of responses from stakeholders across the creative industries, technology sectors and academia. We are now carefully reviewing that evidence and establishing stakeholder working groups to inform the development of policy on copyright and AI.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to make the NHS more accessible for people with hearing impairment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged.
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the National Health Service and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated.
Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including people with a hearing or visual impairment.
On 30 June 2025, a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and is reviewing the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to make the NHS more accessible for people with visual impairment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged.
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the National Health Service and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated.
Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including people with a hearing or visual impairment.
On 30 June 2025, a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and is reviewing the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 merits of mandating standardised domestic abuse training for all frontline NHS staff.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of National Health Service organisations to ensure that all staff undertake mandatory training on domestic abuse. Mandatory training at Level 1 is captured in the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR), as part of the integrated safeguarding training module. This is monitored by the Care Quality Commission as part of their provider compliance visit. Level 2 and 3 are stand-alone modules and are not always captured in the ESR. Staff are also required to undertake further domestic abuse training where it is relevant to their role.
National mandatory safeguarding training for all NHS staff is being strengthened for launch in early 2026. This will reinforce the safeguarding responsibilities of staff and will support them in identifying and responding to victims of abuse.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school food guidelines.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to raising the healthiest generation ever. It is important that children eat nutritious food at school and the department encourages schools to have a whole school approach to healthy eating. The school food standards define the foods and drinks that must be provided, which are restricted, and those which must not be provided.
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, we are acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many full-time equivalent civil servants are working on appointing the new contractor for St Michaels School in Paignton.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
St Michael’s School is part of the school rebuilding programme. The project team is made up of a project director, who is a civil servant, and a project manager. A number of technical specialists also support the project at different stages.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 adequacy of his Department's provision of care for dementia patients within the local community.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our health system has struggled to support those with complex needs, including those with dementia. Under the 10-Health Year Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services.
We will deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia, and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
To reduce variation in diagnosis rates, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has developed a tool for local systems, which includes an assessment of population characteristics such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. This enables systems to investigate local variation in diagnosis and take informed action to enhance their diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of decreased funding on the provision of specialist domestic violence services; what steps she is taking to prevent further harm to victims.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Specialist and ‘by and for’ services are essential for providing the tailored support that victims and survivors of domestic abuse need. Access to support services can prevent re-victimisation, and help victims to access support, escape abuse, and move forward with their lives.
That is why we uplifted the National VAWG Helplines, including ‘by and for’ helpline providers, by over £1.5m in 2024/25, and we are now providing a further uplift of over £1m, bringing the total investment to over £6m in 2025/26. We also uplifted the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme by £398k in 2024/25, and we are now providing a further uplift of £600k to bring the total investment up to £2.4m for 2025/26.
The is part of a wider £19.9 million investment into 2025/26, which also includes £2.5m to help prevent and improve the response to VAWG. This includes increasing the understanding and identification of VAWG, work to prevent ‘honour’ based abuse and improving multi-agency working and risk management.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has set ICBs targets to promote CPR training in schools.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal requirement for integrated care boards (ICBs) to promote or recommend cardiopulmonary resuscitation training or any associated targets has been set. The Department and NHS England welcome ICBs setting locally led targets as best practice for local services and commissioners to work to.