Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent measures her Department has introduced to (a) detect and (b) prevent sham marriages.
Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government takes abuse of the immigration system, including sham marriages and civil partnerships, extremely seriously. Family migration must be based on a genuine and subsisting relationship, and where this is not the case the Home Office will take robust action.
The sham marriage referral and investigation scheme, introduced under the Immigration Act 2014, continues to provide a strong platform for effective action to identify, disrupt and deter sham marriages and civil partnerships before they take place. The scheme applies to couples where one or both parties could gain an immigration advantage from marriage or civil partnership, allowing the Home Office to investigate and take action where appropriate.
Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules was updated in December 2020 to introduce specific grounds for the refusal or cancellation of permission to enter/stay on the basis of involvement in a sham marriage or sham civil partnership, providing a more robust and consistent framework against which immigration applications are assessed, and reflecting the seriousness of this type of abuse.
Most recently, the Home Office has strengthened its approach to tackling sham marriages and civil partnerships by improving the coordination, detection and disruption across the system. Immigration Enforcement has established a national coordination and operational governance model to provide improved oversight of sham marriage activity, strengthen consistency of decision‑making and target resources more effectively. The Home Office continues to work closely with local registration services, UK Visas and Immigration, law enforcement partners and intelligence teams to identify sham relationships early and prevent abuse of the marriage route. This includes enhanced information‑sharing, improved referral processes and targeted investigative activity where abuse is suspected.
Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a marriage or civil partnership is not genuine, the Home Office will investigate and take appropriate action. This may include refusal or curtailment of leave, removal or deportation from the UK, or prosecution. The Home Office also focuses on disrupting facilitators and organised criminal networks involved in arranging sham marriages, recognising the links to wider serious and organised crime.
The Government keeps its processes under continual review and remains committed to protecting the integrity of the immigration system, safeguarding vulnerable individuals and ensuring enforcement activity is proportionate, intelligence‑led and lawful.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with NHS trusts regarding the consistent implementation of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework within mental health services.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published guidance setting out oversight roles and responsibilities in relation to the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework.
Trust boards, or leadership teams in the case of National Health Service organisations without boards, are responsible and accountable for effective patient safety incident management in their organisation. Integrated care boards, or NHS England where it is the commissioner of the service, are responsible for establishing and maintaining structures for supporting a coordinated approach to oversight of patient safety incident response in all the services within their system. NHS England regional teams are responsible for supporting integrated care boards, and through the regional independent investigation teams, support the response to incidents that may require an independent investigation.
Work is ongoing to consider where amendments to organisational oversight responsibilities are needed in line with organisational changes across the NHS, particularly at integrated care board and NHS England regional level.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what research, monitoring and data collection her Department undertakes to assess the prevalence of chemical submission offences in England and Wales.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
To improve understanding of the prevalence and motivations behind these offences, spiking has been added to the Annual Data Requirement, through which the Home Office collects police data from forces in England and Wales. Returns will be analysed using the National Data Quality Improvement Service to provide more robust and insightful data on the subject.
The Home Office has also commissioned the University of Birmingham to research the motivations of spiking perpetrators, providing important first-hand insights into the range of factors that drive this offending.
This is in addition to a range of other work the Government is undertaking to combat all forms of spiking, including the introduction of new legislation as part of the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to assess the prevalence of chemical submission offences in England and Wales.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
To improve understanding of the prevalence and motivations behind these offences, spiking has been added to the Annual Data Requirement, through which the Home Office collects police data from forces in England and Wales. Returns will be analysed using the National Data Quality Improvement Service to provide more robust and insightful data on the subject.
The Home Office has also commissioned the University of Birmingham to research the motivations of spiking perpetrators, providing important first-hand insights into the range of factors that drive this offending.
This is in addition to a range of other work the Government is undertaking to combat all forms of spiking, including the introduction of new legislation as part of the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 1 June 2026 to Question 2672, what steps his Department plans to take on conclusion of the study on the impact of anti-malarial chemoprophylaxis on functional effectiveness of military personnel (713/MODREC/15) once that study has been published.
Answered by Calvin Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans and People)
The study entitled; Impact of anti-malarial chemoprophylaxis on functional effectiveness of military personnel (713/MODREC/15) was initiated in 2015 by a now-retired Defence Public Health Consultant. The work sought to collect data around the impact of anti-malarial chemoprophylaxis on the functional effectiveness of military personnel. Data was collected from two British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) battlegroups between 2017-18 in the form of questionnaires and was stored for subsequent analysis.
Retirement of the lead investigator without appointment of a replacement meant that the data remained unanalysed. A team of public health specialists supported by Defence Statistics undertook a re-analysis of the original dataset and determined that the study had not generated evidence of sufficient certainty to warrant recommendations to change policy or clinical practice around the choice of antimalarial. The relative lack of substantive findings from the reanalysis meant that while the work was reported internally as part of a general review of malaria policy to ensure compliance with earlier HCDC Direction, peer reviewed publication was not prioritised.
A separate service evaluation of Defence Primary Healthcare electronic patient records is currently being undertaken based on malaria notifications between January 2016 and January 2026. The work builds on 713/MODREC/15 and aims to provide a more contemporaneous picture of the impact of malaria on UK Armed Forces and the role of force health protection measures, including malaria chemoprophylaxis. Subject to further work, the department will aim to submit the results of 713/MODREC/15 for publication in a peer reviewed journal in 2027. Further, the intent is to publish the service evaluation in a peer reviewed journal as a follow up to publication of the results from 713/MODREC/15.