Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 88 of the policy paper entitled UK Government Resilience Action Plan, published on 14 July 2025, how many meetings have been attended by civil servants within their Department in relation to the Home Defence Programme; which directorate in the Department owns the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme; and what the job title is of the civil servant leading and cohering the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Senior officials from the Resilience and Recovery Directorate in MHCLG regularly attend meetings to discuss matters of national security, defence and resilience as well as the associated public communications required to deliver these lines of efforts. The conversation on National Defence was a recommendation in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which the Government accepted. The Ministry of Defence is the lead department for delivering the SDR, with support from the Cabinet Office, and particularly from the National Security Secretariat.
As set out in the Strategic Defence Review, the national conversation will be a multi-year, cross-departmental effort designed to deliver on the whole-of-society approach to national security and defence allowing Government, the private sector and public to play their part in strengthening the UK’s resilience to any potential future shocks. This work addresses the risks and threats the UK faces, including those below and above the threshold of an armed attack.
MHCLG is actively supporting this work, including liaising with Local Resilience Forums.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 88 of the policy paper entitled UK Government Resilience Action Plan, published on 14 July 2025, how many meetings have been attended by civil servants within their Department in relation to the Home Defence Programme; which directorate in the Department owns the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme; and what the job title is of the civil servant leading and cohering the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS Ministers have regular discussions with officials, external experts and ministerial colleagues on a range of issues, including national security, defence and resilience.
The Resilience Action Plan sets out the Government’s strategic approach to how we will strengthen our domestic resilience and invest to protect the nation. DCMS officials regularly attend meetings to discuss the implementation of the Resilience Action Plan as well as matters of national security and defence.
The department is actively contributing to this work and regularly attends Cross-Whitehall fora on national resilience including meetings on the Home Defence Programme.
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, with reference to page 92 of the Strategic Defence Review, how many meetings officials from their Department have attended on the national conversation on defence and security; which directorate in their Department is responsible for the departmental contribution to that national conversation; and what the job title is of the official responsible.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Officials from the Department of Health and Social Care regularly attend meetings to discuss matters of national security, defence, and resilience as well as the associated public communications required to deliver these lines of efforts. The conversation on national defence was a recommendation in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which the Government accepted. The Ministry of Defence is the lead department for delivering the SDR, with support from the Cabinet Office, and particularly from the National Security Secretariat.
As set out in the Strategic Defence Review, the national conversation will be a multi-year, cross-departmental effort designed to deliver on the whole-of-society approach to national security and defence allowing the Government, the private sector, and the public to play their part in strengthening the United Kingdom’s resilience to any potential future shocks. This work addresses the risks and threats the UK faces, including those below and above the threshold of an armed attack.
The Department of Health and Social Care is actively supporting this work. The Emergency Preparedness and Health Protection Directorate works across the Department, the health system, and wider partners to strengthen our response on health security, which includes defence and officials having regular meetings with their defence counterparts.
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, whether any money has been paid to the NHS as a result of NHS employees publishing content on personal social media platforms that was filmed during working hours, using NHS equipment or uniforms, and related to their work.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held centrally by the Department. However, NHS England has not received any payments from anyone in relation to National Health Service employees publishing content on their personal social media platforms.
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, with reference to paragraph 88 of the policy paper entitled UK Government Resilience Action Plan, published on 14 July 2025, how many meetings have been attended by civil servants within their Department in relation to the Home Defence Programme; which directorate in the Department owns the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme; and what the job title is of the civil servant leading and cohering the Departmental contribution to the Home Defence Programme.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Resilience Action Plan sets out the Government’s strategic approach to how we will strengthen our domestic resilience and invest to protect the nation. Department officials regularly attend meetings to discuss the implementation of the Resilience Action Plan as well as matters of national security and defence.
The Department is actively contributing to this work. This includes ensuring the health sector has flexible, adaptable, and scalable capabilities that can respond to a range of threats. These capabilities include equipment, for instance stockpiles and countermeasures, including medicines and medical equipment, skilled people, such as clinicians and public health staff, and infrastructure, for instance technology, diagnostics, testing.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to increase the naval mine hunting capability of the Royal Navy.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Mine Hunting Capability (MHC) programme continues to deliver an advanced suite of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) and SWEEP (the first Sovereign minesweeping capability since 2006) into service within the Royal Navy, enabling frontline mine warfare specialists to enhance operational effectiveness. These cutting-edge autonomous mine-hunting systems are deployed by the Mine and Threat Exploitation Group for evaluation, training, and operational deployment.
The comprehensive scope of the MHC programme encompasses multiple USVs, UUVs, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for identification and neutralisation, and a state-of-the-art, sovereign mine-sweeping capability. Additionally, the programme has delivered HMS STIRLING CASTLE, a dedicated support vessel designed to enhance the deployment and sustainment of autonomous systems.
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, when his Department intends to respond to the coroner's Prevention of Future Death report following the death of Luke Chatterton.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Prevention of Future Deaths report concerning the death of Luke Chatterton was not received by the Department when it was issued, resulting in a delay in it coming to our attention. The Department is now considering the report carefully before responding.
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 steps he is taking to (a) support NHS trusts with software needs and (b) unify software across NHS trusts.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England supports National Health Service trusts with software needs in many ways, including through documentation, guides, support, a developer community, application programming interfaces, and mandatory standards.
NHS England is unifying software across NHS trusts through application of interoperability and accessibility standards and national services such as NHS Notify.
NHS trusts make their own decisions regarding the adoption and deployment of software and are expected to ensure that access to the tools they employ is safe, ethical, effective, and equitable for all within their remit.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress has been made on the banning of snares.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation and this included a commitment to bring an end to the use of snare traps in England. This was recently reaffirmed in the Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy, published in December 2025. Defra is now actively looking to bring a ban on snares into force as swiftly as possible.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment has been made of the potential merits of expanding access to Standard DBS checks for locksmiths through additional recognised industry bodies.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government encourages consumers to use providers that operate under a regulated trusted trader scheme, such as the Master Locksmiths Association (MLA), which has a licensing scheme in place. This licensing scheme ensures locksmiths are appropriately vetted, inspected and qualified, which includes a satisfactory standard DBS check.