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 support research into pancreatic cancer.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Research is crucial in tackling cancer. The Department spends £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), with cancer being the largest area of spend at over £121.8 million in 2022/23. The NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group, reflecting its high priority. The NIHR has committed over £2.1 million to directly funded pancreatic cancer research over the past five years.

Additionally, NIHR infrastructure funding supports the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry. In doing so, our investment plays a crucial role in underpinning the research funded by our partners.

The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pancreatic cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of recent trends in the level of school attendance in (a) the South East and (b) England in the last 12 months.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at Regional and Local Authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/.

Data from 2022/23 shows that Slough had an overall absence rate of 7.6%, which was above the national rate of 7.4% and the regional rate of 7.3%. A similar trend was observed in the persistently absent data for these areas, as shown here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a7dbf68f-64f1-4029-e937-08dcf7e7048c.

The government recognises school absence as a key barrier to learning. If children are not in school, they will not benefit from teaching and learning, regardless of how effective or well-supported it is. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, limiting their opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the sector's efforts, more students are attending school this year compared to last. However, 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.

The department has a national strategy for tackling absence impacting all schools, including those in the South East and within the Slough constituency. Central to this are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance, which was made statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a support first approach, encouraging schools, trusts, and local authorities to work with families to address attendance barriers.

Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.

The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities to share existing best practice within the sector on how to improve attendance. Across the nation there is a network of 31 attendance hubs, working with 2000 schools to share to share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.

In addition to this work, the department aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.

The attendance strategy is also supported by broader investments, including funded breakfast clubs which will be provided for all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department will also introduce new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling. Mental health support is also being expanded, with a specialist now available in every school. Additionally, schools can allocate pupil premium funding, which has been increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure children with high school absence rates are supported to increase their attendance in (a) the South East and (b) Slough constituency.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at Regional and Local Authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/.

Data from 2022/23 shows that Slough had an overall absence rate of 7.6%, which was above the national rate of 7.4% and the regional rate of 7.3%. A similar trend was observed in the persistently absent data for these areas, as shown here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a7dbf68f-64f1-4029-e937-08dcf7e7048c.

The government recognises school absence as a key barrier to learning. If children are not in school, they will not benefit from teaching and learning, regardless of how effective or well-supported it is. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, limiting their opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the sector's efforts, more students are attending school this year compared to last. However, 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.

The department has a national strategy for tackling absence impacting all schools, including those in the South East and within the Slough constituency. Central to this are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance, which was made statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a support first approach, encouraging schools, trusts, and local authorities to work with families to address attendance barriers.

Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.

The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities to share existing best practice within the sector on how to improve attendance. Across the nation there is a network of 31 attendance hubs, working with 2000 schools to share to share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.

In addition to this work, the department aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.

The attendance strategy is also supported by broader investments, including funded breakfast clubs which will be provided for all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department will also introduce new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling. Mental health support is also being expanded, with a specialist now available in every school. Additionally, schools can allocate pupil premium funding, which has been increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of persistent school absence rates in the last 12 months.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Detailed pupil absence data is collected as part of the school census and published on a termly basis. All absence data for England, including data at Regional and Local Authority level, is available via the National Statistics releases: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/.

Data from 2022/23 shows that Slough had an overall absence rate of 7.6%, which was above the national rate of 7.4% and the regional rate of 7.3%. A similar trend was observed in the persistently absent data for these areas, as shown here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a7dbf68f-64f1-4029-e937-08dcf7e7048c.

The government recognises school absence as a key barrier to learning. If children are not in school, they will not benefit from teaching and learning, regardless of how effective or well-supported it is. Missing school regularly is harmful to a child’s attainment, safety and physical and mental health, limiting their opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the sector's efforts, more students are attending school this year compared to last. However, 1.6 million children remain persistently absent, missing 10% or more of lessons.

The department has a national strategy for tackling absence impacting all schools, including those in the South East and within the Slough constituency. Central to this are stronger expectations of local authorities and schools, as set out in the 'Working together to improve school attendance' guidance, which was made statutory in August 2024. The guidance promotes a support first approach, encouraging schools, trusts, and local authorities to work with families to address attendance barriers.

Every state school in England should now be sharing their daily attendance register data with the department, local authorities and trusts. These bodies can access this data through a secure, interactive dashboard maintained by the department, allowing them to target attendance interventions more effectively.

The department recognises the importance of creating opportunities to share existing best practice within the sector on how to improve attendance. Across the nation there is a network of 31 attendance hubs, working with 2000 schools to share to share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.

In addition to this work, the department aims to improve the existing evidence on which interventions work to improve attendance. Over £17 million is being invested across two mentoring projects that will support at least 12,000 pupils in 15 areas. These programmes will be evaluated and the effective practice shared with schools and local authorities nationally.

The attendance strategy is also supported by broader investments, including funded breakfast clubs which will be provided for all primary schools to ensure children start their day ready to learn. The department will also introduce new annual Ofsted reviews focusing on safeguarding, attendance, and off-rolling. Mental health support is also being expanded, with a specialist now available in every school. Additionally, schools can allocate pupil premium funding, which has been increased to over £2.9 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, to support pupils with identified needs.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of knives that were surrendered during the knife amnesty between 26 August 2024 and 23 September 2024.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

We will be shortly publishing the outcome of the surrender and compensationscheme for zombie style knives and machetes. This will include the numbers surrendered under the scheme.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent the sale of (a) illegal and (b) prescription drugs on dark web marketplaces.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government takes seriously the threat from potent synthetic drugs, including synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, and is taking action to disrupt this deadly trade. Reducing drug harms has important benefits for public health and for the Government’s mission to deliver safer streets.

The HMG Synthetic Opioids Taskforce is working with partner agencies such as the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Department for Health and Social Care and the National Police Chiefs Council to deliver an evidence-based response to the level of risk posed by synthetic opioids and implement a range of policies and mitigations to counter the distribution and use of these dangerous substances.

To stem the supply of illicit synthetic opioids to and within the UK, the NCA, Police and Border Force are working together to ensure all lines of enquiry are prioritised and vigorously pursued. This involves mapping and targeting key offenders, including those operating within dark web markets.

Additionally, to support people with drug dependency who may be at risk of synthetic opioid harm, £267 million has been invested in drug and alcohol treatment this year, improving the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment services in England.

The unlawful sale of controlled drugs online is listed as a priority offence in the Online Safety Act, meaning that under this legislation, technology companies must proactively remove this type of content from their platforms and use proportionate systems designed to minimise the risk of users from encountering such content.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent the (a) distribution and (b) use of synthetic opioids.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government takes seriously the threat from potent synthetic drugs, including synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, and is taking action to disrupt this deadly trade. Reducing drug harms has important benefits for public health and for the Government’s mission to deliver safer streets.

The HMG Synthetic Opioids Taskforce is working with partner agencies such as the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Department for Health and Social Care and the National Police Chiefs Council to deliver an evidence-based response to the level of risk posed by synthetic opioids and implement a range of policies and mitigations to counter the distribution and use of these dangerous substances.

To stem the supply of illicit synthetic opioids to and within the UK, the NCA, Police and Border Force are working together to ensure all lines of enquiry are prioritised and vigorously pursued. This involves mapping and targeting key offenders, including those operating within dark web markets.

Additionally, to support people with drug dependency who may be at risk of synthetic opioid harm, £267 million has been invested in drug and alcohol treatment this year, improving the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment services in England.

The unlawful sale of controlled drugs online is listed as a priority offence in the Online Safety Act, meaning that under this legislation, technology companies must proactively remove this type of content from their platforms and use proportionate systems designed to minimise the risk of users from encountering such content.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce knife crime in Slough.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, and we are taking immediate action to tackle the scourge of serious violence on our streets. We have implemented the ban on zombie-style knives and machetes, outlawing the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of those lethal blades, and we will go further – with a consultation on the ban of ninja swords being launched shortly.

We will also create a new Young Futures programme – with new Prevention Partnerships and youth hubs so we can intervene earlier to prevent at-risk young people from being drawn into violent crime.

The Government’s manifesto included a commitment to introduce a new offence of criminal exploitation of children, to go after the gangs who are luring young people into violence and crime, and we will set out more detail on this in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to tackle health inequalities affecting women.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Our health mission in England will focus on addressing the social determinants of health, with the goal of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions. The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we build a National Health Service fit for the future, and women’s equality will be at the heart of our missions.

Women’s health hubs provide integrated women’s health services in the community, and have a key role tackling health inequalities faced by women. The Department has invested £25 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support the establishment of at least one pilot women’s health hub in every integrated care system. As of September 2024, 36 of the 42 integrated care boards had reported to NHS England that their pilot women’s health hub was open.

The Government is also committed to closing the black and Asian maternal mortality gap. As part of NHS England's three year delivery plan, Maternity and Neonatal Systems are rolling out Equity and Equality Action Plans, which set out tailored interventions to tackle inequalities for women and babies from ethnic backgrounds, and those living in the most deprived areas.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the provision of youth services in Slough constituency.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. At the Autumn Budget, we announced £1.3 billion of extra funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement for the next financial year.

This Government recognises the vital role that youth services play in improving young people’s life chances and wellbeing. That is why, on 17 October 2024, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the levels of non-fatal drug overdoses.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We know that most overdoses take place in the community. They are largely transitory and hidden events, making it difficult to accurately monitor trends in non-fatal overdoses. The Department monitors hospital admissions data for drug poisonings, which predominantly relate to non-fatal cases.

We will continue to report this proxy data to local authorities to inform monitoring of local progress on reducing deaths and harms from drugs. We are reviewing the best approach for monitoring national trends in harms.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have met with representatives of the European Company for the Financing of Railroad Rolling Stock (EUROFIMA).

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

My officials have been engaging regularly with Eurofima over the last two years to consider the potential for UK membership, and they continue to engage with them on this matter.

The Government is committed to developing a long-term industrial strategy for rolling stock, which supports British manufacturing and innovation and ultimately improves the offer for passengers. As part of this, my officials have been exploring the best financing structures to support this investment, in partnership with private finance, and this includes considering Eurofima finance.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a programme of railway electrification.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government expects electrification to play an important role in our programme to achieve our Net Zero 2050 target, tackle air pollution, and improve the passenger experience.

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 improve the provision of mental health services for young people in Slough.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

It is the responsibility of the NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board to make available appropriate provision to meet the mental health and other care needs of children and young people in Slough.

Nationally, we will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across children and adult mental health services to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on busy children and young people’s mental health services.

We will also provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school in England so that mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, can be identified early on and prevented from developing into more serious conditions in later life. We will also roll out open access Young Futures hubs for children and young people in every community. This national network is expected to bring local services together, and deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges.

We are currently working with colleagues at NHS England and across Government to consider options to deliver these commitments.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve the provision of youth services in Slough.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. At the Autumn Budget, we announced £1.3 billion of extra funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement for the next financial year.

This Government recognises the vital role that youth services play in improving young people’s life chances and wellbeing. That is why, on 17 October 2024, the Secretary of State committed to a new National Youth Strategy, co-produced with young people and the youth sector to support a generation to succeed.

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 help prevent the use of nitazenes.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is actively monitoring the threat posed by synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, and is working to increase awareness of their dangers and prevent people using them. Information on synthetic opioids and the dangers they pose is available from the helpline and website, talktofrank.com, provided by FRANK, the national drug information and advice service, supported by the Government.

Education on drug use is also a statutory component of relationships and sex education, and health education in England. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the Department for Education have commissioned lesson plans and other resources to support teachers to deliver quality drug prevention, which are available to schools. The lesson plans target primary and secondary students, teaching them how to manage influences and pressure, and keep themselves healthy and safe. These resources are in the process of being updated, and there will be increased emphasis on the risks of synthetic drugs.

To improve surveillance, the OHID has been working with partners in Government to create a new, enhanced Drugs Early Warning System. This collates information from a wider range of sources, for example ambulance callout data, and will produce regular reports for local areas on current threats, including nitazenes.

Drug and alcohol treatment services and local authority public health teams raise awareness of the risk of drug use through targeted campaigns with their local populations, and the OHID supports them in this.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Chair); Mr Calvin Bailey; Alex Baker