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, how much his Department has spent on (a) providing maternity care and (b) settling legal cases of medical negligence related to maternity care in each of the last four years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the levels of educational support available to autistic children in mainstream schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group brought together experts to provide advice and recommendations to the department on how to best meet the needs of neurodivergent children and young people within mainstream education settings.
To support schools, the department is also strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve inclusive practice in mainstream settings and has commissioned evidence reviews, including one on autism, from Newcastle University and University College London. The What Works in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) research programme is researching tools that schools can use to identify the needs of neurodivergent children.
The Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme provides health and education specialist support to upskill mainstream primary schools to better meet the needs of neurodivergent children, including pupils with autism. The programme is being evaluated, and the learning is informing future policy development around how schools support neurodivergent children.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of compliance with international tax standards by the Overseas Territories.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The inhabited Overseas Territories are largely self-governing jurisdictions with democratically elected governments, and are responsible for fiscal matters.
All Overseas Territories with financial centres have committed to upholding international tax standards, including those on tax transparency and exchange of information, and Base Erosion and Profit Shifting.
Compliance with international standards is assessed through a system of peer reviews and monitoring within the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.
The UK also works bilaterally with the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories on issues of mutual concern. For example, on 27 May 2025, the UK and Isle of Man issued a joint statement, agreeing to explore ways to further enhance information flows, joint working and other ways in which tangible benefits for both jurisdictions can be achieved, noting our shared objective of combatting tax avoidance and evasion.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of recorded offences related to the illegal use of an e-scooter in a public place in the past 5 years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information on the number of notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales.
The Home Office does not hold information on whether an offence was related to the use of e-scooters.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to support (a) local authorities and (b) police forces to tackle anti-social behaviour (i) in town centres and (ii) on high streets.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government wants town centres to be vibrant, welcoming places where businesses thrive and people feel safe and come to shop, socialise and live.
The Safer Streets Summer Initiative commenced on 30 June and runs until the end of September. It is tackling crime and anti-social behaviour in town centres, including city centres, through enhanced police visibility and meaningful consequences.
Police and Crime Commissioners are leading on targeted action to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) that blights our town centres and high streets. The work is being delivered in partnership with councils, schools, health services, business, transport providers and community groups all playing a role over the summer. Under the initiative, partners will use targeted enforcement, visible policing and place-based interventions to reduce retail and street crime and ASB in over 500 town centres and high streets, across England and Wales, including Slough.
£200m has been made available to forces in 2025/26 to kickstart the delivery of 13,000 more neighbourhood officers across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament - of which up to 3,000 will be in place by March 2026. In particular, Thames Valley Police has been awarded £6,093,042 as part of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.
In addition to this, £66.3 million in Hotspot Action (HAF) funding has been made available for 2025/26 to all 43 territorial police forces across England and Wales. The Fund will increase visible uniformed patrols (delivered by police and local authority wardens) in Town Centres and areas (hotspots) most impacted by knife crime, serious violence and ASB. This includes allocating £1,690,460 to Thames Valley Police.
In support, all police officers are receiving national guidance, a policy toolkit and access to hyper-local ASB crime mapping analysis, which overlays crime concentration data against hotspot responses and points of interest such as town centres. It aims to support analysis, identification of priority town centres, planning, and delivery.
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 steps his Department is taking to reduce treatment waiting times for people with prostate cancer in the South East.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government understands that more needs to be done to improve outcomes for all patients with prostate cancer, including in the South East.
NHS England has introduced a best-practice timed pathway for prostate cancer so that those suspected of prostate cancer receive a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging scan first, which ensures that only those men most at risk of having cancer undergo an invasive biopsy. The AI in Health and Care Award has also been established, which aims to accelerate the testing and development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. £113 million has already been allocated to support 86 AI technologies, and three of these projects specifically relate to prostate cancer, one of which is the Paige prostate cancer detection tool, developed by the University of Oxford.
The Department will publish a National Cancer Plan which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients across England, including the South East, speed up diagnosis and treatment, and ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology.
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, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national prostate cancer screening programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), which advises ministers on all screening matters, commissioned an evidence review modelling the clinical effectiveness and cost of several approaches to prostate cancer screening. This included different potential ways of screening the whole population and targeted screening aimed at groups of people identified as being at higher-than-average risk, such as black men or men with a family history of cancer.
The modelling and evidence review are now complete, and the reports are being considered by the UK NSC and experts. Subject to no further revisions being required, the UK NSC plans to start a three-month public consultation towards the end of 2025. After this, the UK NSC will make a recommendation about screening for prostate cancer. Ministers will then be asked to consider whether to accept the recommendation.
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 steps he has taken to help reduce the average diagnosis time for endometriosis.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is unacceptable that women can wait too long for an endometriosis diagnosis and this government is committed to improving the diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care for gynaecological conditions including endometriosis.
Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission. We have now exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments, having now delivered 4.9 million more appointments.
In November 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated its guideline on the diagnosis and management of endometriosis to make firmer recommendations on referral and investigations, which will help women receive a diagnosis and effective treatment faster. This includes updated recommendations that for women with symptoms of endometriosis, initial pharmacological treatment should take place in primary care, and that this can take place in parallel with additional investigations and referral to secondary care if needed. The guideline is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng73
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 steps he has taken to ensure adequate availability of mental health support services for (a) children and (b) young adults.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing an extra £688 million this year to transform mental health services by hiring more staff, delivering more early interventions, and getting waiting lists down.
We have confirmed that we will fulfil our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 staff across child and young people and adult mental health services by the end of the Parliament, and 6,700 of these extra workers have been recruited since July 2024.
We also want to intervene much earlier to support better outcomes for children and young people. That is why the 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will work with schools and colleges to better identify and meet children's and young people’s mental health needs by expanding mental health support teams in schools and colleges to cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30 and by embedding mental health support in the new Young Futures hubs, to ensure there is no 'wrong front door' for young people seeking help.
Additionally, we are continuing to provide top-up funding of £7 million to 24 existing early support hubs, to expand their services and to take part in an ongoing evaluation of these services in 2025/26. This funding will enable the supported hubs to deliver at least 10,000 additional mental health and wellbeing interventions, so that more children and young people are supported.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the adequacy of the regulation of peer-to-peer banking.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Treasury Ministers and officials meet with their counterparts at the Financial Conduct Authority often, as part of their regular engagement on various topics. This includes peer-to-peer lending, which the FCA is responsible for regulating.
Peer-to-peer investments are a higher risk investment where customers put their own capital at stake, without recourse to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
The FCA has investigative and enforcement powers and has commenced investigations into particular peer-to-peer collapses, certain of which are ongoing. This is also an area in which the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner has taken an interest and that work is ongoing.