Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the maximum sentence will be that a judge could impose on a convicted person when tried under the proposed new swift courts within the Crown Court.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The new ‘swift courts’ will operate within the existing Crown Court which means the same procedures in the Crown Court will apply, apart from mode of trial. Judges will assign triable-either-ways cases to the new Crown Court Bench Division where the likely sentence is three years or less, but they will retain the full sentencing powers of the Crown Court.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who will be sentenced to more than three years in prison by new swift courts within the Crown Court in each of the next five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The new ‘swift courts’ will operate within the existing Crown Court which means the same procedures in the Crown Court will apply, apart from mode of trial. Judges will assign triable-either-ways cases to the new Crown Court Bench Division where the likely sentence is three years or less, but they will retain the full sentencing powers of the Crown Court. Sentencing decisions remain a matter for the independent judiciary and the Ministry of Justice is unable to provide estimates.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the introduction of new swift courts within the Crown Court on the number of wrongful convictions.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The new ‘swift courts’ will operate within the existing Crown Court framework, following the same process and procedures. Safeguards will be in place including the existing appeals procedure, and judges in the ‘swift courts’ will be required to provide reasoned judgments when delivering decisions to convict or acquit.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, by which date all lifts in Tothill Street will be fully operational.
Answered by Nick Smith
There are three lifts in the Tothill Street building and the lifts are part of a wider six-year refurbishment programme. Lift HoP 328 has been refurbished and is now in service. Work on lift HoP 329 is underway and expected to be complete by February 2026.
Refurbishment of the final lift, HoP 330, is planned but does not yet have a confirmed date as the schedule is being reviewed. In the meantime, we will continue to monitor performance of HoP 330 and address any issues as they arise. Should a specific component need replacing we will do so.
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 he is taking steps to provide long-term funding arrangements for the Nursery Milk Scheme and the School Milk Subsidy Scheme to ensure continuity of provision for early years and primary education settings.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursery Milk Scheme is operated by the Department of Health and Social Care and provides reimbursement to early years childcare settings to cover the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to all children under the age of five years old who attend the setting for more than two hours per day. The School Milk Subsidy Scheme is the responsibility of the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and partly finances the cost of similar milk provision to children in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales. There are no current plans to change these schemes.
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 reduce gynaecology waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing waiting lists is a key part of the Government’s Health Mission, and we are committed to cutting waiting times across all specialities, including gynaecology. We have committed to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment, by March 2029.
We are making good progress, as waiting lists have been cut by over 230,000 since the Government came into office, which includes nearly 14,000 fewer patients waiting for gynaecology treatment over the same period.
We have also delivered 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025, having exceeded our pledge of two million. However, we know there is more to do, and we have confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment to expand capacity across diagnostics, electives, and urgent care. This includes expanding the number of surgical hubs, which provide valuable and protected capacity across elective specialities, including gynaecology. As of November 2025, over half of the 123 operational elective surgical hubs in England provide gynaecology services.
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 progress he has made to renew the Women’s Health Strategy.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Significant progress has been made towards delivering the ambitions in the 2022 Women’s Health Strategy, for example, improving women and girls’ awareness and access to services and driving research to benefit women’s health.
Renewing the strategy will ensure that we continue this momentum and that it is fully aligned with the 10-Year Health Plan. We will identify and remove enduring barriers to high-quality care, such as decreasing wait times for diagnosis, and ensuring that professionals listen to women and respond to their needs.
We are currently engaging with external partners to inform the renewal of the strategy, bringing together voices from across the Government, NHS England, public health, mental health, women’s health advocacy, and employment policy alongside women with lived experience of women’s health conditions. We are also drawing on the evidence provided by almost 100,000 people in response to the original call for evidence for the 2022 strategy.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken alongside local authorities to help tackle persistent absence in schools in Slough constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Tackling absence is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
Thanks to the efforts of schools, absence is moving in the right direction, with children attending over 5.31 million more days this year compared to last. However, around one in five pupils are still missing 10% or more of school, which is why the department is continuing to drive further improvement.
Steps taken to improve attendance includes developing real-time data tools that allows schools to compare attendance against similar schools and enable earlier intervention as well as investing in targeted support, including £15 million to set up the attendance mentors programme supporting 10,800 pupils.
The department has also started to establish new Attendance and Behaviour Hubs, where up to 90 hubs led by schools with excellent attendance and behaviour practice will support more than 4,500 schools to improve.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent steps have been taken to help protect UK businesses from cyber attack.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
On 12 November 2025 the government introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill to Parliament. The Bill will bring into scope more of the core services relied on across the economy, such as managed service providers, data centres and critical parts of supply chains. UK businesses and public services will be more secure and resilient as a result.
On 24 November 2025 ministers wrote an open letter to small businesses and business representative organisations with details of government support and guidance on cyber security. The letter has been published on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-letter-on-cyber-security-to-small-businesses.
The National Cyber Security Centre’s Active Cyber Defence service continues to protect UK people, businesses and public sector organisations from cyber attacks, including blocking billions of phishing attempts and removing 232,000 scams across 415,000 malicious web addresses.
I also refer the honourable member to the answer of 24 October 2025 to question 82366 which explained how the government has written to Chairs and CEOs of the largest UK companies asking them to take three key actions to protect themselves from cyber threats. The letter is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-letter-on-cyber-security-to-leading-uk-companies.
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 improve training on racial bias.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not currently provide specific training centrally for racial bias. All staff are required to complete the Civil Service Expectations mandatory learning which covers broader aspects of equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Aspects of bias also feature in recruitment training which is carried out prior to sifting and interviewing. All panel members for Civil Service recruitment must complete the Success Profiles: sifting and interviewing course and Civil Service Expectations course.