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 the adequacy of drug and alcohol addiction treatment services in a) Lewisham North constituency, b) London and c) England.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to ensuring that anyone with a drug or alcohol problem can access the help and support they need.

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services as part of their public health responsibilities. As a condition of the Public Health Grant, local authorities are responsible for improving the uptake of, and outcomes from, their drug and alcohol treatment services, based on an assessment of local need and a plan which has been developed with local health and criminal justice partners. Over the next three years, through the Public Health Grant, we are providing local authorities with £3.4 billion of ringfenced funding for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery.

The Department delivers a robust monitoring and assurance programme, and quality improvement interventions, for local authorities commissioning drug and alcohol treatment services. The number of adults in treatment is now the highest since reporting began, with the latest annual statistics showing that between April 2024 and March 2025 there were 329,646 adults aged 18 years old and over in contact with community drug and alcohol treatment services. Of this total, in London there were 45,873 adults in treatment, 9% higher than the previous year, and in Lewisham there were 1,910, 28% higher than the previous year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will conduct a longitudinal study of people treated with puberty blocking medication prior to its ban in 2024 to identify any issues before beginning another trial.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed

The Government is committed to supporting research that delivers a more robust, evidence-based understanding of gender incongruence support and treatment, especially for children and young people. The Cass Review received cross-party support and highlighted remaining significant gaps in clinical evidence. The PATHWAYS study positively responds to the Cass Review’s recommendation that a trial of puberty suppressing hormones should be taken forward urgently as part of a wider programme of research.

We are supporting the National Health Service in delivering this programme of research, to ensure research is embedded at the heart of new children and young people’s gender services as they are shaped. One element of the programme of research is a data linkage study.

The data linkage study is observational in nature, linking and analysing existing, routinely collected healthcare data for adults who, as children, were referred into the former Gender Identity Development Service, previously operated by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

This study requires no active patient participation and may provide useful insights on the experience and outcomes of former child gender service patients.

It is important to highlight that as the study is not designed as a comparative clinical trial, it will not provide direct evidence on the cause or effect of any individual treatment approach, nor provide evidence relating to any treatment’s safety or efficacy.

The data linkage study and the PATHWAYS clinical trial are separate, with different designs and purposes within a wider research programme.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many custody images held are of individuals who have not been (a) charged with and (b) convicted of a crime.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not hold data on whether the people in the gallery of custody images on the Police National Database have been charged or convicted.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a statutory requirement for the deletion of custody images after convictions for minor crimes are spent.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The retention and deletion of custody images is currently governed by the statutory Police and Information Management Code of Practice, and the associated College of Policing’s Management of Police Information (MoPI) guidance and Authorised Professional Practice. These require forces to retain images only where necessary and proportionate and to review and delete them in line with assessed continuing policing need. Individuals are also able to apply to the police to have their custody image deleted, where they believe continued retention is not necessary.

The Government intends to bring forward a new legal framework to underpin law enforcement use of biometrics.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on its policies of the proposed earned settlement model on the level of renewal applications.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The consultation for the earned settlement model, as proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, was open to the public between 20 November 2025 and 12 February 2026.

As part of this consultation, we sought views on the potential impact on visa holders already in the UK.

We are now reviewing and analysing all responses received.  This analysis will help inform the development and deliverability of the final earned settlement model, including consideration of any transitional measures for those already on a pathway to settlement.

Once the final model has been decided, the Government will communicate the outcome publicly.  As with all significant policy changes, the proposals will be subject to both economic and equality impact assessments.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department amended the draft Right to Try regulations from The Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment and Employment and Support Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 2026 following the publication of the report by the Social Security Advisory Committee entitled The Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment and Employment and Support Allowance (Amendment) Regulations 2026, published on 13 April 2026.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We carefully considered the Social Security Advisory Committee’s report and have taken its recommendations on board. While the regulations were laid to provide immediate clarity that work, in and of itself, will not trigger a reassessment, the Department has committed to a programme of further work in response to the Committee’s feedback.

This includes strengthening the monitoring and evaluation of the Right to Try approach and ensuring that clear communications and appropriate safeguards are in place so claimants can engage with work confidently.

The Secretary of State has written to the Committee setting out these commitments, and officials are now taking this work forward to ensure the policy delivers as intended in practice.

Draft Code of Practice on Services, public functions and associations

Found: Chris Elmore (Labour, Bridgend) (added 30 Jul 2024; removed 9 Sep 2025) 19 of 37 (51.4%) Vicky Foxcroft

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Caroline Dinenage (Chair); Mr Bayo Alaba; Vicky Foxcroft; Damian

Found: (Q263) The question from Vicky Foxcroft MP specifically referenced the ‘red v blue school wars’ phenomenon

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Caroline Dinenage (Chair); Mr Bayo Alaba; Vicky Foxcroft; Damian

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Caroline Dinenage (Chair); Mr Bayo Alaba; Vicky Foxcroft; Damian

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Caroline Dinenage (Chair); Mr Bayo Alaba; Vicky Foxcroft; Damian