Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure that ongoing work under the digital identities framework to digitise (a) sex and (b) other personal information incorporates safeguards to guarantee the information used is accurate where it might be recorded differently on (i) passports, (ii) driving licences and (iiI) other documents.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Digital identities do not offer a new way to determine sex or gender. As with physical verification, individual organisations are responsible for determining what precise information it is appropriate to verify in a particular case and how they verify that to meet their requirements. The UK digital identity and attributes trust framework creates rules for how digital identity services operate. It does not set requirements for how government departments record sex and other personal information. Under data protection law, personal data which is processed must be accurate for the purposes for which it is processed.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate he has made of the (a) quality and (b) total area coverage area for (i) 5G and (ii) other wireless data reception in Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency; and what steps he is taking to help improve 5G coverage in those areas.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations report (published on 5 December 2024) 92% of the Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency has 4G geographic coverage from all four mobile operators, while 85% of the constituency has 5G geographic coverage from at least one operator. I have raised my concerns about the accuracy of their coverage reporting with Ofcom and I welcome their continuing efforts to make improvements.
The government wants all areas of the UK to benefit from good quality mobile coverage. Our ambition is for all populated areas, including communities in Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency, to have higher-quality standalone 5G by 2030.
Improving 5G coverage is primarily the responsibility of the mobile network operators, but we continue to challenge and work with the mobile industry and are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework to support investment and competition in the market.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in protecting artists against breaches of artistic copyright by AI models.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department has not made its own assessment of the effectiveness of the Berne Convention in relation to AI models.
However, a recent meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which is responsible for the Berne Convention, included a session on the use of artistic and other copyright works by AI models.
The UK participated in this session and will continue to engage with WIPO and with other international partners as we consider the way forward on this important topic.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 ensure that the funding made available to ICBs for primary care can be used by GP surgeries to develop plans for premises improvement that will extend beyond the financial year in which an application is submitted.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future and recognises the importance of strategic, value for money investments in capital projects, such as new facilities, significant upgrades, or other targeted capital investments to ensure we have world class infrastructure across the entire NHS estate.
At a local level, the relevant integrated care board is responsible for deciding how the NHS budget for its area is spent and for allocating funding according to local priorities, such as new general practice (GP) surgeries or integrated care centres/neighbourhood hubs.
At the Autumn Budget, we established a dedicated capital fund of £102 million to deliver approximately 200 upgrade schemes to GP surgeries across England, supporting the improved use of existing buildings and space, boosting productivity, and enabling delivery of more appointments. This funding represents a first step in delivering the additional capital the primary care sector needs.
Further support for NHS organisations delivering local and national priorities beyond this financial year is being considered in the 10-Year Health Plan and as part of phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the savings to her Department from the withdrawal of funding for non-specialist assistive software through the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Funding under the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is in general not available for goods and services that may be needed by the general student population, whether disabled or not. The department has withdrawn funding for non-specialist software as this falls outside the scope of the DSA. We will monitor the savings from the implementation of this policy.
This policy change relates to non-specialist spelling and grammar software only. The decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from DSA funding was made on the grounds that there are now free to access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs, and it is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through the DSA.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the ongoing e-scooter trials, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of e-scooters on (a) the modal shift of transport away from private cars and (b) reducing traffic congestion in trial areas; and what estimate she has made of the number of collisions involving e-scooters.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The first national evaluation of the e-scooter trials was published in December 2022. This found that e-scooters increasingly replaced private motor vehicle or taxi use over time (from 12% of journeys in March 2021 to 21% in December 2021). 42% of e-scooter trips replaced walking journeys in December 2021, and 9% of e-scooter journeys in the same period would otherwise not have been made.
Statistics on road collisions are collected via data reported to the Department by police forces. Provisional estimates for the year ending June 2024 suggest that there were 1,194 casualties in collisions involving both private and rented e-scooters.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders convicted of offences against children have been released under early release schemes; and what continuing supervision is taking place.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government inherited prisons days from collapse. We were forced to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. All sex offences, irrespective of sentence length, are excluded from SDS40.
Offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions, such as curfews and exclusion zones, and face being immediately returned to prison if they break the rules.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS's 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance, published on 30 January 2025, what steps his Department is taking to include health infrastructure planning decisions in the scope of the commitment to streamline planning.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future. This means we need to see world class NHS infrastructure across the entire NHS estate. Beyond hospitals, we know we need the right infrastructure in the right place to deliver a true Neighbourhood Health Service and to ensure that patients receive the care they deserve.
The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government on how to extend our collective interactions in the planning process, from local plan making to negotiating developer contributions, through updates to national guidance. This is alongside our support for the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government’s efforts to streamline the planning process, by extensively feeding into the ways in which health infrastructure plans can facilitate this.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of the current caps on the values of fines available to local authorities outside London on driver behaviour.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
No recent assessment has been made. A number of parking sector stakeholders conducted research recently into this complex issue, and it has been submitted to the Department. Officials will be reviewing the research and its findings in due course.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress he has made on the Shared Rural Network (SRN) since July 2024; and what SRN projects are underway in Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Since July 2024, we have activated 40 government funded masts under the Shared Rural Network, providing new 4G coverage to rural communities across Great Britain. At the end of 2024 Ofcom confirmed that the programme had also hit its objective of helping to deliver 95% coverage a year ahead of schedule. In Mid Dorset and North Poole, outdoor 4G coverage from all four operators has increased to 92% up from 85% since the programme begun in March 2020. There will not be any further coverage improvements from the Shared Rural Network in Mid Dorset and North Poole.