Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the time taken to decide on a compensation scheme for women impacted by State Pension age changes on those women.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced in his Oral Statement of 11 November that we will retake the decision made last December as it relates to the communications on state pension age. Information that was not considered at the time of the original decision has come to light. In retaking the decision, we will review this evidence alongside evidence previously considered.
The process to retake the decision is underway and we will update the House on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to make a decision on a compensation scheme for women impacted by State Pension age changes.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced in his Oral Statement of 11 November that we will retake the decision made last December as it relates to the communications on state pension age. Information that was not considered at the time of the original decision has come to light. In retaking the decision, we will review this evidence alongside evidence previously considered.
The process to retake the decision is underway and we will update the House on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce reoffending rates among prolific offenders in Great Yarmouth town centre.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
In November 2024, the Home Office introduced Respect Orders to give police and local councils powers to ban persistent offenders from town centres. As well as prison sentences of up to two years, criminal courts will be able to issue unlimited fines and community orders, such as unpaid work, and curfews as punishment for breaching a Respect Order.
For those who persistently break the law, we are building 14,000 new prison places to make sure they are removed from the streets. Whilst in prison they will be expected to take part in education or learn new skills to make them more useful contributors to society after release.
The Probation Service's first priority is to protect the public. Anyone released from prison is subject to strict licence conditions, including exclusion zones where appropriate. If found to have breached these conditions they can be returned to prison.
The Probation Service puts in place services aimed at reducing re-offending by supporting the needs of people on probation in Great Yarmouth. These include providing support in obtaining and maintaining suitable accommodation, help with drug and alcohol dependency issues, assistance with personal wellbeing needs and a holistic service addressing all needs for women.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle domestic abuse in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a top priority for this Government with a manifesto mission to halve VAWG in a decade. We will deliver a cross-government transformative approach, underpinned by a new strategy which we aim to publish as soon as possible.
In advance of the strategy, we have already introduced measures designed to strengthen the police response to VAWG, protect victims and hold perpetrators to account. These include: funding to rollout Drive Project to tackle high-risk and high-harm domestic abuse perpetrators across England and Wales; embedding the first domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in five police forces; measures to tackle spiking; measures focusing on preventing and tackling ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA), and launching the new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in selected police forces and courts which go further than any existing orders.
The Home Office has provided the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Surrey with an annual funding allocation of £998,248 for 2025/26 for interventions around perpetrators of domestic abuse. PCCs in England and Wales receive annual grant funding from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), to commission local practical, emotional, and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types.
Furthermore, this government has increased funding to local authorities, which includes Surrey Heath constituency, to £160 million for 2025-26, an uplift of £30 million from the previous year, to provide further support in safe accommodation for domestic abuse survivors, including tailored support for protected groups.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2025 to Question 47655 on Sexual Harassment, what progress she has made on implementation of the Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 2023.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a top priority for this Government and we have committed to an unprecedented ambition to halve VAWG within a decade.
Public sexual harassment is a crime that often leaves victims, who are disproportionately likely to be women, feeling very unsafe. That is why tackling it is an integral part of our mission on VAWG.
The VAWG Strategy will set out the strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver on the Government’s VAWG ambition, including action to tackle public sexual harassment.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women in the Bristol East constituency have been affected by faulty PIP breast implants.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The role of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is to monitor all incidents that are reported to us, making sure that these incidents are investigated fully and that any necessary action is taken. The poly implant prothèse (PIP) issue was a result of the use of a non-approved silicone in the production of the breast implants and fragile shells. Not all PIP implants manufactured during the affected period used industrial-grade silicone or had more fragile shells. As a result, rupture rates vary depending on the batch received and early rupture typically occurs within the first five to 10 years. Due to the overall fraudulent activity, we do not know how many fall into this category.
We worked with the National Health Service and other health partners to ensure the issue was properly investigated. It is important to note that while PIP implants are associated with a higher risk of rupture, leading to symptoms such as tenderness or swollen lymph glands, there is no evidence linking ruptured PIP implants to serious long-term health issues. The PIP breast implants were withdrawn from the United Kingdom in 2010, and two independent reviews have identified lessons learned, the Howe Review (2012) and the Keogh Review (2013), with further information available on both, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-regulation-of-cosmetic-interventions
One of the concerning issues for women with breast implants at the time of PIP was that women didn’t know they had PIP breast implants. It is estimated that approximately 47,000 British women had PIP implants fitted. We are unable to provide the granularity for individual constituencies, although further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pip-implants/
However, please note that any PIP implants still in place have now exceeded 15 years in situ, which is the upper end of the 10 to 15 year typical life expectancy of a breast implant. As with any medical device reaching the end of its expected lifespan, clinical decisions regarding removal or replacement should be made on an individual basis in discussion between the doctor and the individual involved.
The health system has enacted important changes since the publication of reviews focused on PIP implants. As a result of the Keogh Review, since 2016 the Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry collects data on all types of breast implant and removal surgery in England and Scotland, which aims to help detect emerging safety issues and trace patients if necessary.
As part of MHRA’s regulatory reform program, we are intending to also improve the traceability of medical devices through the introduction of Unique Device Identifiers (UDI) which will help identify individual medical devices and who manufactured the device or placed it on the market.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many reports of BIA-ALCL there have been in the UK; and which manufacturers of breast implants those reports have been associated with.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As has been previously shared in evidence submitted to the Women and Equalities Select Committee in July 2025, with further information in the document attached, the Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory Agency (MHRA) closely monitors Breast Implant Associated- Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), a cancer of the immune system, not a breast cancer, and publishes the output from this monitoring on the GOV.UK webpage, at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/breast-implants-and-anaplastic-large-cell-lymphoma-alcl
The MHRA has developed, with advice from independent expert advisory group, a follow up strategy to collect further data on adverse incidents reporting BIA-ALCL. This has informed the information that is published on the MHRA webpage relating to BIA-ALCL which includes the most up to date number of confirmed reports of BIA-ALCL made to the MHRA, and the breakdown of the number of confirmed reports of primary BIA-ALCL cases by manufacturer of breast implant.
Please note that the data on the GOV.UK webpage should be interpreted in the context of the ‘Notes and limitations to the data’ section also provided on the webpage.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what support her Department will provide to smaller charities and volunteer-led organisations to help them comply with the Equality Act 2010 when applying single-sex provisions.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The EHRC has revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following the consultation and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities.
The Code will provide guidance to duty bearers, including single-sex service providers, which would cover charities and volunteer-led organisations, on how to comply with their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010.
The Government is considering the updated draft Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Code will be laid before Parliament for a 40 day period.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women in Liverpool Walton have been referred to NHS services in connection with PIP implants since 2011.
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: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to help support women and girls affected by female genital mutilation after the conclusion of The Girl Generation-Africa-Led Movement to End FGM initiative in October 2026.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to championing the rights of women and girls worldwide, including working with local partners to tackle the scourge of female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage and other coercive practices. As well as investing up to £35.5 million in the Africa-Led Movement to End FGM programme, which operates in Kenya, Senegal, Somalia and Ethiopia, we also contribute towards the UNICEF/UN Population Fund Joint Programme for the Elimination of FGM, which operates in eighteen countries. Allocations of Official Development Assistance funding for future years will be set out in the coming months, including our programmes to protect the rights of women and girls.