Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with HM Treasury on the potential merits of ringfencing funding received from fines levied on tech platforms by Ofcom under the Online Safety Act to fund specialist violence against women and girls support services, specifically for ‘by and for’ led services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, any fines collected by Ofcom must be paid into the Consolidated Fund and any subsequent allocation of funds would then be a matter for HM Treasury. It is worth noting that fine income is inherently unpredictable and therefore may not be an appropriate or sustainable way to directly fund initiatives.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help prevent discrimination against women in digital spaces.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Making the online environment a safer and fairer place for women and girls is a priority for this government.
The Online Safety Act has placed a requirement on tech platforms to proactively tackle the most harmful illegal content, much of which disproportionately affects women and girls, including harassment and intimate image abuse.
Ofcom recently published guidance outlining further steps services can take to make their platforms safer for women and girls online. We will be monitoring platforms’ progress closely and working with Ofcom to hold them to account.
The government is developing its wider strategy to tackle violence against women and girls and will publish it in due course.
Asked by: Alice Macdonald (Labour (Co-op) - Norwich North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy and delivery plan will include (a) funding and (b) measures to help tackle technology-facilitated domestic abuse.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) in all of its forms, including abuse facilitated by technology, is a top priority for this government, with an unprecedented mission to halve it within a decade. The rapid development of technology has provided additional spaces for VAWG and equipped perpetrators with new ways to harass, intimidate, stalk and coerce women and girls. We will set out plans to address technology-facilitated VAWG in our forthcoming Strategy.
Following the Chancellor’s announcement on 11th June, we are working through the details of funding for tackling VAWG over the Spending Review period of 2026-2029. We will provide further details on funding when departmental budget allocations have been finalised
Asked by: Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many transgender prisoners with convictions for (a) sexual and (b) violent offences are housed within the general female prison estate; and how many of those prisoners have been granted a Ministerial exemption to remain there in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
As of 1 December, there were no transgender women, including individuals with Gender Recognition Certificates, in the general women's prison estate with any convictions for sexual offences and five or fewer transgender women with convictions for violent offences. (Where statistics include a total of five or fewer, the exact figure is not given, for data protection reasons.)
The individuals with convictions for violent offences received Ministerial exemptions to be held in the general women's estate under the previous Government. No exemptions have been provided by this Government since it came into power.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps to make sports partnerships part of the UK's diplomatic efforts in Small Island States in the Caribbean.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS) recognises that sport can be an enabler of sustainable development, including through the promotion of tolerance and respect and through the positive contribution it makes to empowerment of women and girls, health, education and social inclusion. The UK has been one of the key supporters of the ABAS agenda in discussions with the SIDS group and at the United Nations.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to strengthen the UK’s bilateral relationship with Israel following recent events in Gaza and in the context of the UK’s wider Middle East security priorities.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has a longstanding and important relationship with Israel, built on cooperation in areas including security, trade, science, and technology. We remain firmly committed to Israel's security and continue to work together on shared regional challenges.
The UK's immediate priority, working alongside our international partners, is to ensure continued progress on the 20-point peace plan endorsed by the UN Security Council on 17 November, including maintaining the current ceasefire, increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and advancing the political process necessary for a just and lasting peace.
We discuss those matters regularly, and we remain committed to the pursuit of a two-state solution, with a secure Israel living side by side in peace and security alongside a viable, sovereign Palestinian state.
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 has she taken to ensure Home Office casework involving allegations of domestic abuse linked to spousal visa arrangements is investigated with appropriate (a) sensitivity and (b) cultural awareness.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are committed to reducing Violence against Women and Girls and this means continuing to support migrant victims of domestic abuse on spousal or partner visas.
That is why we offer immediate settlement for migrant victims of domestic abuse, under the Immigration Rules (Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse (Appendix VDA)) for those granted permission to stay as a spouse or partner under the family Immigration Rules.
We consulted with a range of expert stakeholders including refuge service providers, specialist migrant domestic abuse charities, and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner when we published the first version of the Appendix VDA casework guidance in January 2024 to capture the significant cultural and language barriers that exist for migrant victims.
All applications under Appendix VDA are made directly to a specialist and experienced decision-making team to consider all the information and evidence provided to decide whether, on the balance of probabilities, the applicant can be granted settlement as a victim of domestic abuse. They are explicitly instructed to deal with cases sensitively, flexibly and cooperatively giving applicants support to demonstrate their eligibility where this is needed.
Asked by: Mark Sewards (Labour - Leeds South West and Morley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has raised the detention of Bita Shafiei on 13 November 2025 with her Iranian counterparts.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware of Bita Shafiei's case and continue to raise the rights of women and girls and human rights defenders with the Iranian Government in multilateral fora. The UK co-sponsored an Iran Human Rights Resolution, adopted by the UN Third Committee on 19 November, which condemned the targeted repression of women and girls and called on Iran to release women human rights defenders imprisoned for exercising their rights. We delivered a statement at the Committee, which highlighted Iran's bolstering of surveillance capabilities to monitor and target women and girls, and we will continue to work with international partners to hold Iran to account.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the lack of female-form CPR mannequins on survival rates for women experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is continuing to take action to increase cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) awareness and training, including NHS England leading sessions on first aid, CPR, and the use of defibrillators both in the community and in schools, under the Restart a Heart programme. This training should help to increase confidence in performing CPR on women.
NHS England has trained over 35,800 adults and children in CPR and defibrillation in the last 13 years, and 2,134 this year so far. NHS England delivers the sessions via their resuscitation team and via their community first responders.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
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 improve public confidence in performing CPR on women experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England runs training sessions on first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the use of defibrillators both in the community and in schools, under the Restart a Heart programme. This training should help to increase confidence in performing CPR on women. NHS England has trained over 35,800 adults and children in CPR and defibrillation in the last 13 years, and 2,134 this year so far. NHS England delivers the sessions via their resuscitation team and via their community first responders.