Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of pregnant women who are not offered the whooping cough vaccine by 20 weeks’ gestation; and what steps are being taken to improve timely access.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All pregnant women in England should be offered the pertussis vaccination in every pregnancy, around the time of the mid-pregnancy scan, usually 20 weeks, and ideally before 32 weeks.
Recent data shows maternal pertussis vaccination coverage from July to September 2025 was 71.9%, which was 7.5% higher than the equivalent period in 2025. The data is available at the following link:
NHS England has implemented a range of measures to ensure timely access to the pertussis vaccination programme, including NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency having developed a joint maternal vaccines toolkit and campaign to promote timely uptake of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), whooping cough, and flu vaccines during pregnancy, highlighting the protection provided to newborns.
NHS England has commissioned community pharmacies in the North West, Midlands, London, and the East of England to deliver pertussis and RSV vaccines, increasing convenience and capacity, particularly in areas of high deprivation and low uptake.
A maternal vaccination postcard has been translated into seven additional languages and distributed to 200 practices with lower uptake. Tailored communications are shared through community and faith-based channels, including radio, podcasts, and local publications.
NHS England regularly shares vaccination information with pregnancy and parenting organisations such as Tommy’s and the NCT, as well as community and faith groups, for use on their websites, newsletters, and social media.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 address regional disparities in whooping cough vaccination uptake among pregnant women.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest published data for September 2025 shows that prenatal pertussis vaccination coverage has improved in all seven NHS England regions when compared to September 2024.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) report shows monthly prenatal pertussis vaccination coverage followed an increasing trend since April 2024. The report is available at the following link:
To support continued improvements, NHS England has developed and implemented a vaccination in pregnancy improvement plan. Actions delivered to date include:
- system level oversight and leadership of programme commissioning and delivery, to strengthen the offer process and tackle factors contributing to low vaccine uptake;
- ensuring commissioned providers are aware of their responsibilities within the vaccination in pregnancy programmes and are working to strengthen the vaccination offer and ensure consistency in delivery approach;
- commissioning community pharmacy providers in areas of low uptake and high deprivation to deliver National Health Service pertussis vaccinations to pregnant women opportunistically or on request;
- revised governance arrangements for vaccination in pregnancy programmes, with regional and national colleagues meeting regularly to share learning and good practice from local systems; and
- improved vaccination recording and accurate data collection to monitor programme effectiveness, allowing regional teams and their partner integrated care boards to access timely NHS operational data. This informs targeted action to increase uptake and reduce inequalities.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 all pregnant women are offered the whooping cough vaccine at the optimal time in pregnancy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All pregnant women are offered the whooping cough vaccination in every pregnancy, around the time of the mid-pregnancy scan, usually 20 weeks, and ideally before 32 weeks, via midwifery in the community or their general practice.
The Department is working with NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to encourage high uptake of all immunisations, including in underserved communities and in groups with historically lower vaccination rates.
Significant efforts have been made to raise awareness of the importance of vaccination to protect babies against whooping cough, also known as pertussis. These include targeted campaigns using social media, digital screen graphics, and community outreach. The National Health Service actively promotes vaccination for pregnant women to protect their newborns, and efforts are underway to enhance the recording and monitoring of vaccinations, ensuring accurate data collection to assess the programme’s effectiveness.
Recent data shows maternal pertussis vaccination coverage from July to September 2025 was 71.9%, which was 7.5% higher than the equivalent period in 2025. However, there is more to do to stabilise and improve uptake, and that is why we have set out actions to improve uptake in our 10-Year Health Plan for England. Putting our plans into action, we have recently launched a campaign to promote awareness and confidence in vaccination, including for pregnant women, which will run throughout the year.
To improve accessibility, community pharmacies in areas of high deprivation and low uptake are now also commissioned to offer some vaccinations, making it more convenient for individuals to get vaccinated.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what fines, sanctions or enforcement measures her Department is applying to technology companies that make available artificial intelligence tools capable of generating sexually explicit images, in particular of women and children.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, sharing, or threatening to share, a deepfake intimate image without consent is a criminal offence. The government will also urgently bring into force a new offence which criminalises the creation of intimate images without consent.
We will also legislate to criminalise nudification apps. This new criminal offence will make it illegal for companies to supply tools specifically designed to create non-consensual intimate images.
Ofcom is the enforcement regulator for the Online Safety Act and it has confirmed it is opening a formal investigation into X due to concerns over non consensual intimate images.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to prevent software companies from releasing artificial intelligence tools that enable the creation of sexually explicit images, in particular of women and children.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, sharing, or threatening to share, a deepfake intimate image without consent is a criminal offence. The government will also urgently bring into force a new offence which criminalises the creation of intimate images without consent.
We will also legislate to criminalise nudification apps. This new criminal offence will make it illegal for companies to supply tools specifically designed to create non-consensual intimate images.
Ofcom is the enforcement regulator for the Online Safety Act and it has confirmed it is opening a formal investigation into X due to concerns over non consensual intimate images.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the British Embassy in Brussels' press release entitled Diplomat for a Day 2026 in Brussels: enter our competition' published on 9 January 2026, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to UK taxpayers of this initiative.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The work experience competition referred to by the Hon Member is in its fourth year in Belgium, run by the UK embassy alongside their counterparts from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands, and not only provides an outstanding opportunity for the young women selected to take part, but an important means for the embassies involved to engage with high schools across their host country, and cement our strong relationships in that country for the future. The competition is delivered at minimal cost, shared across the four embassies, and while the Hon Member may take a different view, we believe in increasing the opportunities available to young women all over the world to play their full part in public life.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she has considered the potential merits amending the Equality Act 2010 to explicitly forbid perceptive and motivated discrimination.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Provisions under the Equality Act 2010 already account that discrimination may be perceptive and apply regardless of the motivation of the person who is discriminating.
The 2010 Act provides protection against discrimination, harassment, victimisation and unfair treatment because of any of the protected characteristics covered by the Act. It protects people from discrimination in the workplace, access to services and in wider society.
Direct discrimination is when a person is treated less favourably because of a protected characteristic. This includes treating a person less favourably because of a perceived protected characteristic, or because they are associated with someone who has a protected characteristic.
Indirect discrimination is where rules, policies or practices apply in the same way for everyone but put people who share a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage, unless the person applying the rule, policy or practice can objectively justify it.
Harassment involves unwanted conduct that is related to a relevant characteristic and has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for the complainant or of violating the complainant’s dignity.
Victimisation is where a person is treated unfairly, punished, threatened with punishment or subjected to a detriment because they make a complaint about discrimination, or give evidence when someone else makes a complaint (irrespective of whether the complaint is upheld).
These protections apply regardless of the motivation of the person discriminating.
With this in mind, the Government has no current plans to amend the 2010 Act.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the current age limits for routine breast cancer screening; and whether he plans to review these limits to improve early detection for patients outside of the standard screening range.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is guided by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific advisory committee which makes its recommendations based on internationally recognised criteria and a rigorous evidence review and consultation process. It is only where the committee is confident that screening would provide more good than harm that a screening programme is recommended, as all medical interventions carry an inherent risk.
The NHS Breast Screening Programme (NHS BSP) offers all women in England between the ages of 50 to 71 years old the opportunity to be screened every three years for breast cancer, to help detect abnormalities and intervene early to reduce the number of lives lost to invasive breast cancer.
The AgeX research trial has been looking at the effectiveness of offering some women one extra screen between the ages of 47 to 49 years old, and one between the ages of 71 to 73 years old. The biggest trial of its kind ever to be undertaken, AgeX will provide robust evidence about the effectiveness of screening in these age groups, including the benefit and harms. The UK NSC will review the publication of the age extension trial when it reports.
Women with a very high risk of breast cancer, for example due to family history, may be offered screening earlier and more frequently, sometimes using magnetic resonance imaging rather than a mammogram.
While the NHS BSP does not automatically invite women for breast screening after their 71st birthday, women aged 71 years old or over can still have breast screening every three years if they want to, by calling their local breast screening service to ask for an appointment.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to tackle and identify economic abuse in the welfare system to support victims and survivors.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to safeguarding vulnerable individuals and preventing economic abuse within the welfare system. Front line staff receive mandatory domestic abuse training, including economic abuse. Specialist training is provided for teams such as Child Maintenance Service, Universal Credit, Counter Fraud and Debt, ensuring colleagues can identify, respond, and support claimants safely and appropriately.
As part of the '“Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls”, DWP has committed to strengthening domestic abuse training for staff. We have also pledged to remove the Direct Pay service type so that the Child Maintenance Service manages and transfers payments between parents, preventing it being used as a tool of abuse.
DWP supports vulnerable customers by considering individual circumstances in debt recovery and signposting to specialist services. Our Debt Management Vulnerability Framework and annual adviser training strengthen this approach. DWP collaborates with Surviving Economic Abuse to ensure safeguards are in place for new debt recovery powers under the Public Authorities Fraud, Error and Recovery Act, protecting victims of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Amanda Hack (Labour - North West Leicestershire)
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 effectiveness of targeted interventions to improve breast cancer screening uptake among underserved groups.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP) has returned to normal operation following disruption from COVID-19 and subsequent recovery measures.
NHSBSP is seeing improvement in uptake nationally with annual data for 2023/24 showing the number of women who are up to date with their screening has increased to the highest on record, to 4.61 million.
Breast screening uptake among those invited in 2023/24 improved to 70%, an increase from 64.6% in 2022/23, which is the first time the NHSBSP has hit its acceptable target for breast screening uptake since before the pandemic.
In February 2025, NHS England launched the first ever National Health Service breast screening campaign nationally to widespread media attention. It ran across television, radio, social media, and outdoor advertising during February and March, targeting women of breast screening age, with a focus on those least likely to attend, including younger women, those in deprived areas, ethnic minorities, and disabled women.
Specifically, regarding North West Leicestershire, measures to improve uptake include implementation of a timed appointment system which gives patients a specific date and time for their screening appointment, rather than asking them to contact the service to arrange one themselves. Evidence has shown that timed appointments improve participation and help reduce health inequalities. In addition, workforce structure is being reviewed to ensure a resilient staffing establishment capable of managing the higher demand from the timed appointment system.
More broadly, the integrated care board works with NHS England to support an increase in breast screening across Leicester, Leicestershire, Rugby. This includes: