Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a medal for servicemen and women who leave the armed forces before becoming eligible for medals under existing schemes.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Whilst we are grateful to all those who serve in our Armed Forces, it remains the position that medals are awarded only in recognition of operational Service, acts of gallantry, and long and meritorious Service; they are not awarded for Service alone. The Ministry of Defence has no plans to recommend that consideration is given to the introduction of a new medal for personnel who are not eligible for recognition under existing medallic arrangements. Any proposal for a new medal would require endorsement by the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals and approval by His Majesty The King.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to ensure that historic (a) NHS and (b) GP records can be reviewed to identify women who were prescribed Diethylstilbestrol between the 1940s and 1970s.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The issue of diethylstilbesterol (DES) and vaginal carcinoma in the daughters of women who took DES during pregnancy was reviewed by the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) in the early 1970s. In 1973, the CSM wrote to all doctors to inform them of the results of a study into the topic from the United States, and the absence of identified cases in the United Kingdom.
The work of the committee predates the existence of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), when medicines vigilance was only in its infancy and there were no electronic records and no systematic monitoring of prescriptions.
There has been a step change in reporting and record keeping since this time, and today's regulatory frameworks are significantly different, with much stricter post-authorisation monitoring allowing for earlier identification and action on emerging safety issues. The MHRA regulates medicines supplied in the UK. Its activity spans the whole of a medicine’s lifecycle. The MHRA keeps the safety of all medicines under continual review.
Government advice currently is that routine cervical screening is appropriate for those who believe they were exposed to DES in utero. Further information is available at the following link:
Participation in the National Breast Screening Programme is also recommended. Pregnant women who know that they were exposed in utero to DES should inform their obstetrician and be aware of the increased risks of ectopic pregnancy and preterm labour.
The Department does not have any plans to establish a public inquiry into the historic prescribing of DES.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to establish an independent inquiry into the historic prescribing of Diethylstilbestrol.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The issue of diethylstilbesterol (DES) and vaginal carcinoma in the daughters of women who took DES during pregnancy was reviewed by the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) in the early 1970s. In 1973, the CSM wrote to all doctors to inform them of the results of a study into the topic from the United States, and the absence of identified cases in the United Kingdom.
The work of the committee predates the existence of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), when medicines vigilance was only in its infancy and there were no electronic records and no systematic monitoring of prescriptions.
There has been a step change in reporting and record keeping since this time, and today's regulatory frameworks are significantly different, with much stricter post-authorisation monitoring allowing for earlier identification and action on emerging safety issues. The MHRA regulates medicines supplied in the UK. Its activity spans the whole of a medicine’s lifecycle. The MHRA keeps the safety of all medicines under continual review.
Government advice currently is that routine cervical screening is appropriate for those who believe they were exposed to DES in utero. Further information is available at the following link:
Participation in the National Breast Screening Programme is also recommended. Pregnant women who know that they were exposed in utero to DES should inform their obstetrician and be aware of the increased risks of ectopic pregnancy and preterm labour.
The Department does not have any plans to establish a public inquiry into the historic prescribing of DES.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce infant mortality rates at Queen’s Hospital in Romford.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust has taken a number of steps to improve their maternity services and help reduce infant mortality rates. This includes:
- implementing pre-term screening for pre-eclampsia;
- recruiting 164 more midwives since 2021, with seven more due to join soon, reducing the vacancy rate to 3.64% compared to 16% in January 2023;
- investing in additional clinical posts, including the recruitment of 12 additional obstetrics and gynaecology consultants since 2022, with two more joining soon, and increasing resident doctor numbers;
- introducing bilingual volunteers to support women throughout pregnancy, including attending appointments with them, and during labour;
- offering enhanced ‘continuity of carer’ in areas where health inequalities have been identified;
- increasing triage space and staffing to speed up initial assessment and creating a new discharge lounge to improve flow through the unit;
- increasing obstetric theatre capacity and staffing; and
- launching a new diabetes pre-conception clinic this year for women who are trying to conceive, and a new hybrid closed-loop insulin pump service for type 1 diabetics who are pregnant or trying to conceive.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support grassroots women’s rugby.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We hosted a record breaking Women’s Rugby World Cup, it was a pleasure to attend 4 matches across the country and I congratulate the Red Roses on their well deserved victory. I would like to thank everyone involved in the organisation of the Rugby World Cup including the Chair of the Tournament Gill Whitaker and RFU President Deborah Griffin. Major events play an important role in inspiring people to get active.
Since last summer we’ve provided £6.7m into the tournament's legacy programme Impact 25 which is reaching 850 clubs and supporting women and girls to get involved in rugby.
This included Pontefract RUFC who I recently visited alongside the Foreign Secretary to see the work they are doing to get more women and girls playing Rugby.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to increase opportunities for women and girls to participate in grassroots sport.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, are able to participate in sport and physical activity.
The This Girl Can campaign, run by our Arm’s Length Body Sport England, has inspired millions of women and girls to get active 1.6 million women are expected to be active as a result of the campaign by 2028.
The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup marks the beginning of a decade of women’s sporting moments. Since summer 2024, the Government has invested £6.7 million into the tournament's legacy programme Impact '25, reaching 37,000 women and girls in the year leading up to this World Cup alone. Funding from this programme has been used to make facilities more accessible for women, train new female coaches and match officials and provide sanitary packages to clubs nationwide.
Following the outstanding achievements of the Lionesses in recent major tournaments, we will ensure that the impact of these achievements is felt by future generations of aspiring Lionesses by doubling priority access to facilities we invest in, reserved peak-time slots and women and girls-only evenings.
Asked by: Jess Asato (Labour - Lowestoft)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report entitled Abuse of women runners: implications for the violence against women and girls policy agenda, published by the University of Manchester in November 2024, whether she plans to recognise women runners as a distinct group for purposes of the forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This Government has been clear that the level of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in our country is intolerable, and we are treating it as the national emergency that it is. Everyone should both be and feel safe whilst going about their day-to-day lives - and we recognise the particular vulnerability that women runners may feel.
We will go further than before to deliver a cross-government transformative approach to halve VAWG in a decade, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy, which we are aiming to publish in September.
We are working across Government to use every tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of abuse and violence to keep all women safe.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has considered introducing a (a) support and (b) compensation scheme for people with lifelong disabilities as a result of exposure to Debendox during pregnancy.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Debendox was originally available as a triple combination of doxylamine succinate, an antihistamine, pyridoxine hydrochloride, a form of vitamin B6, and dicyclomine hydrochloride, an antispasmodic. The product was later reformulated to remove dicyclomine hydrochloride following a review which concluded that dicyclomine did not contribute to the effectiveness of the other two ingredients. In the early 1980s, the medicine was available as a dual combination product, as doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine hydrochloride.
Since July 2018, the dual combination of doxylamine succinate 10 milligram and pyridoxine hydrochloride 10 milligram has been authorised as Xonvea, a safe and effective treatment for nausea and vomiting due to pregnancy in women who do not respond to conservative management, like changes in diet or other non-medicine treatments. As described in the product information for Xonvea, a large amount of data on pregnant women, including two meta-analyses with over 168,000 patients and 18,000 exposures to the doxylamine/pyridoxine combination during first trimester, indicates no malformative nor feto/neonatal toxicity due to doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine hydrochloride.
As with all medicines, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will keep this issue under review and will carefully evaluate any new evidence which becomes available linking use of Debendox or Xonvea with adverse outcomes in pregnancy.
The Department has not made any recent assessments of the number of people exposed to Debendox and is not considering support or compensation.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing compensation to people impacted by in utero exposure to Debendox.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Debendox was originally available as a triple combination of doxylamine succinate, an antihistamine, pyridoxine hydrochloride, a form of vitamin B6, and dicyclomine hydrochloride, an antispasmodic. The product was later reformulated to remove dicyclomine hydrochloride following a review which concluded that dicyclomine did not contribute to the effectiveness of the other two ingredients. In the early 1980s, the medicine was available as a dual combination product, as doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine hydrochloride.
Since July 2018, the dual combination of doxylamine succinate 10 milligram and pyridoxine hydrochloride 10 milligram has been authorised as Xonvea, a safe and effective treatment for nausea and vomiting due to pregnancy in women who do not respond to conservative management, like changes in diet or other non-medicine treatments. As described in the product information for Xonvea, a large amount of data on pregnant women, including two meta-analyses with over 168,000 patients and 18,000 exposures to the doxylamine/pyridoxine combination during first trimester, indicates no malformative nor feto/neonatal toxicity due to doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine hydrochloride.
As with all medicines, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will keep this issue under review and will carefully evaluate any new evidence which becomes available linking use of Debendox or Xonvea with adverse outcomes in pregnancy.
The Department has not made any recent assessments of the number of people exposed to Debendox and is not considering support or compensation.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with representatives of people affected by Debendox on redress or compensation schemes.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Debendox was originally available as a triple combination of doxylamine succinate, an antihistamine, pyridoxine hydrochloride, a form of vitamin B6, and dicyclomine hydrochloride, an antispasmodic. The product was later reformulated to remove dicyclomine hydrochloride following a review which concluded that dicyclomine did not contribute to the effectiveness of the other two ingredients. In the early 1980s, the medicine was available as a dual combination product, as doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine hydrochloride.
Since July 2018, the dual combination of doxylamine succinate 10 milligram and pyridoxine hydrochloride 10 milligram has been authorised as Xonvea, a safe and effective treatment for nausea and vomiting due to pregnancy in women who do not respond to conservative management, like changes in diet or other non-medicine treatments. As described in the product information for Xonvea, a large amount of data on pregnant women, including two meta-analyses with over 168,000 patients and 18,000 exposures to the doxylamine/pyridoxine combination during first trimester, indicates no malformative nor feto/neonatal toxicity due to doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine hydrochloride.
As with all medicines, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will keep this issue under review and will carefully evaluate any new evidence which becomes available linking use of Debendox or Xonvea with adverse outcomes in pregnancy.
The Department has not made any recent assessments of the number of people exposed to Debendox and is not considering support or compensation.