Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England has made an estimate of the number and proportion of women diagnosed with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis who receive timely treatment compared to men.
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: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
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 ensure the forthcoming HIV Action Plan will strengthen awareness of HIV risk among women.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing, and treatment, tackle stigma, and reach our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a focus on women, as we know from the UK Health Security Agency’s latest data that they are not benefitting equally from the progress made on HIV in recent years.
Women will benefit from all of the actions in the HIV Action Plan, including improved testing and prevention services, rapid treatment, and support for those living with HIV. We will commission a new national HIV Prevention England programme backed by a total of £4.8 million of funding from April 2026 to March 2029. This programme supports communities disproportionately affected by HIV, including women, in particular black African and heterosexual women. The current programme delivers National HIV Testing Week, aimed at improving testing and increasing awareness of HIV prevention. In Testing Week 2025, heterosexual women accounted for 30% of all testers compared with 25% in 2024. We will also fund formula milk, and related sterilising equipment, for the infants of women living with HIV, thereby removing financial pressures and reducing the risk of transmission to babies.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken to ensure police officers are trained to identify and help tackle instances of online abuse.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The College of Policing sets standards for police training and development, including the national policing curriculum and accreditations for those who work in high risk or specialist roles. It also works with police forces to support standards of ongoing training and development.
On 2 February 2025, we announced a step-change in approach to the way that policing responds to VAWG crimes, through a new National Policing Centre for VAWG and Public Protection. The new centre launched in April 2025, and we are investing £13.1 million pounds this financial year (25/26). This funding includes an uplift of nearly £2 million to enable policing to better target these crimes – including online VAWG - demonstrating the government’s steadfast commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
The new Centre provides coordinated, national leadership within policing to tackle VAWG and child sexual abuse. Centralising policing expertise to tackle these crimes will drive national coordination, with the development of strengthened specialist training for officers across the country ensuring they offer consistent protection for victims and relentlessly pursue of these vile crimes.
Under the Online Safety Act, platforms are required to take steps to remove content where it is illegal, including violent material, to protect users and our communities from online harms.
Ofcom have set out their expectations for platforms to adhere to: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/open-letter-to-uk-online-service-providers/
The government funds an online hate crime reporting portal - True Vision - that was designed so that victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report.
The government also funds the National Online Hate Crime Hub which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime – the Hub provides expert advice to police forces to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
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 adult COVID-19 and influenza vaccination uptake in 2024–25; and what steps his Department is taking to strengthen communication of vaccine value to the public in response to hesitancy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes annual reports on seasonal flu vaccine uptake for England. COVID-19 vaccination uptake figures are published regularly during the spring and winter campaigns, as part of the national flu and COVID-19 surveillance report, and are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/weekly-national-flu-reports
The adult groups which the vaccine is offered to includes those over 65 years of age, clinical risk groups, pregnant women, and frontline healthcare workers. Compared to the previous 2023 to 2024 season, uptake was higher in pregnant women. Comparisons cannot be made to the previous season for other adult groups, due to changes in the timing of programme implementation.
The Department works with the UKHSA and NHS England to deliver national communications supporting vaccine uptake. The UKHSA undertakes research, assessing public confidence, barriers, and motivators to vaccination uptake, and develops strategies and messaging tailored to different audiences.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 improve maternity and neonatal care for people in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Maternity and neonatal care in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency is delivered locally by Lincolnshire Local Maternity and Neonatal System. They are implementing the Continuity of Carer model of midwifery care so that women receive dedicated support from the same midwifery team throughout their pregnancy. This model will prioritise areas with higher deprivation and complex needs and aims to improve care for people in South Holland and the Deepings.
For Lincolnshire, the main provider for maternity care across the county is the United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The trust has taken several steps to improve maternity and neonatal care such as implementing the Continuity of Carer model and offering specialised services for women to receive dedicated support to meet specific needs, for example through the Perinatal Community Mental Health Team and Perinatal Trauma and Loss Care Service. Additionally, there are community initiatives, including a breastfeeding campaign, ongoing workforce development initiatives, such as career pathways for maternity support workers, and innovative neonatal staffing models.
The trust has also seen a reduction in women smoking at the time of delivery from 17.1% in 2020/21 to 8.4% in 2024/25, ahead of integrated care system targets.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Policy Exchange report entitled In absentia parentis, published on 24 August 2025, the Cass Review's final report, published in April 2024, and the Supreme Court judgement in the case of For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers of 16 April 2025, what guidance her Department has issued to local authorities to protect the welfare of gender-questioning children who are children in care.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Local authorities and social care practitioners are required to support children in a way that meets their needs and best interests. This support will look different on an individual case basis. In considering their safeguarding policies and how best to support children questioning their gender, leaders and practitioners should be led by the guidance and regulations most relevant to their setting or role. They can also be informed by the evidence and principles set out in the Cass Review.
Further resources on support for children questioning their gender can be found via the NHS here: https://www.genderreferralservice.nhs.uk/.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with international partners on protecting women and girls in El Fasher, Sudan.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the statements on Sudan made by the Foreign Secretary on 18 November, and by the Minister of State for International Development and Africa in the House of Lords debate on 27 November. We will provide further updates to the House in due course, including on our efforts to protect women and girls throughout Sudan.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with her Cuban counterpart on reports of gender-based violence against women human rights defenders.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our relationship with Cuba allows for frank dialogue, including on matters on which we do not agree. Our Ambassador in Havana has raised recent human rights cases with the Ministry of External Relations, and we work with likeminded partners to make clear our shared position. We will continue to raise concerns where we have them through diplomatic channels, in both London and Havana.
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 tackle violence against (a) women and (b) girls in (i) Surrey Heath constituency and (ii) Surrey.
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: Baroness Sugg (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of staff reductions on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s ability to mainstream gender equality across international development and foreign policy.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is committed to becoming a smaller, more agile organisation, better able to deliver tangible benefits for the British people. Staff reductions are being made strategically, with decisions guided by an organisational prioritisation exercise to ensure we retain the capability to deliver UK strength, security, and prosperity.
As this transformation progresses, we remain fully committed to promoting equality for women and girls as a core objective across all major sectors of the Official Development Assistance budget, and as set out in her speech in the FCDO on 24 November, the Foreign Secretary is personally committed to putting the issue of violence against women and girls at the heart of the UK's foreign policy agenda.