Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to take steps to reduce the volume of substandard goods entering the UK market from (a) Temu and (b) other cheap import companies.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK product safety law requires all products to be safe before being placed on the market. The Office for Product Safety and Standards coordinates targeted and intelligence-led interventions at our ports and borders with Local Authority Trading Standards, HMRC, and Border Force to prevent unsafe products entering the UK. In 2023-2024, this resulted in more than 2.4m goods being blocked from entry.
Government has introduced the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill to update our product safety framework. Following Royal Assent, we intend to consult on the duties of e-commerce businesses, so that consumers and compliant businesses are even better protected.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54430 on Undocumented Migrants: English Channel, what steps her Department is taking to remove small boat arrivals who fail criminality checks.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office conducts mandatory identity and security checks on all small boat arrivals.
In line with the Refugee Convention, we will deny the benefits of protection status to those who commit particularly serious crimes and are a danger to the community or those who are a threat to national security.
Anyone convicted of a particularly serious crime resulting in a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, and are considered a danger to the UK, will be denied asylum and will be considered for removal from the UK. Those refused protection status who cannot be removed will be subject to regular review until they can be removed at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to ensure emergency access to hyperbaric oxygen therapy for patients in the (a) North East and (b) North West of England from 1 October 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to ensuring equitably accessible, high-quality services, for anyone who requires hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). This will be achieved through the commissioning of six geographically dispersed services across England. Three preferred providers have been identified to date, and a further procurement exercise will take place to identify the three remaining centres. NHS England is unable to provide details of timescales for the provider selection process for outstanding lots at this stage.
The contract for HBOT services, also known as recompression, was reviewed in 2024, as existing contract terms expired. This included an update of the service specification using the published full methods process, and a public consultation on the proposal to reduce the number of commissioned providers in England from eight to six centres. Further information on the service specification, the published full methods process, and the consultation is available, respectively, at the following three links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/methods-national-service-specifications/
The updates to the specification seek to ensure timely access to treatment for the most acutely unwell patients with the specification requiring:
The geographical scope of the six services will ensure that there are no more than four hours travelling time by road from coastal locations, from the furthest borders, or between neighbouring commissioned HBOT centres, which is in line with good practice guidelines. The published Equality and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment sets out an evaluation, including access to services and where appropriate action was taken to ensure fair access to any patient who requires this service. Further information on the Equality and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment is available at the following link:
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle regional inequalities in children’s (a) reading enjoyment and (b) daily reading frequency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child, in every region of the country, the best start in life.
In the 2025/26 financial year, the government has committed £27.7 million to support and drive high and rising standards in reading and writing.
This includes supporting the teaching of phonics, early language and reading for pleasure via the English Hubs programme. The 34 English Hubs across England provide support to the schools in their region, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The English Hubs also deliver a reading for pleasure continuous professional development programme, ‘Transforming Schools Reading Culture’, in which over 2,000 schools have participated since 2021.
The department is also strengthening our tools for more effective school improvement by launching new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams to break down the barriers to opportunity and end the link between background and success. Supported by over £20 million in the 2025/26 financial year, RISE teams will provide both targeted intervention and universal support which will act as a catalyst for collaboration and improvement across all schools.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 access to (a) cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator modulator therapies and (b) other cystic fibrosis treatments in rural parts of Wiltshire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations on whether licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service in England based on a thorough assessment of the available evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE.
In July 2024, NICE approved three disease modifying treatments, Orkambi, Symkevi, and Kaftrio, as treatment options for eligible NHS patients with cystic fibrosis, under the terms of a commercial agreement reached between NHS England and the manufacturer, Vertex. These treatments are now routinely funded by the NHS in England for eligible patients.
NICE is also currently developing guidance for the NHS on whether vanzacaftor-tezacaftor-deutivacaftor can be recommended for routine funding for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. NICE is expecting to publish final guidance in August 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the transfer of South Western Railway services into public ownership, what progress they have made towards providing catering services on longer distance routes, such as London Waterloo to Exeter.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
South-Western Railway (SWR) successfully transferred into public ownership on the 25 May 2025. The current priorities of SWR are to improve operational performance and introduce the new Class 701 fleet.
I have asked the new Managing Director of South-Western in due course to review catering on longer distance routes including the London Waterloo to Exeter service - any decision will be subject to a positive financial case which balances the need of passengers and taxpayers.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to strengthen the (a) legal rights and (b) financial protections of (i) survivors of domestic abuse and (ii) cohabiting partners; and when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals for reform in this area.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The financial difficulties that cohabitants, including survivors of domestic abuse, can face when their cohabiting relationships come to an end is a matter of concern. That is why the Government committed in its manifesto to strengthening the rights and protections for women in cohabiting couples. We will launch a public consultation later this year to build public consensus on what form those cohabitation protections should take.
The Government is also carefully considering the findings of the Law Commission’s scoping report on financial provision on divorce, including in relation to issues raised about domestic abuse. The Government will provide a response to this report in due course.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many staff network events took place in his Department in May 2025; and what the names of those events were.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Staff networks are collaborative volunteer networks, organised by staff themselves rather than the department. As a result, events are organised by staff themselves, not the department. We are not aware of any events that these networks organised in May 2025.
There were two centrally co-ordinated staff network events in May 2025: the monthly meeting of the Department’s Staff Network Chairs, which was for network chairs only and lasted for one hour, and an online session with Staff Network Chairs to mark National Staff Network Day which was available to all staff to attend and also lasted for one hour.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential impact of tax reliefs for research and development on economic growth.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have regular discussions on a range of issues. Research and development (R&D) tax reliefs play a vital role in the Government’s mission to boost economic growth and drive innovation in the UK. Overall, R&D reliefs will support an estimated £56 billion of business R&D expenditure in 2029-30, roughly a 20 per cent increase from £47 billion in 2022/23.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Spending Review 2025, published on 11 June 2025, how much additional funding her Department plans to spend on transport projects for Maidenhead; and what those projects are.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are yet to announce the local authority allocations for the majority of the transport funding announced in the Spending Review. This will be announced in due course. We have informed Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council of their allocation of the Local Transport Grant which is £7.336 million for the period from April 2026 to April 2030 for local transport improvements.