theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Callum Anderson:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of UK companies remaining private for longer on the capital raising lifecycle. \p Emma Reynolds: The UK’s vibrant and dynamic capital markets play a key role in supporting growth as identified in the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy Call for Evidence - and the Government committed to strengthening UK capital markets and taking forward an ambitious programme of reforms. The Government will publish the strategy in July.

As part of these reforms, the government has also recently delivered legislation to establish the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System Sandbox (PISCES) to respond to companies staying private for longer and at scale. It aims to make private secondary markets more efficient with a bespoke regulatory framework, while also providing a steppingstone to public markets.
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Andrew Rosindell:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make a comparative assessment of the decrease in tobacco duty as set out in HMRC's annual tax receipts bulletin with the ONS smoking prevalence data in (a) 2023 to 2024 and (b) 2024-2025. \p James Murray: In 2023/24 tobacco duty receipts totalled £8,804 million. In 2024/25, tobacco duty receipts fell 10% to £7,926 million.

ONS smoking prevalence data is published by calendar year. In 2023 approximately 12% of over 18s in the UK were current smokers. The ONS has yet to publish data on smoking prevalence for 2024.
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Euan Stainbank:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of changes to annual revenue received from a single Remote Betting and Gambling Duty. \p James Murray: In the financial year 2023-24, betting and gaming duties raised around £3.4 billion in tax revenue.

The Government is currently consulting on a single remote betting and gaming duty and we welcome responses to the consultation.

Should the government proceed with these reforms, the rate of the new tax will be set as part of the Budget process, and the OBR will update its forecast then, based on the final policy design.
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Euan Stainbank:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the Soft Drinks Industry Levy thresholds on business competitiveness. \p James Murray: The Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) is globally recognised as a transformative health intervention. After SDIL was announced, the average sugar content of soft drinks in scope of the levy fell 46% between 2015 and 2020. These positive health impacts have been achieved without a negative impact on soft drink sales, with sales of drinks subject to the levy increasing by 21% between 2015 and 2020.  Given SDIL’s success, the Chancellor announced at Autumn Budget 2024 her intention to review the levy to enhance its impact. The ‘Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy’ consultation, published on 28 April 2025, follows this commitment. Specifically, it sets out proposals to reduce the minimum sugar threshold at which the levy applies from 5g to 4g sugar per 100ml, and to remove the current exemptions for milk-based and milk substitute drinks with added sugar.

The government takes potential business impacts seriously, continues to engage with businesses, and welcomes further feedback as part of the consultation, which is open until 21 July 2025.

The government expects to confirm any changes to the levy at the upcoming Budget, and will publish a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) alongside the confirmed policy. This will set out the expected impact of any changes on businesses and civil society organisations.

The Competition and Markets Authority is responsible for investigating anti-competitive practices. As an independent authority, the CMA has discretion to investigate competition cases which, according to its prioritisation principles, it considers most appropriate.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to respond to the consultation on Improving the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations, published in March 2024. \p Emma Reynolds: Responses to the consultation have been invaluable in building the evidence base on potential reforms. In the coming months HM Treasury plans to respond and will bring forward a package of changes to the Regulations aimed at improving their effectiveness. This will include changes to close potential loopholes and ensure requirements are targeted at high-risk activity.
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Mr Will Forster:To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will summon the Israeli Ambassador to explain ask why (a) Israeli armed forces seized the British-flagged ship Madleen and (b) arrested British citizens on board that ship. \p Mr Hamish Falconer: The Minister for the Middle East summoned the Israeli Ambassador on 20 May to make clear that the UK stands firmly against Israel's resumption of military action in Gaza, its wholly inadequate plan for aid delivery and to demand that a full and unhindered resumption in the flow of aid into Gaza takes place immediately.

We are aware of the interception of the Madleen and the arrest of its passengers by Israeli Naval Forces. We understand that this happened without serious incident or injury to any passenger. There were no British Nationals aboard.

We pressed the Israeli authorities to ensure that any action they took would resolve the situation safely, with restraint, and in line with International Law. We will continue to urge that any Israeli actions following the interception of the vessel and arrest of its passengers must be in line with International Law.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether any Ministers in her Department are planning to attend the 2025 Glastonbury Festival in an official capacity. \p Chris Bryant: No, but thanks for asking.
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John Cooper:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many permanent civil servants in her Department are staff without assigned posts; and how many are placed in an equivalent (a) people action team, (b) priority movers list, (c) redeployment register, (d) talent pool and (e) skills match hub in the most recent period for which data is available. \p Stephanie Peacock: At any point in time, there is likely to be a small number of individuals who have been displaced due to restructures within their business units or who, for example, have returned from a loan from another department and their role no longer exists. The exact number changes on a regular basis.

In DCMS, there are currently no permanent civil servants in DCMS without assigned posts, and five members of staff on the department’s redeployment register.
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Sir Andrew Mitchell:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of Birmingham City Council’s ability to provide a (a) comprehensive and (b) efficient library service in Sutton Coldfield constituency. \p Chris Bryant: Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources.

The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 requires the Secretary of State to “superintend and promote the improvement of the public library service provided by local authorities in England”. To assist this function the department regularly engages with local authorities to discuss issues related to their respective library service.

The Department has met with Birmingham City Council officers regularly in the last 20 months, the most recent of which was 7 May, to discuss changes to their library service provision.
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Vikki Slade:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to require (a) tree houses, (b) shepherds huts, (c) farm buildings and (d) other properties not suitable for (i) long-term and (ii) residential letting to be added to the national mandatory register for short-term lets. \p Chris Bryant: Decisions on the specific scope of accommodation types covered by the registration scheme are still being finalised. Now that the second phase of development is underway, the Government is collaborating with industry leaders, including platforms, local authorities, and trade bodies, to create a robust scheme. Secondary legislation will be required to enact the scheme, and we aim to roll this out as efficiently as possible. Further details on which accommodation types will be included will be confirmed when an Impact Assessment has been completed.
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Dan Aldridge:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's revised code of practice for services, public functions and associations on the tourism industry. \p Chris Bryant: We welcome the clarity that the revised code of practice brings to service providers on navigating the implications of the Supreme Court ruling. While there is no current assessment of the potential impact of the revised code of practice on the tourism industry, the Office for Equality and Opportunity within the Cabinet Office is collating Government feedback for the OEO to provide to the EHRC on their public consultation on the code of practice following the UK Supreme Court ruling on 16 April 2025.
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Ben Maguire:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on the (a) development and (b) implementation of the registration scheme for short-term lets. \p Chris Bryant: DCMS has commenced the second phase of digital development for the short-term lets registration scheme legislated for in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. During this phase, we will test the user interface with a small number of users to ensure our systems and processes are robust and effective, before publicly launching a first version of the scheme. Public testing is planned to start within the next 9 months, with secondary legislation required to enact the scheme.
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Sir John Hayes:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding her Department has allocated to grassroots sports clubs in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in the last 2 years. \p Stephanie Peacock: The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, has access to and benefits from high-quality sport facilities, which offer the chance to be physically active.

The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sports and health club facilities through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions.

The constituency of South Holland and the Deepings received a total of £14,473 of funding through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in the last 2 funding years. More information about this funding can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multi-sport-grassroots-facilities-programme-projects-2021-to-2025
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Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Written Statement of 9 June 2025 on Grassroots Sport Facilities, HCWS689, how many projects have been funded by the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire. \p Stephanie Peacock: The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of where they live, has access to and benefits from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.

The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions.

Our Muli-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme invests in new and upgraded facilities across the UK to benefit communities and help get people active. In 2024/25, Fylde received £10,108 across three projects, and Lancashire received £1,872,565 across 49 projects. In March, DCMS confirmed an additional £100 million investment over the coming year (of which £98m falls in Financial Year 2025/26). .

Beneficiaries of this 2025/26 funding are still to be confirmed and will be announced in due course.
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Chris Webb:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission's revised code of practice for services, public functions and associations on infrastructure costs for sports facilities. \p Stephanie Peacock: A public consultation on the EHRC’s Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations is now underway. We would encourage people to ensure their views are heard by submitting a response to the consultation. The Government will consider the EHRC's updated draft Code of Practice once it has been submitted and engage the EHRC to ensure it provides the certainty and clarity service providers need, in line with the Supreme Court ruling.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish the list of (a) people and (b) organisations consulted during the appointment process for the Chair of the Independent Football Regulator. \p Stephanie Peacock: The assessment criteria and process for the appointment of the Chair was advertised on the government appointments website.

The Chair is appointed through a fair and open competition, run under the publicly available Governance Code on Public Appointments.

In addition, the preferred Chair appointment is subject to pre-appointment scrutiny by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Their report, endorsing the preferred candidate, has been published on their website.

As is standard for all public appointments we would not name organisations or individuals in order to protect the confidentiality of the process.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish the full findings of any inquiry into the appointment process for the Chair of the Independent Football Regulator. \p Stephanie Peacock: The Chair of the Independent Football Regulator is appointed through a fair and open competition, run under the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

In addition, the preferred Chair appointment is subject to pre-appointment scrutiny by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Their report, endorsing the preferred candidate, has been published on their website.

We look forward to cooperating fully with the Commissioner’s inquiry. The Commissioner is fully independent and reports of its investigations are published on the Commissioner for Public Appointments website.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on the security implications of public performances by artists whose past public statements have been the subject of political or public concern. \p Chris Bryant: Decisions on which artists perform at events and festivals are a matter for event organisers, who must take into account any legal considerations, and meet the requirements of their license, in consultation with relevant authorities.

We unequivocally condemn threatening remarks made towards any individual. Political intimidation and abuse must have no place in our society. We recognise the chilling effect that harassment and intimidation of elected representatives can have on our democracy. Support for proscribed organisations is wholly unacceptable, with criminal offences set out in the Terrorism Act 2000.
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Mr Peter Bedford:To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many permanent civil servants had contracts of employment terminated for poor performance in (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25. \p Hilary Benn: No permanent civil servants have had their contracts of employment terminated for poor performance in the time frame given.
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Ruth Jones:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of smart grids enabled by dedicated radio spectrum access on people in Newport West and Islwyn constituency. \p Michael Shanks: Ofcom is responsible for the management of spectrum in the UK, including allocating spectrum. My officials are working with those in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and with regulators to help establish the evidence base for the future telecommunications requirements of the energy sector.
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Dame Harriett Baldwin:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Ofgem's readiness criteria for the UK data centre sector on growth in that sector. \p Michael Shanks: The Government has worked closely with Ofgem and NESO on major reforms to the grid connections process. These reforms are expected to deprioritise up to 500GW of excess generation and storage capacity from the connections queue, freeing up capacity for viable connection customers across GB, such as data centres. The ‘readiness’ criteria will ensure that limited grid capacity is allocated fairly, prioritising connection offers for projects, including data centres, that are demonstrably ready to deliver – helping maximise efficient use of the network. The AI Energy Council will also consider grid connections opportunities for growth in the data centre sector.
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Anna Gelderd:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will set out how the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan will take into account the distribution of (a) seagrasses and (b) other blue carbon stores when determining the (i) optimal locations, (ii) quantities, and (iii) types of energy infrastructure at sea. \p Michael Shanks: The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) will treat blue carbon stores, such as seagrass beds, saltmarshes and subtidal/intertidal biogenic reefs, as environmental constraints in its spatial evaluation framework. It will draw on datasets such as NIRAS’s MPA Risk Layers and The Crown Estate’s Marine Irreplaceable Habitats. The SSEP will be updated every 3 years, and as more data becomes available on blue carbon stores it will be considered in future iterations of the SSEP.
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Fabian Hamilton:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department plans to commission an independent review of the (a) carbon capture and storage programme and (b) associated cluster model ahead of the next Carbon Budget Delivery Plan. \p Kerry McCarthy: Currently, we do not plan to commission an independent review into the CCUS programme. The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority provides oversight of the Programme as a Government’s Major Projects Portfolio, through Gateway Reviews and reporting. In 2024, the Programme was subject to a National Audit Office review and subsequently a Public Accounts Committee hearing. Internally, we continue to evaluate our work and to ensure we are delivering value for money to taxpayers.

We will publish a report setting out our plan to meet carbon budgets in October. This will set out the policies and proposals that will enable the UK to meet Carbon Budgets 4-6 and will reflect the role that CCUS will play in meeting these targets.
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Sonia Kumar:To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, when her Department will publish the response to the consultation entitled Extending the UK Emissions Trading Scheme cap beyond 2030. \p Sarah Jones: The UK ETS Authority, the joint governance body comprising of the UK Government, Welsh Government, Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive, is grateful for the range of stakeholder responses to the Extending the UK ETS cap beyond 2030 consultation.

The Authority recognises the importance of providing certainty and clarity on the scheme that is a cornerstone of its economy-wide approach to decarbonising the whole of the UK. A response to the consultation, outlining the Authority’s decisions, will be published as soon as possible.
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Mr Peter Bedford:To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, how many permanent civil servants in his Department had their contract of employment terminated as a result of poor performance in the (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25 financial years. \p Jo Stevens: No permanent Civil Servants in my Department had their contract of employment terminated as a result of poor performance in the 2022-23, 2023-24, or 2024-25 financial years.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Attorney General has appointed a special advocate in relation to the Chinese Embassy called-in planning application and public inquiry. \p Lucy Rigby: The Attorney General has not been asked to appoint a special advocate.
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Rupert Lowe:To ask the Solicitor General, what guidance the Crown Prosecution Service provides to prosecutors when considering whether to charge people who have used force in self-defence within their own home. \p Lucy Rigby: Charging decisions in cases regarding householders and the use of force against intruders in England and Wales are made independently by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Reasonable force may be used by homeowners to protect themselves or others if a crime is taking place inside their home. This means individuals can protect themselves ‘in the heat of the moment’ - this includes using an object as a weapon or to stop an intruder running off - for example by tackling them to the ground. There is no specific definition of ‘reasonable force’ as this will depend on each individual circumstance. A homeowner does not have to wait to be attacked before defending themselves in their home. If a homeowner has acted in reasonable self-defence and the intruder dies, they will still have acted lawfully.

However, a prosecution could follow if, for example, the attack on an intruder continues after the danger has passed or a trap has been pre-planned for an individual rather than informing and involving the police.

Guidance regarding householders and the use of force against intruders can be found at Householders and the use of force against intruders | The Crown Prosecution Service.

The CPS does not hold any data which shows the number of defendants who were homeowners prosecuted for using unreasonable or excessive force to protect themselves against an intruder in their home. To establish whether defendants were homeowners using excessive force against an intruder would require a manual review of case files and with over 440,000 defendants prosecuted by the CPS during 2024, this would be at disproportionate cost.

Data is held from 2015 showing the number offences of murder, attempted murder, and manslaughter charged by way of common law (or the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 in respect of attempted murder) in which a prosecution commenced and reached a first hearing in the magistrates’ courts. From 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2024, 12,418 such offences were charged. This figure relates to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data is held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.
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Jim Shannon:To ask the Solicitor General, how many people have been prosecuted for hate crime in the last 12 months. \p Lucy Rigby: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes hate crimes in England and Wales.

In the year to December 2024, in England and Wales the CPS prosecuted 14,657 defendants for offences flagged as hate crimes with a charge rate of 87.4%, and a conviction rate of 86.1%.

Data for Q4 2024-2025 will be published on the CPS website (CPS quarterly data summaries | The Crown Prosecution Service) in due course.
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Mr Peter Bedford:To ask the Solicitor General, how many permanent civil servants had their contract of employment terminated as a result of poor performance in the (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25 financial years. \p Lucy Rigby: In the Attorney General’s Office, no permanent civil servants had their contract of employment terminated as a result of poor performance in the (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25 financial years.
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Andrew Rosindell:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on the number of properties owned by (a) local authorities and (b) His Majesty’s Government that contain asbestos in England. \p Alex Norris: The department does not hold this information.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to page 25 of the National Security Strategy 2025, published on 24 June 2025, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to improve safeguards to prevent (a) people and (b) companies acting as proxies for foreign donations. \p Alex Norris: As pledged in our manifesto, we are strengthening the rules around donations to political parties. We have published our ‘Strategy for Modern and Secure Elections’ which sets out a number of reforms we are making to strengthen rules on political donations, responding to the threat of foreign interference. These include “Know Your Donor” requirements for recipients of donations, tighter controls on company and unincorporated association donations, and enhanced transparency requirements for all donors to political parties.

The reforms aim to close loopholes and enhance due diligence, while preserving the ability of genuine donors to support democracy.
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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people had a personal health budget in each of the year since 2012. \p Karin Smyth: The information is not available in the format requested, as national personal health budget data prior to 2019 is not held. The following table shows the uptake of personal health budgets in England by the end of Quarter 4 in each financial year from 2019/20 to 2024/25:

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

2024/25

89,953

Not available

124,964

175,859

188,489

182,360

Source: NHS England Digital, available at the following link:  https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/personal-health-budgets

The data under each financial year is cumulative in-year data, and for each financial year the figure shown is the number of people who had received a personal health budget in England by the end of Quarter 4.

2019/20 only includes cumulative data up to Quarter 3 due to COVID-19. No cumulative data was published up to Quarter 4 2020/21 due to COVID-19.
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Dr Luke Evans:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, if he will publish his Department’s assumptions of NHS productivity increases for the reduction in projected staff numbers in 2035 compared to the 2023 Long-Term Workforce Plan. \p Karin Smyth: We will publish our 10 Year Workforce Plan by the end of this year. The plan will set out the workforce needed to deliver the transformed service, and the key assumptions used in determining that workforce. That plan will set out assumptions about productivity used in determining projected staff numbers.

The approach set out in our 10-Year Health plan means that we will need a very different kind of workforce strategy. Instead of asking ‘how many staff do we need to maintain our current care model over the next 10 years?’, our new 10 Year Workforce Plan will ask ‘given our reform plan, what workforce do we need, what should they do, where should they be deployed, and what skills should they have?’
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Lee Anderson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his department holds on how much health tourism has cost the NHS in each of the last 5 years. \p Karin Smyth: The Department does not currently hold data on the overall cost to the National Health Service of treating complications arising from procedures carried out overseas. However, we are actively exploring ways to better understand the scale and impact of these costs on NHS services.
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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made a recent estimate of how many patients would benefit from a personal health budget. \p Karin Smyth: No specific estimate has been made. The Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England commits to giving people more choice and control over their care. We have committed to at least doubling the number of people offered a personal health budget by the 2028/29 financial year, and we will make personal health budgets a universal offer for all who would benefit from them by 2035.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_7
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_7

Alex Ballinger:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the implementation by some NHS Integrated Care Boards of minimum waiting times for elective treatment; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of this on (a) patient choice (b) the ability to meet NHS constitutional access standards. \p Karin Smyth: There is no formal policy supporting minimum waits in the National Health Service. However, the NHS Standard Contract technical guidance for 2025/26 states that commissioners may choose to include minimum waiting times in Activity Planning Assumptions to ensure the delivery of targets within agreed financial allocations. The full guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/08a-nhssc-2526-contract-technical-guidance-final.pdf

Patients continue to have a legal right to choose where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient.

We will work closely with all systems to ensure they deliver the expected level of improvement in waiting times set out in 2025/26 Planning Guidance, which is the first step in delivering on our commitment that by March 2029, 92% of patients wait no longer than the constitutional standard of 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_8
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_8

James McMurdock:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to support the continued delivery of SOS buses. \p Karin Smyth: The Department is supportive of the work of volunteer initiatives, such as SOS buses. Voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations (VCSEs) play a vital role in supporting communities up and down the country with a huge variety of issues. However, I recognise that the last few years have created a difficult environment for VCSEs, due to a number of challenges including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic and cost of living, and many are seeing increased financial pressures.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is supporting VCSEs with their financial sustainability, including through the delivery of a number of grant programmes, growing other sources of funding such as the social investment market, and supporting the viability of local government contracts. There are a number of ways in which organisations can find available funding opportunities, including:

The Government has made it a priority to reset the relationship with civil society and build a new partnership to harness its full potential by developing a Civil Society Covenant.

Further, if local healthcare commissioners judge that SOS buses would help meet the healthcare needs of their respective populations, they can choose to commission those services.

Such a decision would be taken at the local level as integrated care boards across England are responsible for managing the National Health Service budget and arranging NHS healthcare services which meet the needs of their respective populations.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_9
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_9

Nick Timothy:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2025 to Question 61313 on NHS: Fees and Charges, if he will publish the revenue raised by NHS penalty charges in each year since 2020, broken down by age group. \p Karin Smyth: The information on payments received from National Health Service penalty charges for Prescription Exemption Checking Service (PECS) and Dental Exemption Checking Service from 2020 to 2024, broken down by age group is shown in the attached tables. This data is based on the date the payment was received rather than when the penalty charge was issued. Please note, ‘unknown’ dates of birth in the PECS data set are cases where a date of birth is present but cannot be accurately read.

Additional Document (docx, 41.2KB)
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_10
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_10

Ian Sollom:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Integrated Care Boards on the potential impact of the outsourcing of soft facilities management staff at hospitals on (a) staff pensions, (b) sick pay and (c) annual leave. \p Karin Smyth: Contract award decisions in the National Health Service which may involve the transfer of staff delivering “soft” facilities management services to other suppliers fall directly to individual NHS bodies, who are responsible for running their own procurement exercises. Ministers at the Department do not have general powers in legislation to direct trusts in relation to the exercise of any of their functions, including in relation to specific contractual decisions.

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) allow for terms and conditions of service to be protected or frozen as they stand on the date of transfer to a new employer. This includes annual leave entitlement and sick pay. Under the Fair Deal for Staff Pensions policy, employees who are members of the NHS Pension Scheme can retain access to their existing pension arrangements, or be offered a comparable scheme by the new employer. The Government expects that any outsourced services are delivered by trusts in a way that improves quality, ensures greater stability and longer-term investment in the workforce, and delivers better value for money, as part of the broader commitments on procurement, as set out in the Make Work Pay programme, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/make-work-pay

NHS staff continue to work incredibly hard on delivering the best possible care for patients, and wherever they work across the health service, we expect the highest standards and good terms and conditions.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_11
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_11

Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of his Department's procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the last financial year. \p Karin Smyth: In the last financial year, 2024/25, 95.7% of procurement contracts were awarded to suppliers which reported to the Department that their legal entity is registered in the United Kingdom, in the UK Companies House Register.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_12
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_12

Dr Luke Evans:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the (a) cost of abolishing NHS England and (b) resulting redundancy package will be paid for from his Department’s settlement at the Spending Review 2025. \p Karin Smyth: We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement, which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day-to-day spending in real terms by 2028/2029 compared to 2023/2024. Ahead of asking the National Health Service to commence a multi-year planning round, we are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs. At this stage, it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while transition planning is ongoing.

While there will be some upfront costs, we expect the reform to eliminate duplication and drive a smaller centre, based in a single organisation, that will generate significant savings in the long run, which can be diverted to the front line.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_13
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_13

Sorcha Eastwood:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make changes to the Foundation Programme allocation process, following the most recent application round. \p Karin Smyth: NHS England is due to review the Foundation Programme allocation process. The review is aiming to commence in 2026. NHS England will advise stakeholders, including the British Medical Association, on how they can input in due course.

As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan, published on 3 July, we will work across Government to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the National Health Service for a significant period, for specialty training.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_14
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_14

Alison Bennett:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in (a) his Department and (b) NHS England work in communications. \p Karin Smyth: At the end of June 2025, the Department had 90 full-time equivalent staff working in the Communications Directorate.

In NHS England, there are 328.8 full-time equivalent staff sitting under Communications in the Strategy Directorate. These individuals cover a wide range of communication roles and support functions, including business operations, system and stakeholder engagement, events and visit teams, and Parliamentary briefing and Freedom of Information management. There are a further six members of staff, who work in ‘Communications’ or ‘Comms’ teams in the wider business, which includes individuals working in Freedom of Information management and Parliamentary business.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_15
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_15

Freddie van Mierlo:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the inclusion of Oxford University Hospitals Trust in the rapid review of NHS maternity services. \p Karin Smyth: The investigation will carry out rapid reviews of up to ten trusts with specific issues. The process of determining which trusts to review is ongoing, and once decided, they will be announced as soon as possible.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_16
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_16

Dame Chi Onwurah:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential (a) financial and (b) clinical impact of the Zimmer Biomet NexGen Legacy Posterior Stabilized (LPS) knee replacement system on the NHS. \p Karin Smyth: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a field safety notice (FSN) in December 2022 about some devices in the NexGen family of knee implants. The FSN was issued following notification by the National Joint Registry (NJR) Implant Scrutiny Committee in 2021.

The NexGen Stemmed Option Tibial Component was removed from the market because of that notice, although only use in combination with LPS Flex or LPS Flex GSF femoral components demonstrated higher revision rates, and only patients receiving the combination of devices were recommended to be reviewed.

As is standard with joint replacement FSNs, the NJR supplied hospitals with a list of all the patients who had this combination implant and were still alive and had not already had a revision procedure. This represented 9,125 cases from 102 hospitals. This all happened within 48 hours of the FSN being issued. For context, 11,965 of these were implanted if patients who had died or been revised were included.

In terms of the clinical impact, the NJR had first been asked to investigate use of high flex NexGen knees by a surgeon in 2014. Although the data did not meet the outlier threshold at that time, NJR did inform the MHRA because there appeared to be a particular mechanism of failure with these devices, namely tibial loosening. The MHRA followed its standard process of discussing the concerns with the manufacturer and the matter was closed since the data did not demonstrate a case to answer. NJR reported this again in 2021, by which time the data was more robust and the signal was stronger.

At the time for an implant to be rated 10A, which is a measure of implant success, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), a failure rate of 10% at 10 years was used. This has recently been changed to a failure rate of 5% at 10 years.

The failure rate of this implant combination at 10 years is 7%, which is still under the 10% threshold advocated by NICE. It is important that these patients remain under clinical and radiological review.

NJR has made no assessment of the financial impact of the NexGen family of knee implants.
wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_17
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-08-08)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-08-08 conversation_17

Mike Wood:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the publication entitled Civil Service 2024/2025 External Expenditure on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, published on 30 May 2025, which suppliers were used to provide the Black History Month event. \p Karin Smyth: The suppliers used for Black History Month were Eurest Services, for catering services that cost £69.