Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to ensure that young people are represented in the membership, advisory structures and ongoing decision-making processes of the National Taskforce for Tackling Misogyny.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The National Taskforce for Tackling Misogyny will bring together government, local leaders and external experts to understand the drivers of misogynistic attitudes and behaviours and develop targeted action to address them.
Standing membership of the Taskforce includes ministers from relevant government departments, with the Taskforce forming part of the wider VAWG governance landscape alongside the VAWG Ministerial Board. The Taskforce will also work closely with young women and men, including through organisations such as the Young Women’s Trust and Equimundo, to ensure its work is informed by their experiences and perspectives.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring business to list free sugars separately to total sugars on nutritional information labels for food and drink products.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made. ‘Free sugars’ are rightly presented as part of the total sugar content for each product, given there is no distinction regarding their health impact.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of anonymous, software-controlled ‘bot’ accounts spreading hateful messages on social media platforms.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the harm posed by bot-produced content online. The Online Safety Act requires social media platforms to tackle illegal content and activity on their services, including state-backed coordinated inauthentic activity where it meets the conditions of the Foreign Interference Offence.
Under the Online Safety Act, the largest platforms will be required to apply their terms of service consistently, including where these prohibit inauthentic activity. These services will also be required to offer adult users identity verification and tools enabling them to limit their exposure to content from non-verified users. We expect these additional duties to come into force in 2027.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of taking legislative steps to prohibit non-consensual intimate audio-recordings.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There is a lack of consensus about what constitutes ‘intimate audio’ as a concept. However, depending on the circumstances, this type of abuse may already fall within a number of existing offences where audio recordings are used to harass or blackmail. Communications offences may also apply.
The Government routinely keeps the criminal law under review. We recognise the concerns about intimate audio abuse and will continue to engage with law enforcement agencies and third sector groups to better understand the nature of the problem and any challenges in addressing it.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of making identity verification mandatory for owning a social media account.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the benefits of identity verification, but this must be balanced with legitimate reasons for anonymity. That is why the Government's focus is on ensuring platforms provide effective tools to help users manage the risks they face online.
The Online Safety Act requires the largest user-to-user services to offer tools to verify identity and filter content from anonymous users. These additional duties are expected to come into force in 2027.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of powers available to sentence perpetrators who abuse victims through the dissemination of non-consensual intimate audio recordings.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There is a lack of consensus about what constitutes ‘intimate audio’ as a concept. However, depending on the circumstances, this type of abuse may already fall within a number of existing offences where audio recordings are used to harass or blackmail. Communications offences may also apply.
The Government routinely keeps the criminal law under review. We recognise the concerns about intimate audio abuse and will continue to engage with law enforcement agencies and third sector groups to better understand the nature of the problem and any challenges in addressing it.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to protect victims of abuse relating to non-consensual intimate audio recordings from further abuse and dissemination of such recordings.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There is a lack of consensus about what constitutes ‘intimate audio’ as a concept. However, depending on the circumstances, this type of abuse may already fall within a number of existing offences where audio recordings are used to harass or blackmail. Communications offences may also apply.
The Government routinely keeps the criminal law under review. We recognise the concerns about intimate audio abuse and will continue to engage with law enforcement agencies and third sector groups to better understand the nature of the problem and any challenges in addressing it.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Online Safety Act 2023, what steps she is taking to encourage social media companies to remove content depicting serious violence against animals.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The government takes online animal cruelty content extremely seriously. Under the Online Safety Act 2023, platforms must remove illegal content swiftly, including material promoting or facilitating animal cruelty, which is a designated priority offence. Services must also implement systems and processes to protect children from harmful depictions of animal cruelty, even where it is not illegal. Ofcom, as the independent regulator, enforces these duties and can take action, including issuing fines, where platforms fail to comply.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the potential fiscal impact of the 12% decline in international student numbers since 2022/23.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Estimates indicate that the tuition fees and living expenditure from non-UK higher education students generated £23.9 billion in UK export revenue in 2024.
Transnational education revenue rose by 17.1%, from £3.1 billion in 2023 to £3.6 billion in 2024.
The data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/uk-revenue-from-education-related-exports-and-transnational-education-activity/2024#dataBlock-9f02d54f-d5cf-4348-af23-2e38e9e05482-charts.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with universities regarding upholding free speech on campus.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
My noble Friend, the Minister for Skills, and departmental officials have met higher education providers and representative bodies on a number of occasions to discuss the importance of protecting freedom of speech and academic freedom on campus.
These discussions have included implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, the commencement of key provisions and the introduction of the Office for Students' free speech complaints scheme.