Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps has she taken to ensure (a) fairness and (b) transparency in the allocation of social housing.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Local housing authorities set their own allocation schemes, governed by a legal framework set by central government. This allows councils to design schemes in a way that best meets local needs.

Local housing authorities must publish a summary of their allocation scheme and ensure that advice and information is available free of charge to everyone in their area about the right to apply for an allocation of accommodation.

Applicants have the right to information that will enable them to assess how their application is likely to be treated under the authority’s allocation scheme, including whether they are likely to fall within any of the priority categories and whether accommodation appropriate to their needs is likely to be made available.

Allocation schemes must also be framed so as to give applicants the right to be informed of certain decisions and the right to review certain decisions.

To ensure that the most vulnerable in society can access the housing support they need, this government has exempted domestic abuse victims and young care leavers, alongside veterans, from local connection tests to facilitate their access to social housing. We will be updating statutory guidance to reflect these changes and will keep this guidance under review.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Budget Statement 2024, the Spring Statement 2025 and the Spending Review 2025, what forecast she has made of levels of child poverty during this Parliament.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department publishes the estimated impact of specific policies where appropriate. The Department, for example, recently made public the impact of the expansion of the Free School meal extension announced as part of the Spending Review 2025. The impact assessment can be found here [Free School Meals expansion - Impact on poverty levels - GOV.UK].

The impact demonstrated that Free School Meals will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year [including Barnett impact]

Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is a priority for this Government. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in autumn that will deliver fully funded measures to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty.

The Strategy will look at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across government and work underway in Devolved Governments.

As a significant downpayment ahead of Strategy publication, we have already taken substantive action across major drivers of child poverty through Spending Review 2025. This includes an expansion of Free School Meals that will lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of the parliament, establishing a long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund supported by £1 billion a year (including Barnett impact), investing in local family support services, and extending the £3 bus fare cap. We also announced the biggest boost to social and affordable housing investment in a generation and £13.2 billion including Barnett impact across the Parliament for the Warm Homes Plan.

Our commitments at the 2025 Spending Review come on top of the existing action we have taken which includes expanding free breakfast clubs, capping the number of branded school uniform items children are expected to wear, increasing the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the post- (a) 16 and (b) 18 support for young people raised in kinship.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government is committed to ensuring more children are supported in a strong kinship care arrangement, avoiding care where possible, because we know that this leads to better outcomes.

We are legislating through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to require local authorities to publish a local offer for children and families in kinship arrangements and requiring local authorities to offer family group decision making to families with children on the edge of care. These measures will ensure more children are supported within their family networks, and with kinship carers instead of entering care.

Some children in kinship care, such as those placed with kinship foster carers, are entitled to leaving care support if they have been in care for a minimum of 13 weeks, some of which was after they reached age 16, when they cease to be looked after. This includes support from a Personal Adviser up to the age of 25, and support to engage in education, employment or training, including a £2,000 bursary if they attend higher education.

This support will also include providing continuity of support and relationships when care leavers reach age 18 through the ‘Staying Put’ programme and investing in family-finding, mentoring and befriending programmes.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure the safety of girls and young women in public places.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Ensuring the safety of women and girls in public spaces is a top priority for this Government. We have set out an unprecedented mission to halve the level of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. That means working to tackle threats to women's safety in all areas of their lives, including in public places. To underpin this ambition, we will shortly be publishing a VAWG Strategy.

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 the cost of new technology for cancer screening.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Capital spend for new screening technology is held under the same budget as wider spend on diagnostic equipment for the National Health Service, and therefore we cannot provide the specific information requested.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help reduce violence against women and girls in the West Midlands.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government and we have set an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

West Midlands Police is one of the first five police forces to embed domestic abuse specialists in 999 controls rooms under Raneem's Law. ·The domestic abuse specialists are using their expertise to advise on risk assessments, work with staff to quality assure the standard of response being given, and ensure victims are referred to appropriate support services swiftly. Raneem's Law is made in memory of Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem, who were murdered by Raneem's ex-partner. There were 13 reports made to the police reporting concerns for Raneem's safety, but no arrest was made. On the night she was killed, she rang 999 four times. We want to ensure police control rooms are prioritising domestic abuse incidents, so that this cannot happen again.

The Home Office has invested £1.6 million this year in the West Midlands to identify what works to prevent VAWG and to increase the availability of domestic abuse perpetrator intervention programmes in order to improve victim safety and reduce the risk posed by abusers. We are providing over £500,000 to The Children's Society to deliver interventions for children affected by domestic abuse in the North West, West Midlands and the South West. These provide trauma-informed support provision to children and work with frontline agencies to raise awareness of children and young people who are affected by domestic abuse.

In May, I announced the Government was investing up to £19.9 million this year to provide vital support to victims of VAWG. This money is being invested in national VAWG helplines, supporting victims of domestic abuse, 'honour'-based abuse, revenge porn and stalking services to help prevent and improve the response to VAWG. As well as providing funding for national services across England and Wales, we are providing support for children affected by domestic abuse, support for migrant victims, work to increase the understanding and identification of VAWG, work to prevent 'honour' based abuse and improving multi-agency working and risk management.

We will go further than ever before to deliver a cross-Government transformative approach to tackling violence against women and girls, which will be underpinned by a new VAWG Strategy later this year

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of oral nicotine pouches on public health.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Nicotine is the active ingredient in oral nicotine pouches, which is a highly addictive drug. Unlike vapes, nicotine pouches currently have no set nicotine limits, and nicotine strengths can be extremely high. The use of nicotine pouches is increasing, particularly among young men. Among adults in Great Britain, 5.4% tried nicotine pouches in 2024.

The Government is committed to protecting future generations from the harms of nicotine addiction. That is why, alongside vapes, we are taking action to control these products through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. The bill will ban the advertising and sponsorship of all consumer nicotine products, ban their sale to anyone under 18 years old, and prohibit free distribution. The bill also provides powers to regulate the flavours, ingredients, which includes nicotine strength, packaging, and displays of vapes and nicotine products.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to help end discrimination against the trans community.

Answered by Nia Griffith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

It is crucial that LGBT+ people are safe, included and protected from discrimination. To achieve this we must end the recent politics of division. Trans people are protected from harassment and discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment in the Equality Act 2010.

Work is already underway to fulfil the commitments set out in the Government’s manifesto, advancing the rights and protections afforded to trans people including: delivering a trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices; ensuring that all trans people receive appropriate and high-quality health care; and equalising all existing strands of hate crime to make transphobic hate crime an aggravated offence.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps is she taking to tackle misogyny against girls and young women.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Tackling misogyny is central to our mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade and we will address the drivers and root causes of VAWG as part of our upcoming cross-Government Strategy, due to be published this year.

Education has an important role to play in reducing misogyny; statutory guidance on Relationships, Sex and Health Education makes clear that schools must build a culture where issues such as everyday sexism, misogyny, and gender stereotyping are not tolerated. The Department for Education is reviewing this guidance to ensure that it enables schools to tackle harmful behaviour, as this Government is determined to ensure that misogyny and sexual violence are stamped out.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the probation service in the West Midlands.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Performance ratings for prisons in the West Midlands are published by the Ministry of Justice as part of the Annual Prison Performance Ratings. The 2023-24 ratings can be found at: Prison Performance Ratings: 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK.

The performance of the Probation Service in the West Midlands is published as part of the Community Performance Annual publication. The 2023-24 edition can be found at: Community Performance Annual, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK.

The ratings for 2024-25 for both prisons and probation will be published on 31 July 2025.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of prisons in the West Midlands.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Performance ratings for prisons in the West Midlands are published by the Ministry of Justice as part of the Annual Prison Performance Ratings. The 2023-24 ratings can be found at: Prison Performance Ratings: 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK.

The performance of the Probation Service in the West Midlands is published as part of the Community Performance Annual publication. The 2023-24 edition can be found at: Community Performance Annual, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK.

The ratings for 2024-25 for both prisons and probation will be published on 31 July 2025.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of mandating DBS checks for people who wish to stand for election.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Government has no plans to introduce a requirement for candidates to undergo DBS checks before standing for elections. Candidate selection in elections is a matter for political parties.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the 10 Year Health Plan for England on the Black Country.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The 10-Year Health Plan will ensure a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or geography. The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver more care locally, including in urban areas like the Black Country, supporting people to stay healthier.

The neighbourhood health service will reflect the specific needs of local populations. Over the course of the plan, neighbourhood health centres will be available in every community, including the Black Country, providing easy access to general practitioners, nurses, and wider support, such as employment advisers, all under one roof. The Government will begin establishing neighbourhood health centres in places where healthy life expectancy is lowest.

Changing Places Toilets Awareness Day

Proposal for a wealth tax

Government policy on the Hillsborough Law

Found: Kendall's proposed Amendment 2:— Not called_2(a) Richard Burgon Andy McDonald Rachael Maskell Cat Eccles