Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to section five of the policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, whether she made an assessment of the potential merits of seeking regulator pledges from the Advertising Standards Authority.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As published in March, New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth set out reforms across the regulatory landscape. These focused on tackling complexity and the burden of regulation, reducing uncertainty, and shifting excessive risk aversion in the regulatory system. Many of these reforms pertain to all UK regulators.
This action plan also included specific, pro-growth commitments from a range of key regulators which operate across the economy and also support sectors in the Industrial Strategy. We will continue to work with all regulators to promote investment, accelerate innovation, and deliver better outcomes.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with his European counterparts on missile production capacity.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Secretary of State for Defence continues to discuss missile production capacity with our European Allies on a regular basis. For example, the Secretary of State discussed this with France in Paris on 11 March and at the E5 Defence Ministers meeting on 12 March. Missile production capacity is also a key element of NATO’s Defence Production Action Plan, which we continue to work on with allies to ensure its effective implementation. In addition, the UK continues to discuss NATO Alliance-wide missile production and capacity issues via the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) framework.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April 2025 to Question 42316 on NHS: Buildings, if he will take steps to publish further data on the (a) occupancy and (b) utilisation rates of all clinical rooms in the NHS estate in addition to the Estates Returns Information Collection data showing which organisation space is allocated to.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No decision has been made to publish further data on the occupancy and utilisation rates of all clinical rooms in the National Health Service estate in addition to the Estates Returns Information Collection data showing which organisation space is allocated to.
There are no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of adopting intelligent booking systems to maximise the utilisation of the NHS property estate. NHS trusts and integrated care boards decide locally how best to manage their estate; we expect them to do this using technology in the efficient management of the estate.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he is taking steps to increase levels of production of (a) air defence and (b) land attack missiles.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) is looking hard at the threats we face and the capabilities we need to meet the challenges, threats and opportunity of the 21 century. The SDR will ensure the UK is secure at home and strong abroad, now and for years to come.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the UK's cruise missile production capacity.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK will continue to maintain a close relationship with its domestic and international industry partners on all aspects of the adequacy of the defence industrial supply chain required to support our capabilities.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April to Question 42318 on NHS: Buildings, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of adopting intelligent booking systems to maximise the utilisation of the NHS property estate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No decision has been made to publish further data on the occupancy and utilisation rates of all clinical rooms in the National Health Service estate in addition to the Estates Returns Information Collection data showing which organisation space is allocated to.
There are no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of adopting intelligent booking systems to maximise the utilisation of the NHS property estate. NHS trusts and integrated care boards decide locally how best to manage their estate; we expect them to do this using technology in the efficient management of the estate.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) professional bodies and (b) the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors on the existing and future skills and capacity requirements of the neuroscience workforce in England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has regular discussions with stakeholders, including professional bodies and the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sectors, on ensuring that the necessary skills and capacity are held across the health and care workforce.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on plans for the UK Neuro Forum.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new United Kingdom-wide Neuro Forum will facilitate formal, biannual meetings across the Department, NHS England, and the devolved administrations, health services, and Neurological Alliances of all four nations of the UK.
The forum met for the first time on 10 March, bringing together key stakeholders to share learning across the system, discuss important neurology service transformation and workforce challenges, as well as best practice examples and potential solutions that will add both to the existing programmes of work and to wider health plans. The forum will be an advisory rather than a decision-making body.
The next meeting due to take place in early autumn 2025.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of making sexual health education a compulsory element of the statutory RHSE curriculum in (a) secondary schools and (b) colleges.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance already sets out that secondary schools should cover contraception, sexually transmitted infections, developing intimate relationships and resisting pressure to have sex. The guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
Pupils should also know how and where to access confidential sexual and reproductive health advice and treatment.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on implementing the NHS England Neuroscience Transformation Programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning most services for people with long term conditions, including neurological services. NHS England’s Neuroscience Transformation Programme is continuing to support ICBs to deliver the right service, at the right time for all neurology patients, including providing care closer to home.
A toolkit is being developed to support ICBs to understand and implement this new model. In addition to setting out an integrated model of care, the toolkit will include components on the following areas: delivering acute neurology services; improving health equity in neurology; improving community neurology services; improving access to specialist therapies for multiple sclerosis; streamlining headache services; and living well with a neurological condition.
The programme has developed an online, interactive adult neurology dashboard to support integrated care systems to understand their local neurology landscape and benchmark against other ICBs in England. It sets out key metrics and visualisations for neurology services locally.
The programme is working with several pathfinder systems across the country to implement this guidance on the ground, which will provide examples of good practice and a model for how to develop neurology transformation projects that can be shared nationally.
The programme has supported the development of a national community of practice for neurology transformation, which includes a monthly webinar programme and resources on the Future NHS platform. The Programme also supported a national Neurology Transformation Meeting, co-produced by NHS England, the Neurology Academy and the Neurological Alliance, which took place in January 2025.
The National Programme of Care for Trauma has revised the Neurosciences Specialised Neurology (Adults) Service Specification, which will set out clear deliverables for specialised centres; provide a clearer model of care incorporating up-to-date guidance and best practice; and set out new quality outcomes focusing on improving patient outcomes and experience.