Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to strengthen the United Kingdom’s defence capabilities and improve national readiness.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence (Lord Coaker), on 8 April 2026 to Question HL15983 in the House of Lords.

Defence plays an integral role in the Cabinet Office-led Home Defence Programme. This coordinates civil and military preparations across the whole of Government and society for some of the most serious risks we could face, including communicating, empowering and engaging with all tiers of resilience actors to ensure that all sectors are prepared for and able to respond to the most catastrophic of risks. Alongside this, defence is refreshing our own homeland defence plan as a priority for 2026

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment the Government has made of the level of requirement for additional legislation to help prevent social media companies from promoting extreme ideologies through their platforms.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government is committed to tackling extremism in all its forms, and we constantly review our understanding of emerging radicalising threats to our society.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must tackle illegal content, including terrorist content and that which stirs up hatred based on religion or race. They must also protect children from additional forms of legal content, including hateful or abusive content.

We are committed to keeping our online safety regime under review to ensure it keeps up with rapidly evolving harms.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consideration the Government has given to the potential merits of introducing legislation aimed at making electric vehicles more affordable, in the context of increases in the cost of oil.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government is reducing the upfront costs of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) by providing grants for zero emission cars, vans, trucks, and wheelchair accessible vehicles; this includes the £2 billion Electric Car Grant, which has already helped over 90,000 drivers to choose an electric vehicle (EV). Drivers of ZEVs also benefit from favourable tax rates, such as generous company car tax incentives, and can save up to £1,400 a year on running and maintenance costs compared to a petrol car if they can charge at home using off-peak tariffs. A breakdown of how this is calculated is available here: https://cleanenergy.campaign.gov.uk/electric-vehicle/.

The Government provides grants to support the rollout of domestic and workplace chargers, while the £25 million EV Pavement Channel Grant will ensure that more people without off-street parking can benefit from cheaper and more convenient domestic EV charging.

The Government recognises that high charging costs could pose a barrier to widespread EV adoption, especially for those reliant on public networks. In response, the Government is undertaking a comprehensive review of public charging costs, examining the drivers behind price increases and measures to make public charging accessible and affordable for all users.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of postal delays on national screening programmes, including bowel, cervical and breast cancer screening.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Our National Health Service screening programmes reduce mortality and morbidity from cancer and other conditions in the population who appear healthy and have no symptoms, by detecting conditions at an earlier, more treatable stage.

Bowel cancer screening relies on the provision of faecal immunochemical test (FIT) home testing kits to those eligible people. The bowel cancer screening hubs have a contract in place which includes 48 hour tracked returns via Royal Mail. This allows participants to return completed FIT kits, which must then be tested within 14 days of completion. Adherence to the 48-hour return is monitored within the contract by NHS trusts. If a kit is returned after 14 days, it cannot be tested so a new kit is sent out to the participant.

Multiple incidents of late returns by Royal Mail, some of up to a month, have been reported across England. However, there is no evidence from customer contact centre that enquiries and complaints on this issue have been increasing.

Since June 2025, invitations have been digitised and we are using the NHS App and text messaging. The figures for January and February 2026 show that approximately 100,000, or 11%, of all invitations are sent via Royal Mail.

Since October 2025, normal result correspondence has been digitised using NHS App. Figures for January and February 2026 show that approximately 207,000, 38%, of normal results are sent via Royal Mail.

We will be digitising correspondence for results requiring referral for further assessment by the end of March 2026 using the NHS App. Currently, these results are sent out by first class business mail which is prioritised by Royal Mail, which will continue if it is not possible to send by the NHS App.

Cervical screening sample takers, for example, general practice nurses, are flagging with patients that results may be sent to them via the NHS App and are encouraging them to switch on notifications on the app.

Providers have reported delays in invitations for screening and assessment appointments being delivered. Where receipt has been very close to, or after the appointment date, another appointment has been made.

Providers send out SMS text message reminders ahead of appointments, which should potentially reduce the impact of delayed post.

Additionally, where providers are aware of local postal delays, they have been advised to telephone women ahead of appointment, particularly in the case of assessment appointments. Some services have also introduced digital invitation letters at a local level.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has reviewed recent evidence on the potential impact of social media on users’ mental health.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government keeps the evidence on the relationship between social media use and mental health under close review and is committed to ensuring that children’s lives online are safe and enriching. A national consultation is currently underway to seek views on measures to improve children’s online safety across social media, gaming platforms, and artificial intelligence chatbots. The consultation forms part of the Government’s broader programme to understand how technology impacts children’s wellbeing, and what more can be done to help families strike the right balance. Insights from this consultation will help inform future policy to better protect children’s mental health and ensure that digital platforms play their part in promoting safe and healthy online experiences.

With regards to specific evidence reviews, in 2019, the UK Chief Medical Officers published a review of the evidence on screen-based activities and mental health, which concluded that while there is an association between social media use and mental wellbeing, the evidence did not indicate a causal relationship and highlighted the need for more high-quality research. Since then, the Government has continued to work closely with academic experts to review emerging evidence, including studies funded through the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

In January 2026, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published a research report titled Understanding the impact of smartphones and social media on children and young people, which found a lack of high-quality causal evidence linking children’s mental health and wellbeing and their use of social media. We will now be paying close attention to the recently announced IRL Trial, led by Professor Amy Orben, as this is the first large scale randomised controlled trial investigating how limiting access to social media might affect adolescent mental health.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support the Government intends to provide to individuals who have experienced mental harm as a result of social media use.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

A national consultation is currently underway to seek views on measures to improve children’s online safety across social media, gaming platforms, and artificial intelligence chatbots. The consultation forms part of the Government’s broader programme to understand how technology impacts children’s wellbeing, and what more can be done to help families strike the right balance. Insights from this consultation will help inform future policy to better protect children’s mental health and ensure that digital platforms play their part in promoting safe and healthy online experiences.

It is unacceptable that too many people, especially children and young people, are not getting the support they need for their mental health. We need a new approach to mental health that reduces waiting times, improves the quality of care, and strengthens prevention and early intervention.

The Government has made progress to expand access to mental health support. In the first 12 months of the Government, nearly 40,000 more children and young people received support compared to the previous 12 months. This is helped by over 8,000 extra mental health workers being recruited since July 2024, against a target of 8,500 by the end of this Parliament. The rollout of Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges is being accelerated so that 100% pupils in England will have access to this innovative early support by 2029. NHS England has also set clear expectations for integrated care boards to reduce the longest waits for children and young people’s community mental health services.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether the Government plans to bring forward further legislation to help prevent and hold online platforms accountable for the monetisation of hate-driven engagement.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Online Safety Act places duties on online platforms to tackle illegal content that stirs up hatred and to protect children from legal content that is hateful or abusive. Platforms must ensure their algorithms do not promote these types of content.

In March, MHCLG published Protecting What Matters, in which DSIT, in partnership with DCMS, committed to engaging the advertising industry and platforms to further understand how advertising can inadvertently fund legal but harmful content and consider potential solutions to this issue.

International Workers’ Memorial Day 2026

Planned reductions to BBC staff

World Curlew Day

Use of restraint of children in the asylum system removal process

Impact of war in the Middle East on the cost of living

Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners

UN General Assembly Resolution A/80/L.48 on declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement as a crime against humanity

Illegal waste operations

Universal Credit health for under-22s

Workers Memorial Day