Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what her policy is on the (a) tracking, (b) interception and (c) onboard inspection of vessels suspected of belonging to Russia's shadow fleet when in transit through UK waters.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The UK Government consistently monitors UK waters to uphold the safety of mariners, the marine environment and the UK’s national security, which includes monitoring of tankers that are suspected of being associated with the movement of Russian oil.
As a signatory of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the UK Government adheres to international maritime law and protects the innocent passage of vessels transiting through UK waters.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to (a) increase awareness of, (b) improve screening for and (c) develop research into lobular breast cancer; and what recent discussions his Department has had with NHS England on the (i) prevalence and (ii) detectability of this type of breast cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving the early diagnosis of cancer, including lobular breast cancer, is a priority for NHS England. The National Health Service will improve cancer survival rates and hit all NHS cancer waiting time targets, so that no patient waits longer than they should.
To increase awareness of lobular breast cancer, NHS England and other NHS organisations, nationally and locally, publish information on the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Further information can be found on the NHS.UK website, which is available at the following link:
The NHS Breast Screening Programme offers all women in England between the ages of 50 and 71 years old the opportunity to be screened every three years for breast cancer, to help detect abnormalities and intervene early to reduce the number of lives lost to breast cancer. However, lobular breast cancer is difficult to detect using imaging scans, such as mammogram.
The Department invests £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24 reflecting its high priority.
The Department has invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre in 2022, supporting their efforts to strengthen research into cancer, including lobular breast cancer. Wider investments into breast cancer research include a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, including lobular breast cancer.
The Department continues to work closely with NHS England on the development of the National Cancer Plan to achieve the overall goal of fewer lives lost to cancer, including to lobular breast cancer. The plan will be published later this year.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to Executive Order entitled Continuing the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy, published by the President of the United States of America on 14 March 2025, on the Voice of America service, what discussions he has had with the BBC World Service on the future (a) scale and (b) reach of its coverage.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware that the US has announced significant changes to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), with impacts on media outlets including Voice of America. This is a matter for the US. On the future, I can't get ahead of the allocations process, but Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office staff are in close touch with the BBC on a range of issues. We have regular discussions at both senior and official level, including on World Service impact and reach, because it is right that the World Service innovates and remains nimble to meet the global challenges and needs of the day. Changes would be a decision for the BBC, in line with its operational and editorial independence, although if this were to involve the creation or closing of a full language service, the Foreign Secretary would need to approve that, in line with our Framework Agreement.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many sites for reserve forces managed by (a) the Reserve Forces and Cadets Associations and (b) his Department are (i) unusable and (ii) partly unusable because of (A) boiler breakdowns and (B) leaking roofs.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
All Reserve Forces and Cadets sites are managed by the Reserves Forces and Cadets Association (RFCA) and not the Department.
The Volunteer Estate (VE) contains some 5112 buildings, of which 59 (1.15%) are fully or partly unusable due to boiler breakdowns and leaking roofs. Further details can be found in the table below:
Total No. of Buildings Affected | Buildings unusable | Boiler Failure | Leaking Roof | Buildings partly unusable | Boiler Failure | Leaking Roof |
59 | 17 | 9 | 10 | 42 | 17 | 25 |
We are committed to growing the Reserves and Cadets. As part of the plan to do so, we are looking at how we make better use of the resources and infrastructure available.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Trussell document entitled Guarantee our essentials, published in June 2025, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report's estimates of the total amount needed to afford essentials for adults in a household of (a) £120 for a single adult and (b) £205 for a couple.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will designate a Minister in his Department to (a) have responsibility for the field of cell and gene therapies and (b) chair his Department's Advanced Therapies Medicinal Products Coordination Group.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health, Baroness Merron, is the Minister with responsibility for life sciences and innovation, and cell and gene therapies are included in this remit.
In September 2024, the Department stood up an advanced therapies co-ordination group which aims to create a joined-up ecosystem that will support the development, regulation, and delivery of advanced therapy medicinal products in the United Kingdom. This group is chaired at the Senior Civil Service Grade 1 level. We note the recent report from the Cell and Gene Collective, titled Tomorrow’s Science, Today’s NHS, including the ask for a Minister to chair the group, and we will consider the report’s recommendations in due course.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral statement of 2 June 2025 on Strategic Defence Review, Official Report, column 53, how much and what proportion of the funding for military accommodation will be allocated to the reserve forces estate.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
None of the funding has been allocated to the Reserve Forces Estate as it does not contain Service Family Accommodation. The Reserves Forces Estate is directly funded from a separate budget.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason future candidates for a directly elected mayoral post are required to pay (a) a deposit of £5,000 and (b) another £5,000 towards a candidates' booklet; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of these payments on participation in mayoral elections.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Under electoral law, candidates are required to pay a deposit in certain elections, reflecting the scale of the role, including budget responsibility, role as chair of the Combined Authority or Combined County Authority, and the ability to raise a levy; as well as the size of the electorate and electoral area. This has been set at £5000 for Mayoral candidates for Combined Authorities and Combined County Authorities. A deposit is returned if a candidate receives more than 5% of the valid votes cast.
A Mayoral candidate for a Combined Authority or Combined County Authority who wishes to have an election address included in the election booklet may be required by the Returning Officer to pay towards the cost of the production of the booklet, at an amount to be set by the Returning Officer. The cost of delivery of such booklets to electors will be met by the Combined Authority or Combined County Authority.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 2 December 2024 from the Rt hon. Member for New Forest East on research into the accuracy of data produced by the Meteorological Office.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department attaches great importance to providing timely responses to Member’s correspondence. Regrettably a processing error has severely delayed our response in this instance, for which the Department sincerely apologises. We are taking steps to correct this system to prevent further errors of this nature. We will provide a full response urgently.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to prevent non-disclosure agreements from being used to conceal serious misconduct against former employees.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has been clear that non-disclosure agreements should not be misused by employers to conceal misconduct in the workplace. There are already legal limitations as to what NDAs can be used for, meaning the relevant clause would be unenforceable if it attempted to prevent a worker from whistleblowing, require a worker to cover up iniquity, or prevent a worker from doing anything that they may be required to do by law. We continue to look at how to make improvements to ensuring the misuse of NDAs is not used to conceal misconduct in the workplace.