Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider adding cheerleading as an approved (a) sport and (b) activity which can be assessed for GCSE Physical Education qualifications.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Cheerleading was recognised as a sport by the Home Nations Sport Councils in December last year.
It is not part of the current GCSE activity list, which was last reviewed in 2018. The department and awarding organisations developed a set of five key considerations which were applied to each activity in order to ensure parity and rigour of assessment.
The government launched an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review for ages 5 to 18, led by Professor Becky Francis CBE. As part of this review, curriculum and assessment arrangements are being evaluated, including the full range of national curriculum subjects and most GCSEs. This will address the key barriers to pupil achievement and ensure all young people have access to high standards and future opportunities. The department is currently awaiting the outcomes of the Review.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that magistrates receive training on (a) coercive control and (b) the longer-term impacts of domestic abuse; and whether any similar training is planned for the future.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
To preserve judicial independence, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the Lady Chief Justice has the statutory responsibility for the training of the courts judiciary in England and Wales, fulfilled by the Judicial College.
Domestic abuse is a significant element of initial and ongoing training for magistrates and legal advisers. All magistrates complete induction training on appointment and when authorised in new jurisdictions, before they undertake sittings. Regular continuation training in relation to domestic abuse, in all its forms, is provided thereafter. Magistrates sitting in the family and criminal jurisdictions receive mandatory domestic abuse training. The training is trauma-informed and reflects the wide nature of domestic abuse including coercive and controlling behaviour.
The College regularly reviews its training to ensure it remains high quality and up to date, and reflects contemporary law, practice and procedure.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to strengthen trauma-informed training for police officers responding to domestic abuse cases.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
In our manifesto, we committed to strengthening training on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) for policing to ensure that all officers have the right skills to investigate all VAWG offences, included domestic abuse, and provide consistent support for victims.
The Home Office has already invested £13.1 million this year into the new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP). This funding includes an uplift of nearly £2 million to deliver a robust package of training improvements.
Launched in April 2025, the NCVPP provides coordinated leadership within policing to drive up operational standards and skills across all 43 forces in their response to VAWG crimes.
Through the NCVPP, we are working closely with the College of Policing to develop strengthened, specialist training for officers across all operational levels - frontline, specialist, and leadership.
Grounded in academic research and behaviour change science, new training programmes will prioritise trauma-informed learning to ensure that all officers are well equipped to manage VAWG offenders and provide support to victims.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of routinely (a) recording and (b) reporting the number of animals bred for and not used in scientific research.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Home Office is presently reviewing the potential merits of recording and reporting the number of animals that were bred for and not used in scientific procedures.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) support retention in the police in England and (b) increase the number of police officers in Aylesbury constituency.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
In 2025/26, the Home Office is providing a total of up to £17.4 billion for police forces, which is an increase of up to £987 million compared to the 2024/25 police funding settlement. This includes a total of up to £376.8 million specifically to support officer maintenance at the expected headcount levels.
Thames Valley Police will receive up to £627.4 million in funding in 2025/26, an increase of up to £40.8 million when compared to the 2024/25 funding settlement, which represents a 7% cash increase and a 3.6% real terms increase in funding. This includes a total allocation of £10,662,824 to support the maintenance of 4,978 police officers (headcount).
As part of this, Thames Valley Police has been allocated a total of up and £6,093,042 to increasing neighbourhood policing roles, and, the projected growth for Thames Valley Police over 2025/26 will be 68 police officers (FTE) in neighbourhood policing roles.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to support families of UK citizens murdered overseas.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government remains committed to improving the support available to families affected by these tragic events. We recognise the importance of ensuring that bereaved families receive clear, compassionate, and timely information.
The Ministry of Justice is working closely with the Victims’ Commissioner, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to develop guidance aimed at improving the accessibility and clarity of information for families in these circumstances.
Families bereaved by homicide abroad can also access government commissioned support services. This includes the Homicide Service which offers emotional, practical, specialist, advocacy, and peer support to help families build resilience to cope with the impact of these devastating crimes.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled Statutory levy and online slot stake limits to be introduced to tackle gambling harm, published on 27 November 2024, what steps she is taking to ensure gambling companies accurately verify gamblers’ ages when enforcing stake limits for online slots.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Online stake limits have been set at £5 per spin for adults aged 25 and over since April of this year, and £2 per spin for 18-24 year olds since May.
All gambling operators offering gambling services to people in Great Britain must have a licence from the Gambling Commission, the independent regulator for gambling in Great Britain. The Gambling Commission requires all operators to complete age and identity verification before a customer can deposit money and gamble. As such, the Gambling Commission is responsible for verifying that operators are applying online slot stake limits correctly.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that a higher proportion of housing is affordable in (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) other rural areas.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 2 July 2025 (HCWS771).
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
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 effectiveness of the national spinal cord injury database.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The effectiveness of the National Spinal Cord Injury Database (NSCID) is kept under review and is subject to small incremental improvements to reflect changes to spinal cord injury services, and to maintain compliance with legislation. NHS England has been working with spinal cord injury charities to provide them with data within the parameters of information governance, UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data security, and data protection legislation, and data sharing agreements are in place.
Plans to enable patients to connect with charities are in development, which will require working in close collaboration with clinicians who will discuss the option of connecting the patient with a charity at the appropriate moment in their treatment pathway. NHS England has processes in place which enable stakeholders to request access to data held in the NSCID. These processes are compliant with existing information governance, UK GDPR, data protection, and data security legislation and policies. Each request for access to data is assessed in accordance with legislation and accompanying policies.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing access to the national spinal cord injury database to (a) charities and (b) other stakeholders.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The effectiveness of the National Spinal Cord Injury Database (NSCID) is kept under review and is subject to small incremental improvements to reflect changes to spinal cord injury services, and to maintain compliance with legislation. NHS England has been working with spinal cord injury charities to provide them with data within the parameters of information governance, UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data security, and data protection legislation, and data sharing agreements are in place.
Plans to enable patients to connect with charities are in development, which will require working in close collaboration with clinicians who will discuss the option of connecting the patient with a charity at the appropriate moment in their treatment pathway. NHS England has processes in place which enable stakeholders to request access to data held in the NSCID. These processes are compliant with existing information governance, UK GDPR, data protection, and data security legislation and policies. Each request for access to data is assessed in accordance with legislation and accompanying policies.