Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking with the DVLA to reduce driving test wait times in Sunderland Central.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is taking action to reduce waiting times in Sunderland Central and across Great Britain. This includes recruiting and training more driving examiners (DEs), providing additional tests through overtime and targeting examiner capacity where demand is greatest. DVSA has also strengthened booking rules to tackle misuse and improve access to appointments for learner drivers.
DVSA is actively recruiting DEs for Sunderland through its current recruitment campaign. It has also transferred two DEs from another centre to conduct driving tests at Sunderland, and one potential new DE from recent recruitment in Sunderland is due to begin training. A full-time DE can provide approximately 1,200 tests a year.
DVSA publishes detailed data on car driving test waiting times to help learners better understand the availability of driving tests. Waiting-time data for individual driving test centres is available on GOV.UK in table DRT122F.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of UK Visas and Immigration decision-making in relation to international students on the financial sustainability of UK universities; and how her Department is liaising with the Home Office to help ensure effective cross-government working in this area.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has been clear that we welcome international students who meet the requirements to study in the UK and positively impact our higher education (HE) sector.
The Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of English HE providers, has statutory duties relating to financial sustainability. The government works closely with the OfS to monitor financial risks across the sector.
Ultimately, HE providers are independent from government and as such must continue to make the necessary and appropriate decisions to ensure their long-term sustainability.
All study visa applicants are required to meet the genuine student requirements set out in the Immigration Rules. UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) considers each application on its individual merits. Department officials regularly engage with the Home Office and UKVI to discuss range of issues pertaining to the study visa route.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of his Department's report entitled Prison leavers in substance misuse treatment.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the Honourable member to the answer I gave on 1 June 2026 to Question 2708: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2026-05-19/2708/.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress the Joint Combating Drugs Unit has made; and what policy work relating to combating drugs she is currently undertaking with other departments.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Joint Combating Drugs Unit (JCDU) continues to work closely with departments to ensure we take a coordinated, whole-system approach to tackling drugs and drug-related harms.
JCDU maintains strong cross-system governance at national level, supported by work to further develop the national outcomes framework. At a local level, the unit continues to work with Combating Drugs Partnerships (CDPs) to support a joined-up approach to delivery, and recently published an independent evaluation which found that CDPs have strengthened multi-agency working with strong leadership and clear governance key to success (www.gov.uk/government/publications/process-evaluation-of-combating-drugs-partnerships/process-evaluation-of-combating-drugs-partnerships). The JCDU is also supporting Dame Carol Black, the Independent Advisor to Government on drugs, on a programme of expert-led work to improve our understanding of system challenges, as well as engaging with international partners to share information and best practice.
Alongside this, the Government continues to make progress on a range of department-led work to prevent drug use, improve treatment and recovery support, and support enforcement partners to tackle drug supply. This includes record numbers engaging with drug and alcohol treatment, wider access to life-saving naloxone, and increased drug seizures and county lines closures.
Tackling these issues is central to delivering the Government’s missions to make our streets safer, improve health, widen opportunity and support growth.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the introduction of a voluntary levy on stadium and arena live music tickets.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has called for widespread adoption of the live music sector’s £1 voluntary ticket contribution to help safeguard the future of the grassroots music sector. We want to see the levy in place for as many stadium and arena shows in 2026 as possible, and we continue to urge major promoters, venues, and artists to step up.
The Government welcomes the commitment already made by many, and is encouraged to see that the LIVE Trust has already distributed over £500,000 in levy funding to industry programmes and is projected to receive a total of £10 million in 2026.
However, we want to see uptake increase further, and have consistently said that we are prepared to explore legislative options if required to ensure the sustainability of our world-leading live music industry.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of legislation addressing coercive and controlling behaviour in respect of capturing patterns of such behaviour occurring within groups, organisations or closed communities.
Answered by Natalie Fleet
We know that controlling and coercive behaviour (CCB) is a particularly insidious form of abuse and recognise the long-term emotional and psychological distress it can cause.
Controlling or coercive behaviour is an offence in the Serious Crime Act (2015). The statutory definition of domestic abuse, contained within the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, explicitly recognises controlling or coercive behaviour as a form of domestic abuse. The Act extended the coercive or controlling behaviour offence to ex-partners and families who do not live together. This offers protection to victims who are experiencing CCB from a family member they do not live with or post-separation abuse from an ex-partner.
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 introduced a statutory definition of ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA). Once in force, this will explicitly recognise that controlling or coercive behaviour can take place within a HBA context. The definition stipulates that the perpetrator(s) and the victim must be known to one another in person. This includes those that are personally connected but also wider community members who might be perpetrating the abuse.
The government has set out our view on the implementation of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, including CCB, in “Domestic Abuse Act 2021: post-legislative scrutiny”, which is published on Gov.UK.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of (a) respect for human rights and (b) the independence of the rule of law in Bangladesh in the past three months.
Answered by Seema Malhotra
I met Prime Minister Rahman on 17 February and reinforced the UK's commitment to working with the Government of Bangladesh to advance democratic, economic and social reforms. I welcomed the peaceful and credible parliamentary elections held earlier that month as an important step forward for the country and its people. The UK continues to encourage the Bangladeshi authorities to work towards a sustainable and inclusive political settlement in the interests of all Bangladeshis, and to ensure that the rights and voices of minority groups and civil society are recognised within that process.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
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 adequacy of provision of NHS specialist endometriosis care since the publication of the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England on 15 April 2026.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Government acknowledges the challenges faced by women with endometriosis and the impact it has on their lives, their relationships and their participation in education and the workforce. We are committed to improving waiting times for diagnosis and treatment so patients can get the care they need sooner.
For women with severe endometriosis, NHS England commissions specialised services through 61 accredited hospitals contracted to deliver care in line with the current service specification. These are accredited by the British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy. A revised specification is progressing through NHS governance and commissioning processes, ahead of consideration by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group in 2026/27.
The revised specification will introduce a networked model of care to ensure all patients with endometriosis have access to clinicians with appropriate expertise, including through primary care, community services, and secondary care settings. This will improve the standards of care for women with severe endometriosis by ensuring specialist endometriosis services have access to the most up-to-date evidence and advice.
Research has led to new treatments being made available, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approval of two pills to treat endometriosis in 2025, namely Relugolix and Linzagolix. Both are estimated to help approximately 1,000 women with severe endometriosis for whom other treatment options have not been effective.
Endometriosis is also identified as a priority condition in the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, where women experience unacceptably long delays to diagnosis, pain being dismissed, and fragmented care.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle the causes of homelessness in Sunderland Central constituency.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our National Plan to End Homelessness sets out how we will tackle the root causes of homelessness across England, including a generational increase in new social and affordable homes backed by £39 billion investment and tackling poverty by scrapping the two-child limit to lift 450,000 children out of poverty.
Asked by: Lewis Atkinson (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she can list the (a) Ministerial responsibilities and (b) the responsibilities and reporting arrangements of any relevant cross-departmental units in relation to drugs policy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Joint Combating Drugs Unit (JCDU) is responsible for driving and co-ordinating efforts across Government to tackle drugs, working in close partnership with six departments – the Home Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Department for Education. JCDU comprises full-time civil servants who are seconded from key government departments.
Each department is responsible for delivery of their programmes and projects. Progress is overseen by the lead departmental ministers but also reported to me as the lead drugs Minister, while a lead Permanent Secretary fulfils the role of senior responsible owner at official level.
Illicit drug use affects the whole of society, and this Government is taking a collective response to deliver safer streets, improve health outcomes and contribute to opportunities and growth through reducing crime and saving lives.