Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2025 to Question 61272 on South West Main Line: Dawlish, which rail enhancement projects will be funded by the Spending Review 2025.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Spending Review settlement represents an increase in funding on what has been spent on rail enhancements in recent years. This demonstrates the Government’s commitment to investment in rail and in schemes that support economic growth.

The Secretary of State will be setting out more details of the specific road and rail investments funded by the Spending Review in the coming weeks.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what contracts their Department has with Palantir.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to tackle the levels of radon gas at HMP Dartmoor.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Elevated radon readings were first found at Dartmoor in 2020. HMPPS has been monitoring radon levels to manage exposure to prisoners and staff.

Dartmoor has been temporarily closed since August 2024 after monitoring results were higher than expected. We are working with specialist radon experts to investigate whether we can re-open the prison safely.

The health and safety of prisoners and staff is our top priority.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what contracts their Department has with Palantir.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Details of all Home Office contracts above the minimum threshold are routinely published on the Contract Finder website.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what contracts their Department has with Palantir.

Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Details of central Government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder.

Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to make the NHS Accessible Information Standard legally enforceable.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published on 1 July, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/accessible-information-standard/

NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the National Health Service are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.

Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the AIS, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss.

The responsibility for monitoring compliance with the AIS sits with the commissioner of the service.

The revised standard requires those staff in relevant communication and information roles to be adequately trained. The AIS conformance criteria, published in 2016 and updated in June 2025, set out how organisations should comply with the AIS. NHS England is leading a system wide review of mandatory training which will include a new governance framework and a table of statutory obligations as well as a new competency framework setting out all nationally mandated subjects and learning outcomes.

Following the commencement of regulations made under the Health and Care Act 2022, mandatory information standards will be introduced in a staged process. NHS England will consider the case for developing a mandatory AIS standard, and the timing for this, along with the other existing standards.

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 ensure that the NHS Accessible Information Standard is (a) prioritised and (b) fully implemented.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published on 1 July, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/accessible-information-standard/

NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the National Health Service are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.

Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the AIS, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss.

The responsibility for monitoring compliance with the AIS sits with the commissioner of the service.

The revised standard requires those staff in relevant communication and information roles to be adequately trained. The AIS conformance criteria, published in 2016 and updated in June 2025, set out how organisations should comply with the AIS. NHS England is leading a system wide review of mandatory training which will include a new governance framework and a table of statutory obligations as well as a new competency framework setting out all nationally mandated subjects and learning outcomes.

Following the commencement of regulations made under the Health and Care Act 2022, mandatory information standards will be introduced in a staged process. NHS England will consider the case for developing a mandatory AIS standard, and the timing for this, along with the other existing standards.

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 make (a) the NHS Accessible Information Standard and (b) deaf awareness training mandatory for NHS staff.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published on 1 July, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/accessible-information-standard/

NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the National Health Service are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.

Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the AIS, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss.

The responsibility for monitoring compliance with the AIS sits with the commissioner of the service.

The revised standard requires those staff in relevant communication and information roles to be adequately trained. The AIS conformance criteria, published in 2016 and updated in June 2025, set out how organisations should comply with the AIS. NHS England is leading a system wide review of mandatory training which will include a new governance framework and a table of statutory obligations as well as a new competency framework setting out all nationally mandated subjects and learning outcomes.

Following the commencement of regulations made under the Health and Care Act 2022, mandatory information standards will be introduced in a staged process. NHS England will consider the case for developing a mandatory AIS standard, and the timing for this, along with the other existing standards.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on corporate governance.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government intends to upgrade the existing reporting and audit regulator, to expand the regulator’s scrutiny to the largest private companies and to hold company directors to account for serious failures in their duties connected with company accounts.

It will bring forward its planned legislation when Parliamentary time allows.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what contracts their Department has with Palantir.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what contracts their Department has with Palantir.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the Environment Agency has spent delivering biodiversity net gain (a) above and (b) below mean high water on projects related to flood defence in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency has committed to delivering natural flood management schemes and meeting statutory requirements on habitat creation and biodiversity net gain (BNG), as part of its Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Programme.

This will leave nature in a measurably better state than before work to deliver flood alleviation schemes commenced, supporting the broader goal of creating more climate-resilient places.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to guarantee that individuals have a right to opt out of digital ID schemes.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government has no plans to introduce legislation on the right to opt out of using digital identities. Nor has the Government taken any steps to make their use mandatory.

The digital verification services provisions in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 are designed to give people choice. They help both people and organisations to realise the benefits of secure digital identities with greater confidence, if they choose to use them.

The Government also plans to introduce digital versions of existing government-issued documents through the GOV.UK Wallet, a secure digital service for storing government-issued credentials on users’ smartphones. However, people will still be able to prove their identity using physical documents if they prefer.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to periodically review NHS AI models to ensure continued alignment with (a) data protection and (b) clinical safety standards.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are strict safeguards in place throughout the National Health Service to protect data. All providers of services which handle patient data must protect that data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and every health organisation is required to appoint a Caldicott Guardian to advise on the protection of people’s health and care data, and to ensure that it is used properly. This includes where artificial intelligence (AI) is used in relation to patient records.

The Information Commissioners Office has developed detailed AI guidance which provides an overarching view of data protection, including the need for Data Protection Impact Assessments and to ensure compliance with UK GDPR. They have also produced an AI toolkit to support organisations auditing compliance of their AI-based technologies. NHS bodies are expected to make use of this guidance and toolkit.

The NHS has published two clinical risk management standards relating to clinical safety, with the codes DCB0129 and DCB0160, both of which are applicable to AI. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, manufacturers of health IT systems and health organisations that deploy and use these systems must have regard to these standards. In line with current Data Coordination Board practice, each standard comprises of: a specification, which defines the requirements and conformance criteria to be met by the user of the standard, and with the user responsible for how these requirements are met; and implementation guidance, which provides an interpretation of the requirements and, where appropriate, defines possible approaches to achieving them.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of Federated Data Platform development work is carried out by UK‑based engineers; and whether data processing beyond AWS input processes is off‑shored.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

All NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) development work is carried out by United Kingdom based engineers, therefore there is no offshoring. This is documented in the contract, Information Governance Framework, and Memorandum of Understanding. It is a contractual requirement that personal data stored in the FDP and National Health Service Privacy Enhancing Technology cannot be accessed by its provider’s personnel or contractors based outside the UK. These measures collectively ensure that NHS data remains under UK jurisdiction and that all processing of patient information will be within the UK only. This is a contractual requirement, and one of the key principles of the Federated Data Platform Information Governance Framework. Data cannot be accessed or processed by non-UK Government entities.

Information on how data is protected, who can access it, and under what conditions, is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/overarching-data-protection-impact-assessment-dpia-for-the-federated-data-platform-fdp/#18-in-which-country-territory-will-personal-data-be-stored-or-processed

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England has stress‑tested the portability of (a) data schemas, (b) application programming interfaces and (c) dashboards for use on other vendor platforms.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS Federated Data Platform products are built using open-source technologies, for instance Python and Spark. End-user products can also be built using open market frameworks, for instance React, interfacing to the platform Application Programming Interfaces. The NHS Federated Data Platform has extensive integration capabilities. The platform has active integrations using alternative visualisation tools, for instance PowerBI. The NHS Federated Data Platform Data Schemas are published to GitHub.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of aligning the the UK and EU carbon trading systems on meeting the UK's climate targets.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government is committed to ensuring that any future linkage of the UK and EU Emissions Trading Schemes remains consistent with the UK’s climate obligations and will not prevent us from pursuing higher ambition.

The “Common Understanding” text agreed between the UK and the EU at the 19^th May Summit, states that: "The United Kingdom cap and the United Kingdom reduction pathway will be guided by the United Kingdom’s Climate Change Act obligations and Nationally Determined Contributions,” In addition, a future linking agreement: “should not constrain the European Union and the United Kingdom from pursuing higher environmental ambition, consistent with their international obligations."

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what contracts their Department has with Palantir.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Details of Government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform’s Find a Tender service.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of hours Natural England has spent providing advice to the Marine Management Organisation on marine licence applications in each of the last five years.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The table below shows data from Natural England’s Casework Tracker (CWT) for the number of recorded hours spent providing advice to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) from 2020-2025. Both calendar and financial year splits are included.

These data include some other types of MMO consultations as well as licenses which will require further analysis that has not been possible in the time available.

Marine MMO Consultations closed per year – Total Hours recorded on CWT:

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether patients who are data controllers under the national data opt‑out can (a) review and (b) challenge how their records are processed within the Federated Data Platform.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Federated Data Platform fully complies with the National Data Opt-Out policy. Confidential patient information is not used in the national instance, and only in a local instance for the purposes of direct care, and therefore the National Data Opt-Out does not apply.

If this changes in the future, because a new product processes confidential patient information for a purpose other than direct care, the process for managing the opt out is laid out in the FDP Information Governance Framework, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/federated-data-platform-information-governance-framework/

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what milestones are included in the Federated Data Platform contract to (a) facilitate orderly off‑boarding and (b) data migration to an alternative provider.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Federated Data Platform Associated Services (FDP-AS) agreement has a comprehensive Exit Management Schedule which sets out the contract terms for exit, including the requirements on Palantir to support in re-procurement planning, exit, and transition assistance which would facilitate the migration to a future solution/state. Data migration is in the scope of the Exit Management provisions.

The terms of the FDP-AS agreement, within the context of the potential total contract duration, sets out the timeframes and periods of assistance that NHS England may utilise to facilitate exit and migration.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to verify that derivative analytical outputs from the NHS Federated Digital Platform cannot be reverse‑engineered to reveal identifiable patient data.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

All analytics products created by NHS England, including those developed on the NHS Federated Data Platform, are subject to a full Data Privacy Impact Assessment (DPIA) as part of the design and development process, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/overarching-data-protection-impact-assessment-dpia-for-the-federated-data-platform-fdp/#18-in-which-country-territory-will-personal-data-be-stored-or-processed

All data used by the NHS Federated Data Platform integrates with advanced Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET). This has been procured from a separate supplier to ensure independence and to mitigate any potential conflicts of interest. This technology ensures that data is processed in a secure and privacy-preserving manner.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether patients will be consulted on changes to purpose‑based access policies during the contract with Palantir.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Health Service is committed to maintaining public trust and transparency in the use of patient data and to ensuring that patients and the public are informed and engaged in decisions that affect how their data is used. This aligns with NHS England’s broader commitment to working in partnership with people and communities.

The Federated Data Platform uses a Purpose-Based Access Control model. This ensures that access to data is strictly governed by the specific purposes approved by NHS England.

Any change to the approved use cases, or new use cases, will require further engagement with patients and stakeholder advisory groups, including the Specialist Information Governance Advisory Group, and approval from the Data Governance Group. This engagement would be prior to, and inform any changes to, purpose-based access policies.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS‑funded analytics solutions created on the Federated Data Platform have been (a) patented and (b) registered by (i) Palantir Technologies and (ii) its subsidiaries.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Within the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP), where the National Health Service commissions and funds the development of solutions, the intellectual property of these solutions remains with the NHS.

Under the FDP-Associated Services Agreement between NHS England and Palantir, background intellectual property, prior to entering into the agreement, remains the property of the respective party.

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 potential impact of Palantir's involvement on the NHS model of being free at the point of use.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The provision by Palantir Industries of the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) has no impact on National Health Service care being free at the point of use.

Palantir is a technology supplier providing the underlying technology that supports the FDP. They do not influence NHS policy, funding models, or decisions about access to care. Their role is limited to delivering technical services under the direction and control of the NHS.

Question

To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps the Commission is taking to support the work of the House of Commons Table Office; and what assessment the Commission has made of the contribution of that Office in supporting hon. Members with parliamentary questions.

Answered by Nick Smith

In addition to producing the Order Paper each day and receiving applications for adjournment debates in the House and Westminster Hall, since the beginning of this Parliament, the Table Office has processed nearly 74,000 Questions for Written Answer and over 1,600 Early Day Motions. The Office also carries out the daily “shuffle” for oral questions, and provides the secretariat to the Backbench Business Committee.

The Office is staffed by a team of 16 people, ten of whom process parliamentary questions as part of their wider duties, working on a rota system to provide continuous cover when the House is sitting.

The work of the Office has recently been improved by enhancements to the back end of the MemberHub system, making it easier to find similar or duplicate questions. Further enhancements to the Office’s digital platforms will be delivered later in the year.

Members are required to take responsibility for Questions tabled and I would encourage colleagues to visit the Lower Table Office, directly outside the Chamber, to discuss any queries.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many marine licenses were determined by the Marine Management Organisation for (a) removal of abandoned vessels, (b) firework displays, (c) maintenance of bridges or cantilevered structures, (d) installation of eco moorings and (e) coastal and flood defence works in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of hours the Environment Agency has spent providing advice to the Marine Management Organisation on marine licence applications in each of the last five years.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency (EA) uses Oracle Time and Labour (OTL) compliance recording to record against their various workstreams. There are many different OTL codes that record the type of advice provided to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) for marine licence advice, from pre-planning advice to advice on significant infrastructure.

The table below shows the number of recorded OTL hours that the EA have spent providing all types of marine licence advice to the MMO from 2020-2025

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the Environment Agency has spent on (a) mitigation and (b) compensation for flood defence projects in each of the last three years.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The table below shows the amount that the Environment Agency has spent on compensation payments in financial years 2023-24 and 2022-23. This data is based on costs incurred that were classified within transactional data as compensation payments, so may not be fully complete. To establish how much of these costs have been incurred through flood defence projects would fall into disproportionate costs. Data for 2024-25 is not available.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much income the Marine Management Organisation have received from charges for (a) harbour revision orders and (b) harbour empowerment order applications in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

* hours for the empowerment order, the fee was received in 2019 and was £4000.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hours the Marine Management Organisation has spent determining (a) Band 2 and (b) Band 3 marine licence applications in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

* hours for the empowerment order, the fee was received in 2019 and was £4000.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hours the Marine Management Organisation have spent processing (a) harbour revision orders and (b) harbour empowerment orders in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

* hours for the empowerment order, the fee was received in 2019 and was £4000.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that public services do not use non-disclosure agreements on whistleblowers.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

There are existing legal limitations to what NDAs can be used for, and an NDA would be unenforceable if it attempted to prevent a worker from making a protected disclosure, i.e., whistleblowing.

However, we have heard calls for change and taken action. We have tabled an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill which will further limit the use of NDAs by voiding NDAs between employers and workers that prevent a worker from speaking out about relevant harassment and discrimination in the workplace. This will give millions of workers confidence that inappropriate behaviour in the workplace will not be hidden.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential risks of cross‑contamination risk when data from multiple NHS trusts are ingested into a single cloud environment.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

In order to assess the risk and impact to data privacy, all Federated Data Platform (FDP) installations are required to complete a Data Privacy Impact Assessment (DPIA). An overarching DPIA for the FDP was also undertaken.

Each FDP Tenant is a logically separated instance of the Foundry Platform. Each tenant has separate administrators, and independent control of all data ingress and egress. User access is controlled by a combination of Role Based Access Controls and Purpose Based Access Controls to ensure that access to data is only available to users with a documented and auditable reason for access.

All changes to the product or platform go through a careful process of development, testing, quality assurance, and change management before they are released. This helps to prevent errors and problems. The FDP has several measures in place to keep data safe. These include:

• ¾strong network security, namely firewalls and intrusion detection systems that monitor all network traffic to and from the platform, to block unauthorised access and detect suspicious activity;
• data encryption of all data stored on the platform, both when transferred, or in transit, and when stored on servers;
• purpose based access, as users only have access to the data they need to do their jobs. This helps to minimise the risk of unauthorised access to sensitive information;
• detailed logging and monitoring, as all user activity on the platform is logged and monitored for suspicious activity. This helps to identify potential security breaches quickly and maintains a full audit trail. Security logs are encrypted and stored securely;
• regular security testing, with the platform undergoing regular penetration testing and vulnerability scanning to identify and fix any weaknesses in its security;
• development lifecycle, with all changes to the product or platform going through a careful process of development, testing, quality assurance, and change management before they are released. This helps to prevent errors and problems; and
• monitoring, as live services teams constantly monitor the product or platform 24 hours a day, seven days a week to quickly identify and fix any issues that may arise.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what intellectual property rights NHS England retains over (a) data models, (b) ontologies and (c) analytics solutions produced within the Federated Data Platform.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Within the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP), the National Health Service retains the Intellectual Property of the solutions it funds or develops, including all associated data models, ontologies, including the NHS Canonical data model, products, and analytical solutions.

Under the FDP-Associated Services Agreement between NHS England and Palantir, background Intellectual Property, prior to entering into the agreement, remains the property of the respective party.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on its data cleaning specification for Palantir; and whether that specification defines how patient data are (a) extracted, (b) transformed and (c) loaded into the federated data platform.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has not had any discussions with my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on this matter.

Each local organisation has their own instance of the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) for which they are the data controller, and can opt into any of the core products that support delivery of patient care.

Local organisations can connect and share information currently stored in separate systems to support staff to access the information they need in one safe and secure environment, where there is a legal basis to do so.

Data is only ingested into an FDP Tenant following establishment of the legal basis and a specific purpose for usage of that data. Most commonly this is for use in FDP products, for example those which support the management of waiting lists, theatre scheduling, or effective discharge of patients.

Data is extracted, cleaned, enriched, and transformed according to the requirements of each use case or product. The FDP program uses the concept of the NHS Canonical Data Model to ensure that data is treated consistently across FDP Tenants, and this enables the development of consistent, reusable products.

Prior to ingestion from the source systems to the FDP Tenant, the NHS-Privacy Enhancing Technology (NHS-PET) service registers the flow. NHS-PET is a standalone service located between primary data sources and the FDP-Associated Services (AS) platform, providing a data orchestration and privacy service for FDP-AS data ingress and inter-tenant transfers.

The NHS-PET service creates records of the types and uses of data which are used in every instance of NHS FDP. If the data is to be used for secondary uses, not direct care, the NHS-PET service can treat personal data to remove identifiers utilising techniques such as anonymisation, masking, generalisation, and pseudonymisation. Privacy treated data is modelled by FDP-AS and is then made available for specific purposes.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has received recent correspondence from Palantir.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care received a letter from Louis Mosley, the Executive Vice President for the United Kingdom and Europe of Palantir Technologies, on 3 March 2025, offering to meet to discuss the roll-out of the NHS Federated Data Platform.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will allocate funding to Phase 5 of the South West Rail Resilience Programme in the next spending review.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

We have set out our plans for this Spending Review period and will consider the next Spending Review at the appropriate time.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will publish her Department's analysis of phase 5 of the South West Rail Resilience Programme.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department does not publish analysis of rail enhancement projects whilst they remain in development.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has set a deadline for Network Rail to produce a revised proposal for Phase 5 of the South West Rail Resilience Programme.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

We are continuing to fund drainage and ground investigations that will provide Network Rail with detailed data on the stability of the cliffs above that section of route and will inform their consideration of a proposal for a long-term solution in due course.

The project will be kept under active review as part of our longer-term pipeline of schemes, for further consideration when funding discussions are being held and we have a clear proposal for a long-term solution.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether alternative (a) funding models and (b) timelines are under consideration for delivering the final stage of the South West Rail Resilience Programme.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

We are continuing to fund drainage and ground investigations that will provide Network Rail with detailed data on the stability of the cliffs above that section of route and will inform their consideration of a proposal for a long-term solution in due course.

The project will be kept under active review as part of our longer-term pipeline of schemes, for further consideration when funding discussions are being held and we have a clear proposal for a long-term solution.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department commissioned an independent assessment of the viability of proposed engineering solutions for Phase 5 of the South West Rail Resilience Programme (a) during and (b) since the Spending Review 2025.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

We are continuing to fund drainage and ground investigations that will provide Network Rail with detailed data on the stability of the cliffs above that section of route and will inform their consideration of a proposal for a long-term solution in due course.

The project will be kept under active review as part of our longer-term pipeline of schemes, for further consideration when funding discussions are being held and we have a clear proposal for a long-term solution.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has taken steps with Network Rail to develop a proposal for the Teignmouth to Parsons Tunnel section of the South West Rail Resilience Programme since the Spending Review 2025.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

We are continuing to fund drainage and ground investigations that will provide Network Rail with detailed data on the stability of the cliffs above that section of route and will inform their consideration of a proposal for a long-term solution in due course.

The project will be kept under active review as part of our longer-term pipeline of schemes, for further consideration when funding discussions are being held and we have a clear proposal for a long-term solution.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department plans to take to improve resilience along the stretch between Parsons Tunnel and Teignmouth pending the completion of Phase 5.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

We are continuing to fund drainage and ground investigations that will provide Network Rail with detailed data on the stability of the cliffs above that section of route and will inform their consideration of a proposal for a long-term solution in due course.

The project will be kept under active review as part of our longer-term pipeline of schemes, for further consideration when funding discussions are being held and we have a clear proposal for a long-term solution.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, under what circumstances Phase 5 of the South West Rail Resilience Programme would receive funding.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

We are continuing to fund drainage and ground investigations that will provide Network Rail with detailed data on the stability of the cliffs above that section of route and will inform their consideration of a proposal for a long-term solution in due course.

The project will be kept under active review as part of our longer-term pipeline of schemes, for further consideration when funding discussions are being held and we have a clear proposal for a long-term solution.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of delaying Phase 5 of the South West Rail Resilience Programme on (a) the local economy and (b) transport resilience.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Spending Review considered and prioritised investment across all government spending, taking account of business cases and affordability, including economic and social impacts.

The Government does not undertake formal consultation with regional stakeholders as part of Spending Reviews.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consultations were undertaken with regional stakeholders prior to the decision not to fund Phase 5 of the South West Rail Resilience Programme.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Spending Review considered and prioritised investment across all government spending, taking account of business cases and affordability, including economic and social impacts.

The Government does not undertake formal consultation with regional stakeholders as part of Spending Reviews.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has received recent correspondence from Palantir.

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

The Secretary of State has received recent correspondence from Palantir and will be responding in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has received recent correspondence from Palantir.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Home Office ministers and officials receive correspondence from a range of businesses and other organisations on a regular basis.

Statutory consultees for sustainable development

Funding and support for SEND

Tribute to David Lawrie

Provision of trained Family Liaison Officers

Election of University of St Andrews academics to the British Academy

Food waste

Green House Climate Club campaign

Lothians Speak Their Name project

Joe's Day campaign

Carers and social care reform

Impact of EU 90/180 day rule on UK citizens

Reform of the special educational needs and disabilities system

Small businesses in North Cornwall

Cool hubs

Rail fare increase

Post Offices in rural areas

Ban trophy hunting imports

Found: Race (Labour; Exeter) Dr Lauren Sullivan (Labour; Gravesham) Adam Thompson (Labour; Erewash) Martin Wrigley

Found: 15 of 18 (83.3%) Adam Thompson (Labour, Erewash) (added 21 Oct 2024) 16 of 18 (88.9%) Martin Wrigley

Found: Martin Wrigley: First of all, have I summarised what your system does in a reasonable way?

Found: Dr Allison Gardner; Kit Malthouse; Jon Pearce; Steve Race; Dr Lauren Sullivan; Adam Thompson; Martin Wrigley

Found: Susan Murray Andrew George Alex Brewer Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: Susan Murray Andrew George Alex Brewer Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 4 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 2 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 4 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 2 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: Susan Murray Andrew George Alex Brewer Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: Susan Murray Andrew George Alex Brewer Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 4 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 2 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: Susan Murray Andrew George Alex Brewer Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: Susan Murray Andrew George Alex Brewer Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 4 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 2 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: Susan Murray Andrew George Alex Brewer Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: Susan Murray Andrew George Alex Brewer Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 4 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 2 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 2 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 4 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: Chambers Mr Lee Dillon Mr Paul Kohler Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: Chambers Mr Lee Dillon Mr Paul Kohler Claire Young Sarah Dyke Charlotte Cane Olly Glover Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 4 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: July 2025 2 _NC3 Mr Joshua Reynolds Pippa Heylings Susan Murray Rachel Gilmour Tom Gordon Martin Wrigley

Found: David Chadwick Caroline Voaden Sarah Dyke Sorcha Eastwood Liz Jarvis Bell Ribeiro-Addy Martin Wrigley

Found: David Chadwick Caroline Voaden Sarah Dyke Sorcha Eastwood Liz Jarvis Bell Ribeiro-Addy Martin Wrigley

Found: David Chadwick Caroline Voaden Sarah Dyke Sorcha Eastwood Liz Jarvis Bell Ribeiro-Addy Martin Wrigley

No description available