Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has conducted an equality impact assessment of the increase in the use of artificial intelligence in the National Health Service.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have not conducted a central Equality Impact Assessment of the increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the National Health Service. The Department leads national policy and regulation to ensure the deployment of AI tools within health and social care is safe, ethical, and effective, and that it supports equitable access to these technologies to ensure that all patients and staff benefit from advancements in AI.
National Health Service trusts are free to make their own decisions regarding the adoption and deployment of AI tools, and NHS trusts are expected to ensure that access to the tools they employ is safe, ethical, effective and equitable for all within their remit.
Aligned to the Equality Act 2010 and Health and Social Care Act 2012, Equality Impact Assessments and Equality and Healthcare Inequalities Impact Assessments should be undertaken by all organisations in relation to each specific policy, proposition, programmes, proposal, or initiative in scope of public sector equality duties.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she has taken with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure women over 55 years old have adequate opportunities to participate in skill and development training for using AI in the public sector.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Through the UK Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan and the GDS Roadmap for a Modern Digital Government, we are taking a whole‑of‑government approach to expanding access to digital skills and embedding the responsible use of AI across public services.
Together they include the significant £7.5 million upskilling initiative designed to expand access to AI skills for everyone across the economy, including those in the public sector, and the plan for government to lead by example and ensure public sector staff are equipped to use and embed digital and AI‑enabled tools.
Technology should be open to all. That is why DSIT Secretary of State set up a Women in Tech Taskforce. The first meeting was held on Monday 15th December 2025. The Taskforce will examine the systemic barriers that prevent women and other underrepresented groups from entering, progressing, and leading in the tech sector.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has conducted an equality impact assessment for the increase in employer National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
The Government is firmly committed to supporting women to enter, stay and progress in work, tackling gender pay gaps and ensuring women can reach their full potential in the labour market. To help make work pay for mothers in particular, we are improving access to affordable childcare through the Tax-Free Childcare scheme and 30 hours of funded childcare a week.
The Government is committed to supporting young people to earn and learn. That is why we are delivering a Youth Guarantee, backed by £820m over the Spending Review period. This includes providing guaranteed paid work placements to young people on Universal Credit, who are unemployed for over 18 months, granting an opportunity for young people to gain essential skills and experience and prevent the damaging effects of long-term unemployment. The Youth Guarantee will also create nearly 300,000 additional work experience and training opportunities, further expand Youth Hubs to every local area of Great Britain, and increase investment to prevent young people from falling out of education, employment or training in future.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions on young people seeking employment.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
The Government is firmly committed to supporting women to enter, stay and progress in work, tackling gender pay gaps and ensuring women can reach their full potential in the labour market. To help make work pay for mothers in particular, we are improving access to affordable childcare through the Tax-Free Childcare scheme and 30 hours of funded childcare a week.
The Government is committed to supporting young people to earn and learn. That is why we are delivering a Youth Guarantee, backed by £820m over the Spending Review period. This includes providing guaranteed paid work placements to young people on Universal Credit, who are unemployed for over 18 months, granting an opportunity for young people to gain essential skills and experience and prevent the damaging effects of long-term unemployment. The Youth Guarantee will also create nearly 300,000 additional work experience and training opportunities, further expand Youth Hubs to every local area of Great Britain, and increase investment to prevent young people from falling out of education, employment or training in future.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions on female employees.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
The Government is firmly committed to supporting women to enter, stay and progress in work, tackling gender pay gaps and ensuring women can reach their full potential in the labour market. To help make work pay for mothers in particular, we are improving access to affordable childcare through the Tax-Free Childcare scheme and 30 hours of funded childcare a week.
The Government is committed to supporting young people to earn and learn. That is why we are delivering a Youth Guarantee, backed by £820m over the Spending Review period. This includes providing guaranteed paid work placements to young people on Universal Credit, who are unemployed for over 18 months, granting an opportunity for young people to gain essential skills and experience and prevent the damaging effects of long-term unemployment. The Youth Guarantee will also create nearly 300,000 additional work experience and training opportunities, further expand Youth Hubs to every local area of Great Britain, and increase investment to prevent young people from falling out of education, employment or training in future.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the number of additional (a) women and (b) ethnic minority people who will be earning incomes that will be taxed by surpassing (i) the basic income tax threshold and (ii) the higher rate of income tax threshold.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government has published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) setting out the impact of maintaining income Tax and equivalent National Insurance contributions thresholds. This includes an equalities assessment which states that individuals may be affected by this measure regardless of their protected characteristics.
The previous Government legislated to maintain personal tax thresholds until April 28. This Government has continued the policy maintaining thresholds to April 31.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has conducted an equality impact assessment of maintaining income tax thresholds until 2030/31.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government has published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) setting out the impact of maintaining income Tax and equivalent National Insurance contributions thresholds. This includes an equalities assessment which states that individuals may be affected by this measure regardless of their protected characteristics.
The previous Government legislated to maintain personal tax thresholds until April 28. This Government has continued the policy maintaining thresholds to April 31.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure a) all women who are eligible take up breast screening in West Sussex and b) his Department tracks and follows up on non-attendance appointments.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All eligible individuals, including in East and West Sussex, are given a timed appointment to attend the screening location closest to their registered general practice address, with the option to change the appointment time or location given by contacting the service. Research has shown that timed appointments are more effective in encouraging attendance. The service sends text reminders two and seven days before appointments.
Should an individual not attend their appointment, they are automatically given a new timed appointment at the same location and the same text reminder process occurs. If the individual does not attend the second timed appointment, they are offered an open invitation. This means that the individual can contact the service to book their own appointment. Since implementation of text reminders, the service has seen an improvement in appointment attendance, in line with expectations based on research.
Regular “do not attend” audits are undertaken by the service. The processes involved with these audits help identify any common rationales for non-attendance that can inform service improvement strategies.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) ensure all women who are eligible take up breast screening in East Sussex and (b) track and follow up on non-attendance appointments.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All eligible individuals, including in East and West Sussex, are given a timed appointment to attend the screening location closest to their registered general practice address, with the option to change the appointment time or location given by contacting the service. Research has shown that timed appointments are more effective in encouraging attendance. The service sends text reminders two and seven days before appointments.
Should an individual not attend their appointment, they are automatically given a new timed appointment at the same location and the same text reminder process occurs. If the individual does not attend the second timed appointment, they are offered an open invitation. This means that the individual can contact the service to book their own appointment. Since implementation of text reminders, the service has seen an improvement in appointment attendance, in line with expectations based on research.
Regular “do not attend” audits are undertaken by the service. The processes involved with these audits help identify any common rationales for non-attendance that can inform service improvement strategies.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that 85 per cent of breast cancer patients start treatment within 62 days of urgent referral.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cancer patients are waiting too long for diagnosis and treatment, and improving performance against cancer waiting time standards, including the 62-day standard, is a priority for the Government.
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including breast cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes for patients across England. The Department is committed to improving waiting times for cancer treatment so that people with cancer can access the care they need more quickly.
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet demand through investment in new diagnostic capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners. As a first step towards earlier diagnosis and faster treatment, the NHS is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans and appointments each week.
In May 2025, NHS England announced the world’s first roll out of liquid biopsy testing, which is now available for all eligible breast cancer patients, and which aims to speed up diagnosis and inform better treatment options for those with breast cancer.
£70 million has been invested into new LINAC radiotherapy machines, to replace older, less efficient machines. This vital investment demonstrates our commitment to improving radiotherapy services, and will ensure that the most advanced treatments are available to patients who need it and will boost productivity, reducing waiting lists and ultimately improving outcomes.
The upcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment. It will ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology and bring cancer care back into communities which need it the most. The plan will be published early this year.