Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, what assessment the Commission has made of the adequacy of drinking water provision in Tothill Street.
Answered by Nick Smith
Drinking water is supplied to every floor in Tothill Street in a tea station which has a sink and a zip tap. Each zip tap provides instant boiling as well as chilled drinking water.
Faults have been reported on some zip taps in Tothill Street and repairs have been sought as quickly as possible. There is currently an outstanding fault on the First Floor which requires the zip tap to be replaced. Drinking water remains available through the sink taps which meets the requirements in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and related guidance.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 expand access to women's health hubs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is encouraging integrated care boards (ICBs) to further expand the coverage of women’s health hubs and to support ICBs to use the learning from the women’s health hub pilots to improve local delivery of services to women and girls.
The 10-Year Health Plan set out the ambition for high autonomy to be the norm across every part of the country. ICBs are responsible for commissioning services that meet the healthcare needs of their local population and have the freedom to do so, and this includes women's health hubs and delivering the direction of the Women's Health Strategy. The Government is backing ICBs to do this through record funding. The 2025 Spending Review prioritised health, with record investment in the health and social care system.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 improve the recruitment and retention of staff in women’s health services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals.
To support this ambition, the Government plans to introduce a new set of standards for modern employment in April 2026. The new standards will reaffirm our commitment to improving retention by tackling the issues that matter to staff including promoting flexible working, improving staff health and wellbeing, and dealing with violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the NHS workplace. They will provide a framework for leaders across the NHS to build a supportive culture that embeds retention.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many officials were investigated under their Department's disciplinary processes in each of the last five years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s casework data is held for three years from the date of case closure.
Over the last three years, 139 officials were investigated under Defra’s disciplinary process. The 139 cases are broken down into the following:
2022 = 7 disciplinary cases were raised
2023 = 33 disciplinary cases were raised
2024 = 60 disciplinary cases were raised
2025 to date = 39 disciplinary cases have been raised
The information requested for 2020 and 2021 is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many additional cases are expected to be heard each year under the new swift courts compared with existing Crown Court processes.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Of the 3% of criminal trial cases that proceed to a jury trial in the Crown Court, over half would still proceed to the Crown Court and get a jury trial post-reform. The remainder would be expected to stay in the magistrates’ courts or would be allocated to the new ‘swift courts’.
The new ‘swift courts’ will operate within the existing Crown Court, and this means they will be dealing with the same cases that come into the Crown Court. As mode of trial allocations and trial listing remain a matter for the independent judiciary and are dependent on case mix, the Ministry of Justice is unable to comment on how cases arriving at the Crown Court will be distributed between ‘swift courts’ and jury trials.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed the potential impact of annual funding cycles for the Nursery Milk Scheme on suppliers and delivery partners.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursery Milk Scheme is a statutory scheme which allows registered early years childcare settings to claim one-third of a pint of milk for all children under the age of five years old who attend the setting for at least two hours per day. The statutory nature of the scheme means that it is not impacted by annual funding discussions, and these discussions therefore have no impact on the childcare settings who use the scheme, or on the suppliers who supply them.