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 recent steps have been taken within the NHS to ensure compliance with the Records Management Code of Practice.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 8 July, NHS England issued new guidance concerning unlawful access to patient records, including advice for information governance professionals on how their organisations can prevent and monitor unlawful access to records, and the steps they should take when it is identified. This also includes guidance for patients on the safeguards in place to protect their records, and what to do if they think their data has been accessed inappropriately. The new guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/preventing-unlawful-access-to-patient-records/
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ministry of Defence personnel were affected by the reported cyberattack that compromised data associated with the Police National Legal Database and related systems.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
There has been no compromise of MOD networks. The reported cyberattack was against the Police National Legal Database (PNLD) system, which some MOD personnel use.
Defence worked with the Police National Management Centre to identify data of potentially affected personnel. Of the 409 individuals initially assessed as having MOD links, Defence notified 361; the remaining 48 records were invalid.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent steps he has taken to ensure compliance with the (a) Equality Act 2010 and (b) Renters' Rights Act 2025 within the rented housing sector.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Rentersâ Rights Act 2025 provides local authorities with strong investigatory and enforcement powers to bear down on rental discrimination practices in the private rented sector.
It addresses both overt discriminatory practices, such as âNo DSSâ adverts, and situations where landlords or letting agents use other indirect practices in order to prevent someone entering into a tenancy.
The government is increasing ring-fenced civil penalties to support a âpolluter paysâ approach to enforcement of the new tenancy system.
In accordance with the New Burdens Doctrine, we will ensure additional net costs on local authorities resulting from the Act are fully funded. To that end, my Department is providing ÂŁ41.12 million to local housing authorities for this financial year to help them undertake their new enforcement responsibilities. This funding is in addition to the ÂŁ18.2 million provided in 2025/26.
Our aim over the long term is to establish a sustainable funding system for private rented sector enforcement based on future Private Rented Sector Database fee revenues. We will set out further details in due course.
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 recent steps have been taken to ensure the availability of early diagnosis services for osteoporosis in Slough.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is supporting earlier diagnosis of osteoporosis through the NHS Elective Reform Plan and the 10-Year Health Plan, including improving access to diagnostic services such as DEXA scanning and supporting integrated fracture liaison services (FLS), which identify and assess people at risk of osteoporosis after a fracture.
Recent steps have been taken to strengthen the early diagnosis and management of osteoporosis for residents in Slough through the introduction of a dedicated FLS at the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. The service proactively identifies people aged 50 years old and over who have sustained a fragility fracture, recognising that these patients are at significantly increased risk of future fractures if osteoporosis is not diagnosed and treated promptly. Patients are systematically identified using the trust's Epic electronic patient record system, enabling the service to capture patients presenting with fractures and arrange timely assessment, including DEXA scanning, blood tests, and falls risk evaluation where appropriate. This ensures that underlying osteoporosis can be diagnosed earlier and appropriate treatment initiated to reduce the risk of subsequent fractures.
The trust has also strengthened case identification through enhanced use of digital systems. Non-vertebral fragility fractures are identified through Epic reporting, while vertebral fractures can be detected through radiology reporting processes, with further opportunities to expand early diagnosis through the use of artificial intelligence-supported identification of vertebral fractures. Patients requiring bone density assessment can access DEXA scanning through Frimley Health services, with the nearest DEXA scanner to Slough located at St Mark's Hospital in Maidenhead, alongside additional provision at Aldershot. The FLS service follows the evidence-based model developed with the support of Public Health England and National Health Service partners.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent measures her Department has introduced to (a) detect and (b) prevent sham marriages.
Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government takes abuse of the immigration system, including sham marriages and civil partnerships, extremely seriously. Family migration must be based on a genuine and subsisting relationship, and where this is not the case the Home Office will take robust action.
The sham marriage referral and investigation scheme, introduced under the Immigration Act 2014, continues to provide a strong platform for effective action to identify, disrupt and deter sham marriages and civil partnerships before they take place. The scheme applies to couples where one or both parties could gain an immigration advantage from marriage or civil partnership, allowing the Home Office to investigate and take action where appropriate.
Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules was updated in December 2020 to introduce specific grounds for the refusal or cancellation of permission to enter/stay on the basis of involvement in a sham marriage or sham civil partnership, providing a more robust and consistent framework against which immigration applications are assessed, and reflecting the seriousness of this type of abuse.
Most recently, the Home Office has strengthened its approach to tackling sham marriages and civil partnerships by improving the coordination, detection and disruption across the system. Immigration Enforcement has established a national coordination and operational governance model to provide improved oversight of sham marriage activity, strengthen consistency of decisionâmaking and target resources more effectively. The Home Office continues to work closely with local registration services, UK Visas and Immigration, law enforcement partners and intelligence teams to identify sham relationships early and prevent abuse of the marriage route. This includes enhanced informationâsharing, improved referral processes and targeted investigative activity where abuse is suspected.
Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a marriage or civil partnership is not genuine, the Home Office will investigate and take appropriate action. This may include refusal or curtailment of leave, removal or deportation from the UK, or prosecution. The Home Office also focuses on disrupting facilitators and organised criminal networks involved in arranging sham marriages, recognising the links to wider serious and organised crime.
The Government keeps its processes under continual review and remains committed to protecting the integrity of the immigration system, safeguarding vulnerable individuals and ensuring enforcement activity is proportionate, intelligenceâled and lawful.
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 recent discussions his Department has had with NHS trusts regarding the consistent implementation of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework within mental health services.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published guidance setting out oversight roles and responsibilities in relation to the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework.
Trust boards, or leadership teams in the case of National Health Service organisations without boards, are responsible and accountable for effective patient safety incident management in their organisation. Integrated care boards, or NHS England where it is the commissioner of the service, are responsible for establishing and maintaining structures for supporting a coordinated approach to oversight of patient safety incident response in all the services within their system. NHS England regional teams are responsible for supporting integrated care boards, and through the regional independent investigation teams, support the response to incidents that may require an independent investigation.
Work is ongoing to consider where amendments to organisational oversight responsibilities are needed in line with organisational changes across the NHS, particularly at integrated care board and NHS England regional level.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to assess the prevalence of chemical submission offences in England and Wales.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
To improve understanding of the prevalence and motivations behind these offences, spiking has been added to the Annual Data Requirement, through which the Home Office collects police data from forces in England and Wales. Returns will be analysed using the National Data Quality Improvement Service to provide more robust and insightful data on the subject.
The Home Office has also commissioned the University of Birmingham to research the motivations of spiking perpetrators, providing important first-hand insights into the range of factors that drive this offending.
This is in addition to a range of other work the Government is undertaking to combat all forms of spiking, including the introduction of new legislation as part of the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what research, monitoring and data collection her Department undertakes to assess the prevalence of chemical submission offences in England and Wales.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
To improve understanding of the prevalence and motivations behind these offences, spiking has been added to the Annual Data Requirement, through which the Home Office collects police data from forces in England and Wales. Returns will be analysed using the National Data Quality Improvement Service to provide more robust and insightful data on the subject.
The Home Office has also commissioned the University of Birmingham to research the motivations of spiking perpetrators, providing important first-hand insights into the range of factors that drive this offending.
This is in addition to a range of other work the Government is undertaking to combat all forms of spiking, including the introduction of new legislation as part of the Crime and Policing Act 2026.