Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner's speech on the Met's use of technology, published on 24 June 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of allowing the police to adopt new AI policing tools without requiring additional legislation.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

AI has the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of policing, including by supporting investigations, reducing administrative burdens and helping officers make better use of evidence.

The Government is committed to enabling the responsible adoption of AI across policing through the new National Centre for AI in Policing (PoliceAI). PoliceAI will support forces to adopt AI responsibly, ensuring that tools are subject to appropriate technical testing, evaluation and scrutiny, to minimise bias and inaccuracy. It will support forces in demonstrating compliance with responsible AI adoption principles which includes public transparency and accountability measures.

To support transparency, PoliceAI will publish a public-facing national registry of police AI use, which will provide information about how tools are used, the benefits they deliver, the risks associated with their deployment, and the safeguards in place to mitigate those risks. It aims to produce a first version of the registry by the Autumn. The registry is intended to increase public confidence through maximum transparency by default, and PoliceAI will withhold funding for AI tools for those forces that have not completed registry entries for their deployed tools.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Metropolitan Police will be required to publish the algorithms they will use under the recently announced plans for data integration and exploitation on the Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

AI has the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of policing, including by supporting investigations, reducing administrative burdens and helping officers make better use of evidence.

The Government is committed to enabling the responsible adoption of AI across policing through the new National Centre for AI in Policing (PoliceAI). PoliceAI will support forces to adopt AI responsibly, ensuring that tools are subject to appropriate technical testing, evaluation and scrutiny, to minimise bias and inaccuracy. It will support forces in demonstrating compliance with responsible AI adoption principles which includes public transparency and accountability measures.

To support transparency, PoliceAI will publish a public-facing national registry of police AI use, which will provide information about how tools are used, the benefits they deliver, the risks associated with their deployment, and the safeguards in place to mitigate those risks. It aims to produce a first version of the registry by the Autumn. The registry is intended to increase public confidence through maximum transparency by default, and PoliceAI will withhold funding for AI tools for those forces that have not completed registry entries for their deployed tools.

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 a Modern Service Framework for hearing health on innovative models of audiology care, including community-based and digitally enabled services.

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

The Department has not made a formal assessment of the impact of a modern service framework (MSF) for hearing health on variation in access to audiology and ear wax removal services between integrated care boards (ICBs).

The Government's 10-Year Health Plan announced the development of MSFs to support more consistent, high-quality care, and to reduce unwarranted variation. After the initial wave of MSFs is complete, the National Quality Board will determine the conditions to prioritise for new MSFs as part of its work programme.

ICBs have a statutory responsibility to commission services that meet the needs of their local populations, including audiology services and, where clinically required, ear wax removal services. In exercising their functions, ICBs must have regard to reducing inequalities in access to, and outcomes from, healthcare services. Ear wax removal services should be commissioned in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance.

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 a Modern Service Framework for hearing health on variation in access to (a) audiology and (b) ear wax removal services between Integrated Care Boards.

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

The Department has not made a formal assessment of the impact of a modern service framework (MSF) for hearing health on variation in access to audiology and ear wax removal services between integrated care boards (ICBs).

The Government's 10-Year Health Plan announced the development of MSFs to support more consistent, high-quality care, and to reduce unwarranted variation. After the initial wave of MSFs is complete, the National Quality Board will determine the conditions to prioritise for new MSFs as part of its work programme.

ICBs have a statutory responsibility to commission services that meet the needs of their local populations, including audiology services and, where clinically required, ear wax removal services. In exercising their functions, ICBs must have regard to reducing inequalities in access to, and outcomes from, healthcare services. Ear wax removal services should be commissioned in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Whizz Kidz Youth Board's report entitled Mobility Matters: A Youth Perspective on NHS Wheelchair Services, published on 26 June 2026, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of arrangements for commissioning paediatric wheelchair services.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, based on the needs of their local population. This includes wheelchairs for adults and children. NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment.

This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/

NHS England’s wheelchair data collection reports on the proportion of adults and children whose episode of care was closed in the reporting period and prescribed equipment was delivered within 18 weeks or less. In Quarter four, 2025/26, the proportion of patients whose episode of care was closed in the reporting period and whose prescribed wheelchair was delivered within 18 weeks or less was: 79.1% for children, up from 79% since Quarter three; and 81.5% for adults, down from 83.1% since Quarter three.

The Medium-Term Planning Framework sets a requirement for all providers and ICBs to actively manage long waits for community health services, reducing the proportion of all waits over 18 weeks. This will be monitored via the National Health Service’s usual regional and national assurance processes. The Community Health Services Situation Report will be used to monitor ICB performance against waiting time targets in 2026/27. These targets will guide systems to reduce the longest waits.

We expect ICBs to follow guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In 2022 NICE published the guidance Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs: integrated service delivery and organisation across health, social care and education, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng213/chapter/Recommendations-on-service-organisation-integration-and-commissioning

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 that specialist expertise, particularly in areas such as cancer, frontline NHS delivery and patient engagement, is retained and effectively integrated as NHS England’s functions are brought into the Department.

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

The Government recognises that delivering reform and maintaining performance depends on retaining the right skills, knowledge, and experience that exists across both our current workforces in NHS England and the Department.

The changes proposed are not a reflection on the dedication or professionalism of staff in either organisation. Our objective is to reduce duplication and bureaucracy, while ensuring the future Department continues to benefit from strong specialist expertise.

Throughout the transition, the Government is prioritising continuity in critical roles and providing opportunities for learning, development, and career progression within the redesigned organisation.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish the findings of the public consultation on police use of live facial recognition technology; and whether Parliament will have an opportunity to scrutinise those findings before the Metropolitan Police proceeds with its planned rollout to the West End and Soho by December 2026.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what independent oversight body currently has responsibility for monitoring the Metropolitan Police's use of live facial recognition technology; and whether that body has the powers to require the force to pause its planned rollout.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what clear and consistent rules she intends to include in the dedicated legal framework for facial recognition technology to ensure the rights of the public are protected at all times; and when that framework will be brought before Parliament.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government will require the Metropolitan Police to pause its expansion of live facial recognition technology until the dedicated legal framework has been passed and scrutinised by Parliament.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

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 with national research funders to ensure that funding programmes include measures to (a) address regional disparities and (b) improve access to funding in (i) Yorkshire and (ii) the North.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill

The Department funds health and care research via its research operational arm the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) across England. The Department is committed to ensuring that research is inclusive and representative of the population geographically and demographically. Inclusion is one of the top four priorities for the NIHR, reported against publicly in the NIHR Annual Report.

From November 2024, the Department made inclusion a condition of NIHR funding for all domestic research awards. All applicants must demonstrate how their research will address existing inequalities, including place-based inequalities, in health and social care, and researchers will be held to account for delivering on their plans.

The NIHR’s funding committees prioritise research that addresses the most important health and care evidence gaps, with strong potential for impact, and also consider scientific excellence and value for money. The Department has not considered using geographical location of host institutions as a tie-breaker in research competitions, but through the NIHR it is taking a number of other steps to secure equitable allocation of health research funding. These include targeted programme design, place‑based research partnerships, and long‑term capacity building in under‑served regions, such as the regional Commercial Research Delivery Centres across England, including in Yorkshire and across the north of England. More information about the services and support for the life sciences industry that the NIHR offers is available at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/support-and-services/industry/explore

For the NIHR personal career development awards, applications covering certain themes such as topic, setting, or profession, are prioritised where more applications are considered fundable than there is budget available, and in this way a recent round of senior investigator awards prioritised applicants hosted by organisations based outside of the Greater South East.

In addition, in April this year the NIHR’s Research Delivery Network, which supports all National Health Service trusts in England to deliver research, implemented a new national funding allocation model for NHS support costs and research delivery which will reduce regional variations in health research delivery investment. More information on the new funding allocation model is available at the following link:

https://rdn.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/rdn-funding-model

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has considered using geographical location of host organisations as a formal tie-breaker where competing research applications to the National Institute for Health and Care Research are assessed as being of equal quality.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill

The Department funds health and care research via its research operational arm the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) across England. The Department is committed to ensuring that research is inclusive and representative of the population geographically and demographically. Inclusion is one of the top four priorities for the NIHR, reported against publicly in the NIHR Annual Report.

From November 2024, the Department made inclusion a condition of NIHR funding for all domestic research awards. All applicants must demonstrate how their research will address existing inequalities, including place-based inequalities, in health and social care, and researchers will be held to account for delivering on their plans.

The NIHR’s funding committees prioritise research that addresses the most important health and care evidence gaps, with strong potential for impact, and also consider scientific excellence and value for money. The Department has not considered using geographical location of host institutions as a tie-breaker in research competitions, but through the NIHR it is taking a number of other steps to secure equitable allocation of health research funding. These include targeted programme design, place‑based research partnerships, and long‑term capacity building in under‑served regions, such as the regional Commercial Research Delivery Centres across England, including in Yorkshire and across the north of England. More information about the services and support for the life sciences industry that the NIHR offers is available at the following link:

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/support-and-services/industry/explore

For the NIHR personal career development awards, applications covering certain themes such as topic, setting, or profession, are prioritised where more applications are considered fundable than there is budget available, and in this way a recent round of senior investigator awards prioritised applicants hosted by organisations based outside of the Greater South East.

In addition, in April this year the NIHR’s Research Delivery Network, which supports all National Health Service trusts in England to deliver research, implemented a new national funding allocation model for NHS support costs and research delivery which will reduce regional variations in health research delivery investment. More information on the new funding allocation model is available at the following link:

https://rdn.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/rdn-funding-model

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether the National Security Online Information Team has taken steps to respond to online information threats related to the recent disorder in Southampton.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)

The National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT) leads the department’s operational response to online information threats. Its publicly available remit, which is kept under review by DSIT ministers, is public safety or national security risks to UK audiences. The team conducts open-source analysis of the online information environment to identify and assess potential threats within this remit. This includes mis- and disinformation arising from incidents such as the recent unrest in Belfast and Southampton.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether the National Security Online Information Team conducted any work in relation to the recent unrest in Belfast.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)

The National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT) leads the department’s operational response to online information threats. Its publicly available remit, which is kept under review by DSIT ministers, is public safety or national security risks to UK audiences. The team conducts open-source analysis of the online information environment to identify and assess potential threats within this remit. This includes mis- and disinformation arising from incidents such as the recent unrest in Belfast and Southampton.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what topics will be in the remit of the National Security Online Information Team in 2026.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)

The National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT) leads the department’s operational response to online information threats. Its publicly available remit, which is kept under review by DSIT ministers, is public safety or national security risks to UK audiences. The team conducts open-source analysis of the online information environment to identify and assess potential threats within this remit. This includes mis- and disinformation arising from incidents such as the recent unrest in Belfast and Southampton.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2026 to Question 15027 on Wheelchairs: Children, what information his Department collects on the amount of under-18 year olds not prescribed a wheelchair or personal wheelchair budget after being seen by wheelchair services.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The information requested is not held centrally.

Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from clinical commissioning groups, now integrated care boards (ICBs), on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. NHS England’s wheelchair data collection reports on the proportion of adults and children whose episode of care was closed in the reporting period and prescribed equipment was delivered within 18 weeks or less.

NHS England is supporting ICBs to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs, and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment. This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs, such as offering personal wheelchair budgets. The framework is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/

20th anniversary of Shine Harrogate

30 years of the Spice Girls

Techbuyer, Harrogate, receives King's Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development

Abolition of Healthwatch

Tent of Nations Nassar family farm

Five-year indefinite leave to remain pathway for Skilled Worker visa holders (No. 2)

Work of physician associates and the Leng review

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome

Cancer and access to travel insurance

Russian sanctions

International Court of Justice's July 2024 Advisory Opinion on the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

Support for post offices

100th anniversary of the Campaign to Protect Rural England

Childhood dementia awareness and support

Royal Mail delivery standards

Commencement of section 106 of the Equality Act 2010

Palantir and the NHS (No. 2)

Potential merits of a knighthood for Harry Kane

Found: Members present1 Chi Onwurah, in the Chair2 Emily Darlington George Freeman Dr Allison Gardner Tom Gordon

Found: 25 of 49 (51.0%) Baroness Chakrabarti (Labour, Life peer) (added 27 Jan 2026) 6 of 8 (75.0%) Tom Gordon

Found: 2024 Members present Lord Alton of Liverpool Alex Ballinger Juliet Campbell Lord Dholakia Tom Gordon

Found: Democrat, Henley and Thame) (added 13 Nov 2025) 12 of 18 (66.7%) Former members Attendance Tom Gordon

Found: Tom Gordon and Michael Blackley.

Found: Tom Gordon Deputy Scottish Political Editor.