Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to increase defence manufacturing capabilities.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK has a world class production and manufacturing eco-system, providing high-quality, cutting-edge armaments, components, and technologies for our Armed Forces and our allies. The Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) 2025 sets out how we will deliver a defence sector that is more competitive, integrated, innovative and resilient, including by boosting UK manufacturing. Our new alliance with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, launched in the DIS, will lever world-leading research and development capabilities, and further accelerate industrial transformation. This builds on the strategic use of Advance Manufacturing in the development, delivery and sustainment of Defence capabilities.
We are committed to ensuring the Defence industry is a engine for economic growth through strengthened industrial relationships and domestic investment. We have committed £6 billion this Parliament towards munitions, as outlined in the Strategic Defence Review 2025, which supports defence capacity whilst generating local jobs and economic prosperity. This investment includes £1.5 billion for building six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK to deliver an ‘always on’ pipeline, locations and arrangements of which are being assessed through ongoing work.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what meetings or engagements Ministers or senior officials from his department have had with any of the following patient organisations to discuss newborn screening: (a) Genetic Alliance UK (b) UK LSD Collaborative (c) UK Newborn Screening Collaborative (d) ArchAngel MLD Trust (e) MPS Society (f) MLD Support Association UK (g) SMA UK (h) Immunodeficiency UK (i) Alex, The Leukodystrophy Charity (j) Metabolic Support UK, since July 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains committed to improving the lives of people living with rare diseases through the UK Rare Diseases Framework, which includes faster diagnosis as one of its four priorities.
In all aspects of population and targeted screening, ministers are advised by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). When assessing the case for newborn screening for rare diseases, as with all other diseases and conditions, the UK NSC uses internationally recognised criteria and a rigorous evidence review and consultation process. It is only where the UK NSC is confident that the offer to screen provides more good than harm that a screening programme is recommended. When the UK NSC makes a screening recommendation, ministers are then asked to consider and make a decision on whether to accept the recommendation.
This year, the UK NSC secretariat carried out a review of the committee’s stakeholder engagement strategy and activities. The review included an online survey and three focused stakeholder discussion groups that were attended by a total of 17 external stakeholders, including seven representatives of patient organisations representing rare diseases affecting newborns. The UK NSC stakeholder strategy is being updated to incorporate their valuable feedback and is expected to be published in early 2026.
Although the Department screening team supporting the UK NSC has limited capacity to meet with individual stakeholders, they actively involve and engage with stakeholders and partners in other ways. For example:
The Department screening team meets regularly with the Department’s rare diseases team to discuss overlapping areas of work. The rare diseases team have working relationships with the wider rare diseases community and junior officials have met with Genetic Alliance UK.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 46 of the Defence Industrial Strategy: Making Defence an Engine for Growth, published on 8 September 2025, CP 1388, what progress has he made on establishing a Defence Universities Alliance.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Universities Alliance (DUA) will form a more strategic relationship between defence and the Higher Education sector to support national security and UK growth, building on existing collaborative relationships between the sectors.
The Ministry of Defence is currently engaging with Universities UK and the UK’s Higher Education Sector to develop the DUA. There have been a number of workshops with Vice Chancellors of various Universities in the week commencing 21 October which have developed our understanding of the DUA. Further details will be published in due course.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 NHS Organ Donor Register registration rates among (a) Sikh and (b) Jewish people.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) manages transplant services across the United Kingdom. NHSBT works with an extensive network of organisations and individuals who have established and trusted relationships with their communities. Last year, in collaboration with the National Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Transplant Alliance (NBTA), NHSBT delivered a conference with the aim of developing culturally and religiously sensitive messaging to promote organ donation within these communities by engaging faith leaders and organisations. Representatives from 51 organisations attended, including British Sikh Nurses. This promotes the sharing of messaging guidance with many faiths, including Sikhism. The report will be shared with all community grant groups and organisations working to increase engagement with faith groups. NHSBT and the NBTA, along with the Race Equality Commission, will continue to work together, and have established a Messaging Conference Implementation Group which will take forward the actions arising from the conference. NHSBT also creates and shares a host of faith-based assets on its website, including for Judaism, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/helping-you-to-decide/your-faith-and-beliefs/judaism/
The Jewish Organ Donor Association is a recipient of the Community Grant Programme, which is a two-year programme focused on building long-term relationships through trusted peers and leaders in the community, engaging with black African and Caribbean, South Asian, East and South East Asian, Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Muslim, and Christian communities. It aims to raise awareness, tackle misinformation, and change perceptions and behaviours around organ donation. A total of £600,000 was given to 51 recipients in 2024.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with his European counterparts on (a) religiously motivated hate crimes and (b) hostility toward religious (i) figures and (ii) communities in Europe.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK condemns incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, wherever this occurs, and we denounce hatred on the basis of religion or belief. We are committed to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all. No one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe in. We continue to address FoRB violations and protect the right to FoRB through our strong relationships with European counterparts, multilateral engagement - including through the UN, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and Article 18 Alliance - and through our bilateral work. Ministers and FCDO officials regularly raise cases of concern. The appointment of David Smith MP, as the Special Envoy for FoRB, is a clear signal of the UK's ongoing commitment to these efforts.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) unilateral, (b) bilateral and (c) multilateral exercises his Department has conducted on the protection of undersea cables and critical national infrastructure in each year since 2010.
Answered by James Heappey
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is not the lead Department for resilience of undersea cables in the UK Marine Area; that responsibility sits with the Department for Science and Technology. Defence has therefore not conducted dedicated exercises related to the protection of such infrastructure over the time period in question.
Defence does, however, frequently rehearse the capabilities which would be called upon in response to a threat to our subsea infrastructure. MOD has underwater capabilities able to be employed to monitor and assure subsea infrastructure, and has invested in a Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance (MROS) programme to enhance these capabilities further. These allow us to maintain maritime situational awareness, improve our ability to detect threats in the North Atlantic, and as a sovereign nation allow us to contribute to the defence and deterrence of the Euro Atlantic area.
We continue to invest in strong working relationships with neighbouring states and alliance partners within NATO, to enhance our ability to respond to threats in this domain. We are committed to prepare for, deter and defend against threats to our subsea infrastructure.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking in response to the survey of Black, Asian and minority ethnic women in prison published by the Independent Monitoring Boards and Criminal Justice Alliance in April 2022.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMPPS are considering the findings of the IMB / CRA reports and will act accordingly. We recognise that race disparities persist in the Criminal Justice System, and we are committed to actively tackling the impact of this across MoJ. In December 2020 HMPPS launched the Race Action Programme, which will increase the diversity of our workforce, address the risk of bias in our policies and tackle disparity in outcomes for prisoners, people on probation and children in our system.
The Female Offender Strategy also included a clear commitment to look at how the distinct needs of ethnic minority and non-British national women can be better addressed. This is being taken forward by the Female Offender Minority Ethnic working group, which brings together officials and stakeholders to work together to improve outcomes for this cohort of women.
There is no place for racial abuse in prisons, which should be safe, orderly and decent places for both prisoners and staff. As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper we are introducing training for staff in women’s prisons to address the diverse needs of all women in their care. This will include cultural competence training to equip our staff with an increased knowledge of the effects of culture, faith and sustaining family relationships for ethnically diverse communities, increasing their confidence and skills in supporting all offenders, including those subjected to racial abuse.
Information on the number, grade and allocated duties of equality staff is not held centrally. The majority of HMPPS PGDs have a dedicated Regional Equality Lead (Band 8 & Full Time) who coordinate activity and drive a regional strategy designed to best represent the unique situations arising in that part of the country, representative of the staff and prisoner population. Profiles for equalities work are decided at a local level to ensure they best fit the nature of individual establishments.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on UK national security of the signing of the Reciprocal Access Agreement between Australia and Japan.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The UK has been tracking the progress on the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) between Australia and Japan given our own ongoing RAA negotiations with Japan which were formally announced in September 2021.
We share close defence and security relationships with both Australia and Japan. As demonstrated by our recent announcement on the AUKUS alliance, and through the sharing of extensive intelligence through the Five Eyes alliance, the UK shares a unique level of trust and cooperation with Australia.
We are also deepening our defence relationship with Japan. Last year saw the successful visit to Japan of the Carrier Strike Group 21 and the associated bilateral and multilateral joint exercises, as well as an announcement in December of plans to develop jointly a future fighter aircraft engine demonstrator and explore further combat air technologies.
We trust that this commitment by two of our partners in the region may lead to more opportunities for defence engagement as we continue to work together to address global security challenges in the region.
Asked by: Mary Robinson (Conservative - Cheadle)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
What steps he is taking to modernise and strengthen the NATO alliance.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The UK is working with Allies to ensure NATO continues to protect the Euro-Atlantic area from current and future threats. At the Summit on 14 June, leaders agreed new proposals on deterrence and defence, emerging and disruptive technology, resilience, strengthening relationships with NATO Partners and climate security. NATO remains the cornerstone of our defence and the UK is the leading European Ally in the Alliance.
Asked by: Felicity Buchan (Conservative - Kensington)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
What steps he is taking to modernise and strengthen the NATO alliance.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The UK is working with Allies to ensure NATO continues to protect the Euro-Atlantic area from current and future threats. At the Summit on 14 June, leaders agreed new proposals on deterrence and defence, emerging and disruptive technology, resilience, strengthening relationships with NATO Partners and climate security. NATO remains the cornerstone of our defence and the UK is the leading European Ally in the Alliance.