Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of uptake for breast cancer screenings amongst ethnic minority women.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The national breast screening programme does not currently have the capability to routinely cross reference patient’s ethnicity data with uptake data. NHS England has started work to improve its data collection capabilities as part of the development of the new screening IT system, through the Digital Transformation of Screening programme. This will support the collection of population-level data on protected characteristics such as ethnicity, to support services in improving uptake.
More widely, NHS England has developed a national plan to improve uptake, including interventions to address inequalities and screening barriers. This includes ensuring appointments are as convenient as possible, and efforts are focused on areas and groups with low uptake.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help support women in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency to return to work after a career break.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local Jobcentre teams are supporting residents into work and helping those in work to progress to higher paid jobs. We are working with local and national employers to help fill vacancies quickly, delivering Sector-Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs), recruitment days, Job Fairs, and work trials, all of which can help support women to return to work after a career break.
In addition, one to one support from a Work Coach and Contracted Employment Programmes, the department also offers help with CVs and employability skills, mentoring circles for people aged 50 plus and support with childcare costs. Where a Work Coach identifies a barrier to securing or progressing in employment, they can use the Flexible Support Fund (FSF) to procure clothing, tools, digital devices, and to help with travel to work costs.
In Haringey, we are working with the Construction Youth Trust to support more women into construction roles, with referrals made by Jobcentres across the borough, and funding available to support women who want to work in this sector.
To help facilitate signposting discussions with claimants, staff have access to a database of national and local support information, the District Provision Tool as well as the new Managed Jobs and Opportunities which ensures that claimants can access tailored support where required. This includes provision aimed at women across London such as Dress for Success, a service that supports women to improve their confidence when attending interviews and Smart Works, a UK charity that provides high quality interview clothes and interview training to unemployed women.
We are also working with Transport for London and the College of North East London on their Women into Transportation and Engineering provision. This provides two weeks of pre-employment training, covering CV writing, and workplace skills, plus a Smart Works coaching and styling appointment designed to give participants the confidence to apply for the roles offered within the programme
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure that (a) young and (b) vulnerable people have access to free contraception.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities across England are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, openly accessible sexual and reproductive health services, which includes the provision of free contraception to meet local demand. Local authorities decide on commissioning arrangements based on an assessment of local need, including the needs of young and vulnerable people. Contraception is also widely available free of charge through general practices (GPs).
The Government is committed to improving access to contraception, and reducing reproductive health inequalities. The Women’s Health Strategy sets out our 10-year ambition and the actions we are taking to improve disparities in access to services, experiences of services, and outcomes for all women and girls.
As part of our work to deliver the Women’s Health Strategy we have launched a dedicated women’s health area on the National Health Service website as a first port of call for women’s health information, including contraception. We have also worked closely with NHS Digital to create a new YouTube series on contraception, which has been designed to help answer common questions often found in search engines, as well as more detailed information on the range of contraceptive methods available.
In 2023 we also introduced the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service. This service offers greater choice in how people can access contraception services. It will also create additional capacity in GPs and sexual health clinics, to support meeting the demand for more complex assessments.
We are working with the Women’s Health Ambassador and others to provide health information to diverse groups of women, across their life course. We know that young people who receive effective relationships and sex education are more likely to use contraception and condoms, and less likely to have an unplanned pregnancy as a teenager, and in later life.
The 2020 roll-out of statutory relationships and sex education in all schools means that more young people receive support to prevent early unplanned pregnancy through learning about the full range of contraceptive choices and sexual health services available. The statutory guidance is available at the following link:
As set out in the Women's Health Strategy, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education are working to understand women’s health topics that teachers feel less confident in teaching, and we will work to improve provision of high-quality teaching resources.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure the Major Conditions Strategy improves breast cancer outcomes for ethnic minority women.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing inequalities and improving breast cancer outcomes for ethnic minority women, including black women, is a priority for the Government. To support this work, NHS England has commissioned six new cancer clinical audits, which will provide timely evidence for cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments, and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatments and outcomes for patients, including metastatic breast cancer. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October 2022, and the first outcomes are expected in September 2024.
NHS England is also leading a programme of work to tackle healthcare inequalities centred around five clear priorities, which are set out in operational planning guidance for the health system. The Core20PLUS5 approach for adults has been rolled out as an NHS England framework to focus action on reducing inequalities on issues within the National Health Services’ direct influence, which are major contributors to inequalities in life expectancy through major conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and others, or Long-Term Plan priorities where stark inequalities are evident, such as maternity or severe mental illness.
The key actions for systems as highlighted in NHS England’s planning guidance for 2024/25 is to continue to deliver against the five strategic priorities for tackling health inequalities. Additionally, by the end of June 2024, NHS England aims to publish joined-up action plans to address health inequalities, and implement the Core20PLUS5 approach.
Improving earlier diagnosis of cancers, including breast cancer, is also a priority for the Government. The NHS has an ambition to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028, which will help tens of thousands of people live for longer. Additionally, the new cancer standards developed and supported by cancer doctors and implemented in October 2023, will ensure patients are diagnosed faster, and that treatment starts earlier. In the 2023/24 Operational Planning Guidance, NHS England announced that it is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years, to support the delivery of the strategy and the operational priorities for cancer, which includes increasing and prioritising diagnostic and treatment capacity.
Whilst the Major Conditions Strategy does not seek to describe everything that is being done, or could be done, to meet the challenges of individual conditions in silo, it instead focuses on the changes likely to make the most difference across the six groups of major conditions, including cancer.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve breast cancer outcomes amongst Black women.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing inequalities and improving breast cancer outcomes for ethnic minority women, including black women, is a priority for the Government. To support this work, NHS England has commissioned six new cancer clinical audits, which will provide timely evidence for cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments, and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatments and outcomes for patients, including metastatic breast cancer. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October 2022, and the first outcomes are expected in September 2024.
NHS England is also leading a programme of work to tackle healthcare inequalities centred around five clear priorities, which are set out in operational planning guidance for the health system. The Core20PLUS5 approach for adults has been rolled out as an NHS England framework to focus action on reducing inequalities on issues within the National Health Services’ direct influence, which are major contributors to inequalities in life expectancy through major conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and others, or Long-Term Plan priorities where stark inequalities are evident, such as maternity or severe mental illness.
The key actions for systems as highlighted in NHS England’s planning guidance for 2024/25 is to continue to deliver against the five strategic priorities for tackling health inequalities. Additionally, by the end of June 2024, NHS England aims to publish joined-up action plans to address health inequalities, and implement the Core20PLUS5 approach.
Improving earlier diagnosis of cancers, including breast cancer, is also a priority for the Government. The NHS has an ambition to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028, which will help tens of thousands of people live for longer. Additionally, the new cancer standards developed and supported by cancer doctors and implemented in October 2023, will ensure patients are diagnosed faster, and that treatment starts earlier. In the 2023/24 Operational Planning Guidance, NHS England announced that it is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years, to support the delivery of the strategy and the operational priorities for cancer, which includes increasing and prioritising diagnostic and treatment capacity.
Whilst the Major Conditions Strategy does not seek to describe everything that is being done, or could be done, to meet the challenges of individual conditions in silo, it instead focuses on the changes likely to make the most difference across the six groups of major conditions, including cancer.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure swift justice for victims of violence against women and girls.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Government is taking concerted action to ensure swift justice for victims of VAWG.
This includes delivering the end-to-end Rape Review Action Plan to improve the justice system’s response to adult rape, which has seen Crown Court receipts more than double since 2019.
The Department has also been increasing capacity in the Crown Court, including delivering over 107,000 additional sitting days in Crown Courts; opening two permanent ‘super courtrooms’ in Manchester and Loughborough; increasing criminal legal aid spending by £141 million per year; investing over £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of court buildings; and investing further in judicial recruitment and retention.
Further to this, we are doing more than ever to ensure victims receive the support they need, including quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10.
Asked by: Baroness Helic (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports by UN experts on 19 February of “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations” against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank by Israel Defence Forces; and whether they have offered practical support for investigating these alleged crimes, and for caring for survivors and witnesses.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK condemns human rights abuses and sexual violence unequivocally and without exception. As I [Lord Ahmad] said to the UN Security Council during the 11 March debate following the release of Special Representative Pramila Patten's report, it is vital that all reports of sexual violence are fully investigated to ensure justice for all victims and survivors and perpetrators are held to account.
The FCDO continues to closely monitor the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and stands ready to further utilise our Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) expertise and tools to ensure victims and survivors of CRSV, both Israeli and Palestinian, receive the holistic and survivor-centred support they need.
Through our PSVI programmes and dedicated funding totalling £60 million since 2012, we are leading work internationally to prevent conflict-related sexual violence and strengthen justice and support for all survivors.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will hold discussions with sports governing bodies on banning transgender athletes participating in women’s sporting competitions.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport recently hosted a roundtable with a group of national governing bodies to stress the Government’s position that competitive fairness and safety for women and girls cannot come at the expense of the inclusion of transgender athletes, and to understand how various governing bodies have developed their policies on this issue.
We will continue to engage with sports on this issue to understand what work national governing bodies are doing to protect women’s sport.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on their target for women to account for 30% of personnel recruited by 2030.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 11 December 2023 to Question 4844.
In the 12 months to 30 September 2023, the proportion of female intake was 12.3% and we hope to continue to work towards the target year on year.
Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 April 2024 to Question 20383 on State Retirement Pensions: Women, whether his Department received the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's provisional views on injustice and remedy experienced due to maladministration in communication about the 1995 Pensions Act in November 2023.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP received the PHSO’s provisional views for comment in November 2023.