Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
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 10 July 2025 to Question 63541 on Autism: Foetal Valproate Spectrum Disorder, if she will take steps to collate this information centrally.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research already exists that shows evidence of an increased risk for children of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, when exposed to Valproate during pregnancy. This includes the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s publication, Valproate: review of safety data and expert advice on management of risks.
As this link is already identified in the evidence and research available, NHS England has no plans to collate further information about the number of children with autism also diagnosed with foetal valproate syndrome.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with representatives of the food industry on the health impact of ultra-processed foods.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly engages a range of stakeholders including in the food industry. My rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has had no meetings with the food industry specifically on the health impact of ultra-processed foods.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to continue with the immigration reforms introduced by the Home Secretary as part of the Plan for Change.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office’s Immigration White Paper, published on 12 May, set out proposed reforms to restore order, control and fairness to the legal migration system, reduce net migration, and promote economic growth.
On 1 July changes to the Immigration Rules were set out to deliver the first set of reforms:
Work is underway to deliver the wider measures announced in the White Paper with further updates to follow in due course. We will set out further measures around asylum and border security later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people moved to the UK through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy in (1) 2022, (2) 2023, (3) 2024, and (4) 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It has been over four years since the ARAP was launched, and as of the 31 March 2025, has seen 21,316 principals and their family members already relocated to the UK.
Over 12,800 people have been successfully resettled under the ACRS since 2021 and over half of these arrivals have been children and a quarter women.
Data on the number of Eligible Persons resettled under ARAP and ACRS in the years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 is available in the quarterly published immigration statistics on GOV.UK.
For a summary of the data, see the resettlement section of the How many people come to the UK via safe and legal (humanitarian) routes?’ chapter; for detailed data, see table Res_D02 of the asylum and resettlement data sets.
The above is the best available operational data, as of 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people moved to the UK through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme in (1) 2022, (2) 2023, (3) 2024, and (4) 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It has been over four years since the ARAP was launched, and as of the 31 March 2025, has seen 21,316 principals and their family members already relocated to the UK.
Over 12,800 people have been successfully resettled under the ACRS since 2021 and over half of these arrivals have been children and a quarter women.
Data on the number of Eligible Persons resettled under ARAP and ACRS in the years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 is available in the quarterly published immigration statistics on GOV.UK.
For a summary of the data, see the resettlement section of the How many people come to the UK via safe and legal (humanitarian) routes?’ chapter; for detailed data, see table Res_D02 of the asylum and resettlement data sets.
The above is the best available operational data, as of 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Arab Parliament’s defence of Algeria’s religious freedom record, what assessment they have made of restrictions on religious freedom faced by Christian communities in Algeria.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK champions Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) for all. It is our firm opinion that no one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe. Our Embassy in Algiers raises FoRB with the Algerian authorities, doing so most recently when our Ambassador met the Minister of Religious Affairs on 10 February. Our Embassy remains in regular contact with minority religious groups on how best to support FoRB. We will continue to raise the issue and advocate for freedom of expression, including for Christian communities in Algeria.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Collins of Highbury on 10 June (HL8925), whether any of the non-governmental actors whom the Director of the Gulf Strategic Fund Programme met in Bahrain have a public record of speaking out on human rights issues in Bahrain.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As set out in the response to PQ HL8925, this was a working level visit by the Gulf Strategy Fund Manager, not at senior or Director level. The Government does not hold the information requested on the non-governmental interlocutors he met.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason the UK classifies mastectomy bras under Chapter 6212 of the Harmonised System Nomenclature; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the classification approach of the EU.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK’s tariff schedule, known as the UK Global Tariff (UKGT), adheres to global classification standards. The UK classification of mastectomy bras follows the harmonised commodity description system, which was developed by the World Customs Organisation (WCO). Following EU exit, the UK continues to follow the WCO classification, implemented under the TCTA.
We continue to monitor the UKGT to ensure our Most Favoured Nation tariff schedule functions as effectively as possible, supports domestic priorities, and provides a stable operating environment for businesses.
Businesses are able to request the partial or full liberalisation of the import duty applied to the products under this commodity code, including mastectomy bras either through the online feedback form or the next business suspensions window.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure (a) transparency and (b) accountability in its use of AI systems in public services.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have AI governance in place to ensure we use AI in a safe, ethical, and transparent way. DWP is committed to publishing details of its use of algorithms against the cross-Government Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard (ATRS). We ensure our generative AI tools can trace outputs back to the source data so that humans can understand how the output has been created. Outputs from our use of AI technology are traceable for governance purposes.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether benefit claimants are informed when their claims are assessed using algorithmic tools.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP’s Personal Information Charter (PIC) (Personal information charter - Department for Work and Pensions - GOV.UK) outlines how DWP processes personal data related to and its use of both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Decision Making (ADM).
DWP does not use AI to replace human judgement to determine or deny a payment to a claimant.