Written questions by Kaur.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the detention of Mahvash Sabet by Iranian authorities.

We condemn the unfair detention of all religious minorities in Iran. The UK was instrumental in delivering the Iran Human Rights Resolution, adopted by the United Nations Third Committee in November 2024, which called on Iran to release all religious practitioners imprisoned for their membership in or activities on behalf of a minority religious group, and to ensure that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief. We will continue to work with international partners to hold Iran accountable for its severe and unacceptable repression of Baha'is.

What steps his Department is taking to help improve lobular breast cancer outcomes.

Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including lobular breast cancer, is a priority for NHS England. We will improve cancer survival rates and hit all National Health Service cancer waiting time targets, so that no patient waits longer than they should.The NHS Breast Screening Programme offers all women in England between the ages of 50 years old and their 71st birthday the opportunity to be screened every three years for breast cancer, to help detect abnormalities and intervene early to reduce the number of lives lost to invasive breast cancer.The Department invests £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24, reflecting its high priority.We are proud to have invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre in 2022, supporting their efforts to strengthen research into cancer, including lobular breast cancer. Wider investments into breast cancer research include a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, including lobular breast cancer.The NIHR funds research on cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment and care, which saves lives. NIHR funds research in response to proposals received and would welcome applications from researchers on lobular breast cancer.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the roll-out of Oxevision in mental health hospitals on patient wellbeing.

NHS England has commissioned a rapid evidence review of vision based monitoring systems, which is available at the following link:https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-024-03673-9These insights have been used to work in partnership with people with lived experience, clinicians, and stakeholders to develop national guidance, which will be published imminently.

Innovation and Technology, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that local magazine publishers (a) nationally and (b) in Southampton Test constituency can access licensing deals with AI developers.

Copying protected material will infringe copyright unless it is licensed, or an exception to copyright applies.The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.The consultation seeks views on how to give rights holders of creative works greater control over use of their material. Where rights holders reserve their rights, they can license their works for AI training, if they wish. The consultation seeks views on whether more should be done to support good licensing practice.The consultation closes on 25 February.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of changes in the numbers of Permitted Development Rights.

The government acknowledge the concerns that exist about the quality of residential units created through permitted development rights, particularly office-to-residential conversions. We will continue to keep permitted development rights under review.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local magazine publishers (a) nationally and (b) in Southampton Test constituency are protected against copyright infringement from AI developers.

Copying protected material in the UK will infringe copyright unless it is licensed, or an exception to copyright applies.The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.The consultation seeks views on how to give rights holders of creative works greater control over use of their material, and greater transparency about when their material is used to train AI models, while supporting the development of world-leading AI models in the UK.The consultation closes on 25 February.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of an opt-out for AI and copyright on smaller and medium-sized publishing businesses.

The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.One of the proposals in the consultation is for a rights-reservation, or “opt-out”, approach to the use of copyright material for AI training. The government wants to ensure that any measures are practical and effective for businesses of all sizes.Information and evidence is welcomed from all sizes of business, to help shape the Government’s thinking.The consultation closes on 25 February.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of an opt-out for AI and copyright on digital competition.

The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.This consultation seeks views on a number of issues relating to copyright and AI, including on how to give rights holders of creative works greater control over use of their material.Information and evidence on the impact of a rights-reservation (or “opt-out”), including the impact on digital competition, is welcomed to help shape Government’s thinking.The consultation closes on 25 February.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to increase green spaces in urban communities.

The Government is committed to creating better access to parks and green spaces for everyone.The MHCLG-owned Green Flag Award scheme sets the national standard for parks and green spaces that are welcoming, safe, well-maintained and promote biodiversity and community participation, promoting best practice across the sector.Planning regulations including Local Green Space Designation and Biodiversity Net Gain bolster the creation and protection of green spaces.Cross government initiatives to increase available natural space and make it more accessible includes Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework and Defra's Access for All and Farming in Protected Landscapes programmes.Local Nature Recovery Strategies, 48 locally led strategies covering all England, set priorities and map proposals for key actions to drive nature recovery and environmental improvement.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to empower (a) individuals, (b) grassroots organisations and (c) local authorities to increase (i) green spaces and (ii) biodiversity in their communities.

The Government is committed to creating better access to parks and green spaces for everyone.The MHCLG-owned Green Flag Award scheme sets the national standard for parks and green spaces that are welcoming, safe, well-maintained and promote biodiversity and community participation, promoting best practice across the sector.Planning regulations including Local Green Space Designation and Biodiversity Net Gain bolster the creation and protection of green spaces.Cross government initiatives to increase available natural space and make it more accessible includes Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework and Defra's Access for All and Farming in Protected Landscapes programmes.Local Nature Recovery Strategies, 48 locally led strategies covering all England, set priorities and map proposals for key actions to drive nature recovery and environmental improvement.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the (a) number and (b) size of (i) national parks and (ii) national park cities.

Natural England is the statutory authority responsible for designating National Parks and National Landscapes/Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) in England. Natural England have undertaken early exploratory work to consider possible approaches to the designation of a new National Park in England. They currently do not have a timeline for progressing this work which is subject to on-going discussions and are not considering any additional landscape designation cases at the current time. Natural England is not responsible for National Park Cities. The National Park City Foundation (a registered charity) is the steward of the global movement supporting cities all around the world in their aspiration of becoming National Park Cities. The Foundation has provided guidance for prospective National Park Cities including how to register local campaigns and submit applications. The Foundation states that they are on course for at least twenty five global National Park Cities by 2025.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to encourage local magazine publishing in Southampton Test constituency.

The Government’s Industrial Strategy will support the growth of the creative industries, including publishing which contributes £11.6 billion to the economy and supports 127,000 jobs.In Southampton, Arts Council England (ACE) supports local writers through Artful Scribe, a not-for-profit development agency. ACE has committed over £184,000 to Artful Scribe through to 2027, including those interested in magazine publishing.Nationally, ACE invests in poetry magazines such as Poetry London (£50,000 annually) and Wasafiri (£60,506 annually), both National Portfolio Organisations. ACE support also extends to writing development agencies like New Writing South (Brighton, £126,477 annually) and Literature Works (Plymouth, £98,333 annually), which offer guidance to writers seeking opportunities in local magazine publishing.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the sustainability of local journalism including (a) magazines and (b) print media (i) nationally and (ii) in Southampton Test constituency.

Sustainability of local journalism is an area of particular concern for this Government, across the country and in Southampton Test. We are developing a Local Media Strategy, in recognition of the importance of this vital sector. Our vision is a thriving local media that can continue to play an invaluable role as a key channel of trustworthy information at local level, reporting on the issues that matter to communities, reflecting their contributions and perspectives, helping to foster a self-confident nation in which everyone feels that their contribution is part of an inclusive national story.We are working across Government and with other stakeholders as the Strategy develops and will announce further details in due course.

What steps he is taking to increase awareness of sepsis prevention (a) nationally and (b) in each local NHS trust.

Sepsis has no specific diagnostic test and presentation can vary, making it difficult to diagnose. Early intervention can prevent further deterioration of acutely unwell patients, to help mitigate negative outcomes.Recent evidence suggests that there is high awareness of sepsis among the general public. The Government and its Arm’s Length Bodies are therefore focused on improving the clinical awareness and recognition of sepsis by healthcare professionals, so that unwell and deteriorating patients are identified promptly and started on life-saving treatment. NHS England has launched several training programmes aimed at improving the diagnosis and early management of sepsis. These programmes are regularly reviewed and revised with support from subject matter experts, as new national sepsis guidance is implemented.Individual National Health Service trusts may also choose to implement additional initiatives on sepsis locally. NHS England is leading the rollout of Martha’s Rule within 143 hospital sites by March 2025. Martha’s Rule will give staff, patients, and families the ability to initiate a rapid review for acute physiological deterioration, which will inform whether further actions are required to give the patient the most appropriate and safe care.

What steps she is taking to help tackle retail crime in (a) Southampton and (b) nationally; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional powers to the police for this purpose.

Shop theft is at a record high, police recorded crime for shoplifting in Southampton Community Partnership area saw an increase of (43%) in the latest year and a higher increase than in England and Wales as a whole (29%).This Government is taking strong action to tackle this problem by ending the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to shop theft of goods under £200. We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.As announced in the Autumn Budget, and building on current Home Office funding, we will provide:£5 million over three years to continue to fund a specialist analysis team within Opal, the National Policing Intelligence Unit for serious organised acquisitive crime, to crack down on organised gangs targeting retailers;£2 million over three years to the National Business Crime Centre, a resource for police and businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime; and£100k in 2025-26 for the National Police Chiefs' Council for further training on prevention tactics.

What additional (a) funding and (b) support is being provided to help schools improve library facilities.

School libraries complement public libraries in giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school.It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian, and we give headteachers autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that is allocated to them by the department. The Autumn Budget announced an additional £2.3 billion for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26.​The government’s reading framework offers non-statutory guidance for teachers and school leaders, including helpful guidance for schools on how to organise their school library, book corner or book stock to make reading accessible and attractive to readers.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Brazilian counterpart on the (a) protection of the Amazon rainforest and (b) restoration of rainforest habitats destroyed by wildfires.

The UK government is boosting its relationships with Brazilian ministers to prioritise the protection of the Amazon. The Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero regularly underline our shared climate ambitions, including protection of the Amazon rainforest, with their counterparts in calls and meetings. The UK also supports a variety of programmes aimed at preventing deforestation and restoring rainforests destroyed by wildfires. In Ecuador and Peru, we are contributing up to £12.3 million through the Andes-Amazon Biodiverse Landscape Fund and in Brazil, through the Amazon Fund (£80 million contributed, £35 million committed).

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress he has made on decreasing the killing of birds of prey (a) generally and (b) by the (i) incorrect and (ii) illegal use of rodenticides.

Defra supports the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) which helps prevent and detect bird of prey crime by gathering intelligence, undertaking analysis and directly assisting law enforcers. Defra also provides funding to the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme which makes enquiries into the death of wildlife that may have resulted from pesticide or rodenticide poisoning. It is challenging to confirm whether the efforts of NWCU and partners is leading to a decrease in crimes against birds of prey as figures are not officially collected at a national level. The decision to make such offences ‘notifiable’ sits with the Home Office. In answer to b(i), to ensure risks associated with professional use of anticoagulant rodenticides could be properly managed, the Health and Safety Executive (having policy responsibility for rodenticides) worked with the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use UK to develop an industry-led stewardship regime to promote responsible use. The stewardship scheme is overseen by Government and is currently under review. For b(ii), it is illegal to supply rodenticides unless they are authorised, and they must only be used in accordance with the conditions of that authorisation. There are robust, multi-agency arrangements in place for taking enforcement against the misuse of rodenticides.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce agricultural run-off into rivers and streams.

The levels of water pollution are unacceptable. Defra and its Arm’s Length Bodies, continue to take action to tackle agricultural pollution through a suite of regulations, advice and incentives, and advice led enforcement, in order to achieve the Environment Act 2021 target, to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from agriculture entering the water environment by 40% by 2038.

What steps he is taking to help increase access to electric car charging infrastructure for people living in (a) flats and (b) houses without driveways.

Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grants are available for people living in homes without driveways, flat owners, renters, and landlords. These offer up to £350 towards the purchase and installation of a chargepoint. The Government will shortly publish guidance for local authorities on installing cross-pavement solutions for residents without off-street parking. In addition, the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund supports local authorities in England to work with industry to transform the availability of EV charging for drivers without off-street parking, and will support the installation of tens of thousands of local chargers.