Written questions by Dhesi.

What steps she is taking to support young people in Slough into (a) employment, (b) education and (c) training.

As announced in the “Get Britain Working” White Paper, we are launching a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 in England to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. The Youth Guarantee will build upon and enhance existing entitlements and provisions with the aim of tackling the rising number of young people who are not participating in education, employment or training. DWP provides young people aged 16-24 with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by work coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside partners. At Slough Jobcentre, young people receive tailored support from dedicated youth work coaches. Those facing multiple barriers to employment are assisted by a Youth Employability Coach. Individuals unemployed for over six months attend bi-weekly job clubs to enhance their job search and application skills. Opportunities for work experience are available through the Movement to Work programme. Slough Jobcentre also hosted youth-focused job fairs, job-matching events, and mentoring programmes designed to motivate and engage young people.

What steps he is taking to reduce fraud in the public sector.

Tackling public sector fraud is a priority for this government. That’s why the government introduced the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill in January as part of the biggest fraud crackdown in a generation. The measures in the Bill will give us more tools to combat fraud, recover public money and allow the government to investigate fraud. The Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) is also developing artificial intelligence tools to tackle fraud - and is expected to surpass the PSFA’s £250m 2024-25 audited benefits target from these services. Furthermore, at the request of the Secretary of State for Education to address fraud in student loans, the PSFA is working to coordinate the government's response to fraud within student loans by providing direct expertise understand the scale of the threat posed by fraudsters, identify the most effective immediate disruption activities and how to prevent this kind of fraud in the future.

What steps he is taking to help prevent violence and harassment towards NHS staff.

Everyone working in the National Health Service has a fundamental right to be safe at work. There is a zero-tolerance approach to any incidents of harassment or abuse against NHS staff.Individual employers are responsible for the health and safety of their staff, and they put in place measures, including security, training, and emotional support, for staff affected by violence. To support them, NHS England is working on initiatives to prevent and reduce violence and aggression from patients, their families, and the public.On 9 April 2025, the Government announced that the Social Partnership Forum’s recommendations on tackling and reducing violence, part of the 2023 Agenda for Change pay deal, have been accepted. These include the significant commitments of tackling violence and aggression against NHS staff, including improving data and the reporting of incidences, and ensuring strengthened risk assessments, training, and support for victims.

What steps she is taking to help ensure that the transport system supports economic growth.

Kickstarting economic growth across every corner of the UK is the top priority of this Government. We’re getting on with delivering the Government’s Plan for Change by delivering the basics of a better transport system, from improving peoples’ everyday journeys through our local transport investment to going further and faster on planning reform to accelerate delivery of our major projects.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that councils are financially stable.

We have delivered a Settlement that begins to fix the foundations of local government by providing significant investment, redirecting funding towards the services and places that need it most. The Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25. The government is committed to pursuing a comprehensive set of reforms for public services to return the local government sector to a sustainable position. This will be done in partnership with local government and on the principle of giving forward notice and certainty to allow time for councils to plan. From 2026-27, we want to fundamentally improve the way we fund councils and direct funding to where it is most needed through the first multi-year settlement in 10 years.

What steps she is taking to ensure that employers are supporting women managing menopause in the workplace.

On 18th October 2024 the Secretary of State for DWP appointed Mariella Frostrup as the new Menopause Employment Ambassador. The Menopause Employment Ambassador will work closely with employers across the country to improve workplace support for women experiencing menopause and wider women’s health issues. The Menopause Employment Ambassador launched her Menopause Advisory Group on 24th April who will provide her with expert knowledge from a wide range of sectors on how businesses can better support women experiencing menopause in the workplace by creating a more supportive environment that helps women to stay in work and progress. The government has also proposed a wide-ranging set of generational reforms to boost protections for workers, including women experiencing menopause symptoms at work. The policy proposals in the Employment Rights Bill would require large employers with more than 250 employees to produce Menopause Action Plans on how they will support employees through the menopause. Alongside this the government has also committed to publishing guidance, including for small employers, on measures to consider relating to uniform and temperature, flexible working and recording menopause-related leave and absence.

What steps she is taking to ensure employers are proactive in preventing workplace sexual harassment.

Equality is at the heart of this Government’s missions, which is why our Employment Rights Bill is introducing robust measures to safeguard working people, including protections from sexual harassment.We are supporting the effective implementation of the new duty on employers to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of their employees, which came into force on 26 October 2024. We are also working to strengthen this duty through the Employment Rights Bill to require employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. The Bill additionally introduces an obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties, including third-party sexual harassment.We will also introduce a power to enable regulations to specify steps that are to be regarded as “reasonable”, to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. The Government will only set out steps in regulations where these are proportionate and there is a clear evidence base supporting their efficacy in preventing workplace sexual harassment. We have recently launched a call for evidence on equality law, which will help build on our existing research into the most effective steps to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.

Innovation and Technology, what progress he has made on setting up AI growth zones.

His Majesty’s Government has made steady progress in delivering the AI Opportunities Action Plan, published in January.This includes establishing AI Growth Zones (AIGZs) to accelerate large-scale AI infrastructure development across the UK. Culham, home to the UK Atomic Energy Authority, has been named as the first AIGZ.To identify further AIGZs, DSIT opened an early expression of interest period, in which DSIT received over 200 expressions of interest. DSIT has how opened the formal process for applicants to apply to host an AIGZ. This will remain open on a rolling basis.

What steps she is taking to help ensure the effective prosecution of cases involving use of offensive weapons in Slough.

This Government’s priority is to keep our streets safe, that is why we have committed to halve knife crime in a decade as part of our Safer Streets Mission.The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecuted over 1,000 knife crime offences in 2023-24 in conjunction with Thames Valley Police.Working closely with police in Thames Valley, the CPS recently completed a two-year pilot of Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs). SVROs, which can be applied for by the CPS, provide police with the power to search a person subject to an order for bladed articles or offensive weapons in a public space. An evaluation report about the pilot is due in summer 2025, ahead of a decision by the Government to roll the powers out nationally.

What steps her Department is taking to protect British consumers against fraud.

We committed in our manifesto to introduce an expanded Fraud Strategy. Development of the Strategy has begun and details of the government’s approach to tackling fraud will be set out in due course.Work continues to ensure that the public are better equipped to spot and avoid frauds, through our Stop! Think Fraud campaign. Furthermore, as of March 2025, the Online Safety Act’s illegal content duties are now enforceable by Ofcom. This will cut off key online vectors by which criminals are able to identify and communicate with potential victims, such as fraudulent advertising. We are also banning SIM farms, technical devices that allow criminals to send thousands of scam texts and calls at once, as part of the ongoing passage of the Crime and Policing Bill.

What steps she is taking to help increase the number of school places for children with SEND in (a) Slough and (b) Berkshire.

The department has now published allocations for £740 million in high needs provision capital allocations for the 2025/26 financial year. The funding can be used to adapt schools to be more accessible for children with special educational needs and disabilities, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs, and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.Slough Borough Council has been allocated £2.6 million for 2025/26 and West Berkshire Council has been allocated just under £1.5 million. It is up to the local authorities to make decisions about the places they create and to prioritise their funding to meet local needs.

Innovation and Technology, what recent progress his Department has made on improving digital inclusion in the Slough constituency.

The Government published its Digital Inclusion Action Plan in February 2025, which outlines the first five actions we are taking over the next year to boost digital inclusion in every corner of the UK, including Slough.These will be targeted at local initiatives for boosting digital skills and confidence, widening access to devices and connectivity, and getting support to people in their own communities so everyone can reap the benefits of technology.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the sustainability of local media.

Sustainability of journalism across the country is an area of particular concern for this Government. 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, and 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 we recently held a roundtable discussion with local news editors from across the country to discuss our planned approach and explore further collaboration on the Strategy. We will announce further details in due course.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps he has taken with his international counterparts to enable humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.

We call on the Government of Israel to abide by its international obligations to ensure full, rapid, safe and unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance to the population in Gaza, now. The Foreign Secretary regularly presses his Israeli counterparts on these issues. We are calling on the Government of Israel to allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza, and let the UN and humanitarians save lives. On 13 May the UK, along with European partners, called an urgent session of the UN Security Council to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza. I spoke with the Israeli Ambassador on 20 May to make clear that the UK stands firmly against Israel's resumption of military action in Gaza, its wholly inadequate plan for aid delivery, and to demand that a full and unhindered resumption in the flow of aid into Gaza takes place immediately.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to improve farmed animal welfare.

This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation. The Department is engaging with key stakeholders as part of the development of our overarching approach to animal welfare. We will be outlining more details on this in due course. This will build on the support already available through the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, which includes access to testing for priority diseases and advice to continually improve the health, welfare and productivity of farmed animals through funded vet visits.

What steps he is taking to reduce health inequalities (a) in general and (b) for children.

The United Kingdom faces significant health inequalities, with healthy life expectancy varying widely across and between communities. Through our Health Mission, we are focused on addressing the wider determinants of health to improve healthy life expectancy for all and to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between different regions of England.Addressing healthcare inequalities is a fundamental part of the Health Mission and the workstreams of the 10-Year Health Plan. The 11 working groups have now concluded their development that will feed into the plan. These working groups included a dedicated workstream focused on how care should be designed and delivered to improve healthcare equity, however this was also fully considered by each workstream.Tackling health inequalities will also be central to the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and the ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. As a first step, in 2025/26, £126 million is being invested into Family Hubs and Start for Life services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood.We are also developing an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy which will also help reduce health inequalities for children. The Department is working closely with the Child Poverty Ministerial Taskforce to reduce child poverty, tackle its root causes, and give every child the best start in life.

What steps she is taking to support pupils undertaking exams when experiencing (a) health issues and (b) bereavement.

There are existing arrangements in place to support students who may experience disruption at the time of their exams and assessments known as special consideration.Special consideration is any adjustment given to a student who has temporarily experienced an illness, injury, or other event outside of their control, including bereavement, at the time of the examination or assessment which significantly affects their ability to either take an assessment or fully demonstrate what they can do within it.Students must have been fully prepared for the assessment and have covered the whole course to be eligible for special consideration.More information about special consideration and the eligibility criteria can be found here: https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/JCQ-A-guide-to-the-special-consideration-process-24-25_FINAL_accessible.pdf.

Whether he plans to take steps to increase awareness of the availability of a PSA blood test.

Currently, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not recommend a national prostate cancer screening programme due to the limitations of the current best test, the Prostate Specific Antigen test, which may lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of cancers that would not have caused harm during a man’s lifetime. However, the UK NSC is undertaking a comprehensive evidence review to assess six potential approaches to targeted screening for those at higher risk of developing prostate cancer. Recommendations will be published upon the conclusion of this review.In addition, the Government has invested £16 million in the £42 million United Kingdom-wide TRANSFORM trial, led by Prostate Cancer UK, which aims to identify new ways of detecting prostate cancer at an earlier stage, including in men without symptoms. The trial will ensure that at least 10% of participants are black men, reflecting their higher risk and the importance of ensuring new tests are effective across all groups.The UK NSC does not currently recommend a national screening programme for prostate cancer, as the current PSA test lacks the necessary accuracy. It can lead to overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, as well as false reassurance for some men. This is particularly important given that many prostate cancers are slow-growing and may not cause harm during a man's lifetime.NHS England is taking steps to increase public understanding of prostate cancer and its risk factors. This includes working in partnership with Cancer Alliances, charities, and local representatives to reach people in their communities with tailored messaging and support.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of prostate cancer screening for high risk groups.

Currently, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not recommend a national prostate cancer screening programme due to the limitations of the current best test, the Prostate Specific Antigen test, which may lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of cancers that would not have caused harm during a man’s lifetime. However, the UK NSC is undertaking a comprehensive evidence review to assess six potential approaches to targeted screening for those at higher risk of developing prostate cancer. Recommendations will be published upon the conclusion of this review.In addition, the Government has invested £16 million in the £42 million United Kingdom-wide TRANSFORM trial, led by Prostate Cancer UK, which aims to identify new ways of detecting prostate cancer at an earlier stage, including in men without symptoms. The trial will ensure that at least 10% of participants are black men, reflecting their higher risk and the importance of ensuring new tests are effective across all groups.The UK NSC does not currently recommend a national screening programme for prostate cancer, as the current PSA test lacks the necessary accuracy. It can lead to overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, as well as false reassurance for some men. This is particularly important given that many prostate cancers are slow-growing and may not cause harm during a man's lifetime.NHS England is taking steps to increase public understanding of prostate cancer and its risk factors. This includes working in partnership with Cancer Alliances, charities, and local representatives to reach people in their communities with tailored messaging and support.

What recent steps her Department has taken to help improve cycling safety on roads.

Slough Unitary Authority has been allocated over £415,000 for active travel in 2024/25 and 2025/26. Over £3.2 million has been allocated to local transport authorities in Berkshire for the same period. Decisions on how to use this funding to improve local cycling and walking routes would be a matter for the respective authorities. The Government is committed to improving the safety of all road users, especially the most vulnerable such as pedestrians, horse riders and cyclists. This is a key priority for the Department which was reflected in the updated Highway Code in January 2022 with the implementation of a Hierarchy of Road Users. We are committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. The Department is developing our Road Safety Strategy and will set out more details in due course.