A national accident prevention strategy would encompass many other sources of accidents, e.g. road accidents, home accidents, and would focus on improving data on accidents from the NHS

Accident prevention is a priority and it is delivered by different departmental portfolios, of which the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is one. The current approach is effective at dealing with this diverse range, so it would be difficult to bring accident prevention under one umbrella of a national accident strategy.

The Government believes the regulatory model employed by HSE for regulating health and safety in the workplace can be used in the approach to regulating accident prevention. However, introducing a cross-government strategy would not be a matter solely for HSE or the Department for Work and Pensions.

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS388) made on 16 October 2026. The BSR published its Call for Evidence on Building Regulations Part K (protection from falling, collision and impact) on Monday 19 October, which will remain open until the end of the year. It can be found here. Evidence collected will supplement the department’s commissioned research on domestic stairs which can be found here and general access and utility stairs, which can be found here, which considered aligning statutory guidance in Approved Document K with British Standard 5395-1:2010 (‘Code of practice for the design of stairs with straight flights and winders’). Evidence collected will aid the BSR to meet its duty, under the s.5 Building Safety Act 2022, to keep the safety of people in and about buildings and the standard of buildings under review. Building Regulations and guidance in Approved Documents can then be updated as needed.

Defra will be launching a Plastic Film Forum this November and will convene working groups focusing on collections, sorting, reprocessing and end-markets, with the objective of developing a Transition Framework to support 2030 implementation.

Defra works closely with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on ensuring that the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to waste incineration aligns with Defra-led reforms to waste and recycling.

We will work with industry through the Plastic Film Forum launching this November, with a working group specifically looking at reprocessing.  We will continue to promote the continuation of existing voluntary collection routes — including council collections, business collections and front-of-store take-back at major supermarkets, which could provide feedstock to infrastructure.

In addition to convening a plastic forum with industry representative, Defra have been engaging with a project led by the University of Birmingham to assess the challenges facing UK plastics infrastructure.

My hon. Friend is making a passionate case about a very complex and tragic issue. I agree to meet him, and I hope that we can find an equitable outcome for his constituent.

‘Every child achieving and thriving’ establishes the department’s plan to deliver improved outcomes for all children, regardless of their background or where they live. Our ambition is for all children to achieve higher standards and for the disadvantage gap to be halved.

The department’s approach is comprehensive and includes rebuilding early family support, improving teacher recruitment and retention so every child benefits from high-quality teaching, broadening the curriculum alongside access to high-quality enrichment, and launching two place-based missions, Mission North East and Mission Coastal, to drive improvement in areas where outcomes remain stubbornly low.

The government has introduced the Enrichment Expansion Programme funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and delivered in partnership with the department, which will work with over 400 schools in the most disadvantaged areas.

The department is also taking steps to support schools and parents to work in partnership by establishing minimum expectations for parental engagement. Successful parental engagement can have a particularly significant impact for the most disadvantaged.

On English and maths, the department is funding the RISE English and Maths Hubs programmes to help schools improve teaching practice and pupil outcomes.

Additionally, we are providing around £3.2 billion of pupil premium funding in the 2026/27 financial year to help raise the educational outcomes of disadvantaged 5 to 16-year-olds. We will also introduce government funded pupil premium strategy reviews for schools that need additional support. These targeted reviews will equip school leaders to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children.

The government commissioned the review of early deaths of care leavers to examine the unacceptably high number of deaths among care-experienced young people and to drive action to address it. The review’s central finding reinforces the government’s focus for care reform: too many care-experienced people enter adulthood lonely. That is why we have set out a comprehensive programme to prioritise building and maintaining relationships.

This includes over £25 million of funding this financial year to continue the rollout of the Staying Close programme. New duties from 30 September also require councils to publish how they will support care leavers into adulthood and introduce corporate parenting across government departments and key public bodies to ensure policies and services provide better support for care leavers.

For a young person, Staying Close means keeping somewhere settled to live rather than being moved along at 18 and having a network of people around them as they move into adulthood. Staying Close now runs in 47 local areas and will become a national duty for local areas, with full rollout expected by 2029. The Staying Close programme also includes funding for a mental health worker in each local authority to work directly with young people and upskill their teams.

To better prevent future deaths, we will explore how the Child Protection Authority could amplify learning across areas.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 7 September in response to Question 21372, which, for ease of reference, has been reproduced below:

“The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, published in April 2026, places tackling medical misogyny at its core, recognising that women have been dismissed for far too long and that this must change.

The strategy takes a systemic approach to addressing medical misogyny and ensuring women’s voices and experiences shape care. This includes putting women’s lived experience, including pain and whether they felt listened to, at the heart of how National Health Service quality is defined, measured, and improved. For the first time, women’s feedback on pain management will directly influence NHS accountability, and patient reported experience measures will be embedded in core women’s health pathways.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy strengthens escalation and feedback routes, building on Jess’s Rule and Martha’s Rule, so women can challenge when symptoms persist or they feel they are not being listened to.  Jess’s Rule ensures that patients who have been seen by a general practitioner three times without a clear diagnosis will have their care rethought. Similarly, Martha’s Rule allows hospital inpatients and their families to seek an urgent review of their condition if it is rapidly deteriorating.

The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy also introduces a new measure of how often women have to repeat their story to different professionals, supporting better continuity through the diagnostic journey”.

The Government takes the risks from advanced AI extremely seriously and recognises the importance of ensuring our approach keeps pace with a rapidly evolving technology. Equally, AI offers huge opportunities that we want the UK to tap into, from transforming our public services, improving living standards, and creating new jobs. That is why the AI Security Institute are working with partners around the world to better understand the most advanced AI systems, raise safety standards and build a shared evidence base on emerging risks.

Government has in place a number of measures that can support better employment outcomes for neurodivergent people.

Our specialist, voluntary, Supported Employment programme, Connect to Work, is for anyone who is disabled, has a health condition or is experiencing non-health related barriers to work. Connect to Work has a specialist pathway for neurodivergent and learning-disabled participants, using the well-evidenced Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF). The programme is locally led and will support around 300,000 people by the end of the decade.

In Jobcentres around 1,000 (full time equivalent) Pathways to Work Advisers, provide personalised one-to-one support to disabled and neurodivergent customers, and those with health conditions to help customers identify and overcome obstacles which may stop them from moving towards or into work or to access employment and wider skills support, and our employment programmes.

Practical workplace support is also available through Access to Work, a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant delivered across Great Britain. It supports workplace adjustments that go beyond an employer’s responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010. The scheme is available to people with disabilities or health conditions, including neurodivergent conditions, where these affect their ability to work.

Alongside support for individuals, DWP administers the GB-wide Disability Confident scheme, encouraging employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. It provides employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace.

In 2025, DWP launched an independent advisory panel of academics with expertise and lived experiences of neurodiversity to consider the reasons why neurodivergent people often have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate. In addition, between January and March this year, DWP funded the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to run a limited series of neurodivergence masterclasses for employers to attend free of charge. This was to address employer and line manager skill and confidence in recruiting and supporting neurodivergent individuals at work. Over 1,800 representatives of employers attended these masterclasses.

In England, the National Careers Service currently supports adults with SEND and disabilities as a priority group, including many neurodivergent people. They can access careers information and advice through the website, webchat and telephone line, as well as accessing in-depth advice and guidance from professionally qualified careers advisers through the community-based offer.

As part of the new Jobs and Careers service from 1^st October, support will be more inclusive and tailored to individual needs to help people find, progress and stay in work. This includes our recently launched digital tools, known as the Work Hub, designed to help everyone access online support, including an online AI work assistant, CV builder and a new job search tool. We are also upskilling our colleagues to deliver high-quality, personalised employment support through our Get Britain Working Coaching Academy. Our qualified careers advisers will focus on providing in-depth advice and guidance to customers who face greater barriers to working or learning, regardless of whether they are claiming benefits. This includes neurodivergent people.

In terms of Jobcentre Plus support, there are around 1,000 (full time equivalent) Pathways to Work Advisers in place in Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales, providing personalised one-to-one support to disabled customers and those with health conditions.

To ensure customers with complex barriers receive the right support from Jobcentres, Disability Employment Advisers help work coaches and Pathways to Work Advisers tailor their support to help customers with long-term health conditions and disabilities move closer or into the labour market.

Jobcentre Plus Recruitment Consultants can signpost to specialist programmes like Connect to Work, which provides intensive support to people with complex barriers to employment, including people who are neurodivergent.

The Government recognises that patients are waiting longer than they should for diagnosis and treatment. With increasing numbers of urgent cancer referrals, we are committed to ensuring that everyone has timely access to high-quality treatments and diagnostic services when they need it.

The National Cancer Plan sets a clear ambition to meet all cancer waiting time standards by the end of this Parliament, ensuring patients get faster diagnosis and treatment, including those with breast cancer. We will achieve this through a modernised, more productive cancer pathway, expanding diagnostic capacity, harnessing technology, and giving the most challenged trusts intensive support to deliver the improvements patients rightly expect.

We are taking a range of steps to improve access to imaging, including expanding capacity through community diagnostic centres, which are providing millions of additional tests, in convenient community settings.

£70 million has been invested into new state of the art linear accelerator radiotherapy machines, to replace older, less efficient machines. This vital investment demonstrates our commitment to improving radiotherapy services and will ensure that the most advanced treatments are available to patients who need it.

The Department would also like to clarify remarks made during the Health and Social Care oral parliamentary questions session on 26 February 2026 regarding cancer treatment statistics. In response to the Hon. Member for Easington's question, the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care noted that investment in radiotherapy machines and cutting waiting lists will allow 27,500 more patients to be treated each year. The correct statistic is that the measures will allow 27,500 additional treatments each year. The Department apologises for the error.