Written questions by Rosindell.

What steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage screening for and (b) increase the rate of early diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Screening for prostate cancer is currently not recommended by the UK National Screening Committees (UK NSC). This is because of the inaccuracy of the current best test Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). A PSA-based screening programme could harm men as some of them would be diagnosed with a cancer that would not have caused them problems during their life. This would lead to additional tests and treatments which can also have harmful side effects.The Department has invested £16 million in the TRANSFORM trial which seeks to find ways to diagnose prostate cancer as early as possible. This trial will compare the most promising tests to look for prostate cancer in men that do not have symptoms and aim to address disparities in early detection rates across different groups.We are also working with NHS England to support the National Health Service to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard for cancer to be diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days from an urgent suspected cancer referral. This includes introducing best practice timed pathways for prostate cancer to streamline diagnostic pathways and speed up diagnoses.

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's polices on rates of tobacco duty of the Office for Budget Responsibility's report entitled Dynamic scoring of policy measures in OBR forecasts, published on 9 November 2023, in the context of the Laffer curve.

The Government is unable to speculate on tax measures outside of fiscal events. As with all taxes, the Government keeps tobacco duty rates under review during its Budget process. The government accounts for the behavioural impact of tax changes when making tobacco duty policy decisions.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help protect Christians from persecution in Ghana.

The UK champions freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all abroad; no one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe in. We work to uphold the right to FoRB through our position at the UN, G7 and other multilateral fora and in our important bilateral work. Religious beliefs and practices permeate all aspects of Ghanaian life and Ghana's Constitution provides a framework which guarantees the liberty for all citizens to be free to believe and manifest any religious faith. FCDO is not aware of any cases of Christian persecution in Ghana.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to mandate that fact-of-death is reported to the Office for National Statistics in England within eight days.

There is a legal responsibility to register a death within a five-day time period, from when a medical examiner submits the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) to the registrar. The Office for National Statistics compiles their mortality data from the data taken at registration, which is informed in part by the MCCD. The five-day requirement complements the guidance to medical practitioners that certifying the death should be completed in a timely and efficient manner. However, there are valid cases where, for example, the identification of the cause of death, including where this is ascertained through a coronial investigation, and therefore the registration must take longer, which would be incompatible with a more prescriptive legal timeline.

Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to extend funding for the (a) Night Shelter Transformation Fund and (b) Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme.

As announced by the Chancellor on 29 July, spending plans for 2025-26 will be set alongside the Budget on 30th October. Following departmental review and processes, funding allocations for rough sleeping services will be announced via gov.uk.

Food and Rural Affairs, for how many hours raw sewage was discharged into the River Ravensbourne in the London Borough of Havering in the first nine months of 2024.

There are no Combined Sewer Overflows or Sewage Treatment Works on the River Ravensbourne, meaning that no raw sewage has been discharged into the river from these types of assets. However, the Environment Agency (EA) is aware of the issue of potential misconnections resulting in pollution discharges from private residences within the Ravensbourne area. Its area team will be investigating this matter further. Thames Water provide data on storm overflow discharges data on storm overflow discharges in near real time on their website for their assets. The EA will publish the 2024 Event Duration Monitoring data, showing how long and how often storm overflows have been used, in March 2025. The data for previous years is available here. The Government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill will require independent event duration monitoring of all sewage outlets, to support greater scrutiny of water company activity.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help local authorities fund public libraries.

Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources.I will work with my colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to get local government back on its feet after fourteen years of savage and drastic underfunding. We will do the basics right, providing councils with more stability through multi-year funding settlements and ending unnecessarily expensive competitive bidding for tiny pots of money.

Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to increase funding for Trading Standards officers.

For 2024/25, the Local Government Finance Settlement made available £64.7 billion. The majority of this funding is unringfenced for local authorities to use as they wish, including funding for Trading Standards officers.Future local authority funding decisions will be a matter for the next Spending Review and Local Government Finance Settlement in which we are engaged. The department will work with local government leaders to ensure they are better able to fulfil their statutory duties.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) ensure good relations with countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council and (b) encourage investment from such countries in the UK economy.

The UK's partnerships with the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are historic and enduring. These are underpinned by shared prosperity, security interests and deep people-to-people links. This government has committed to deepening cooperation with the Gulf. Both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have had early engagement with all six of their Gulf counterparts.We have resumed negotiations on the UK-GCC Free Trade Agreement and are working closely with Gulf partners to boost trade and investment ties.

Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions she has had with the Mayor of London on housebuilding targets in outer London.

In my recent meeting with the Mayor of London, he reiterated his commitment to help reach our target of 1.5 million homes.This Government is committed to work in partnership with our Mayors to achieve our shared aims.I look forward to working with the Mayor, boroughs and the wider sector to build the homes London needs across the entire capital – and do the same for the whole country.