There is robust legislative framework in place to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity.

The Government funds an online hate crime reporting portal, True Vision, designed so victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, which supports police forces in investigating and responding to online hate crime.

The Government also funds Victim Support to provide immediate and free online help for victims of all crime types, including hate crime, available 24 hours a day. Support is available anonymously and regardless of whether an incident was reported to the police.

The Home Office monitors hate crime through annual statistics on police-recorded hate crime in England and Wales. These are complemented by estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which helps capture incidents not reported to the police.

On 9 March 2026, the Government published Protecting What Matters, which outlines our approach to improving social cohesion, including the steps we are taking to combat hate crime.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) invested over £24million in research to support better climate modelling and more robust environmental monitoring in financial year 2024/25. This includes projects that use state-of-the-art computational techniques to monitor pollutants in UK rivers, machine learning models that track the impact of weather events and advanced quantification of greenhouse gas emissions. This year, £3.6million was also provided to the Met Office Hadley Centre to maintain and develop its underpinning climate modelling capability.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has another major R&D programme, the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme, worth around £152 million (covering fiscal years 2022/23 – 2026/27). In addition, there are smaller R&D projects across Defra that support ongoing monitoring activity.

Government efficiency, transparency and accountability are key pillars of the Procurement Act 2023 which came into force this year. The Act establishes a new exclusions framework that makes it easier to exclude suppliers who have underperformed in the delivery of other public contracts or acted improperly in procurement. The Act has also created a debarment list which will publicly list suppliers who must or may be excluded from contracts.

The new Central Digital Platform is also improving accessibility to procurement data, ensuring accountability and enabling the public and stakeholders to scrutinise spending decisions and track procurement outcomes.

Regular sight tests play a crucial role in the early detection of glaucoma, which is often symptomless in the early stages. Free National Health Service sight tests are available for many, including individuals diagnosed with glaucoma or aged 40 years old and over with a close family history of glaucoma. Over 13 million free NHS sight tests were provided to eligible groups in 2024/25.

Patients with suspected glaucoma will be referred for further investigation and any clinically necessary treatment. We also recognise the importance of glaucoma monitoring which can delay its progression. Integrated care boards can commission enhanced eye care services from high street optical practices, including glaucoma monitoring.

NHS England has been testing how IT connectivity between primary and secondary eye care services and the development of a single point of access, could improve the referral and triage of patients, reduce unnecessary referrals and support more patients being managed in the community to help create capacity within hospital eye services.

As a matter of long-standing policy, we do not comment on the detail of security and intelligence issues.

The government’s first duty is to protect our national security and keep our country safe. We keep potential threats to the UK under constant review and, where necessary, we use all the tools at our disposal to mitigate these threats.

The UK has a strong record of responding robustly to state threats and our intelligence and law enforcement agencies are at the forefront of these efforts. Alongside our existing operational response, new legislation has been brought in through the National Security Act 2023 to deal with the range of modern state threats and make the UK a harder target for those state which seek to conduct hostile acts against the UK, including espionage, interference in our political system, and sabotage.

Individuals who are under investigation for rape may be placed on pre-charge bail when the police consider it necessary and proportionate. Conditions may be attached to this bail and are given with specific reference to factors including to ensure the person does not commit further offences or abscond from police custody. These factors are set out in existing primary legislation. Decisions on whether to bail individuals and which conditions to set against them are operational matters for individual police forces and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Where individuals breach their bail conditions, the police have a power to arrest those individuals.

We are delivering actions through the Rape Review to ensure that police investigations are efficient and consider the risks posed by suspects under investigation. This includes supporting delivery of Operation Soteria and funding the policing aspects of the programme which include the dissemination and development of best practice learning to improve the efficiency of investigations.

Furthermore, we are working with partners to improve the capabilities of police officers in relation to issues that are relevant to sexual offences. As part of the Policing Education Qualification Framework, all student police officers will receive training to identify the factors that contribute to the vulnerability of victims and witnesses and respond appropriately.

Through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act we are also strengthening the regime to manage sexual offenders and those that pose a risk of sexual harm but have not been convicted. The police may apply to a court for a Sexual Risk Orders (SRO), which can be applied to any individual who poses a risk of sexual harm in the UK or abroad, even if they have never been convicted.

An SRO can place a range of restrictions on an individual depending on the nature of the case, such as limiting their internet use or preventing travel abroad. Breach of an SRO is a criminal offence punishable by a maximum of 5 years’ imprisonment.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 now specifies that the court should apply the lower civil standard of proof (‘balance of probabilities’), rather than the criminal standard, when determining whether the individual the application is made in respect of has done the act in question.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is continuing to monitor the development, persistence and cross-protection of antibody immune cell responses by both epidemiological and laboratory-based investigations, for many different variants of COVID-19 including the Omicron variant.

The UKHSA monitors all SARS-CoV-2 reinfections, defined as a second or later episode of infection routinely based on an interval of at least 90 days between two positive PCR or lateral flow tests.

Analysis from the prospective cohort study SARS-CoV-2 Immunity and Reinfection Evaluation (SIREN), shows that of over 44,000 healthcare workers undergo frequent SARS-CoV-2 PCR and antibody testing for 12-months and up to 24-months for participants joining extended follow-up. Many participants who have recently developed Omicron infections, are under investigation and will continue to be monitored over the coming months. The study is available at the following link:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.29.21267006v1

The UK Health Security Agency undertakes regular monitoring of United Kingdom and international COVID-19 genomic data. This comprises of updates on previously reported viral variants and detection of novel variants.

There are several ongoing studies on the immunity to COVID-19 conferred by prior infection. An assessment of long-term immunity in those who have contracted the Omicron variant will be included as evidence emerges over time. Since June 2020, the SIREN study has assessed, through serial antibody and swab testing, the protection granted by prior infection and vaccination in a large cohort of healthcare workers.

I am not able to comment on individual cases. Any monitoring of individuals speaking in public is an operational matter for police where legal, necessary and proportionate.

This Government is committed to tackling stalking and domestic abuse and ensuring that the right tools are in place to protect victims of these deeply disturbing crimes. That is why we strengthened the law by making stalking an offence in its own right, introduced a new civil stalking protection order and are currently taking our landmark Domestic Abuse Bill through Parliament.

Serial stalking and domestic abuse perpetrators are already on existing systems such as ViSOR (the dangerous persons database) and can be managed through Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements. Our focus is on making better use of these already existing systems such as the Police National Computer or ViSOR, which already enables the police to manage risk and share perpetrators’ details across criminal justice and other relevant agencies.

The Home Office issues an information leaflet to asylum claimants at the point of claim which outlines the asylum process and the claimant’s responsibilities within that process. This information leaflet is periodically reviewed.

Independent guidance and advice are also available to asylum claimants provided by Migrant Help. Migrant Help are present in initial accommodation where destitute asylum seekers are initially housed and their services can also be accessed via their website or by phone. Their website is available in multiple languages, and the helpline is free and accessible in multiple languages.

UKVI work closely with our key partners and stakeholders to seek and share feedback to identify ways in which we can improve the quality of experience of people seeking asylum in the UK. We have recently set up a Customer Experience Management Team, based across the UK, who will work closely on a local level with stakeholders, to identify key areas to improve the overall experience for people seeking asylum in the UK.

Financial audits are carried out on all individual DFID programmes operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). The body carrying out the audits, and the terms of reference vary depending on the DFID programme, however all independent financial audits provide assurance to DFID that funds are spent and managed in line with agreed programme activities. The overall DFID OPTs portfolio is also subject to the regular audit cycle of DFID’s Internal Audit Department and the National Audit Office.

Everyone who returns from engaging in the conflict in Syria or Iraq, whether male or female, must expect to be investigated by the police to determine if they have committed criminal offences, and to ensure that they do not pose a threat to our national security. Where there is evidence that crimes have been committed, those responsible should expect to be prosecuted. However any decision on whether to prosecute will be taken by the police and Crown Prosecution Service on a case by case basis. In addition to seeking prosecution of terrorism suspects, we use a range of tools to manage the threat posed by returners - including imposing travel restrictions for individuals subject to Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures and using Temporary Exclusion Orders to place in-country conditions upon return, including regular reporting to a police station. The majority of those who have returned did so in the earlier stages of the conflict, and were investigated on their return. A significant proportion of these individuals are assessed as no longer being of national security concern.

Children using adult dating sites face serious risk from those who are seeking to exploit them, and anyone using these platforms to communicate sexually with someone under the age of 16 is committing a crime.

As set out in the Internet Safety Strategy, the Government would like to work with adult dating companies to review processes and procedures, and to develop new protective messaging to help their user community prevent young people being put at unnecessary risk, and to ensure they remain in line with the law. We will consider whether there is a stronger role for companies to act to protect young people, including by terminating accounts belonging to young people.

As for all DFID programmes, officials regularly monitor and review our programmes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) to ensure they are delivering results and that UK aid reaches the intended beneficiaries and achieves the best development outcomes, with a strong focus on ensuring value for money for the UK taxpayer. The processes in place include comprehensive annual reviews and project completion reports. These reviews are available on the DFID Development Tracker at https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/. DFID has due diligence assessment processes to provide assurance over the expenditure of our funds, and DFID’s project spending in the OPTs is subject to annual, independent financial audit. The overall programme is also subject to the regular audit cycle of DFID’s Internal Audit Department and the National Audit Office. DFID has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and has robust controls against diversion of aid to terrorist groups.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for the controls and authorisations that apply to sites that collect, test and supply human blood or blood components intended for transfusion, and controls of blood establishments and hospital blood banks.

If the blood is intended for transfusion the blood bank must comply with the United Kingdom's Blood Safety and Quality Regulations. The MHRA assesses blood banks for compliance with these Regulations.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) complies with the Guidelines for the Blood Transfusion Services in the UK which are published by the Joint United Kingdom Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC).

All blood donations are microbiologically screened and must be found negative before they can be issued for transfusion.

The European Union Directive on blood, set into UK law as the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations, defines storage, transport and distribution conditions for blood and blood components once collected. JPAC includes these requirements in the guidelines and these are followed by NHSBT.

As part of the Healthy Child Programme, all new parents are given a personal child health record 'red book' at the birth of their child. The child’s growth should be measured and plotted using the centile chart in the ‘red book’ which will show early signs that a child’s weight is deviating from a normal trajectory and that they are gaining weight too quickly for their age. This forms part of a holistic clinical assessment and discussion between a health professional and the parent/carer. These practitioners assess family diet and activity patterns and provide individual and family intervention programmes to manage overweight and obesity in infancy and the early years including referral to specialists.