Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make the recently developed service specification guidelines for wheelchair services mandatory across England.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, based on the needs of their local population. NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment.
This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
NHS England also introduced personal wheelchair budgets, including legal rights in 2019, providing a clear framework for ICBs to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated. Personal wheelchair budgets give people greater choice over the wheelchair provided.
Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from ICBs on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. The latest figures from the Quarter 2 2025/26 National Wheelchair Data Collection showed that 84% of adults and 78% of children received their equipment within 18 weeks. Further information on the National Wheelchair Data Collection is available at the following link:
The Medium-Term Planning Framework sets a requirement for all providers and ICBs to actively manage long waits for community health services reducing the proportion of all waits over 18 weeks. This will be monitored via the NHS’s usual regional and national assurance processes.
The Community Health Services Situation Report, which will be used to monitor ICB performance against waiting time targets in 2026/27, currently monitors waiting times for both children and young people, and adult waiting times under the ‘Wheelchair, Orthotics, Prosthetics and Equipment’ line. These targets will guide systems to reduce the longest waits, and improvement initiatives to meet these targets may affect waits that are over 18-weeks and 52-weeks.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how lipoedema is classified within NICE guidance and NHS commissioning frameworks; and whether he plans to review the categorisation of lipoedema-related interventions to ensure they reflect clinical need.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Lipoedema services in England are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs), which are responsible for assessing the needs of their local populations and determining the most appropriate services to support people with long‑term conditions such as lipoedema.
There is no single national specification for lipoedema services. Instead, ICBs draw on a range of national guidance and best‑practice resources when designing care pathways. These include guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and best‑practice frameworks produced by bodies such as Wounds UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners. This helps ensure that services are safe, effective, and based on the best available evidence.
Most people with lipoedema are supported through primary and community care services, including assessment by local lymphoedema teams, compression therapy, advice on skin care and movement, and support with self‑management. These services aim to help people manage symptoms and maintain mobility and quality of life.
NICE classifies lipoedema within its interventional procedures guidance on the use of liposuction for chronic lipoedema, reference code HTG618, as a chronic, often painful, and progressive condition characterised by the abnormal, symmetrical accumulation of fat in the legs, hips, buttocks, and sometimes arms. In this guidance, NICE concluded that current evidence on both safety and effectiveness is limited and, therefore, recommends that liposuction should only be undertaken within the context of research or under rigorous governance arrangements. This guidance informs, but does not mandate, local commissioning decisions. NICE will review this guidance once the full results of the ongoing LIPLEG clinical trial are available, and will update its recommendations if new evidence supports doing so.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2026 to Question 108309, in which month the upcoming national strategy for integrated transport is expected to be published.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department is committed to publishing the integrated national transport strategy shortly, which will set the long‑term vision for domestic transport across England.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that funding for wheelchair users is adequate to meet essential needs, including equipment and specialist support.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, based on the needs of their local population. NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment.
This includes the introduction of personal wheelchair budgets, including through legal rights in 2019, providing a clear framework for ICBs to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated. Personal wheelchair budgets give people greater choice over the wheelchair provided.
NHS England also published a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from ICBs on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. The latest figures from the Quarter 2 2025/26 National Wheelchair Data Collection showed that 84% of adults and 78% of children received their equipment within 18 weeks. Further information on the National Wheelchair Data Collection is available at the following link:
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty under various legislations, including the Care Act 2014, and the Children and Families Act 2014, to make arrangements for the provision of disability aids and community equipment, to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area. Some local authorities deliver this themselves, but a significant number have external contracts for an integrated community equipment service.
NHS England is also responsible for determining allocations of financial resources to ICBs. NHS England’s allocations policy aims to support equal opportunity of access for equal need, alongside NHS England’s duties to reduce health inequalities that are amenable to healthcare.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has marked 2025/26 as a financial reset year with the publication of Planning Guidance 2025/26. He has been clear that systems must live within their means, exhausting all opportunities to improve productivity, tackle waste, and take decisions on how to prioritise resources to best meet the health needs of their local population.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what statistics he has on the demand for and use of wheelchairs; and how that data informs NHS England’s commissioning of appropriate services.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, based on the needs of their local population. NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment.
This includes the introduction of personal wheelchair budgets, including through legal rights in 2019, providing a clear framework for ICBs to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated. Personal wheelchair budgets give people greater choice over the wheelchair provided.
NHS England also published a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from ICBs on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. The latest figures from the Quarter 2 2025/26 National Wheelchair Data Collection showed that 84% of adults and 78% of children received their equipment within 18 weeks. Further information on the National Wheelchair Data Collection is available at the following link:
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty under various legislations, including the Care Act 2014, and the Children and Families Act 2014, to make arrangements for the provision of disability aids and community equipment, to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area. Some local authorities deliver this themselves, but a significant number have external contracts for an integrated community equipment service.
NHS England is also responsible for determining allocations of financial resources to ICBs. NHS England’s allocations policy aims to support equal opportunity of access for equal need, alongside NHS England’s duties to reduce health inequalities that are amenable to healthcare.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has marked 2025/26 as a financial reset year with the publication of Planning Guidance 2025/26. He has been clear that systems must live within their means, exhausting all opportunities to improve productivity, tackle waste, and take decisions on how to prioritise resources to best meet the health needs of their local population.
Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Dft 1-985, what progress she has made towards implementation of targets for Road Safety and the methods for monitoring of these targets in the long-term.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In November 2025, we published research and analysis on “Effectiveness of targets for road safety” which can be found here: Effectiveness of targets for road safety - GOV.UK. The evidence suggests that targets play a role in reducing fatalities, but their impact cannot be separated from wider road safety strategies.
On 7 January 2026 we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all.
The Strategy sets ambitious targets to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65%, and 70% for children, by 2035. This target will focus the efforts of road safety partners across Britain, with measures to protect vulnerable road users, update vehicle safety technologies and review motoring offences.
The Strategy also includes a set of Safety Performance Indicators to provide an understanding of performance against the commitments made in the strategy, including the targets.
All of this will be supported and monitored by a new Road Safety Board which I will chair.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the MRS has made in delivering mechanistic research into ME/CFS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not know what ‘MRS’ refers to in this context. The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). A limited amount of mechanistic research is funded through the NIHR, but the majority of mechanistic research is funded through the Medical Research Council (MRC), a UK Research and Innovation Council sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Mechanistic research into myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, is within the remit of the MRC.
Asked by: Adrian Ramsay (Green Party - Waveney Valley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has considered using GB Energy to invest in reducing the carbon footprint of the general practice estate.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Great British Energy has funded rooftop solar for 250 schools and around 260 NHS sites. This is cutting bills for schools and hospitals, releasing money for frontline services.
For GPs that aren’t part of these NHS sites, they can access the Boiler Upgrade Scheme accessing £7,500 towards a heat pump and £5,000 towards a biomass boiler.
As set out in the Local Power Plan (Local Power Plan | Great British Energy) published on 10 February 2026 GBE will be announcing their new support schemes in Spring 2026. You can sign up on their website to find out more.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure that Scotland is supported through the commitments made in the Hamburg Declaration and its associated Action Plan.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Secretary of State signed a clean energy security agreement, the Hamburg Declaration, with European energy ministers at the North Sea Summit to progress build out of renewable energy in the North Sea and incentivise further investment.
Scotland is at the very heart of our Clean Energy Superpower mission. And in preparation for the North Sea Summit, the Department has engaged with UK industry, including Scottish companies, who have also attended the Summit. Officials regularly engage with and involve the Scottish Government in all relevant work related to the Hamburg Declaration and associated documents.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) onshore oil developments in the UK on areas of significant housing growth such as the Ardingly Reservoir catchment and (b) those developments on drinking water.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Local planning authorities and the Environment Agency are responsible for assessing the impact of onshore oil and gas developments on housing and drinking water respectively.
The North Sea Transition Authority regulates exploration and development licensing for England’s onshore oil and gas resources on behalf of the Secretary of State. Licence holders require further consents and permits before any operations take place.