Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding is available to local authorities to improve oral hygiene education in primary schools.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Local authorities in England are responsible for assessing oral health needs and for improving the oral health of their local population. Public health services commissioned by local authorities in England are funded through a ring-fenced Public Health Grant. As part of a multi-year settlement, we will be investing £10.5 million in 2026/27, to enable local authorities to continue to implement the national supervised toothbrushing programme and for other local initiatives that improve education on oral hygiene. Dental health and the benefits of good oral hygiene are also part of statutory guidance on health education for schools in England. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve children's access to dental care in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency, this is the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB.

The Government is committed to ensuring people can access urgent dental care when they need it. Over the past year, ICBs have been commissioning additional urgent dental appointments and there is now an urgent care safety net available in all areas of the country. In the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB, which includes the Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency, 25,315 NHS dental treatments were delivered in April to October 2025 compared to the same period before the election. Nationally, 1.8 million more NHS dental treatments were delivered across the same time period. Half of these additional treatments were delivered to children.

The 10-Year Health Plan confirms that child dental health is a priority, and we are committed to delivering fundamental reform of the dental contract before the end of this Parliament. In the meantime, we are introducing changes to dental access that will benefit children.

From April 2026, we began introducing a package of reforms to address some of the pressing issues that dentists and dental teams have been experiencing. We have introduced a new course of treatment for fluoride varnish for children to be applied by suitably trained dental nurses in between regular check-ups. We have also increased remuneration for dentists for fissure sealants, an effective intervention for children aged seven years old and over, and young people up to 18 years old, to support increased use for primary prevention purposes. These reforms will put patients with greatest need first, incentivising urgent care and complex treatments.

Reducing rates of tooth decay is central to our commitment to help children to live healthier lives. Tooth decay is also almost entirely preventable. We are delivering the national targeted supervised toothbrushing programme for up to 600,000 three to five-year-olds in the most deprived areas.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2026 to question 121001, whether her Department has considered the use of independent, real-terms data when mapping mobile coverage.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Ofcom is responsible for reporting on the availability of telecommunications networks across the UK.

Government has restated the importance of Ofcom continuing to improve its reporting of mobile coverage in the draft Statement of Strategic Priorities for telecommunications, the management of spectrum and postal services. This includes building on the launch of Map Your Mobile tool in June 2025, by exploring more use of measured and crowdsourced data to measure network performance.

Any use of independent data to support the mapping of mobile coverage and performance of mobile networks needs to be done in a robust way; this is something Ofcom are currently exploring.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has assessed the suitability of incentives to build mobile network infrastructure to meet the needs of rural areas.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Jointly funded by the Government and the UK’s mobile network operators, the Shared Rural Network is utilising Government funding to incentivise mobile network operators to deliver commercial outdoor mobile coverage in rural areas, where there was previously limited or no 4G coverage at all. The programme has successfully delivered its main objective of 95% 4G geographic coverage from at least one operator by the end of 2025 and will continue to deliver coverage improvements until it closes in January 2027.

Government is also committed to ensuring the policy and regulatory framework drives investment in widespread high-quality mobile connectivity across the UK, including working to identify and address barriers to deployment of mobile infrastructure where appropriate. To support this, we have recently launched the Mobile Market Review call for evidence, calling on stakeholders to provide detailed evidence on how developments across the sector impact investment in connectivity over the long-term and what more Government can do to support this. The call for evidence is open for responses until 5 May 2026.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to account for the costs of transporting SEND students to school in rural areas when making future funding allocations.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Central government funding for home-to-school travel is provided through the Local Government Finance Settlement administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Settlement uses relative needs formulae to assess each local authority’s relative need to spend on specific services. From the 2026/27 financial year, we have introduced a new specific relative needs formula for home-to-school travel which estimates each authority’s relative need to spend based on pupil numbers and home-to-school distances. This ensures funding reflects real journeys to school including those for rural local authorities.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the answer of 26 March 2026 to question 121006, whether her Department will consider underlying geology within its review of the funding formula for the distribution of capital funding to local highways authorities.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department expects to consider underlying geology, as one of the many conditions that affect the wear and tear of local roads, as part of its review of the funding formula it uses to distribution highways maintenance funding to local highway authorities.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department plans to respond to the Law Commission's recommendations on the reclamation and reuse of graves.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Law Commission’s recommendations on burial were published on 18 March 2026 in its final report on the Burial and Cremation sub-project of a wider review of the legislative framework for burial, cremation and new funerary methods. Reports will also be published in due course in relation to New Funerary Methods and Rights and Obligations relating to Funerary Methods, Funerals and Remains.

The Government will consider the Law Commission’s recommendations carefully and will respond in due course.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the closure of bioenergy power stations which burn agricultural waste, including straw and poultry litter, after the end of the Renewables Obligation Certificate scheme in 2027 on the environment.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

While operators of Renewables Obligation accredited generators will have been aware of the expiry of their entitlement to Renewables Obligations Certificates for some time, Defra recognises the potential for adverse environmental consequences of the ending of agreements. Informing this, Defra's research portfolio includes research into the agricultural landbank available to apply these types of materials as a source of nutrients to meet crop and soil needs and explores novel fertilisers from organic materials. The storage and application of these materials to agricultural land is also controlled by The Reduction and Prevention of Agricultural Diffuse Pollution (England) Regulations 2018 and The Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2015. Defra has committed to consolidate these agricultural water regulations into a clearer and stronger set of rules. Through these reforms it will consider how best to regulate the use of organic manures on farms and the interdependencies with wider policies. Nonetheless, Defra would continue to expect individuals and businesses to abide by legal obligations.

Legal protections for individuals making protected disclosures under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998

New US sanctions on Cuba

Armed Forces Training Contract and Elbit Systems

Found: Jenkin (Conservative; Harwich and North Essex) (Chair) Lewis Atkinson (Labour; Sunderland Central) Charlotte Cane

Found: Jenkin (Conservative; Harwich and North Essex) (Chair) Lewis Atkinson (Labour; Sunderland Central) Charlotte Cane

Found: During the verbal evidence session, Charlotte Cane MP inquired about the process by which members are

Found: Jenkin (Conservative; Harwich and North Essex) (Chair) Lewis Atkinson (Labour; Sunderland Central) Charlotte Cane

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Simon Hoare (Chair); Richard Baker; Charlotte Cane; Sam Carling;

This inquiry will examine two reports laid by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in September 2025 which relate to separate investigations into two complaints about the Charity Commission for England and Wales (the Charity Commission).