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 (a) electronic patient records and (b) associated systems in the NHS.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are improving National Health Service electronic patient records (EPRs) through a £2 billion investment in IT systems, the implementation of a Frontline Digitisation programme, and the approval of new general practice IT systems to increase digital maturity across secondary and primary care. The programme is forecasting to achieve 98% EPR coverage by March 2026, with the remaining 2% of NHS trusts advanced in their plans for an EPR.

This aims to reduce administrative tasks, improve data access for better patient outcomes, and foster collaboration by replacing paper records with digital ones.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help support independent retailers in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

We’re creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street and supports investment, including permanently lower rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties under £500,000 rateable value. The government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no employer NICs at all this year.

Our recently announced Small Business Strategy aims to tackle late payments, boost access to finance, and remove red tape to enable small businesses, including independent retailers, grow and thrive.

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 support family carers in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

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

The Government recognises the vital role of unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they have the support they need.

The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers. To help local authorities fulfil their duties, including to unpaid carers, the 2025 Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.

In April, the Government also increased the Carer’s Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196, the largest ever increase since the Carer’s Allowance was introduced.

Through measures in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are equipping and supporting carers by making them more visible, empowering their voices in care planning, joining up services, and streamlining their caring tasks by introducing a new ‘MyCarer’ section to the NHS App.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on reducing backlogs at (a) Royal United Hospital Bath and (b) Southmead Hospital.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. Waiting list data is available for the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, which encompasses the Royal United Hospital Bath, and the North Bristol NHS Trust, which encompasses the Southmead Hospital.

As of July 2025, the total elective waiting list for the Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation NHS Trust was 41,010, with 57.7% of patients waiting less than 18 weeks. The total elective waiting list for the North Bristol NHS Trust was 44,047, with 65.8% of patients waiting less than 18 weeks.

Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period. Comparing from April 2025 to July 2025, the latest available data, performance against the 18-week standard has worsened by 2.9% at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, and improved by 2.6% at the North Bristol NHS Trust.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress is being made on paying compensation to people affected by the Infected Blood Scandal.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The delivery of compensation is a matter for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA). As of 9 September, IBCA has contacted 3,471 people to start their compensation claim, and 3,122 have started the claim process. 1,615 offers of compensation have been made, totalling over £1.2 billion, and so far 1,299 people have accepted their offers with more than £897 million paid in compensation. This means, as of 9 September, over 90% of infected people registered with a support scheme have been contacted to begin their claim.

IBCA expects the first claims from the cohort of people who are infected but have never been compensated, as they are not registered with an infected blood support scheme, to begin in October 2025. IBCA will also start the first claims for deceased infected people, and affected people, by December 2025.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the implementation of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee on North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The commitments set out in the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee are now making a difference to the service communities receive from their neighbourhood policing teams.

As a result of the Guarantee, communities are now benefitting from enhanced police visibility and responsiveness.

Avon and Somerset Police have been allocated £4,574,856 from the £200 million neighborhood policing fund for 2025/26. Based on their funding allocation, Avon and Somerset Police’s projected growth over 2025/26 will be 70 Police Officers (FTE).

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Industrial Strategy, published on 23 June 2025, on North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Industrial Strategy is a 10-year plan to back our strengths and realise Britain’s potential, targeting government investment towards eight-growth driving sectors (IS-8). There are clusters of the IS-8 sectors across the whole country, and the policy package addresses the biggest constraints to growth highlighted by businesses in these sectors.

The West of England Combined Authority will receive targeted interventions to support sectors in the area including devolved funding from the Creative Places Growth Fund, £0.8bn Transport for City Regions funding, and dedicated support from a British Business Bank Cluster Champion.

To ensure robust and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of the Industrial Strategy, we have chosen six economic indicators that reflect a range of desirable objectives for the IS-8 and the economy as a whole, which will be tracked at the economy-wide, sector and place level. Monitoring and evaluation of the Strategy will be overseen by the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council who will take a data-led approach.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent steps his Department has taken to negotiate trade agreements with other countries.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The government has concluded a trade deal with India, the fastest-growing economy in the G20. We have also agreed the General Terms for an Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD) with the United States and agreed a new Strategic Partnership with the European Union.

We are continuing to make good progress in our negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Republic of Korea, Switzerland and Turkey.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the progress of reform of the private pension system.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

We are committed to making reforms to the workplace pensions system to deliver better outcomes for UK savers and pensioners and to increase productive investment in the UK economy.

We have already completed our landmark Pensions Investment Review, which reported in May 2025. The Pension Schemes Bill, which was introduced in June, will legislate for the outcomes of the Review, in addition to other reforms to the pensions system. Our Bill Impact Assessment shows around 20 million savers could benefit and an average earner saving over their career could have around £29,000 more in their defined contribution pension pot at retirement as a result of the package of measures.

Additionally, the Bill will unlock some of the estimated £160 billion of surplus funds from well-funded Defined Benefit pension schemes to benefit sponsoring employers and members, with appropriate safeguards in place to protect members.

In July we launched the next phase of our reform agenda. The time is now right to finish the job started by the Turner Commission two decades ago and that is why we have revived the Commission, which is led by Baroness Jeannie Drake, Sir Ian Cheshire and Professor Nick Pearce. The Pensions Commission will make recommendations to ensure we have a pensions system that is strong, fair and sustainable.

Our reforms will also boost investment and growth in the UK. The Mansion House Accord will see leading workplace pension providers invest 10% of their workplace portfolio in productive assets such as infrastructure, property, and private equity. At least half of this will be in the UK.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will take steps to make Integrated Care Boards coterminous with strategic authorities.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The English devolution white paper made clear the Government’s long-term ambition to align public service boundaries, including health and strategic authority boundaries. We reaffirmed this commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan, published on 3 July 2025. Our aim is that integrated care boards should be coterminous with strategic authorities wherever feasibly possible.

I also refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS915 I made to the House on 9 September 2025, which provided an update on further progress.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using geothermal heat from former, flooded coal mines to help reach his Department's clean energy targets.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

To achieve net zero at lowest cost, we must look at how to accelerate all low carbon technologies including geothermal. The Government recognises that the mine water from coal mines shows good potential as a renewable source for heat networks. The government is therefore supporting such mine water schemes as Gateshead and Seaham Garden Village through the Heat Network Investment Project and the Green Heat Network Fund. The Mining Remediation Authority has also released opportunity maps for 10 Cities in England Mine Water Heat Opportunity Mapping for 10 Cities in England - data.gov.uk

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is takin to support young people into employment, education and training in North East Somerset & Hanham constituency.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

As set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are developing a Youth Guarantee to ensure young people are either learning or earning. This includes access to high-quality training, apprenticeships, and personalised support to find work.

As a first step, eight Mayoral Strategic Authorities in England began mobilising the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in April. These Trailblazers are testing new local approaches to identify and support young people at risk of falling out of education, employment or training and becoming NEET.

North East Somerset and Hanham constituency are part of the West of England Trailblazer, supporting young people into employment, education and training opportunities together with transport issues around reaching available job vacancies and opportunities.

In addition to this young people claiming Universal Credit can access support through our Youth Offer. This includes a range of support designed to help young people move closer to employment, such as dedicated support from Youth Employability Coaches, access to Youth Hubs, and intensive guidance from Jobcentre Work Coaches during the first 13 weeks of a Universal Credit claim.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to improve levels of community (a) involvement and (b) engagement in planning processes.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Questions UIN 58236 on 17 June 2025 and UIN 72839 on 15 September 2025.