Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
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 guarantee sustainable funding for hospices in the (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27 financial years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In February 2025, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan. I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to support a reduction of variation in access and quality. Some difference in provision may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
The Department is considering how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
We, alongside key partners NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will provide additional guidance on how hospices will be incorporated into new models of care under the NHS 10-Year Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In February 2025, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan. I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to support a reduction of variation in access and quality. Some difference in provision may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
The Department is considering how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
We, alongside key partners NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with hospices on the (a) NHS 10-Year Plan and (b) integrated neighbourhood teams.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In February 2025, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan. I have tasked officials to look at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to support a reduction of variation in access and quality. Some difference in provision may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
The Department is considering how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
We, alongside key partners NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with our stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to review the (a) permitting and (b) waste exemption regime under the (i) Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 and (ii) Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 in relation to small-scale textile manufacturing facilities that (A) want to recycle waste from every part of the manufacturing process and (B) require longer than 12 months to safely store material for sustainable manufacturing purposes.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recently announced plans to reform the waste permit exemptions regime. We will remove three exemptions and tighten the conditions of seven others which have long caused problems and been abused. We will also introduce greater record keeping requirements for all waste exemption holders and impose limits and controls on how exemptions can be managed at one site.
Plans to tighten up the regulation of those who transport and manage waste services were also announced, moving them from a light-touch registration system into environmental permitting. This will give the Environment Agency a greater range of powers and more resources to be able to take action against those operating illegally.
The Government believes that small scale manufacturing facilities have an important role to play as we move to a circular economy. However, activities carried out under a waste exemption should be low-risk and small-scale and it is right that the throughputs and storage limits for exemptions do not exceed those of standard rules and bespoke environmental permits. Operators who wish to carry out larger scale operations that come with a heightened risk of, for example fire, should operate under an environmental permit.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to provide multi-year funding for (a) children's and (b) adult hospices through the forthcoming NHS 10 Year Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services, including hospices, will have a big role to play in that shift.
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out how the Government will fix our broken National Health Service. Too many people towards the end of their lives are not receiving the support and care they deserve. We are determined to change that, by changing the way services operate, rather than by simply funding more of the same.
The plan draws directly from the extensive engagement we have undertaken with the public, patients, staff, and representatives from the palliative care and end-of-life care sector, including those working in the hospice sector. The 10-Year Health Plan reflects the Department’s Spending Review settlement.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage other donors to provide aid to Sudan.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is doing all it can to raise the profile of the crisis in Sudan and to encourage other donors to commit funding. In April, at the Sudan London Conference, the Foreign Secretary announced £120 million of new life-saving aid which we anticipate will reach over 650,000 people. Whilst the Conference was not a pledging event we were nonetheless encouraged that other states followed suit with the more than £800 million pledged towards lifesaving operations. Further, we are also working on possible joint funding initiatives with other donors. Whilst funding is important, without a fundamental improvement in access for humanitarian agencies, the required levels of aid cannot be delivered and civilians will continue to bear the brunt of the conflict.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she plans to take to support integrated public transport in Huddersfield.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are committed to improving public transport and delivering a transport system that works better for people across the country, enables growth and provides access to opportunities.
To support this, we are providing significant investment to West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) including £2.1bn of Transport for City Regions (TCR) funding. This is in addition to the £830m allocated to WYCA through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS), some of which is expected to support the development of transport improvements in Huddersfield town centre, including enhancements to active travel routes and upgrades to Huddersfield Bus Station.
At the recent Spending Review, we provided further commitment to the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) which will deliver improvements to rail journeys between Manchester and York, via Huddersfield and Leeds and will provide significant investment at Huddersfield station.
We have also brought forward the Bus Services (No.2) Bill, which will put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders and is intended to ensure bus services reflect the needs of the communities that rely on them, including in Huddersfield.
In addition, we will be publishing an Integrated National Transport Strategy later this year, which will put people and the journeys they make at the heart of how we plan, build and operate transport.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the restoration of (a) the River Colne in Huddersfield and (b) other urban rivers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are funding two projects led by the Calder and Colne Rivers Trust this year through the Water Environment Improvement Fund. One project is a three-year project looking at pollution,land and highway management issues on the River Colne and tributaries. The other is a feasibility and design project in the second of its three years, developing solutions for artificial barriers across the Calder and Colne catchment.
Through the WEIF, we are committing £3 million of investment this financial year to restore urban rivers. By combining this with rod licence income and working in partnership with organisations like the Wild Trout Trust, the Environment Agency is tackling urban waterway challenges and delivering lasting environmental improvements through collaborative action.
Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas is a top priority for this government. We are putting water companies under special measures through our landmark Water (Special Measures) Act. The Act has introduced new powers to ban the payment of bonuses for polluting water bosses and bring criminal charges against law breakers and made it mandatory for water companies to publish plans to reduce pollution incidents.
The Independent Water Commission will recommend reforms to reset the water sector regulatory system and clean up our waterways for good.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to promote green skills programmes as part of the national skills strategy in Huddersfield.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Green skills are crucial to economic growth and the government’s net zero by 2050 target. Clean energy industries have been identified as a priority sector in the Industrial Strategy, alongside other sectors fundamental to clean energy like advanced manufacturing.
Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) are employer-led plans setting out priorities to better meet local skills needs. LSIPs must consider the skills needed to meet net zero, climate adaptation, and wider environmental goals. The West Yorkshire LSIP identifies clean energy and green construction as priority sectors. West Yorkshire’s Local Growth Plan reinforces the green economy as a local priority, embedding sustainability as a core principle and setting out actions to achieve net zero.
The government will set out a comprehensive strategy for post-16 education and skills later this year, including steps to strengthen the skills pipeline in key sectors. The strategy will set out how the skills system will support the delivery of the Plan for Change.
Asked by: Harpreet Uppal (Labour - Huddersfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of enforcement mechanisms to reduce pollution by water companies in local rivers.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Water (Special Measures) Act (WSMA) provides the most significant increase in enforcement powers for the regulators in a decade, giving the teeth they need to take tougher action against water companies.
A record 81 criminal investigations into water companies have been launched in England since the election, and the Environment Agency has increased inspections into sewage pollution by nearly 400% since last July.
Furthermore, the regulators will be bolstered by at least £55 million additional per year through water company permit charges and implementation of the new cost recovery powers in the WSMA, ensuring that polluters are held to account for breaches of their obligations.
The Independent Water Commission will consider the roles and responsibilities of the water industry regulators and how we can ensure our regulators operate as effectively as possible. The Commission’s Interim Report was published on 3 June, and the final report and recommendations will be published later in the summer.