Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 (a) understand and (b) tackle causes of youth homelessness.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are taking action across government to provide targeted support to young people and their families at an earlier stage. The government is providing more than £3.6 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, which councils can use to meet the needs of people in their area including young people.
Through our National Plan to End Homelessness we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness by building more homes, tackling poverty and reforming renters’ rights. We have also committed to develop a national Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit and develop a dedicated chapter of the Homelessness Code of Guidance on young people, to support councils to work collaboratively with other public services to prevent youth homelessness.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 help tackle youth homelessness.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are taking action across government to provide targeted support to young people and their families at an earlier stage. The government is providing more than £3.6 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, which councils can use to meet the needs of people in their area including young people.
Through our National Plan to End Homelessness we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness by building more homes, tackling poverty and reforming renters’ rights. We have also committed to develop a national Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit and develop a dedicated chapter of the Homelessness Code of Guidance on young people, to support councils to work collaboratively with other public services to prevent youth homelessness.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help support young people who are at risk of becoming homeless.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are taking action across government to provide targeted support to young people and their families at an earlier stage. The government is providing more than £3.6 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, which councils can use to meet the needs of people in their area including young people.
Through our National Plan to End Homelessness we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness by building more homes, tackling poverty and reforming renters’ rights. We have also committed to develop a national Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit and develop a dedicated chapter of the Homelessness Code of Guidance on young people, to support councils to work collaboratively with other public services to prevent youth homelessness.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 support local authorities to address youth homelessness.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are taking action across government to provide targeted support to young people and their families at an earlier stage. The government is providing more than £3.6 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, which councils can use to meet the needs of people in their area including young people.
Through our National Plan to End Homelessness we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness by building more homes, tackling poverty and reforming renters’ rights. We have also committed to develop a national Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit and develop a dedicated chapter of the Homelessness Code of Guidance on young people, to support councils to work collaboratively with other public services to prevent youth homelessness.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to prevent youth homelessness.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
We are taking action across government to provide targeted support to young people and their families at an earlier stage. The government is providing more than £3.6 billion funding for homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years, which councils can use to meet the needs of people in their area including young people.
Through our National Plan to End Homelessness we are taking action to tackle the root causes of homelessness by building more homes, tackling poverty and reforming renters’ rights. We have also committed to develop a national Youth Homelessness Prevention Toolkit and develop a dedicated chapter of the Homelessness Code of Guidance on young people, to support councils to work collaboratively with other public services to prevent youth homelessness.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for the medical assessment stage of Personal Independence Payment claims in (a) Nottinghamshire and (b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department is committed to ensuring that Personal Independence Payment claimants receive timely assessments and continues to work closely with its suppliers to improve customer experience across all geographical areas, including Nottinghamshire and the wider East Midlands.
We have introduced a range of measures to increase assessment capacity and reduce waiting times. These include ongoing recruitment and training of additional health professionals and a series of process improvements to streamline the assessment journey.
Waiting times can vary by region due to local demand and operational factors. Assessment suppliers actively monitor regional performance to ensure resources are deployed where they are most needed, and additional capacity will be directed where appropriate.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 increase participation in the bowel cancer screening programme in Ashfield.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Bowel cancer screening is delivered through the national NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, which invites eligible people aged 50 to 74 years old every two years, with those aged over 74 years old able to request a test kit. Data for the programme is available at a Nottinghamshire level, and as of January 2026, the test kit return rate was 64.9%, compared with a national average of 54.3%. All individuals in Nottinghamshire with a positive test result were offered an appointment with a specialist screening practitioner within the 14‑day national standard.
NHS England Midlands has implemented a range of measures to increase participation in the screening programme across Nottinghamshire, including for residents of Ashfield. These measures include:
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 increase uptake for bowel cancer screenings.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Coverage of bowel cancer screening has been increasing in recent years. In 2019, 60.5% of people took the offer up, while now it is 71.8%.
The bowel cancer screening programme has standards, including thresholds. The acceptable threshold is the lowest level of performance which screening services are expected to attain. The achievable threshold represents the level at which the screening service is likely to be running optimally.
The threshold levels have recently been reviewed, with changes taking effect from 1 April 2025. The new coverage thresholds for people aged between 60 and 74 years old is an acceptable level of more than or equal to 62%, and an achievable level of more than or equal to 76%.
To further increase coverage across England, NHS England is doing the following:
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 ensure any (a) delays delays to CQC inspections and (b) changes in the level demand in the social care system does not affect the frequency of inspections of care homes.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is holding the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to account for its performance and has strengthened oversight following Dr Penny Dash’s review of the CQC’s operational effectiveness, including improvements in timeliness of assessments.
The CQC has pledged to respond rapidly to urgent and extreme risks, prioritising services registered for over a year without assessment or inspection and those with outdated ratings. From January 2026, this refreshed approach will enable the CQC to prioritise settings, including care homes.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the CQC completed 2,292 assessments of adult social care services. From 1 April 2025 to 22 March 2026, the CQC completed 3,546 assessments of adult social care services, an increase of 55%.
The CQC is piloting a number of initiatives to increase the number of assessments they can deliver in adult care per year to ensure care settings are inspected regularly, and these will be rolled out in the first half of the 2026/27 financial year.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 care homes are inspected regularly.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is holding the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to account for its performance and has strengthened oversight following Dr Penny Dash’s review of the CQC’s operational effectiveness, including improvements in timeliness of assessments.
The CQC has pledged to respond rapidly to urgent and extreme risks, prioritising services registered for over a year without assessment or inspection and those with outdated ratings. From January 2026, this refreshed approach will enable the CQC to prioritise settings, including care homes.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the CQC completed 2,292 assessments of adult social care services. From 1 April 2025 to 22 March 2026, the CQC completed 3,546 assessments of adult social care services, an increase of 55%.
The CQC is piloting a number of initiatives to increase the number of assessments they can deliver in adult care per year to ensure care settings are inspected regularly, and these will be rolled out in the first half of the 2026/27 financial year.