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 hold (a) NHS and (b) water providers to account for hospital sewage leaks.

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

National Health Service trusts are legally responsible for maintaining their estates and facilities, to ensure they support high-quality health and care services and minimise the risk of infrastructure-related incidents impacting delivery, including sewage leaks. They should work with all necessary partners to achieve this, including water providers. To support this, the Government has provided £750 million of capital funding in 2025/26 to address critical infrastructure and safety risks in NHS buildings, on top of the £4 billion in operational capital for systems to allocate to local priorities, including investment in maintenance and repairs. Information on clinical service incidents relating to infrastructure failure at individual NHS trusts, which would include incidents relating to sewage leaks, is collected and published by NHS England through the Estates Returns Information Collection, which is available online at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/estates-returns-information-collection/summary-page-and-dataset-for-eric-2023-24

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding he is allocating to repair NHS estates in Warwickshire.

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

In 2025/26, the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) will benefit from the £750 million estates safety fund. The estates safety fund will begin addressing the poorest quality estates, delivering vital safety improvements, enhancing patient and staff environments, and supporting National Health Service productivity. Funding will be issued to NHS trusts on the basis of individual schemes. Descriptions of the planned works and funding allocations, including those in Warwickshire, can be found at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68398c46c99c4f37ab4e86ef/estates-safety-fund-2025-to-2026.csv/preview

This investment is in addition to the £38.6 million of operational capital provisionally allocated to the Coventry and Warwickshire ICB for 2025/26 to allocate to local priorities, including investment in maintenance and repairs.

Funding for repairs to the NHS estate for future years will be confirmed following planning, allocation, and approval processes.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to allocate additional funding to upgrade sewage infrastructure in (a) rural and (b) suburban communities impacted by frequent overflows.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Ofwat’s final determinations for Price Review 2024 (PR24) set out a £104 billion upgrade for the water sector. Water companies are investing over £11 billion in PR24, a record amount, to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows across England and Wales over the next five years. For England, this equates to over £10bn to improve over 2,500 storm overflows. The PR24 investment package also includes £6 billion to remove nutrients from water bodies.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of public assets in freeports has been acquired by private (a) companies and (b) corporations.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

While the Department oversees the Freeports Programme, it does not collect data on the ownership of individual assets within Freeport areas. However, the vast majority of Freeport sites were in private ownership at the point of designation, reflecting the Programme’s aim to stimulate private investment and create jobs in parts of the country that see too little of it.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is he taking to improve NHS access for people with postural tachycardia syndrome requiring specialist care.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

It is the responsibility of local integrated care boards to work with clinicians, service users, and patient groups to develop services and care pathways that are convenient and meet the needs of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).

The National Institute for Care Excellence (NICE) has published a clinical knowledge summary on the clinical management of blackouts and syncope, that provides advice for clinicians in the United Kingdom on best practice in the assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. This was last updated in November 2023, and is available at the following link:

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/

General practitioners (GPs) have been asked to investigate symptoms to ensure that it is not misdiagnosed. Following referral, patients are treated within National Health Service cardiology and neurology services. Where more specialist advice is required, a referral will be made to an appropriate clinician.

To improve awareness of PoTS amongst healthcare professionals, and specifically GPs, the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its Syncope toolkit, which is available at the following link:

https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to prevent executives from water companies that have been sanctioned for releasing sewage into waterways from receiving bonuses.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is clear that transformative change across the water sector is needed to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas, and modernise the sector for decades to come.

Unfair bonuses have been banned under new powers given to Ofwat within the Water (Special Measures) Act which came into force on 06 June. Under Ofwat’s rules, companies are not permitted to pay bonuses to water bosses that oversee poor environmental and customer outcomes. This delivers on a key manifesto commitment and has been backdated to apply to any bonuses relating to the financial year from April last year.

Additional information can be found at GOV.UK.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for enacting Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 to (a) make sustainable drainage systems mandatory and (b) remove the automatic right to connect to public sewage infrastructure.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government is strongly committed to requiring standardised Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in new developments. These should be to designs that cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits, offer reuse opportunities, reduce run off and help to improve water quality, amenity, and biodiversity. It is also important to ensure appropriate adoption and maintenance arrangements are in place.

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 plans to take to ensure that local water companies promptly implement new requirements following the enactment of Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government is strongly committed to requiring standardised Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in new developments. These should be to designs that cope with changing climatic conditions as well as delivering wider water infrastructure benefits, offer reuse opportunities, reduce run off and help to improve water quality, amenity, and biodiversity. It is also important to ensure appropriate adoption and maintenance arrangements are in place.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the target number of jobs was for UK (a) freeports and (b) special economic zones; and how many jobs UK (i) freeports and (ii) special economic zones have delivered to date.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

As policies developed in partnership with local partners, MHCLG has not set specific targets for job creation in Freeports, nor in Investment Zones, its other major economic zone policy.

However, Freeports have set out the economic impacts they expect to deliver through business cases, available on Freeports’ websites once approved by government. MHCLG-commissioned analysis projects that the 8 English Freeports alone will directly create 60,000 additional jobs and will support another 42,000 jobs across the supply chain. Local partners expect that Investment Zones across the UK will create over 90,000 jobs over the life cycle of the programme.

The Department will track job creation by Freeports and Investment Zones, as a key indicator of their economic impact. To date, Freeports have attracted £6.4 billion in private investment, which is expected to create at least 7,200 jobs.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to review the Weeds Act 1959.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government regularly monitors the effectiveness of its legislation. At present we are not planning to review the Weeds Act 1959.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to extend the consultation entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, for disabled people.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

I refer the Hon. member to the answer I gave on 20 May 2025 to PQ 51603 [Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament].

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to publish guidance on restrictions on the use of national ID cards by holders of EU Settlement Scheme settled status for entry to the UK.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The current position for EUSS holders, as set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, is that EU citizens and UK nationals, and their respective family members, will continue to have the right to enter and leave their host state with a valid national identity card for five years after the end of the transition period (which will be 31 December 2025). Any decisions on arrangements after that date will be set out in the normal way in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many EU citizens with pre-settled status were considered for automatic upgrading to settled status between January and March 2025.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

It is not possible to extract information from Home Office systems on how many EU citizens were considered for an automatic upgrade to Settled Status between January and March 2025. However, the latest published statistics relating to the EU Settlement Scheme noted that, between these dates, 6,287 automated grants of Settled Status were issued.

Post Offices in rural areas

Role of relationship education in preventing violence against women and girls

First women's game at Littlewick Green Cricket Club in 215 years

Pavement parking

Loan Charge and settlement terms offered to large companies and individuals

Press ownership by foreign states

Harmful chemicals in period products

Fracking moratorium and onshore fossil fuel exploration

Methanol poisoning, UK traveller safety and education in schools

Support for farmers

Found: : Helen Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Amanda Martin; Darren Paffey; Manuela Perteghella

Found: : Helen Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Amanda Martin; Darren Paffey; Manuela Perteghella

Found: Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Amanda Martin; Darren Paffey; Manuela Perteghella

Found: Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Amanda Martin; Darren Paffey; Manuela Perteghella

Found: Ben Maguire Carla Denyer James MacCleary Freddie van Mierlo Dame Caroline Dinenage Manuela Perteghella

Found: Vikki Slade Luke Taylor Steff Aquarone Mr Paul Kohler Victoria Collins James MacCleary Manuela Perteghella

Found: Duncan-Jordan Graeme Downie Andy Slaughter Tom Gordon Dr Al Pinkerton Connor Naismith Manuela Perteghella

Found: 2025 108 Kim Johnson Olly Glover Valerie Vaz Oliver Ryan Graeme Downie Andy Slaughter Manuela Perteghella