Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of active-travel funding allocations to local authorities.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Active travel funding allocations are based on capability level as assessed through Active Travel England’s annual capability ratings process. The ratings are used to allocate funding and to provide the right support to authorities to help them develop capability to deliver high quality schemes. This process has resulted in an increase in the number of active travel schemes completed on schedule from 58% in 2023/4 to 69% in 2024/5.

Since being established in 2022, Active Travel England (ATE) has provided over £560 million of funding to authorities. ATE have overseen the creation of over 400 miles of new walking and cycling routes (and hundreds of safer crossing and junctions) that the above funding has provided.

There has also been a 9% improvement in the (published) assessment by Active Travel England on local councils’ ability to deliver schemes overall (from 2022/23 to 2023/24).

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps are being taken to promote British creative sector exports over the next three years.

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

Over the next three years, the UK government will boost creative sector exports by increasing trade missions, targeting new and traditional markets, and expanding export finance through UK Export Finance (UKEF). In 2024/25, UKEF provided £14.5 billion in support for UK exports and maintains a nationwide network of export finance managers to advise local businesses. The Creative Industries Trade and Investment Board (CITIB) will be reformed to champion exports, while export promotion will be enhanced through events such as the BFI Film Festival and London Games Festival. The Department also funds the Music Export Growth Scheme which does what its name suggests. Alongside the GREAT campaign, these measures will strengthen the UK’s global creative leadership.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment has been made of regional disparities in access to elite sports pathways.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Elite pathways are designed and operated by National Governing Bodies and are independent from the Government. Widening access is a condition of the public funding they receive. All funded sports must publish Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans and show annual progress in improving representation across their pathways.

Home Country Sports Councils regularly review athlete data from funded sports to understand representation across regions and socio economic groups.

Where disparities exist, they are usually linked to the location of specialist facilities or the cost and travel required to access them, rather than formal exclusion. To address this, UK Sport and the Sports Councils support regional hubs, outreach activity and targeted financial assistance.

National talent recruitment programmes, such as Find Your Greatness have also helped engage a more diverse population and introduce them to sports they may not previously have accessed.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the resilience of local sports clubs in the context of energy prices.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to supporting local sports clubs and recognises their importance to communities up and down the country.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport in England through its Arm’s Length Body Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery Funding. Ten percent of the funding allocated through their Movement Fund supports clubs to improve environmental sustainability and reduce energy costs. Sport England also provides detailed guidance to sporting clubs on managing energy costs and making facilities energy efficient.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the distribution of grassroots sports funding between urban and coastal towns.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is investing £98 million in grassroots sports facilities to support increased participation across the UK via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2025/26. Projects funded through the programme include new artificial grass pitches, changing rooms and pavilions, and floodlights.

A full list of projects funded through the Programme, as well as an interactive map for each funding year, can be found on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multi-sport-grassroots-facilities-programme-projects-2021-to-2025.

At least £400 million will be invested in new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities over the next four years, promoting health and wellbeing while ensuring community cohesion and pride of place.

Officials are now working with the sports sector and local leaders to develop plans for delivering this funding through a place-based approach. This will allow us to better understand the differing needs for grassroots facilities in communities across the UK, including coastal areas and their specific needs, and will ensure that investment best meets demand.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Youth Investment Fund in improving community facilities.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Youth Investment Fund is supporting the delivery of over 250 new and refurbished youth facilities across England, in less advantaged areas, so young people can regularly attend activities in welcoming, fit-for-purpose youth centres.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has invested over £145 million to provide stability to the youth sector and ensure young people can continue to access opportunities, as we transition to the new National Youth Strategy. Part of this funding is in recognition of the urgent need for more youth facilities. The investment has enabled more flexibility with project delivery and continues to support the completion of Youth Investment Fund projects into 2026.

An independent evaluation of the Youth Investment Fund is ongoing, with a final report due to be published in 2027.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on reducing delayed discharges from hospitals.

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

The Government is committed to tackling delayed discharges, to ensure patients do not remain in hospital longer than necessary and to free up hospital beds for patients that need them.

The Urgent and Emergency Care plan for 2025/26 sets as a priority that hospitals should tackle the delays in patients waiting to be discharged. They should eliminate discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by in-hospital issues, and work with local authorities to tackle the longest delays, starting with those over 21 days, and to profile discharges by pathway to support local planning.

In January 2025, we published a new policy framework for the £9 billion Better Care Fund, which gives the National Health Service and local authorities accountability for setting and achieving joint goals for reducing discharge delays. Starting in the financial year 2026/27, we will reform the Better Care Fund, focusing on ensuring consistent joint NHS and local authority funding for services essential to integrated health and social care, such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation, and reablement.

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 help prevent industrial action in the NHS.

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

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and officials from the Department, on his behalf, regularly meet with representatives of the health trade unions to understand the views and concerns of the National Health Service’s workforces in England which they represent. He has been clear that he wants to continue to work constructively with all trade unions to improve the working conditions of all NHS staff and avoid unnecessary industrial action.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has accepted all headline pay recommendations from the independent pay review bodies for 2025/26 so that all NHS staff in England received a fair and sustainable pay rise, has committed to funding improvements to the Agenda for Change pay structure for staff such as porters, nurses, and paramedics, and is working with NHS England to implement a 10 point plan to improve resident doctors’ working lives.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care made a written offer on 5 November to the British Medical Association Resident Doctors Committee (BMA RDC) which included measures to tackle bottlenecks in training, put money back in resident doctors' pockets and ensure that there is consistent implementation of existing contractual entitlements. Unfortunately, the BMA RDC rejected this just hours after being set out in a letter to them, instead choosing to proceed with the damaging strike action taken between 14-19 November.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase NHS capacity in winter 2025-26.

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

We have done more than ever to prepare for this winter, including stress testing winter plans, making sure community teams have the vaccines they need, and identifying patients most vulnerable in winter.

The Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Plan for 2025/26, published on 6 June 2025, focuses on those improvements that will see the biggest impact on UEC performance this winter and on making UEC better every day, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. The plan commits to increasing the number of patients receiving urgent care in the community by expanding services such as urgent community response, neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams and increasing the use of virtual wards, also known as hospital at home. This will support winter resilience by expanding and optimising services such as urgent community response and increasing the use of virtual wards in each integrated care system, as well as planning with the ambulance services and 111 how to use this capacity most effectively.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help increase driver numbers in the logistics sector.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government is committed to supporting the logistics sector in developing the skilled workforces it needs. The Government has confirmed £136 million for Skills Bootcamps in 2025-26 to support more than 40,000 learners. Skills Bootcamps will remain an important part of skills provision and are now funded through Mayoral Strategic Authorities and local areas directly, empowering local leaders with greater control over skills development. Local leaders are considering what occupations, including HGV driving, to prioritise.

The Government also continues to support the sector with skills training through the Urban Driver and Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) driver apprenticeships, and through Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) via Jobcentre Plus.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans there are to improve safety measures on rural A-roads with higher-than-average collision rates.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government recognises that the majority of road fatalities (according to the latest statistics) occurred on rural roads (60%) with fewer fatalities on urban roads (35%) and motorways (5%).

Too many people are killed and seriously injured in road traffic collisions, and this Government is working hard to prevent these tragedies for all road users. The Road Safety Strategy is under development and will include a broad range of policies which will have national reach. More details will be set out in due course.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has to expand EV charging infrastructure in underserved regions.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable and accessible charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle (EV). As of 1 November 2025, Government and industry have supported the installation of 86,798 publicly available charging devices, up 22% on this time last year. In 2024, the number of publicly available charging devices in rural areas of England increased by 45%.

Government’s £381m Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund allocated capital and resource funding across England. Funding allocations were determined through an assessment of local authority need, including deprivation levels and rurality. The North East region was allocated over £25m LEVI funding to leverage significant private investment and expand the number of local public chargepoints across the region.

The £25 million EV Pavement Channel Grant is also available, which is intended to empower local authorities to adopt pavement channels as part of their local charging solutions. The North East was allocated over £1.6m to support the installation of pavement channels alongside public chargepoints.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment has been made of the reliability of regional rail services serving the North East.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Rail North Partnership, through which the Department and Transport for the North jointly manage Northern Trains’ and TransPennine Express’ contracts, works closely with these operators, as the Department does with intercity operators, and Mayor McGuiness to deliver the reliable services passengers in the North East want and deserve, taking account of operational and financial constraints on operators and the network.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of progress on introducing simpler and more integrated fares across rail and bus networks.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government recognises the value of greater integration between rail and bus networks, including in relation to ticketing and fares, and will continue to work with local transport authorities, operators and passengers to improve the fares and ticketing offer for passengers across England.

PlusBus is a well-established integrated ticketing product, allowing passengers to add unlimited local bus and tram travel to their rail ticket where available. A digital version is now available in many regions across England, making combined journeys simpler and more convenient.

Programmes currently under development in England also recognise the aspiration for smart, multi-modal ticketing. This includes the Department working with representatives from the bus industry, Transport for West Midlands and Midlands Connect to develop a national technology solution to facilitate multi-operator ticketing on buses and trams, focusing on contactless bank card payments and fares capping outside of London. In addition, the Fares, Ticketing, and Retail Programme is delivering two new Pay As You Go schemes for the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, and expanding an existing one in the South East.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support is being provided to heritage sites affected by severe weather and coastal erosion.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Support is being provided to heritage sites affected by severe weather and coastal erosion through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Arms Length Bodies, Historic England (HE) and the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF).

In recent years, HE has worked with local authorities and other partners to assess a range of heritage assets at risk from coastal erosion, including Sandsfoot Castle in Dorset, Sandwich Bay in Kent, and Seaford Head in Sussex. These investigations are intended to better understand the significance of and risk to heritage assets from coastal erosion to inform asset owners, local authority and managers when taking their decisions about conservation. They have recently begun projects, such as ‘A Matter of Time & Tide’ which will quantify the number of Scheduled Monuments that are currently or likely to become at risk from coastal erosion and on what timeframe.

The NLHF has funded over 25 projects concerning heritage impacted by severe weather and coastal erosion. This includes a 2023 grant of £226,372 to the project ‘Facing the Cliff: The Race to Uncover and Share the Folkestone Villa at East Wear Bay’, which is an archeological project to excavate this significant site before it is lost due to coastal erosion. They also provided a 2021 grant of £295,904 to ‘The Compass Point Project’, which involved dismantling, moving, and reconstructing a 1835 Grade II Storm Tower in danger of falling into the sea.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on expanding access to youth cultural programmes in areas with historically low participation.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government has taken a number of steps to expand youth access to cultural programmes in under-served areas.

Arts Council England (ACE) is targeting 54 areas in England where cultural engagement and investment have been historically low through its Priority Places programme. All 54 areas include Music Hub provision which provide engagement aimed at young people; and some of the national portfolio organisations operating in Priority Places are entirely focused on children and young people, such as the BookTrust, the UK's largest reading charity which reaches millions of children each year. In 2024/25 ACE invested almost £27 million through National Lottery Project Grants to Priority Places.

The Arts Everywhere Fund, announced earlier this year, has also committed £3.2 million in funding for four cultural education programmes for the 2025/26 financial year to preserve increased access to arts for children and young people through the Museums and Schools Programme, Heritage Schools Programme, Art & Design National Saturday Clubs and BFI Film Academy.

In November, we published the Government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will ensure that a high-quality arts education is an essential part of the broad and rich education every child deserves. We will revitalise arts education through a reformed curriculum and support for teachers. In September 2026 we will launch the new National Centre for Arts and Music Education, which will improve access and opportunity for children and young people, strengthening collaboration between schools and industry.

In addition, £132.5 million of dormant assets funding will be allocated to support the provision of services, facilities or opportunities to meet the needs of young people. £117.5m of this has been allocated to increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support regional theatres with operational costs.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government recognises the vital role that the arts, including regional theatre, play for people and communities in all parts of this country, and delivers funding to theatres primarily through Arts Council England (ACE).

ACE’s National Portfolio Organisations, including theatres, can use some of their annual funding to cover operational costs like staffing as long as those costs are justified in the budget and align with ACE’s funding agreement. In addition, ACE’s National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG) also allows some contribution to overheads, but has to be tied to the particular project that the funding has been awarded for. Nearly £14.5 million was awarded to theatres outside the capital through the NLPG programme in 2024/25.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the potential contribution of independent museums to local economic growth.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Drawing on external analysis, the Department considers independent museums as key to local economic growth. Museums form an integral part of the Creative Industries, driving innovation across the economy. By animating high streets and communities through their public programmes, museums draw tourists and employers to regions across the country, with many ranking amongst the most visited attractions in the UK.

Independent museums make up over half the sector, and the Association of Independent Museums estimates that independent museums across the UK made an overall economic contribution of £838.7 million in 2023, supporting 17,900 jobs. The Annual Museum Survey 2025 produced by the Arts Council England funded Museum Development Network, estimates the combined economic impact of Independent, Local Authority, and University museums in England at over £1.1 billion annually.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps are being taken to help reduce flight delays at regional airports.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The UK aviation market operates predominantly in the private sector. UK airports and airlines are therefore responsible for ensuring appropriate contingency plans are in place to minimise potential disruption. The Department regularly engages with the UK aviation sector around resilience issues and to gain assurance of their preparedness plans, particularly ahead of peak travel periods.

In the UK there is a robust legislative framework in place to protect consumers in the event of cancellation, long delays, and denied boarding. Airlines are responsible for ensuring they provide passengers with the required support, and this is enforced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of community diagnostic centres in reducing pressure on hospitals.

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

As set out in the Elective Reform Plan and the 10-Year Health Plan, community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are key to delivering on the Government’s ambition to move more planned care from hospitals to the community, reducing pressure on hospitals and delivering more convenient care close to home.

CDCs deliver additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity, providing patients with a co-ordinated set of diagnostic checks in the community in as few visits as possible, enabling an accurate and fast diagnosis on a range of clinical pathways.

Under the Government, CDCs have delivered over 9.4 million tests and scans since July 2024, supporting patients to access vital tests, scans, and checks around their busy working lives.

In August 2025, the Government confirmed that 100 CDCs across the country are now offering out of hours services by opening for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital tests, scans, and checks around their busy working lives. We are committed to increasing this number further.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will revoke the ban on North Sea Oil and Gas exploration.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

On 26 November, the Government published its North Sea Future Plan.

The plan implements the Government’s manifesto commitments to manage existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan, and to not issue new licences to explore new oil and gas fields.

We are committed to accelerating the transition to the North Sea’s clean energy future to harness the power of the North Sea, boost Britain’s energy security and ensure good, long-term jobs.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made on the potential impact of net zero policies on (a) the chemical industry on Teesside and (b) the existing industrial base.

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

Just last month [13th November]], I was delighted to accept invitations from the chemicals sector in Teesside, and met with over 15 firms from the sector and their supply chain. I was able to see first-hand some of the outstanding firms, facilities, projects and opportunities at Wilton International. I also held a roundtable convened by the North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) , where I had the chance to hear personally from leaders in the chemical industry.

The Government continually assesses the impact of industrial and decarbonisation policies on the chemical industry and broader UK manufacturing sector. This includes through the Chemical Innovation Forum, which is a forum for gaining policy feedback, collaborating and understanding how best to support innovation in the industry to support growth and net zero goals. It is attended by senior-level stakeholders across the chemical industry, including companies active in the Tees Valley.

Government is committed to supporting UK industry to decarbonise and protecting and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in regions across the UK. We are taking ambitious steps to lay the groundwork for further industry investment to reap the benefits of industrial decarbonisation. Building on engagement with industry, a refreshed Industrial Decarbonisation Plan will set the strategic direction for our approach to working with industry towards a competitive and low carbon industrial base in the UK, ensuring growth opportunities are captured in tandem with emissions reductions.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will visit Teesside to hear personally from leaders in the chemical industry on support for the industry.

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

Just last month [13th November]], I was delighted to accept invitations from the chemicals sector in Teesside, and met with over 15 firms from the sector and their supply chain. I was able to see first-hand some of the outstanding firms, facilities, projects and opportunities at Wilton International. I also held a roundtable convened by the North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) , where I had the chance to hear personally from leaders in the chemical industry.

The Government continually assesses the impact of industrial and decarbonisation policies on the chemical industry and broader UK manufacturing sector. This includes through the Chemical Innovation Forum, which is a forum for gaining policy feedback, collaborating and understanding how best to support innovation in the industry to support growth and net zero goals. It is attended by senior-level stakeholders across the chemical industry, including companies active in the Tees Valley.

Government is committed to supporting UK industry to decarbonise and protecting and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in regions across the UK. We are taking ambitious steps to lay the groundwork for further industry investment to reap the benefits of industrial decarbonisation. Building on engagement with industry, a refreshed Industrial Decarbonisation Plan will set the strategic direction for our approach to working with industry towards a competitive and low carbon industrial base in the UK, ensuring growth opportunities are captured in tandem with emissions reductions.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of public satisfaction with recent timetable changes across rail services.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The new continuous rail customer experience survey started in July to provide improved, robust and reliable customer insight to the rail industry, including measuring customer satisfaction of different aspects of rail service. Metrics within the survey include satisfaction with punctuality and frequency of services, as well as overall satisfaction.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made on reducing waits for elective procedures.

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 by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, to help ensure patients get timely access to the procedures they need.

We promised change, and we’ve delivered early, with a reduction in the waiting list of over 230,000 since the Government came into office, despite over 26.4 million referrals onto the list in that period.

We also exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million appointments, tests, and operations in our first year of Government, having delivered 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025.

This progress has been made through setting ambitious targets, investing in modernisation, reforming and simplifying pathways, increasing surgical and diagnostic capacity, and empowering patients with faster and more convenient access to care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available to expand training and retention of allied health professionals.

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

We are expanding routes into clinical professions, including allied health professions, through apprenticeships. Apprenticeships provide new routes into professional work, help boost retention, and give existing staff new ways to progress in their career, as well as widening access to opportunities for people from all backgrounds and in underserved areas.

To remove financial barriers to training, the NHS Learning Support Fund provides all eligible allied health profession students with a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year in addition to student loans.

For the training of current staff, it is the responsibility of individual employers to invest in the future of their workforce and ensure appropriate ongoing training and continuing professional development to ensure they continue to provide safe and effective care.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals. To support this ambition, the Government will introduce a new set of standards for modern employment in April 2026. The new standards will reaffirm our commitment to improving retention by tackling the issues that matter to staff.

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 support NHS Trusts with energy and estate maintenance costs.

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

The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan commits to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future, and we recognise the importance of supporting NHS trusts to manage and maintain their estates using operational capital allocations.

The Government’s recently published 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy set out 10-year maintenance budgets for the public estate, confirming £6 billion per year for the maintenance and repair of the NHS estate up to 2034/35.

Within this overall figure, the Government is providing over £4 billion in operational capital in 2025/26 and has now allocated a further £15.6 billion directly to providers over the following four years, from 2026/27 to 2029/30. Providers have also been given further five-year operational capital planning assumptions covering 2030/31 to 2034/35, allowing them to plan longer term with confidence and accelerate investment decisions aligned to local priorities, including repairs and maintenance.

In addition to operational capital, the Estates Safety Fund, established in 2025/26, will continue, with £6.75 billion investment over the next nine years to target the most critical building repairs and ensure safe environments for healthcare delivery.

We also continue to support trusts to drive down their energy bills and boost their resilience. Since 2020 the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has funded over £1 billion in NHS energy projects. This now being bolstered by the Department for Health and Social Care’s £130 million collaboration with Great British Energy. This is funding solar installations at approximately 260 NHS sites and is estimated to deliver lifetime energy bill savings for the NHS of up to £325 million, with the average NHS site estimated to save approximately £35,000 a year in energy bills.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of ambulance response times in rural and semi-urban areas.

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

We acknowledge that ambulance performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years, and we are taking serious steps to improve performance across the country including rural and semi-urban areas. That is why we published our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, which commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year.

The National Health Service constitutional standards for ambulance response time metrics are measured with an average figure as well as a 90th centile standard which means that trusts are held to account for the response times they provide to all patients, improving the performance management of the ‘long tail’ of delayed ambulance responses that we know can particularly affect rural and semi-urban areas. Recent NHS England figures show a 23-minute improvement in the Category 2 90th centile response time compared with last year.

Local NHS integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for service commissioning decisions in their local communities, including ambulance provision for rural and semi-urban communities. ICB funding allocations for ambulance services take account of rurality and patient density to cover the longer travel distances to incidents and greater time required to convey patients to hospitals.

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 improve local mental-health crisis support.

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

Nationally, progress has been achieved in building more robust crisis care pathways across all ages and in all regions, ensuring that people in a mental health crisis can receive the right care. This includes the introduction of the ‘mental health’ option for NHS 111 and the opening of new mental health crisis centres to provide accessible and responsive care for individuals in a mental health crisis.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our ambitions to go further by developing up to 85 dedicated mental health emergency departments so that patients get fast, same-day access to specialist support in an appropriate setting. This expansion builds on a number of early implementer sites that have been established in recent years by local health systems to provide a dedicated therapeutic alternative to emergency departments for individuals in a mental health crisis.

The plan also sets out our plans to transform mental health services to improve access and treatment, and to promote good mental health and wellbeing for the nation. This includes improving assertive outreach, investing in neighbourhood mental health centres, and increasing access to talking therapies and evidence-based digital interventions.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps are being taken to improve transport accessibility for people with disabilities in smaller stations.

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

Whenever the rail industry installs, replaces or renews station infrastructure, this needs to comply with current accessibility standards. We have also continued to fund the Access for All programme, which has delivered more than 270 accessible routes at stations and smaller improvements at around 1500 stations, including many smaller and rural stations. We have also installed platform edge tactile paving at all stations across Britain, to aid visually impaired passengers.

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 enhance digital interoperability between NHS services.

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

Digital interoperability between National Health Services will be supported through the use of information standards, published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. This has been amended by the Health and Care Act 2022, and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, to make new information standards mandatory, including for regulated providers of health and adult social care, and including private providers, and their suppliers of IT services.

Information standards set the requirements, including data structure, that must be followed when health and adult social care information is used, shared, or otherwise processed, allowing for information to flow between organisations that use different systems, in real time. NHS England is introducing mandatory information standards in a staged process.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase digital skills within the video-games sector.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government is making the UK the best place in the world to create video games, having identified the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors in the industrial strategy. We understand that digital skills are a key part of this.

The government is working with the creative industries to build evidence, support sector training pathways and ensure the workforce is prepared for the future of work. We will introduce short courses, in England, funded by the Growth and Skills Levy, in areas such as digital, to support Industrial Strategy sectors like the Creative Industries from April 2026. We have also committed to a new £187 million “TechFirst” programme to bring digital skills and AI learning into classrooms and communities and train up people of all ages and backgrounds for the tech careers of the future.

As set out in the Creative Industries Sector Plan published earlier this year, a Video Games Skills Strategy is also being developed by an industry-led UK Games Skills Network. This will build on findings from the Creative Industries Council Skills Audit, giving video games skills organisations and delivery partners a clear remit for tackling persistent skills gaps.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions have taken place with broadcasters on improving access to live sports coverage for people without subscription services.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring access to live sporting events so that they can be enjoyed by a wide audience. However, this must also be balanced with the ability of sports National Governing Bodies and rightsholders to generate revenue to invest in their sports at all levels.

All UK broadcasters are operationally and editorially independent of the Government. Decisions relating to coverage of particular sporting events are ultimately a commercial decision for them and/or the rights holder of the specific event.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase participation in creative apprenticeships in the North East.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government is committed to empowering local leaders to take decisions related to their local skills needs. As part of this, DCMS is providing £25m to the North East Strategic Authority through the Creative Places Growth Fund. This will allow areas to distribute funding according to local barriers and opportunities and maximise the impact of national interventions, including supporting regional skills initiatives like apprenticeships.

More broadly, this government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners. In the Creative Industries Sector Plan, we committed to working with industry to refine and develop this offer, to deliver apprenticeships and skills training that recognises the particular needs of the sector.

This will build on flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and new flexibilities like shorter apprenticeships, which were introduced in August. From April 2026, we will also introduce short course ‘apprenticeship units’ in areas such as digital and AI, to support Industrial Strategy sectors like the Creative Industries.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of regional cancer survival outcomes; and what steps he is taking to reduce regional disparities.

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

We know that more needs to be done to reduce the disparities in cancer survival. We remain committed to making improvements across different cancer types and reducing disparities in cancer survival. Early cancer diagnosis is also a specific priority within the National Health Service’s wider Core20Plus5 approach to reducing healthcare inequalities.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out how the Government will shift the focus from care from the hospital to care the community, which will make it easier for people to access cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment services in their local areas, with more choice for people on how and where they access these services. Services will be backed by the latest technology to drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.

The forthcoming National Cancer Plan, which we will publish in the new year, will look at targeted improvements needed across different cancer types to reduce disparities in cancer survival. The plan will seek to ensure that high-quality care and treatment is available to all patients across the country, no matter where they live. This will build on the current national cancer audits, which are seeking to promote best practice and aim to reduce inequalities in access to or the quality of treatment.

The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, seeking to improve every aspect of cancer care, to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years. To do this, we will focus on prevention, deliver targeted improvements, drive research and innovation, and ensure patients have access to the latest treatments and technology.

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 expand preventative health programmes in communities with high chronic-disease prevalence.

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

Our mission is to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between rich and poor, through the 10-Year Health Plan. Our 10-Year Health Plan sets out how a shift to prevention will deliver healthier, more prosperous lives for all, but particularly for those suffering the consequences of widening levels of health inequality. We are committed to taking action to tackle both the chronic diseases themselves and the modifiable risk factors that contribute to them, including:

• doubling the number of patients able to access the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme and expanding access to obesity medicines by working closely with industry and local systems to test new models of care and identify innovative ways to do this. Investing £70 million in 2025/26 to support local authority-led Stop Smoking Services will ensure that there is a comprehensive offer across local authorities in England, while providing additional weighted funding to local authorities with the highest smoking rates. The national Swap to Stop scheme and Smoke-free Pregnancy Incentives Scheme are also continuing. We are also working to ensure that all hospitals integrate ‘opt-out’ smoking cessation interventions into routine care, making every clinical consultation count;
• continuing to deliver the NHS Health Check, a core component of England’s cardiovascular disease prevention programme, which aims to detect those at risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease and who are aged between 40 and 74 years old. To improve access to the programme we are piloting an online NHS Health Check so that people can undertake a check at a time and place that is convenient to them.
• investing in hypertension case-finding for those over 40 years old in community pharmacies, with nearly 4.2 million people having received a free blood pressure check through the service; and
• developing other extensive digital prevention programmes to help people live healthier lives for longer and reduce inequalities. These ‘always-on’ and free at the point of use resources were used by nearly 20 million people in the last 12 months, offering support for the priority preventable conditions, with, for example, one in four users of our NHS Quit Smoking app reaching 28 days smoke free, which in turn makes them five times more likely to stop smoking for good, and with those who complete the 12-week weight loss plan losing on average 5.6 kilograms.

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 improve GP appointment availability in regions with rising demand.

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

We have invested an additional £1.1 billion in GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, the largest increase in over a decade. Of this, £160 million has been directed to employ more GPs via the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme which has given additional flexibilities to recruit 2,500 new GPs into primary care networks across England. Additionally, the new £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund will create additional clinical space within over 1,000 GPs across England to deliver 8.3 million more appointments each year.

In the twelve months leading up to September 2025, our efforts have resulted in 10.6 million more appointments compared to the previous year, a clear demonstration of our commitment to enhancing access for patients and supporting the future of GPs.

The review of the GP funding formula, the Carr-Hill formula, is being conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The purpose of the review is to ensure that funding for GPs is distributed equitably and is targeted towards areas that need it most. The review will consider unavoidable costs based on geographical areas.

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 support social-care providers to increase workforce numbers.

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

English local authorities have responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to meet social care needs and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care (ASC).

The Government recognises the scale of the reforms needed to make the ASC sector attractive, to support sustainable workforce growth and improve the recruitment and retention of the domestic workforce.

We are committed to transforming ASC and supporting ASC workers, turning the page on decades of low pay and insecurity. That is why we plan to introduce the first ever Fair Pay Agreement in 2028, backed by £500 million funding to improve pay and conditions for the ASC workforce.

Ensuring that staff have the skills and training needed to work in social care is also essential, both to attract people to join and remain in the workforce, and for the provision of high-quality care and support. That is why we have developed the Care Workforce Pathway, the first national career framework for ASC, and we are investing £12 million in learning and development through the Learning and Development Support Scheme, to enable eligible staff to complete eligible courses and qualifications.

We have also launched the 2025/26 ASC recruitment campaign, which is running throughout October and January with advertising appearing on television, social media, radio, and online, showcasing authentic moments in care careers and driving people with the right skills and values to apply for paid vacancies in the sector.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of NHS dentistry, particularly in areas with significant waiting lists.

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

We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist and the Government is taking action to improve this. We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments across the country, with appointments more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.

ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in underserved areas for three years.

The Government is also considering the outcomes of the consultation on immediate improvements to dental care and will publish a response shortly.

It is a contractual requirement for NHS dentists to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days to ensure patients have up-to-date information on where they can access care. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients. ICBs can review which practices in their area have not updated their profile in a 90-day period, and work with practices to ensure websites are up to date.

We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform by the end of this Parliament.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions have taken place with local leaders on improving bus services in areas affected by recent operator withdrawals.

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

Buses in England outside London were deregulated by the Transport Act 1985 and are largely run on a commercial basis where the operator decides on routes and provision. However, the Department for Transport regularly engages with local authority representatives to discuss local bus services, including in instances where operators withdraw services. Where operators take decisions to withdraw services, we expect them to work with local authorities to minimise disruption to passengers.

We are taking action to give local leaders the powers they need to deliver better bus services for passengers, including through the Bus Services Act 2025, and through investing over £1 billion in 2025/26 to support and improve bus services in England outside London, of which £7.2 million has been allocated to the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

Funding allocated to local authorities to improve services can be used in whichever way they wish to deliver better services for passengers, this could include expanding services and improving reliability, which are currently significant obstacles for too many people. Local authorities can also choose to subsidise certain services where commercial provision is not sufficient to meet the needs of local communities and where it represents value for money.

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 modernise primary care estates.

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

In May, we announced schemes which will benefit from the £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund (UMF) to deliver upgrades to a thousand general practice surgeries across England this financial year. The NHS Capital Planning Guidance and capital allocations, which set operational budgets for the next four years, have recently been published and include further details on multi-year funding for the UMF.

As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government has committed to deliver a Neighbourhood Health Centre (NHC) in every community across the country over the course of the 10-Year Health Plan. We announced our commitment at the Autumn Budget to deliver 250 NHCs through an NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme. This will deliver NHCs through a mixture of refurbishments, to expand and improve sites over the next three years, and new-build sites opening in the medium term.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning, which includes planning, securing, and monitoring, general practice services within their health systems through delegated responsibility from NHS England. Both ICBs and local health systems will be responsible for determining the most appropriate locations for NHCs.

Found: Ramsey of Wall Heath (Chair, Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee), Chris Philp, Matt Vickers