Naushabah Khan

For the 2025/26 academic year, a total of £7.1 million has been allocated to five academies within the Gillingham and Rainham constituency, for the education of 16 to 19 students. This figure will increase to £7.9 million for the 2026/27 academic year, and includes funding for an additional academy, with new 16 to 19 provision.

In the 2025/26 academic year, of the funds allocated to further education institutions delivering within the Medway Local Authority area, we have released around £10 million for learners resident within Gillingham and Rainham constituency.

The government is seeking to improve qualification levels and employment outcomes for young people through reforms to post‑16 education and skills.

These include expanding technical and vocational education, strengthening apprenticeships and higher‑level technical training, and creating clearer pathways into skilled employment.

I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Gillingham and Rainham to the answer of 1 April 2025 to Question 40591.

Southeastern has been in public ownership since Oct 2021. Overall, Southeastern is performing well above the industry average for both reliability and punctuality. In fact, they are currently ranked fourth out of 14 DfT managed train operators for both Cancellations and T-3 (% of the station stops within 3 minutes of scheduled time) and their latest results for both measures are up year-on-year, showing they are continuing to improve through initiatives across their network, including the routes serving Gillingham and Rainham, such as:

• Delivering £306m of investment to renew and enhance shared railway infrastructure to help keep trains on time.
• Investing in more fault-finding equipment so problems can be fixed before they happen.
• Working with British Transport Police and using drones and AI-powered cameras to quickly detect and prevent people from trespassing on the railway.

Statistics on the number and proportion of children living in relative poverty, including in parliamentary constituencies, are published annually in the Children in low income families: local area statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2022-to-2025.

Our Child Poverty Strategy sets out immediate action to reduce child poverty while delivering the foundations for long-term change. This includes removing the Universal Credit two-child limit, which is expected to lift 450,000 children out of relative poverty in the final year of this Parliament. Taken alongside other measures, including extending Free School Meals to all children in households in receipt of Universal Credit, the strategy will lift 550,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament, which is expected to lead to the largest reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began.

The Strategy is supported by wider investment in families, including over £30 million for breakfast clubs, measures to cap branded school uniform costs, the introduction of Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority, £600 million over three years for the Holiday Activities and Food programme, and expanded free childcare. We are also strengthening local efforts to tackle child poverty through community projects and family services, including the £500 million Better Futures Fund

Gillingham and Rainham sits within NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board, where there was a 0.5% increase in general practice appointments in the 12-months to May 2026 compared to the previous year. In May 2026 there were a total of 1005 full-time equivalent (FTE) general practitioners (GPs), an increase from 933 in May 2025.

Kent and Medway ICB keeps GP provision under regular review, and as part of this has commissioned an independent review by the National Association of Primary Care into under-doctoring across the system. The review found that under-doctoring is not simply a numerical GP headcount issue, but a structural and geographically uneven capacity challenge shaped by clinical complexity, demographic pressure, workforce configuration, and changing professional expectations. It also found that some localities, including areas of higher deprivation, feel these impacts more.

In response to the review, the ICB is implementing a 24-month General Practice Improvement Plan, which will focus on improving access and responsiveness, strengthening practice resilience, supporting workforce stability and supervision, improving digital and telephony performance, reducing avoidable workload from primary-secondary care interface issues, and developing neighbourhood-based care models with general practice at their core.

We are improving capacity in general practices (GPs). We have invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support the recruitment of over 2,000 more GPs into primary care networks across England, helping to increase appointment availability and improve care for thousands of patients. As a result, we have successfully delivered an additional 11.5 million GP appointments for patients compared to the same period last year, meaning more patients are getting the support they need, when they need it. Patient satisfaction has also risen from 60.9% in July 2024, to 76.5% in May 2026, up 16.5 percentage points.

The Government is committed to improving urgent and emergency care services and reducing waits in emergency departments, including in Medway Maritime Hospital. The NHS Medium Term Planning Framework and the newly published Model Emergency Department set out the long-term approach to delivering safer, more efficient urgent and emergency care, reducing overcrowding and long waits, and improving patient experience. NHS England has also set ambitious improvement trajectories for accident and emergency performance over the coming years.

Through the 2025/26 Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, nearly £250 million was invested in same day and urgent care services to help avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and support faster diagnosis, treatment, and discharge.

The Government extends its deepest sympathies to all those affected by pelvic mesh, and recognises the profound, life‑changing impact these harms have had on individuals and their families. We know that for many, the consequences are ongoing and deeply felt.

There are nine specialist mesh centres across England, ensuring that women in every region with complications of mesh inserted for urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapse get the right support. Each mesh centre is led by a multi-disciplinary team to ensure patients get access to the specialist care and treatment that they need.

The current service specification requirements include psychology services, which should be available. It also states that patients should be able to have follow up reviews for up to five years post-surgery. On discharge from the Specialised Mesh Service at five years, there will be clear instructions for the general practitioner to refer the person back if there are any new problems.

However, services can always improve. NHS England has now completed their internal audit of mesh centres across England conducted in 2025, which was designed in partnership with patient representatives. Though the audit is showing the value and impact of the service delivered by mesh centres, with nearly 3,000 patients now seen in the services since their introduction, equating to 700 per year, there are distinct areas for improvement and a timeline for these improvements will be made at pace.

There are some medical evidence letters, certificates or reports that general practices (GPs) may charge for, and others that they must not charge patients for. The legislation that sets this out is The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts and Personal Medical Services Agreements) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2023, which form the basis of the GP contract with the NHS. There is no statutory limit to the level of such fees as this is outside of core NHS work.

The Professional Fees Committee of the British Medical Association suggests guideline fees for such services to help doctors set their own professional fees. We are continuing to work across Government to cut red tape and improve ways of working, including work to improve the patient experience, such as removing the need to request unnecessary medical evidence where possible.

The Licensing Act 2003 provides the legal framework for the sale and supply of alcohol in England and Wales. It is already an offence, under section 141 of the Act, for a person to knowingly sell or attempt to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk or underage, or to allow alcohol to be sold to such a person.

The Government recognises that consumer purchasing habits have evolved in recent years, particularly with a notable growth in alcohol sales made via online platforms and rapid delivery services. The Department for Health and Social Care, which has responsibility for policy on health harms, and the Home Office are looking at how current licensing rules apply to these services to ensure these are effective. This includes seeking the views of experts, those with lived experience and other stakeholders and evaluating emerging evidence on the impact this may be having on people’s health and the upholding of the licensing objectives.

Through our Crime and Policing Act, we are rolling out new enhanced powers to enable local agencies to tackle antisocial behaviour offenders. And our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee has ensured that every police force in England and Wales now has a dedicated antisocial behaviour lead, and a local action plan in place to crack down on offenders who blight our communities.

We are also delivering 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel into roles across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament As of 28 February 2026, Kent Police have grown by 71 (FTE) Neighbourhood since March 2025.

Every neighbourhood, including those in the Medway towns, has named, and contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally and forces have increased patrols in town centres and other key locations based on local demand and intelligence.

Furthermore, the Safer Streets Summer Initiative ran from June the September last year. The core aim was to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB), street crime and retail crime in Town Centres, and to increase confidence in policing through increased collaboration at a local level. Kent Police participated in the initiative with 15 locations, three of them in Medway covering Chatham, Brompton, and Rochester.

Data on outstanding applications are not routinely published by the Home Office. However, the Hon Member can be assured that ordinary applications made under the Homes for Ukraine scheme are currently being processed within the published service standards, which can be found here:

Ukraine: customer service standards - GOV.UK.

Data on outstanding applications are not routinely published by the Home Office. However, the Hon Member can be assured that ordinary applications made under the Homes for Ukraine scheme are currently being processed within the published service standards, which can be found here:

Ukraine: customer service standards - GOV.UK.

The Ministry of Defence continuously monitors maritime activity in the UK waters. Any enforcement action is considered on a case‑by‑case basis.

The recent interdiction of Russian shadow fleet vessel SMYRTOS shows that the UK is ready to take action to enforce sanctions and disrupt the resources sustaining Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The Government remains committed to spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035, as agreed at the NATO summit last year.

As the third-largest financial contributor, and the only European Ally to commit our full nuclear deterrent to NATO, the United Kingdom already plays a central role across the Alliance.

This Government is working to help Gillingham and the wider Medway area thrive. Gilligham has received £20m of Pride in Place funding, out of £60m given to Medway Council. This comes alongside £1.5m of Pride in Place Impact Funding to support high street regeneration in Gillingham and Chatham.

The Government will bring forward a High Streets Strategy later this year backed by £301m, which includes funding for the Pride in Place Community Right to Buy Fund and High Street Rental Auctions. This will empower communities to take control of local assets and bring vacant properties back into use.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 9161 on 22 June 2026.

To support the delivery of new social and affordable housing, the government will make available £2.5 billion in low interest loans to Private Registered Providers, with £1 billion available outside of London.

The loans will be made available via a competitive bidding process, following confirmation of initial grant allocations made through the Social and Affordable Homes Programme.

The government has set out its plans to address the root causes of homelessness, shift the system towards prevention, and tackle the worst forms of homelessness through the National Plan to End Homelessness, which can be found on gov.uk here.

This is backed by £3.6 billion funding from 2026/27 to 2028/29. Medway Council will receive £12 million through the Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant.