Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help restore plantations on ancient woodland sites.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra supports private landowners and land managers to restore Plantations on Ancient Woodland (PAWS) with a dedicated supplement in Countryside Stewardship. Defra is also continuing support to Forestry England to restore PAWS on the public forest estate. Forestry England manages around one-third of all PAWS. Today, a quarter of those sites have been restored. Forestry England is now working to double the pace of restoration, supported for the first time this year by direct Defra funding.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that newly created woodlands are (a) ecologically diverse and (b) climate-resilient.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Both the Woodland Creation Planning Grant and England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) enables landowners to design woodlands that fit with their own and Government objectives for woodland creation. EWCO includes maintenance grants for 15 years to ensure successful establishment. The England Woodland Creation Offer has additional contributions for woodlands designed to enhance nature recovery. The Ecological Site Classification tool ensures that the choice of species will be resilient to future climatic conditions of the site. The UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) ensures that a new woodland should have no more than 65% of the site planted with 1 species, to ensure a resilient mix. Elements of EWCO (Nature Recovery Additional Contributions) encourage a diverse use of predominately native tree species beyond UKFS requirements.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how the UK Forestry Standard is being enforced in (a) public and (b) private woodland creation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Forestry Standard is the technical standard for sustainable forest management across the UK and defines the government requirements for forestry in the UK. When taking decisions on regulatory or grant applications from private landowners, the Forestry Commission assesses all proposals to ensure that they are in line with the UK Forestry Standard. Similarly, Forestry England woodlands are UK Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS) certified by an independent auditor. The UKWAS is based on the UKFS.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on restoring 280,000 hectares of peatland by 2050.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Restoration activity is delivered through agri-environment schemes and the Nature for Climate Fund. This fund has secured the restoration of approximately 28,000 hectares of peatlands. In the last restoration season (24/25), 5,606 hectares were restored.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the country has access to the national lung cancer screening programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service will build on its recent successes, including roll-out of the National Lung Cancer Screening Programme, to diagnose cancer earlier and boost survival rates. Funding for national lung screening is set by NHS England and the timescale for full implementation of the National Lung Cancer Screening Programme will be specified in due course.
The NHS is currently rolling out the National Lung Cancer Screening Programme to people with a history of smoking. The public health functions agreement between NHS England and the Department sets out that the Lung Cancer Screening Programme has a target to invite 50% of the eligible population by the end of March 2026.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what long-term plans he has to (a) maintain and (b) expand urban green spaces.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is firmly committed to both maintain and expanding parks and urban green spaces, they are an essential part of local social infrastructure which supports more connected, stronger communities.
Regarding the maintenance of urban green spaces, the MHCLG-owned Green Flag Award sets the national quality standard for parks and green spaces, the scheme aims to meet the needs of the communities they serve and has helped to transform thousands of parks and green spaces across the country.
The Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is clear that strategic policies should set out an overall strategy for the pattern, scale and design quality of places and make sufficient provision for the conservation and enhancement of the natural, built and historic environment, including green infrastructure.
We will use our bold Pride in Place strategy which sets out how we will deliver up to £5 billion over ten years to up to 350 neighbourhoods experiencing the highest levels of deprivation bolstering a wide range of community assets, including urban green spaces. The strategy is a significant step change in how we support urban communities and their green spaces.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 (a) training in and (b) awareness of (i) endometriosis and (ii) women’s health issues in general.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
General practitioners (GPs) are responsible for ensuring that their own clinical knowledge, including on endometriosis and women’s health issues in general, remains up-to-date, and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development.
All United Kingdom registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Good Medical Practice. The training curriculum for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners, and must meet the standards set by the GMC.
The GMC has introduced the Medical Licensing Assessment to encourage a better understanding of common women’s health problems among all doctors as they start their careers in the UK. The content map for this assessment includes several topics relating to women’s health including menstrual problems, endometriosis, menopause and urinary incontinence. This will encourage a better understanding of common women’s health problems among all doctors as they start their careers in the UK. Endometriosis is also included in the core curriculum for trainee GPs, and for obstetricians and gynaecologists.
In November 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated their guideline on endometriosis which makes firmer recommendations for healthcare professionals on referral and investigations for women with suspected diagnosis. This guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng73
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 capacity in the whole genome sequencing programme for the treatment of less survivable cancers.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Genomic testing in the National Health Service in England is provided through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS) as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory (NGTD), which includes tests for over 7,000 rare diseases with an associated genetic cause and over 200 cancer clinical indications, including both whole genome sequencing (WGS) and non-WGS testing. The NGTD sets out the eligibility criteria for patients to access testing as well as the genomic targets to be tested and the method that should be used.
WGS is available on the NGTD for all paediatric and central nervous system tumours where there is a clear, clinical question and where results have expected utility/impact. WGS for all other adult solid tumours, including less survivable cancers, can be performed where there is a clinical need and where results are likely to change clinical management.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 access to (a) mental health and (b) pain management support for people with endometriosis.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Long wait times are a feature of a system in desperate need of change. On mental health, we are already responding by delivering new, innovative models of care in the community, including piloting six neighbourhood adult mental health centres, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to bring together community, crisis and inpatient care.
We are also recruiting an additional 8,500 mental health workers to ensure people can access treatment and support earlier with 6,700 of these having been recruited since July 2024. We are prioritising expansions of Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes, supporting those with mild to moderate mental illness through earlier intervention.
Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the research delivery arm of the Department, funds a range of research to support women’s health conditions, including endometriosis. Funding has been awarded to studies seeking to improve outcomes for women with endometriosis by better understanding the condition, enabling earlier diagnosis, and evaluating current and emerging treatment options. This includes research on mental health and pain management support for people with endometriosis.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to enable powered two wheelers to use bus lanes in each region in England.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government remains committed to supporting efforts to improve the safety of road users but has no plans to bring forward legislation to allow motorcycles and other powered two wheelers to access bus lanes by default. Decisions on this matter are for local highway authorities to make on a case-by-case basis.