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, whether he plans to take steps to enable all patients to book primary care appointments through the NHS app.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Currently, patients can book general practitioner (GP) appointments via the NHS App. Availability of GP appointments is dependent on practices making their appointments available online. Many practices use triage processes to make an initial assessment of patients’ needs, rather than making online appointments available with a GP on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Routine or planned appointments that do not require prior assessment, such as cervical screening, asthma reviews or regular B12 injections, are more likely to be made available in the NHS App.
Work is underway to understand how the NHS App can support patients, who have been triaged and assessed as needing an appointment, with the ability to find and book an appropriate appointment.
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, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of variations in commissioning by integrated care systems of digital solutions for primary care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are the responsible commissioning bodies for digital technology in general practice. ICBs support practices to source the digital tools and services they need to deliver the requirements of the GP contract, as set out in the GP IT Operating Model. They also help practices with business change, training and optimisation to help practice staff use new technology safely and effectively.
NHS England provides commercial and procurement support to help ICBs ensure all digital solutions in general practice meet nationally specified clinical safety and technical standards, and minimum capabilities to support the digitally enabled shift to modern general practice. Within this, practices have flexibility, working with their ICB, to deploy different solutions to best meet their local patient care needs.
Within the community pharmacy sector, funding of up to £8 million has been secured to support digital developments as part of the recently agreed Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) for 2025/26. Through the CPCF, the Department and NHS England have expressed their commitment to continuing to work with the pharmacy sector and IT suppliers to streamline the ‘Manage Your Service’ claim process through using payment and data APIs, for all national clinical services.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she plans to take to increase growth spending on (a) transport and (b) research and development outside of the South East of England.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Investment in our transport infrastructure is key to delivering the growth mission – with this government committing to a real terms increase in transport investment in 2025-26.
We have committed over £1 billion for the North and over £500m for the Midlands in 25/26 to improve local transport services people use every day.
The Government is protecting record levels of R&D investment, with £20.4 billion allocated in 2025/2026; ensuring the benefits of R&D are felt across the country, including through Innovation Accelerators, which the government will extend into 2025-26 to continue to bolster high-potential innovation clusters in the Glasgow City Region, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she plans to take to support cities outside London.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Spreading prosperity across the United Kingdom is a key pillar of the Growth Mission. The Government’s regional growth strategy will drive growth in city regions and make the most of the opportunities in each part of the country.
We are supporting the potential of city regions through the publication of the English Devolution Bill and the launch of integrated funding settlements, which will give local leaders a single, flexible funding pot to spend where their area needs. We will work side by side with our mayors, local leaders and the devolved governments to support regions to achieve their potential.
The government is supporting regional growth, with a total package worth over £3 billion in 2025-26 alone. We have unlocked private investment including setting a new strategic steer for the National Wealth Fund to deliver our ambition for growth across the country. We are supporting growth in the the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, including though delivering East-West Rail. We are also investing in economic infrastructure across the country, including via West Yorkshire Mass Transit which will transform connectivity in the region.
The Industrial Strategy will be published in spring 2025, alongside with the Spending Review, which will focus on eight growth-driving sectors, create a pro-business environment and support city-regions across the country.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she plans to take to (a) develop and (b) implement growth corridor plans like the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor in other regions.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor has recently announced the Government’s commitment to unlock growth in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, and the high potential sectors within it, as part of the Government’s Plan for Change.
The Government believes that strengthening east to west connections is essential to allow our whole economy, including outside the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, to meet its potential.
The Government’s regional growth strategy will drive growth in city regions and make the most of the opportunities in each part of the country. Spreading prosperity across the United Kingdom is a key pillar of the Growth Mission.
The Industrial Strategy will also be published in spring 2025, alongside with the Spending Review, which will focus on eight growth-driving sectors, create a pro-business environment and support high-potential clusters, city-regions and industrial sites across the country.
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, whether his Department has taken steps to provide forums for (a) officials and (b) Ministers to learn from international examples of best practice in the delivery of healthcare.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department routinely engages with partners from overseas to share knowledge and best practice, to support strategy and policy development across the Department.
As part of the 10-Year Health Plan engagement exercise, we have been working with international experts to understand different countries’ approaches to delivering healthcare, and the three shifts at the centre of the plan, from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. In March, the Department jointly hosted two ministerial led roundtables with WHO EURO and Kings College London, where international experts shared experiences of implementing the three shifts. Attendees from around the world included former ministers, government officials, academics, and health system experts, to provide expert insight into international best practice.
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, how much funding his Department has provided for suicide prevention (a) nationally and (b) locally in each financial year since 2015-16.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding for suicide prevention is included in baseline National Health Service funding for mental health services, and is not separately identified.
Between 2019/20 and 2023/24, additional funding of £57 million was provided through the NHS Long Term Plan to embed local suicide prevention activity and suicide bereavement support services in every local authority area.
In addition, the Department provided £5.4 million of funding in 2021/22 and £10 million from 2023 to 2025 through grant schemes targeted at national and local voluntary community and social enterprise sector organisations delivering suicide prevention activity.
A further £550,000 of funding was also provided to the Local Government Association in 2021/22 for a support programme to help local authorities strengthen their suicide prevention plans.
Integrated care boards, previously clinical commissioning groups, are responsible for providing health and care services to meet the needs of their local populations, and it is up to them to decide how much funding to allocate to suicide prevention services in 2025/26.
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, how much funding his Department has committed to suicide prevention in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding for suicide prevention is included in baseline National Health Service funding for mental health services, and is not separately identified.
Between 2019/20 and 2023/24, additional funding of £57 million was provided through the NHS Long Term Plan to embed local suicide prevention activity and suicide bereavement support services in every local authority area.
In addition, the Department provided £5.4 million of funding in 2021/22 and £10 million from 2023 to 2025 through grant schemes targeted at national and local voluntary community and social enterprise sector organisations delivering suicide prevention activity.
A further £550,000 of funding was also provided to the Local Government Association in 2021/22 for a support programme to help local authorities strengthen their suicide prevention plans.
Integrated care boards, previously clinical commissioning groups, are responsible for providing health and care services to meet the needs of their local populations, and it is up to them to decide how much funding to allocate to suicide prevention services in 2025/26.
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 steps she plans to take to (a) increase housing affordability and (b) ensure balanced regional development.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Boosting the supply of homes of all tenures must be at the heart of any strategy to improve housing affordability which is why the government’s Plan for Change includes a hugely ambitious milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England in this Parliament.
At Spring statement, the government announced an immediate injection of £2 billion to support delivery of the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. Further detail can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 25 March 2025 (HCWS549).
The investment made at Spring statement follows the £800 million in new in-year funding which has been made available for the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme and that will support the delivery of up to 7,800 new homes, with more than half of them being Social Rent homes.
We will set out set details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for social rent.
Through the revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024, the government implemented a new standard method for assessing housing needs to increase supply and better direct new homes to the areas where they are currently least affordable and therefore most needed.
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, how she plans to implement her planning reform policy; and when she expects her reforms to start to impact regional development.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government will continue to implement its ambitious planning reform agenda through a combination of legislation, policy, and guidance. No general statement can be made about when the impact of individual measures will be felt in specific areas.