Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether assessment of local housing needs includes (a) share of second homes, (b) prevalence of short-term lets and (c) local house-price-to-income ratios.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government’s revised standard method for assessing local housing need, introduced in December 2024, uses a baseline of local housing stock, adjusted for affordability using median workplace-based affordability ratios. The affordability adjustment directs more homes to where they are most needed.
As set out in the government’s response to the proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, which can be found on gov.uk here, the revised standard method does not adjust the housing stock baseline to account for vacant and second homes.
Local authorities have powers available to respond to locally specific concerns related to vacant and second homes.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when her Department plans to release the £400 million announced in the Spending Review for grassroots sports facilities; and what proportion of this funding will be allocated to support (a) local leisure centres, (b) swimming pools and (c) gyms at risk of closure.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to leisure centres and swimming pools, which are vital spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and which play an important role within communities across the country.
The ongoing responsibility of providing access to public leisure facilities lies at local authority level, with funding levels set as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement. The Government encourages local authorities to make investments which offer the right opportunities and facilities for the communities they serve, investing in sport and physical activity with a place-based approach, to meet the needs of individual communities.
In June, we committed another £400 million to transform facilities across the whole of the UK over the next four years, supporting the Government's Plan for Change. We will ensure that this funding promotes health, wellbeing and community cohesion and helps to remove the barriers to physical activity for under-represented groups. We are working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, before setting out further plans on how future funding will be allocated across the UK.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the clean energy workforce strategy on UK jobs in critical mineral supply chains.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Critical minerals underpin the UK’s Industrial Strategy and the Government’s clean energy goals. The Office for Clean Energy Jobs will publish a full Clean Energy Workforce Strategy shortly setting out further actions to support delivery of the clean energy workforce and ensure that the jobs created across the country are high quality.
The Department for Business and Trade is working closely with industry and partners such as the Critical Minerals Association to identify and to help address workforce gaps across UK critical mineral supply chains.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number and proportion of young people aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training in (a) Cornwall and (b) Camborne and Redruth constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes statistics on those not in education, employment or training (NEET) for England, however, these estimates are not available at lower-level geographies due to limitations with sample sizes. Therefore, NEET rates for young people aged 16 to 24 in Cornwall and Camborne and Redruth constituency are not available. Statistics for England can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief/2024.
Data showing the number of young people aged 16 and 17 years old who were known to Cornwall local authority and the number and proportion of those NEET or activity not known is accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/5dbec461-d6ee-4ee3-19fd-08dde95206d2. These statistics are published as transparency data so some caution should be taken when using these figures.
Additionally, 16 to 18 destination measures are published, showing the percentage of pupils not continuing to a sustained education, apprenticeship or employment destination in the year after completing 16 to 18 study, that is six months of continual activity. The latest publication includes destinations in 2022/23 by parliamentary constituency boundaries at that time, and data for Cornwall local authority and Camborne and Redruth parliamentary constituency can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/5994cbf5-1e91-4af3-19ff-08dde95206d2.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to sustain the independent contractor status of GP partnerships through the 10 Year Health Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
GP partnerships are independent businesses, contracting with the NHS to deliver primary care services. We recognise that the GP partnership model has many strengths, including efficiency, innovation and continuity of care, and GP partnerships deliver high-quality care to patients all over the country. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, where the GP partnership model is working well, it should continue.
The 10-Year Health Plan also introduces two new contracts enabling GPs to work over larger geographies, with the aim of supporting the neighbourhood health model, providing resilience and allowing economies of scale, in order to secure the sustainability of general practice into the future.
The first will create ‘single neighbourhood providers’ that deliver enhanced services for groups with similar needs over a single neighbourhood (c.50,000 people). The second will create ‘multi-neighbourhood providers’, which will deliver care that requires working across several different neighbourhoods (250,000+ people).
Multi-neighbourhood providers will also be responsible for unlocking the benefits of at scale working, including offering improvement support to practices, easing administrative burdens through shared back-office functions and overseeing digital transformation and estate strategy.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve the position of children in social care in Camborne and Redruth constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has announced the biggest overhaul to children’s social care in a generation, and this will ensure opportunity for all children, including those in Camborne and Redruth. Our reforms include significant new investment in children’s social care and landmark legislation through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
The local government finance settlement for 2025/26 grants councils in England access to over £69 billion in funding, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase on 2024/25. The settlement for 2025/26 includes a new children’s Social Care Prevention Grant, worth £270 million. In June, we announced that the total investment in children’s social care over the forthcoming spending review period will reach over £2 billion.
The Families First Partnership programme is rolling out national reforms to Family Help, multi-agency child protection and family group decision making from April 2025, to help more children and families to stay safely together. These reforms are backed by over £500 million of funding in 2025/26 and we are providing all local authorities, including Cornwall, with a flexible support offer, targeted to local needs, as they transform their children’s services.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is his Department taking to improve access to ADHD medication.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has worked closely with industry stakeholders on this issue. Following extensive collaborative efforts, previous issues have been resolved and all strengths of lisdexamfetamine, atomoxetine capsules, atomoxetine oral solution, guanfacine prolonged-release tablets and methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets are now available.
We continue to support the NHS England ADHD taskforce, which brings together expertise from the NHS, education, and justice sectors to coordinate a system-wide response to rising demand. In collaboration with NHS England’s national ADHD data improvement plan, we are developing future growth forecasts to support improved demand planning. These forecasts will be shared with industry to help ensure a more responsive and sustainable supply of ADHD medicines.
In parallel, we are also engaging with new suppliers for ADHD medicines to increase supply capacity and resilience.
The Department also maintains and regularly updates a list of currently available and unavailable ADHD products on the Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) website. This resource supports prescribers and dispensers in making informed decisions with patients. The list is available at the following link: www.sps.nhs.uk/articles/prescribing-available-medicines-to-treat-adhd
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with energy companies on the potential merits of policy cost rebalancing on energy bills to incentivise the uptake of low-carbon technologies.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Treasury Ministers and officials have regular meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sector, including energy companies, on an ongoing basis.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using smaller geographic units in assessing deprivation at local levels.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The indices of deprivation provide an assessment of deprivation at the lowest possible spatial level for which data is available, this is the lower super output level. These are aggregated up into functional spatial outputs for users of the Indices to use. The Indices provide the most granular assessment of local area deprivation across all the domain indicators included for which data exists. The methodology for the Indices of Deprivation has been consulted upon, as it is a national statistic, and reflects the best fit to respond to the range of different needs from users.
Further details of the methodology behind the Indices of deprivation are found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) timely and (b) equitable access to effective migraine treatments, in the context of reports of (i) long waiting times, (ii) inconsistent access to newer medications and (iii) ongoing medicine shortages.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The three shifts outlined in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan will support people with long-term conditions, including those with migraines, to better manage their conditions and access services closer to home. For example, it will empower them to access their medical history and allow them to book and manage their appointments and medication.
In addition, by 2028/29, neighbourhood health teams will be organised around the needs of their patients. The plan will create joined-up working across hospitals and into community settings, with multi-disciplinary teams which can provide wrap-around support services.
By 2030, one million patients with long-term conditions will be offered Personal Health Budgets, which will enable them to use National Health Service resources and determine the care that best suits their needs.
Patients will be able to self-refer to services where clinically appropriate through the My Specialist section on the NHS App. This will accelerate their access to treatment and support. The NHS App will provide access to advice, guidance, self-care support, and appointment management. Patients will be able to manage their care in one place, giving them direct access and preference over the services they need.
As part of the NHS App, the My Medicines section will enable patients to manage their prescriptions, and the My Health section will enable patients to monitor their symptoms and bring all their data into one place.