Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 impact of delayed diagnosis and treatment of urinary incontinence on women and girls; and if he will ensure the renewed Women's Health Strategy for England includes specific measures to improve access to continence services and reduce regional variation in care.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Continence is an important component in a person’s health and well-being at any stage of life. Early assessment by an appropriately trained professional allows a patient centred care pathway to be followed.
The Renewed Women's Health Strategy for England, published in April 2026, recognises that these conditions are often normalised by women and girls themselves and by wider society, with many women viewing symptoms such as leaking as an inevitable part of pregnancy, childbirth, ageing or the menopause. It also recognises that many women feel too embarrassed to seek support, which can lead to delays in diagnosis and treatment. The Women’s Health Strategy is not condition specific, instead it focuses on systemic changes including redesigning services, improving diagnosis, and embedding women and girls’ voices so that care improves across all conditions. It sets out how the Government will make women and girls’ voices and choices central in healthcare, transform National Health Service performance in services that matter most to women, support all women to live healthy, prosperous lives and create an approach to research and development that works for and empowers women.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure that (a) transport funding and (b) infrastructure investment are allocated equitably to cities that are not part of a mayoral combined authority or city region, including Leicester.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is providing local leaders in England with £21bn of local transport funding until 2029/30, through consolidated, multi-year settlements, including £9.6bn in non-mayoral areas, which they can use to deliver their local transport priorities, including transport infrastructure. The majority of local transport funding is allocated by formula to give a fair share of funding for all areas.
Leicester City Council has been awarded £148 million transport funding to invest in their local transport priorities.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) performing arts and (b) creative subjects on the achievement of soft skills; and what steps her Department is taking to improve (i) resilience, (ii) ambition, and (iii) communication in secondary schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the value of music and the arts in supporting wellbeing and engagement, and that participation in the arts can bring a range of benefits for children and young people. Furthermore, the Education Endowment Fund’s teaching and learning toolkit reports that it can have a positive impact on academic outcomes in other curriculum areas, as well as benefits to children’s wellbeing and attitudes to learning.
The government believes creative subjects like music, art and design, dance and drama are important elements of the rounded and enriching education every child deserves. We will revitalise arts education as part of the reformed national curriculum and through high-quality support for teachers of arts subjects.
For secondary schools, the reformed curriculum will strengthen pupils’ subject-specific skills, including critical thinking, creative thinking and problem solving. A strengthened key stage 3 curriculum, alongside a new secondary oracy, reading and writing framework and enrichment entitlement, will help pupils build confidence, develop communication skills and broaden their horizons.
The government's consultation on key stage 4 performance measures included proposals intended to increase recognition of creative subjects within the accountability system, reflecting the important contribution they make to a broad and balanced curriculum. The government is considering the consultation feedback and will publish its response in due course.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the fall in the number of students studying creative subjects on the level of youth mental health.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the value of music and the arts in supporting wellbeing and engagement, and that participation in the arts can bring a range of benefits for children and young people. Furthermore, the Education Endowment Fund’s teaching and learning toolkit reports that it can have a positive impact on academic outcomes in other curriculum areas, as well as benefits to children’s wellbeing and attitudes to learning.
The government believes creative subjects like music, art and design, dance and drama are important elements of the rounded and enriching education every child deserves. We will revitalise arts education as part of the reformed national curriculum and through high-quality support for teachers of arts subjects.
For secondary schools, the reformed curriculum will strengthen pupils’ subject-specific skills, including critical thinking, creative thinking and problem solving. A strengthened key stage 3 curriculum, alongside a new secondary oracy, reading and writing framework and enrichment entitlement, will help pupils build confidence, develop communication skills and broaden their horizons.
The government's consultation on key stage 4 performance measures included proposals intended to increase recognition of creative subjects within the accountability system, reflecting the important contribution they make to a broad and balanced curriculum. The government is considering the consultation feedback and will publish its response in due course.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it remains the Government's position that biodiversity net gain applies to most development.
Answered by Mary Creagh
Defra have published an impact assessment alongside regulations, implementing changes to biodiversity net gain for smaller developments. This shows around 80% of planning applications are already exempt from BNG under existing exemptions, such as for householder development, which are having little of no impact on biodiversity. We expect that the new exemption for sites of 0.2 hectares or less will exempt around an additional 51% of residential planning applications that are currently eligible for biodiversity net gain.
The consultation on a potential additional targeted exemption for residential brownfield development closed on 10 June 2026. All responses and evidence submissions are being analysed and the Government will respond to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) introducing a maximum annual limit on the amount of public funding that may be spent on an individual's adult social care package and (b) implementing a cap on annual local authority expenditure on adult social care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
No assessment has been made of either introducing a maximum annual limit on the amount of public funding that may be spent on an individual’s adult social care package, or implementing a cap on annual local authority expenditure on adult social care.
Under the Care Act 2014, access to care and support is based on a person's eligible needs, while any contribution towards the cost of that care is based on what they can afford to pay.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of Plumpot's statistic that anti-social behaviour crime is increasing in Leicester; and what steps her Department is taking to support early intervention and preventative measures to reduce crimes of this nature in a) Leicester East, b) Leicester and c) the country.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s police reforms will protect and strengthen neighbourhood policing by freeing local forces, including Leicestershire Police, from national responsibilities so they can focus on issues that matter most locally, like anti-social behaviour (ASB). Every police force in England and Wales now has an ASB lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the general public to implement their individual ASB Action Plans, which were published at the start of April. Further information on the Leicestershire Police ASB Action Plan can be found here: https://www.leics.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/asb/asb/antisocial-behaviour/antisocial-behaviour-action-plan/
Through the Crime and Policing Act, we are making our streets and neighbourhoods safer by strengthening the powers available to the police and other agencies to tackle ASB. Our new Respect Orders will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless adult ASB offenders.
We are also strengthening the powers available to the police and other local agencies by increasing the upper limit for fixed penalty notices for breaches of CPNs and PSPOs from £100 to £500, increasing the time a dispersal direction can be implemented for from 48 to 72 hours and giving registered social housing providers the power to issue closure notices, amongst others.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what measures she is taking to help protect communities against anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s police reforms will protect and strengthen neighbourhood policing by freeing local forces, including Leicestershire Police, from national responsibilities so they can focus on issues that matter most locally, like anti-social behaviour (ASB). Every police force in England and Wales now has an ASB lead in place who will work with communities, stakeholders and the general public to implement their individual ASB Action Plans, which were published at the start of April. Further information on the Leicestershire Police ASB Action Plan can be found here: https://www.leics.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/asb/asb/antisocial-behaviour/antisocial-behaviour-action-plan/
Through the Crime and Policing Act, we are making our streets and neighbourhoods safer by strengthening the powers available to the police and other agencies to tackle ASB. Our new Respect Orders will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless adult ASB offenders.
We are also strengthening the powers available to the police and other local agencies by increasing the upper limit for fixed penalty notices for breaches of CPNs and PSPOs from £100 to £500, increasing the time a dispersal direction can be implemented for from 48 to 72 hours and giving registered social housing providers the power to issue closure notices, amongst others.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when she expects to publish the Government's response to the consultation on the proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system, which closed on 10 March 2026.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 387 on 18 May 2026.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 July 2026 to Question 16287 on Parking: Private Sector, how many of the (a) 157 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency statements of control audits and (b) 203 Government Internal Audit Agency evidence-based transactional audits identified non-compliance by private parking companies; and what action was taken in each case.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Of the 157 Statement of Control audits of private parking companies carried out by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), 156 presented a low risk in respect of the handling, storage and processing of vehicle keeper data, demonstrating that appropriate controls were in place and consistently applied.
One audit identified a medium level of risk, indicating a limited level of concern. The DVLA worked directly with the company concerned to address the areas of non-compliance and ensure that appropriate remedial action was taken to reduce and mitigate the identified risks.
Of the 203 Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) evidence-based transactional audits undertaken, 65 identified areas of non-compliance with DVLA requirements.
GIAA audit findings represent a point-in-time assessment based on the information and evidence available during the audit. In many cases, evidence that was not available at the time of the audit will subsequently be provided to the DVLA demonstrating compliance with requirements.
Where non-compliance is identified, companies are required to provide appropriate assurances and evidence demonstrating that corrective and remedial actions have been implemented before the matter is considered resolved.