Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure the provision of childcare in all rural areas.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

In our Plan for Change we have set a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn. We will measure our progress through 75% of children at the end of reception reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028.

The government has committed to working with the sector to better support parents in poorer and rural areas. We have announced over £400 million of funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the quality early education where it is needed and get the best start in life. The first phase of the programme is creating up to 6,000 new nursery places, with schools reporting over 5,000 have been made available in September 2025.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.

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 help improve access to dental care in South Shropshire constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the South Shropshire constituency, this is the NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB.

We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025.

ICBs are recruiting dentists through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.

We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.

We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to closed mortuaries on family visiting arrangements.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has not issued specific guidance to closed mortuaries on family visiting arrangements. The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) is responsible for licensing mortuaries in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland which undertake post-mortem examinations. The Human Tissue Act 2004 and the HTA's Codes of Practice govern the standards in these mortuaries.

HTA licensing standards require establishments to have in place documented policies for the viewing of bodies by family members and others, such as the Police. However, there is no obligation for HTA licensed mortuaries in the post mortem sector to provide viewings for families.

Establishments are required to have controlled access to body storage areas, arrangements to protect against unauthorised access, and must ensure oversight of visitors and contractors. Most post-mortem examinations are conducted under the authority of a coroner. The access to and use of bodies under the authority of HM Coroner by the Police are at the coroner’s discretion.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to support community libraries.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources, including how community libraries may form a part of that.

Where a community library is part of the Local Authority service statutory network it can benefit from wider government initiatives such as the improved Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26, and could also benefit from library specific funding such as the Libraries Improvement Fund.

The Secretary of State announced in February 2025 a further £5.5 million of this Libraries Improvement Fund for 2025-26 to councils across England to invest in their library service and fund a range of projects to upgrade buildings and technology. This can include bids to benefit community managed branches within the statutory network.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential for economic growth in rural areas.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Delivering secure, strong and sustainable growth to boost prosperity and living standards across the UK is the Government’s priority mission, as set out in the Plan for Change. Forecasting the economy is the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which published its latest forecast on 26 March 2025. The next OBR forecast is due to be published on 26 November.

We know that rural areas offer significant potential for growth. In 2023, rural areas contributed £259 billion to England’s Gross Value Added (GVA), representing 12.2% of the total GVA for England. However, at the same time overall productivity in the most rural areas is typically lower than urban areas and is only 82% of the average for England excluding London.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements during corporate restructuring in safety-critical sectors in the context of the Employment Tribunal correction in Unite v MAEL.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government cannot comment on individual cases. In addition, the Government is unable to assess sector-based trends on the use of non-disclosure agreements as they are private contractual agreements and data on their use is not collected.

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 help improve access to palliative care in rural areas.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We know that there are inequalities in access to palliative care and end of life care in rural areas and the Government is looking at how best to reduce these.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

The statutory guidance outlines areas for consideration when commissioning services, which makes reference to improving equity of access and reducing inequity in outcomes and experience.

NHS England has also developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative care and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence.

The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps the Government is taking to support community pubs.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

We recognise the vital role pubs play as social hubs within communities, fostering connections while driving local economies and supporting high streets. That’s why we’re investing £440,000 with Pub is The Hub to help rural pubs diversify, aiming to support rural communities, create new jobs and services.

We are planning on introducing reforms to premises licensing to simplify outdated rules, making it easier and more affordable to run hospitality venues and to allow communities to thrive. These proposals will include a National Licensing Policy Framework. A Call for Evidence closed on 6 November. We are now analysing responses at pace.

We are also creating a fairer business rates system, including permanently lower rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties under £500,000 rateable value and through the English Devolution Bill, we have introduced a strong new ‘right to buy’ to help communities safeguard valued community assets, empowering local communities to reclaim and revitalise empty shops, pubs, and community spaces, helping to revamp our high streets and eliminate the blight of vacant premises.

We continue to work closely with the sector, including through the Hospitality Sector Council, working together to address the challenges facing all hospitality businesses.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to support independent specialist education colleges.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department recognises the role special post-16 institutions play in providing specialist education in the further education (FE) sector, catering for young people whose needs cannot be met in general FE colleges.

We have been clear that a more inclusive education system is needed to give children and young people the opportunities they need to achieve and thrive. There remains a crucial role for specialist providers, not only in supporting children and young people with particularly complex needs, but also in building capability across the system.

The department supports independent specialist education colleges through regulatory approval, funding and guidance. Colleges can apply to join the Section 41 approved list, giving families the right to request them in an education, health and care plan and ensuring compliance with the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice.

The department also provides high-needs funding for eligible institutions, alongside local authority contributions, and issues guidance on safeguarding, governance and curriculum standards.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to support community ownership.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, we are introducing a new community right to buy to give communities stronger powers to take ownership of a range of assets which are important to them and protect them for future community use.

Communities will be given the right of first refusal on the purchase of registered assets of community value when they are put up for sale and a longer timeframe to raise funds to purchase the asset.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to strengthen UK civil defence and resilience.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

The Government is clear on the importance of implementing a whole-of-society approach to strengthen defence and our resilience to the threats we face, including those below and above the threshold of an armed attack. The Ministry of Defence, together with the Cabinet Office led cross-Whitehall Home Defence Programme, is delivering the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) recommendations supporting this approach. This includes drafting legislative measures to improve defence readiness; making better use of the reserves; increasing public engagement and understanding of defence; and improving the defence and resilience of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).

Through the UK Government's Resilience Action Plan, we outline how we will enable the whole of society to increase their resilience, including taking action to prepare for emergencies as set out on the GOV.UK/Prepare website.

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 help support (a) innovation and (b) collaboration in improving public health outcomes in rural areas.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Upper and single tier local authorities have a statutory duty to take steps to improve the health of local people. Under this duty, local authorities commission a range of public health services and are responsible for determining the most effective approaches to the delivery of these services, taking account of different local needs, including the needs of rural areas. This can include testing new approaches to service delivery, implementing technology-based interventions or improving data analytics to better understand population health. In 2025/26, we provided funding of £3.884 billion to local authorities for their public health duty, through the Public Health Grant. This is an average 6.1% cash increase, or 3.4% real terms increase, compared to 2024/25.

NHS England is responsible for commissioning further specified public health services, including national immunisation and screening programmes. The 10-Year Health Plan signaled innovative approaches in these public health services, including a transformed NHS app that will be linked with screening programmes allowing individuals to receive reminders and book appointments online for breast, cervical and bowel cancer screening. Working with integrated care boards, commissioning of these services should also take account of local needs, including the different urban and rural characteristics of communities.

The 10-Year Health Plan also announced that, from 2026, we will set the expectation that every single or upper tier local authority participates in an external public health peer review exercise, on a five-year cycle, with the results directly informing local plans. These will support local government to improve public health services, including those in rural areas, through sharing innovations and adopting best practices.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what action is being taken to improve food security in South Shropshire constituency and the West Midlands.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Food security is monitored via the UK Food Security Report, produced every three years (most recently December 2024). This gives an international, national, and household food security assessment. Additionally, we will be publishing an annual food security digest report in the years in between.

The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. Imports supplements domestic production, helping manage seasonality and ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what action is being taken to support SEND transport costs in South Shropshire constituency.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Central government funding for home-to-school travel is provided through the Local Government Finance Settlement which is administered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Settlement for the 2025/26 financial year makes available over £69 billion for local government, a 6.8% cash terms increase in Core Spending Power on 2024/25.

To put local government on the road to financial sustainability, the government recently consulted on funding reforms, including a bespoke relative needs formula for home-to-school transport. The consultation response was published here on 20 November:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-fair-funding-review-20.

Challenges in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system are creating pressure on home-to-school travel. We have committed to reform the SEND system to enable more children to thrive in local mainstream settings. These reforms will be set out in a Schools White Paper early in the new year.

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 increase the number of community diagnostic hubs in South Shropshire constituency.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are delivering additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England, providing patients with a co-ordinated set of tests in the community in as few visits as possible, to enable fast and accurate diagnoses

CDCs help to separate urgent and elective care, providing additional capacity in the community and relieving pressure on hospitals.

As of September 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks on 170 sites across the country and have delivered over 9.4 million tests, checks and scans, including large, standard, and hub and spoke models, since July 2024.

The Elective Reform Plan sets out that the Government will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new CDCs. The locations of both new and expanded CDC schemes will be confirmed in due course. This is funded as part of the £600 million of capital investment for diagnostics in 2025/26, which my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out in the June 2025 statement.

There are no CDCs in the South Shropshire constituency. However, there is a CDC in Telford, the Shropshire CDC. Constituents may also have access to diagnostic services at the Royal Shrewsbury and Robert and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospitals. Diagnostic services are also available in the community hospitals run by the Shrewsbury Community Health NHS Trust in Bridgnorth, Ludlow, and Whitchurch, as well as the health centre in Oswestry.

CDCs, even if not local to a constituent, will add capacity to the wider integrated care system. They, therefore, benefit more than just those patients immediately close to them.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what action is being taken to increase scam awareness in rural communities.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Whilst it is vital we continue to target the criminals behind fraud and make it harder for them to operate, we want to increase awareness across all communities to help people.

We are working with City of London Police (CoLP) to support their coordination of the Fraud Protect Network. The network is made up of local, regional and national law enforcement officers and is designed to reduce the threat of fraud and revictimisation by providing consistent protect messaging and safeguarding advice to the public, including those in rural communities.

Additionally, the Government has continued to fund the national ‘Stop! Think Fraud’ awareness campaign to equip the public with useful protective behaviours against fraud. The campaign, and supporting website, make it easier for the public to recognise fraud and take steps to protect themselves, their family and friends.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of increases in the cost of shotgun licences on funding for youth activities.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

On 5 February 2025, increased fees came into effect to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications processed by police forces. This was the first increase in fees for 10 years and we intend to undertake more regular reviews in the future.

The need to increase firearms licensing fees to help address shortcomings in firearms licensing was highlighted by the Senior Coroner in his Preventing Future Deaths reports into the fatal shootings in Plymouth in August 2021.

It is important that the additional revenue from firearms licensing fees is used to support improvements in police force firearms licensing teams, and my predecessor, Dame Diana Johnson MP, wrote to all Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to make clear that the increased fees must be used for this purpose.

Whilst the Government’s manifesto commitment referred to the money raised by full cost recovery fees being used to support youth interventions to prevent serious violence, it was decided instead ahead of the February 2025 increase to fees, that firearms fees income must be retained by police forces to support improvements in police firearms licensing.

Found: Stuart Anderson: Thank you for the invitation to be here today.