Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people died from conditions related to obesity in England in each year since 2021.

Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Questions of 6th January is attached.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people died from alcoholism in England in each year since 2021.

Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Questions of 6th January is attached.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many deaths there were from cardiovascular causes in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East, (g) South West, (h) West Midlands, (i) Yorkshire and the Humber and (j) England in each year since 2021 for which figures are available.

Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Questions of 6th January is attached.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans are in place for periods of water shortage and supply outages.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In England and Wales, The Security and Emergency Measures Direction 2022 (SEMD) is the main legislative framework specific to water companies for emergency planning. It requires water companies to ensure continuation of their water distribution functions during an emergency. Separate arrangements apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Companies are required under the SEMD framework to plan for a wide range of disruptive scenarios, including continuous monitoring of risks such as severe winter weather. In addition to SEMD requirements, companies are also incentivised under Ofwat’s performance targets regime to minimise supply interruptions and resulting customer impacts. The Drinking Water Inspectorate regulates water company performance on SEMD performance.

Water companies are also Category Two Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and have duties to plan for emergencies and cooperate with other organisations in their Local Resilience Forums in understanding risk, planning and exercising.

Defra maintains regular strategic engagement with water companies on resilience planning. This includes in advance of forecast periods of severe weather. Water companies also engage with their Local Resilience Forums during responses to water outages.

Defra undertakes strategic risk assessment, planning and engagement with the water sector and other government departments to regarding water outage risk.

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 number of people leaving the agricultural sector.

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

Defra produces statistical estimates of the number of people working on commercial [see a below] agricultural holdings in England. Defra does not monitor the numbers leaving and entering the sector separately, therefore estimates show the net change in the workforce.

Estimates in the table below show a decrease of 1.9% in the agricultural workforce in England between June 2024 and 2025.

Agricultural workforce in England at 1 June:

Notes

(a) Commercial holdings are those registered with the Rural Payments Agency for payments or livestock purposes and with significant levels of farming activity.

Full data series for England and the UK are published here:

Agricultural workforce in England at 1 June - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Agricultural Workforce in the United Kingdom at 1 June - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of the Department's budget is allocated to work on flood defences and mitigation.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Delivering on the Plan for Change, this government is investing at least £10.5 billion until 2036 to construct new flood schemes and repair existing defences, protecting communities from the devastating impacts of climate change.

The proportion of Defra Group’s total budget allocated to Floods in 2025/26 is 20%. This remains the second largest area of the Defra Group budget.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Department is taking to help tackle water scarcity.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government recognises the importance of having enough water through the Environment Improvement Plan – ‘Goal 3: Water - We will ensure English waters are clean, resilient and plentiful.’ Within this plan, there are stretching targets to reduce demand for water.

The Government is playing its part by introducing a new mandatory water efficiency label and reviewing building standards to help people use a little less water.

In addition, water companies are required to publish water resources management plans (WRMP) that set out how the companies will provide secure public water supplies for a 25-year period. The recently published 2024 WRMPs set out how water supplies would be maintained over the coming years through demand management, leakage reduction and enhancing supplies from river and groundwater sources in the time period before new strategic sources of water, such as large reservoirs, come online.

The Environment Agency (EA) published the National Framework for Water Resources in June 2025, which sets out the current and future pressures on water resources and the main actions needed across government, regulators, regional groups, water companies and all sectors of use to address the challenge of water scarcity. This includes the need for joined-up planning between different water-using sectors to identify collaborative solutions for water resources.

The EA is carrying this work forward, with a programme of resilience workstreams across sectors, including for public water supply, agriculture, energy, and data centres.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress his Department has made in implementing the advice in Table 1 on numbered page 19 of the Climate Change Committee’s report titled ‘Biomass in a low carbon economy’ (November 2018).

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The department’s schemes support biomass installations only in rural areas and if additional eligibility criteria are met.

New ecodesign standards setting higher minimum efficiency standards for solid fuel space heaters, including wood burning stoves, have been in force since 2022.

The government is also consulting on alternative heating solutions, including solid biomass, to gather evidence on the role they could play in ensuring every household has a low-carbon option that is right for them. The consultation runs until 10 February

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with ‘Heating, ventilation and air conditioning’ (HVAC) professionals and facilities managers to understand how they reduce air pollution in dwellings and non-domestic buildings while minimising energy use and heat loss.

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

The Department and the UK Health Security Agency engage with a range of stakeholders on ways to reduce the health impacts of both indoor and outdoor air pollution.

This includes engagement by officials with relevant bodies in the United Kingdom and internationally, such as the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers and the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre, which operates under the International Energy Agency, on issues related to indoor air quality, including ventilation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people died from smoking in England in each year since 2021.

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

The latest estimates for smoking-attributable mortality in England are for the period 2017 to 2019. The Smoking Profile, produced by the Department, reports 191,903 smoking-attributable deaths of people aged 35 years old and over in the period 2017 to 2019 in England, which is just under 64,000 deaths each year. Further information on the Smoking Profile is available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/tobacco-control/data#page/1/gid/1938132887/pat/159/par/K02000001/ati/15/are/E92000001/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will update the Health and Technical Memorandum 03-01 for the latest technical standards.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Published guidance on ventilation in healthcare settings includes the Health Technical Memorandum 03-01: Specialised ventilation for healthcare premises. It gives comprehensive advice and guidance on the legal requirements, design implications, maintenance, and operation of specialised ventilation in healthcare premises providing acute care. Further information is avaiable at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/specialised-ventilation-for-healthcare-buildings/

NHS England will update Health Technical Memorandums, including HTM 03-01, when necessary.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which public health factors created the 10 largest direct cost impacts on the NHS in 2024; and how much the NHS spent in 2024 on tackling the health impacts of the following public health factors: (a) air pollution, (b) alcoholism, (c) obesity, (d) excessive salt consumption and (e) smoking.

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

Global Burden of Disease data considers the top ten public health factors in the United Kingdom in 2023 in order of importance to be: tobacco, high body mass index, dietary risks, high fasting plasma glucose, high blood pressure, high alcohol use, high cholesterol, occupational risks, kidney dysfunction, and drug use. Further information on the Global Burden of Disease data is available at the following link:

https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-compare/

The following table shows the various estimates of the cost to the National Health Service of the five factors specified:

Comparisons of costs should not be made between these estimates because of the different methodologies used in their construction.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding farmers are offered for flood management.

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

The Government is funding environmental land management (ELM) schemes, which include measures to support farmers with managing flood risks or investing in natural flood management. The Government has committed to investing £11.8 billion in the farming budget over the course of this Parliament, with funding for ELM increasing from £800 million in 2023/24 to £2 billion by 2028/29.

Data on the uptake and spend on individual actions in these schemes is regularly published and available at: Agri-environment scheme uptake data - GOV.UK

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 May 2023 to Question 183643 on Public Health, what methodologies were used to estimate the costs to the NHS for each of the five risk factors specified.

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

The applicable methodologies for the National Health Service cost attributed to each of the risk factors outlined are explained in the following reports.

The estimated air pollution related costs to the NHS can be found in the Public Health England report ‘Estimation of costs to the NHS and social care due to the health impacts of air pollution: summary report’ , from 2018, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-pollution-a-tool-to-estimate-healthcare-costs

An estimate of the NHS and healthcare costs of alcohol from 2021/22, produced by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, can be found at the following link:

https://www.ias.org.uk/factsheet/economy/

Estimated obesity related costs to the NHS can be found in the Frontier Economics report for NESTA, published in July 2025, ‘The Economic and Productivity Costs of Obesity and Overweight in the UK’, which is available at the following link:

https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/The_economic_and_productivity_costs_of_obesity_and_overweight_in_the_UK_.pdf

Estimated Hypertension related costs to the NHS can be found in the Optimity Matrix Cost-effectiveness review of blood pressure interventions, ‘A Report to the Blood Pressure System Leadership Board’, published November 2014, available at the following link:

https://cleanair.london/app/uploads/vdocuments.site_cost-effectiveness-review-of-blood-pressure-cost-effectiveness-review-of-blood.pdf

The most recent estimated smoking related costs to the NHS can be found in the press release, ‘New figures show cost of smoking to society in England dwarfs tobacco tax revenue’. This is available at the following link:

https://ash.org.uk/media-centre/news/press-releases/new-figures-show-cost-of-smoking-to-society-in-england-dwarfs-tobacco-tax-revenue

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the flooding risk to farms; and what percentage of farms are at high flood risk.

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

Our new national flood risk assessment (NaFRA) shows that of the 85,000 square kilometres of agricultural land in England, over 11,000 square kilometres is in areas at risk of flooding from rivers and sea.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of expanding flooding support eligibility for farmers.

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

The Government is funding environmental land management (ELM) schemes, which include measures to support farmers with managing flood risks or investing in natural flood management. The Government has committed to investing £11.8 billion in the farming budget over the course of this Parliament, with funding for ELM increasing from £800 million in 2023/24 to £2 billion by 2028/29.

Data on the uptake and spend on individual actions in these schemes is regularly published and available at: Agri-environment scheme uptake data - GOV.UK

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 allow NHS professionals to view the health records of ex-military patients from their time in military service.

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

The Defence Medical Services (DMS) provide primary healthcare for serving personnel. All serving personnel will have a Defence Health Record which records their healthcare through their military service, whether provided by DMS or the National Health Service.

Serving personnel are provided with a medical care summary and a patient’s full Defence Health Record are transferred on request from their NHS general practitioner (GP). These are then available to be used and viewed as part of the individual’s medical records. These would also form part of digital records available via the NHS App and held by the respective veteran patient.

To improve the transfer of healthcare information, DMS is working towards a greater interoperability with NHS systems and the electronic transfer of medical records from DMS to NHS GPs.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of closing Junction 38 of the M6 during the Lune Gorge bridge replacement works on local businesses.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

This Government, working in close partnership with National Highways, is fully committed to this project being delivered in a way that minimises disruption to road users, businesses and local communities. National Highways has undertaken assessments to understand the impact this work will have on the region including an assessment of the impact on traffic flows of the proposed traffic management arrangements. National Highways is also reviewing a detailed feasibility report of proposals for Junction 38 which was provided last year. The review is expected to conclude in January 2026.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he will instruct National Highways to meet with BWB Consulting and Kier in an engineer-to-engineer review of proposals for temporary slip roads at Junction 38 of the M6.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

National Highways has facilitated discussions between BWB Consulting and Kier engineers, including a meeting held on 17 December 2025 to review proposals for temporary slip roads at Junction 38. A further update on temporary slip roads will be provided at the Stakeholder Engagement Group meeting at the end of January 2026.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many attributable deaths there were from fine particulate matter, PM2.5, were there in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) Greater London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South East, (g) South West, (h) West Midlands, (i) Yorkshire and the Humber, and (j) England in each year since 2018 using COMEAP's latest methodology.

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

The number of deaths attributable to fine particulate air pollution (PM_2.5) is not annually calculated for each region. The current estimate of attributable deaths in the United Kingdom for 2019 was 29,000 to 43,000 deaths for adults aged 30 years old and over.

The fraction of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution is annually calculated for each region and represents the percentage of annual deaths from all causes in those aged 30 years old and over, attributed to PM_2.5. This indicator is calculated using the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants’ updated concentration-response-function, and figures for the years 2018 to 2023 are available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/public-health-outcomes-framework/data#page/4/gid/1000043/pat/15/par/E92000001/ati/6/are/E12000004/iid/93861/age/230/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1/page-options/ovw-do-0_car-do-0

Estimates for 2024 will be available later in 2026.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Department has made of the adequacy of water infrastructure investment in each of the last five years.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

There has been historic underinvestment in the water industry. Investment has not kept pace with the challenges of an ageing infrastructure system, a rapidly growing population, and climate change.

We have already announced that we will create a powerful new regulator – abolishing Ofwat and bringing together the relevant functions from the other existing regulators (the DWI, Environment Agency and Natural England) into one new body. This will ensure better join-up between infrastructure planning, investment, and delivery.

These reforms will build on the step change in investment that will be delivered through Price Review 2024, which will see a £104 billion upgrade in the water sector. This investment will accelerate improvements in infrastructure to meet the challenges of the future, secure our water supply, and to meet new environmental requirements.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the costs to the exchequer of reducing VAT for hospitality businesses to (a) 15%, (b) 10%, (c) 5% and (d) 0%.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC estimates that the cost of reducing the 20 per cent Standard Rate of VAT on all accommodation and food and beverage services would be as follows in 2026-27: (a) to 15%: £5 billion, (b) to 10%: £10.5 billion, (c) to 5%: £17 billion, (d) to 0%: £23.5 billion.

The Government recognises the significant contribution made by hospitality businesses to economic growth and social life in the UK.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when any assessment by National Highways of temporary slip roads at Junction 38 of the M6 was undertaken; and whether the findings of that assessment informed the current construction programme.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

National Highways first assessed the potential for temporary slip roads during the project’s optioneering stage in 2019. Further consideration took place during early design development, and the option was not taken forward at that time due to spatial constraints, value for money considerations, the need for significant lane and speed restrictions, and the likelihood of a costly extension to the overall construction period.

In 2025, following engagement with local stakeholders, National Highways committed to revisit this option, with a feasibility exercise carried out in August 2025. This re-considered the option of temporary slip roads. The exercise supported the conclusions during the early design phase; specifically, that temporary slip roads were unsuitable due to the space needed to construct the bridge decks, as well as representing poor value for money. During 2025, the programme has also assessed a wide range of options to improve connectivity, and this resulted in the decision to defer work on Lawtland House bridge to a future date, improving local connectivity during the construction period.

When National Highways presented their findings from the feasibility exercise, a revised construction methodology was submitted by BWB Consulting on behalf of local stakeholders in October 2025. National Highways has committed to review this proposal from BWB consulting to see if it has presented an alternative viable solution. The review will conclude in January 2026.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether National Highways undertook a detailed assessment of the potential to construct temporary slip roads to allow Junction 38 of the M6 (northbound and southbound) to remain open for the duration of the Lune Gorge bridge replacement works; and whether that assessment was completed before the current construction programme was designed and approved.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

National Highways first assessed the potential for temporary slip roads during the project’s optioneering stage in 2019. Further consideration took place during early design development, and the option was not taken forward at that time due to spatial constraints, value for money considerations, the need for significant lane and speed restrictions, and the likelihood of a costly extension to the overall construction period. The construction programme and design was then taken forward on that basis.

In 2025, following engagement with local stakeholders, National Highways committed to revisit this option, with a feasibility exercise carried out in August 2025. This re-considered the option of temporary slip roads. The exercise supported the conclusions during the early design phase; specifically, that temporary slip roads were unsuitable due to the space needed to construct the bridge decks, as well as representing poor value for money. During 2025, the programme assessed a wide range of options to improve connectivity, and resulted in the decision to defer work on Lawtland House bridge to a future date, improving local connectivity during the construction period.

When National Highways presented their findings from the feasibility exercise, a revised construction methodology was submitted by BWB Consulting on behalf of local stakeholders in October 2025. National Highways has committed to review this proposal from BWB consulting to see if it has presented an alternative viable solution. The review will conclude in January 2026.

Sustainable and Integrated Transport for Ullswater

UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons

Nuclear Regulatory Review and habitats regulations