Asked by: Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat - Hazel Grove)
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 reimburse or provide financial support to families of dementia patients who are required to pay for care while local authorities consider their applications for support.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are responsible for assessing individuals’ care and support needs and, where eligible, for meeting those needs, as set out in the Care Act 2014.
The Care and Support Statutory Guidance states that “an assessment should be carried out over an appropriate and reasonable timescale taking into account the urgency of needs and a consideration of any fluctuation in those needs”. In addition, under Section 19 of the Care Act 2014, local authorities have powers to meet urgent needs for care and support without first carrying out a needs assessment or financial assessment.
There is no legal entitlement to reimbursement for care costs incurred prior to a local authority decision.
Individuals who are concerned about delays or decisions may raise these through local authority complaints processes or with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of adults with a learning disability in England have a regular annual health check by a GP.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data relating to what proportion of adults with a learning disability in England have a regular annual health check with a general practitioner.
NHS England is required to offer to all primary medical services contractors the opportunity to enter into arrangements under the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Services (DES) Scheme. Integrated care boards (ICBs), as commissioners of primary care services, are responsible for ensuring that there is sufficient provision of these services to meet the needs of their patient population.
As part of the Network Contract DES Learning Disabilities Health Check Scheme, primary services contractors are required to identify registered patients aged 14 years old or over who have learning disabilities and to record this on a learning disabilities register. Contractors are required to offer annual health checks to these patients.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 potential merits of commissioning a national framework mandating ICBs to commission NHS community audiology services on a self-referral basis that include wax removal.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory responsibility to commission cost-effective healthcare to meet the needs of their local population. This includes the arrangement of services for ear wax removal.
The current availability of self-referral and direct access to audiology services depends on local commissioning arrangements and service protocols, including ICB commissioning. Currently, self-referral to audiology services is usually for those with age related hearing loss.
NHS England is working with ICBs to support greater standardisation of self-referral arrangements and to assess opportunities to bring more of the self-referral process into the NHS App and website in future where appropriate.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in devising the workforce plan, if he will include palliative care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it. We are working through how the plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of taking legislative steps to require the (a) resignation, (b) retirement and (b) suspension of Chief Constables on performance grounds.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
As the Home Secretary said to the House on 14 January, when a Chief Constable is responsible for a damaging failure of leadership, the public rightly expect the Home Secretary to act.
This Government intends to restore their ability to do so and will soon reintroduce the Home Secretary’s power to dismiss Chief Constables.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions his Department has had with the Scottish Government on community benefit expectations for renewable energy developments, including the real-terms value of the £5,000 per installed megawatt per year figure referenced in Scottish Government guidance published in 2014.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As the government explores options for community benefits, we have engaged with stakeholders across Great Britain, including the Scottish and Welsh Governments.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
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 since the publication of the working paper Community benefits and shared ownership for low carbon energy infrastructure on 21 May 2025.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government is in the process of reviewing responses and intends to publish a response setting out our next steps in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
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 9 January 2026 to Question 78391 on Dentistry: Recruitment, whether he plans to publish in 2026 or 2027.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Golden Hello data will be published in 2026 and will consist of data showing the regional distribution of the original allocation of posts and the number of posts recruited to at both a national and regional level.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Scottish Government on its public consultation on Community Benefits which ended in April 2025.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government engages regularly with the Scottish Government regarding community benefits.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how practices will be supported with increases in levels of workload arising from private sector activity, including ADHD, gender affirming care and weight management prescribing.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practice (GP) to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, which is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP Contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole.
Since October 2024, we have funded primary care networks with an additional £160 million to recruit recently qualified GPs through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. Over 2,600 individual GPs have now been recruited, preventing them from graduating into unemployment. We have committed to training thousands more GPs across the country which will increase capacity and take the pressure off those currently working in the system.
The Government is committed to ensuring the GP workforce is sustainable, supported, and valued for the work they do. Good staff experience is crucial in ensuring the NHS is able to recruit and retain staff and its importance is recognised and illustrated in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan. In the spring we will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan, which will set out how we will deliver change to ensure that staff will be better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles, and hope for the future, so they can achieve more.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence produces evidence-based guidance for health and care practitioners on best practice for a variety of conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. NHS England has also published service specifications that describe how clinical and medical care is offered to people with gender dysphoria.
GPs have access to a range of support from their integrated care boards and NHS England has developed a suite of implementation materials, delivery guidance and protocols, and has provided access to training resources to help GPs with weight management prescribing.