Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 impact of Resident Doctor strikes on the delivery of healthcare services in Lancashire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made a formal assessment of the potential impact of resident doctor strikes on the delivery of healthcare services in Lancashire specifically.
The National Health Service makes every effort through rigorous contingency planning to minimise disruption as a result of industrial action and to mitigate its impact on patients and the public. During the industrial action by resident doctors from 14 to 19 November 2025, data published by NHS England showed that the NHS met its ambitious goal to maintain 95% of planned care, surpassing the 93% protected during action in July, while still maintaining critical services, including maternity services and urgent cancer care. All hospitals are asked to do a pre-assessment ahead of strike action.
To minimise the potential impact of the next round of resident doctor strike action, planned for 17 to 22 December, NHS England wrote to all trusts on 15 December asking them to prepare for planned industrial action. This includes conducting risk assessments and collecting data to estimate the impact on elective care. This letter is available at the following link:
Asked by: Maya Ellis (Labour - Ribble Valley)
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 reduce gynaecology waiting lists in Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing waiting lists is a key part of the Government’s Health Mission, and we are committed to cutting waiting times across all specialities and integrated care boards (ICBs). We have committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment, by March 2029. We are making good progress, with waiting lists cut by over 230,000 since the Government came into office, including nearly 14,000 fewer waits for gynaecology treatment.
We also delivered 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025, exceeding our pledge of two million. However, we know that there is more to do and have confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment to expand capacity across diagnostics, electives, and urgent care. This includes expanding the number of surgical hubs, which provide valuable and protected capacity across elective specialities, including gynaecology. As of November 2025, there are 123 operational elective surgical hubs in England, three of which are in the NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB. Over half of the 123 provide gynaecology services. The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, also committed to:
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 reduce transmission of influenza in Lancashire.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our flu vaccination campaign started in September, and is helping to keep people out of hospital.
The UK Health Security Agency is also working closely with colleagues in NHS North West and local integrated care boards (ICBs). There continues to be sustained multi-agency communications and marketing across the localised area and work is ongoing to promote and amplify prevention measures. Work continues to encourage prevention through targeted communications using local data to both the public and stakeholders whilst work is ongoing, as in every winter season, to show trends locally to allow the local health family to act accordingly via shared data and intelligence.
The ICB has stepped up public messaging around getting the flu vaccine for eligible groups and the importance of choosing the right service. This has included promoting a bespoke winter campaign in the local area as well as press releases, social media, and broadcast interviews at a local and regional level.
Some local hospitals have made it mandatory for staff to wear a surgical mask in any areas with suspected or confirmed influenza patients, and those patients who are suspected as having influenza on triage may also be asked to wear a mask. Masks are also available to patients and relatives in waiting areas.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many families (i) in Fylde and (ii) across Lancashire are expected to receive the additional £736.06 per child in childcare support as a result of changes to universal credit rules.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is not readily available and to provide it would be at disproportionate cost.
The monthly statistics for the number of Children in households on Universal Credit in Great Britain by Parliamentary Constituency and Local Authority are published quarterly on Stat-Xplore(opens in a new tab).
Universal Credit statistics are available from August 2015 to August 2025 in the Households on Universal Credit(opens in a new tab) dataset.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance(opens in a new tab) on how to extract the information required. There is also a Universal Credit Official Statistics: Stat-Xplore user guide(opens in a new tab)
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children (i) in Fylde and (ii) across Lancashire are expected to benefit from the increased Early Years Pupil Premium.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
On the 15 December we announced the local authority funding rates for 2026/2027. From April 2026, the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) will be increased by an additional 15% to £1.15 an hour, equivalent to up to £655 a year. Statistics at a parliamentary constituency level are not readily available, but in January 2025 there were 3,149 children in Lancashire who received EYPP. Figures for children in receipt of the early years pupil premium in Lancashire from 2018 to 2025 can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/dd3e2106-cef2-4e89-49e4-08de398c3998.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of hospital admissions due to acute influenza across Lancashire; and how this compares to the same period last year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on hospital admissions due to flu at a county level is not published. Between 25 November and 7 December 2025, there was a daily average of 346 adult general and acute beds occupied by flu patients in acute trusts in the North West. This was higher than over the same period last year when there was a daily average of 142 adult general and acute beds occupied by flu patients.
NHS England began publication of Winter Situation Reports, which includes flu-specific bed occupancy at a regional level, from 24 November 2025 and from 25 November in 2024. These figures are published in the NHS England Winter Situation Reports, which are available at the following link:
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with regional leaders on supporting tourism growth outside London.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
DCMS is committed to ensuring that tourism contributes to growth and jobs across all parts of the country and particularly in coastal areas including Fylde, home to attractions including Lytham St Annes and the historic Lytham Hall.
A number of regional leaders are represented in the joint industry and Government-led Visitor Economy Advisory Council, which I co-chair. In this way, the views of regional leaders help to inform and shape Government policy. The Council is also helping to deliver the forthcoming sector growth plan which will set out a long term plan to increase visitor flows across the UK, boost value, and deliver sustainable growth.
The Lancashire Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP), which includes the constituency of Fylde, works collaboratively with both local authority and private sector partners to communicate investment opportunities and to showcase Lancashire’s strengths as a place to live, work, study and invest in, as well as a premier destination for visitors.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many houses are planned to be built in the next five years in (1) Devon, (2) Essex, (3) Kent, (4) Lancashire, (5) Lincolnshire, and (6) Yorkshire.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My Department does not hold this information as we do not forecast or project housing delivery for individual local authorities.
In December 2024 we implemented a new standard method for assessing local housing needs which aligns with the Government’s ambition for 1.5 million new homes over this parliament, and that better directs new homes to where they are most needed and least affordable.
Alongside the revised method, we published indicative local housing need figures, both for local authorities and regions, which can be found (attached) on gov.uk here.
The Government expects each local planning authority to use the revised standard method to assess local housing needs to inform plan-making. Once an assessment has been made, local authorities should take into account land availability, environmental constraints such as National Landscapes, and other relevant matters, to determine how much of the assessed housing need can be met.
Local authorities are required to adopt appropriate policies in their Local Plans to support delivery of the number, type and tenure of homes needed in their area over the lifetime of the Plan.
Our planning practice guidance on housing and economic needs assessment can be found (attached) on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many BSL-interpreters were provided at the outset for patients seeking healthcare treatment in (a) Preston, (b) Lancashire and (c) England over the last 12 months.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, which includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language interpreters to support deaf patients in the community.
On 30 June 2025, a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the National Health Service are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using these services.
The AIS implementation guidance outlines support for people with hearing loss, and is available at the following link:
NHS England is rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag which enables the recording of key information about a patient and their adjustment needs, to ensure support can be tailored appropriately.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of special areas of conservation in each county in England are in a favourable condition.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The table below sets out the percentage of terrestrial special areas of consideration (SAC) feature area in each county assessed as being in favourable condition as of October 2025.
Four counties have no SAC features recorded within their boundaries and are therefore not listed in the table: Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Rutland, and the City of London.
County | % of SAC features in favourable condition |
Berkshire | 66.0% |
Bristol | 3.3% |
Buckinghamshire | 56.1% |
Cambridgeshire | 45.1% |
Cheshire | 4.1% |
Cornwall | 27.9% |
Cumbria | 28.1% |
Derbyshire | 18.9% |
Devon | 37.5% |
Dorset | 40.0% |
Durham | 25.6% |
East Riding of Yorkshire | 46.7% |
East Sussex | 35.8% |
Essex | 26.3% |
Gloucestershire | 20.4% |
Greater London | 52.3% |
Greater Manchester | 2.9% |
Hampshire | 37.5% |
Herefordshire | 12.0% |
Hertfordshire | 81.9% |
Isle of Wight | 31.7% |
Kent | 49.0% |
Lancashire | 27.3% |
Leicestershire | 0.0% |
Lincolnshire | 47.5% |
Merseyside | 0.0% |
Norfolk | 27.6% |
North Yorkshire | 37.7% |
Northumberland | 30.8% |
Nottinghamshire | 0.0% |
Oxfordshire | 83.9% |
Shropshire | 4.7% |
Somerset | 27.7% |
South Yorkshire | 2.4% |
Staffordshire | 15.5% |
Suffolk | 41.8% |
Surrey | 69.9% |
Tyne & Wear | 12.5% |
Warwickshire | 100.0% |
West Midlands | 20.6% |
West Sussex | 35.9% |
West Yorkshire | 2.5% |
Wiltshire | 37.6% |
Worcestershire | 50.0% |