Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps are being taken to promote social inclusion for pensioners in rural areas.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to supporting people to have the social connections they need. This is a key part of achieving wider government priorities across health and community cohesion.
The Government funds the Tackling Loneliness Hub, an online forum for people working on loneliness to come together and share insights, research and best practice, with the aim of addressing loneliness and strengthening social connections across our communities.
Defra also funds Action with Communities in Rural England to support local action, which includes actions related to social inclusion activities with older people.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has taken place on the post covid trends in levels of concessionary bus travel among pensioners and disabled people; and its impact on health, loneliness and social isolation.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport’s concessionary travel statistics show that there were 624 million older and disabled concessionary bus journeys in England in the year ending March 2025, an increase of 4% compared with the year ending March 2024. While this is still below pre-COVID levels, concessionary bus journeys have been increasing year-on-year since the pandemic.
The Government recognises the importance of local bus services in keeping communities connected, including for concessionary bus passengers. The Government is taking action to help improve local bus services across the country. We have introduced the Bus Services Act 2025 to put the power over local bus services back into the hands of local leaders. The Act also includes measures to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of bus networks.
In addition, the Government has confirmed over £1 billion for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. Greater Manchester Combined Authority have been allocated £66.4 million of this funding. Funding allocated to local authorities to improve services can be used in whichever way they wish to deliver better services for passengers, this could include expanding services and improving reliability, which are currently significant obstacles for too many people.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to use generative AI to combat loneliness, in particular among the elderly.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government does not currently have plans to use generative AI to combat loneliness among the elderly. However, we recognise the importance of using innovative approaches to tackle loneliness. The government-funded Tackling Loneliness Hub recently published this blog; https://tacklinglonelinesshub.org/health-innovation-to-human-connection/ on health innovation and the role of AI in strengthening social connection, and hosts a range of events for members to learn about novel approaches to this issue.
This Government is committed to supporting people at risk of loneliness, including the elderly, to have the social connections they need. Our ambition to strengthen positive social connections is a key part of achieving wider government objectives to create a healthier society and more connected communities across all ages. My department has been working hard to ensure social connection and loneliness are embedded in government policy making, including the recently published Pride in Place strategy, and the upcoming Men’s Health Strategy and National Youth Strategy.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the terms of reference are for the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund; and over which years that funding will be allocated.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund was launched in January 2023 as an up to £30 million package of funding designed to widen participation in volunteering and tackle loneliness in 27 disadvantaged areas across England. This funding supported people living in disadvantaged areas to connect with others in their community and engage in volunteering, with the aim of improving wellbeing and pride in local areas.
In April 2025, the KYN Fund was extended until March 2026, with an additional up to £4.5 million of government funding. This funding will uplift existing grant awards to organisations in the 27 eligible delivery areas that had previously received KYN funding between 2022 and 2025, to enable them to continue delivery up until March 2026. It will build upon the original KYN objectives with funded projects also aimed at reducing loneliness stigma and building community cohesion.
The objectives of the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund are, by March 2026:
To increase the proportion of people in targeted high-deprivation local authorities who volunteer at least once a month.
To reduce the proportion of chronically lonely people in targeted high-deprivation local authorities who lack desired level of social connections.
To build the evidence to identify scalable and sustainable place-based interventions that work in increasing regular volunteering and reducing chronic loneliness.
To enable targeted high-deprivation local authorities, and the local voluntary and community sector in these places, to implement sustainable systems and processes that encourage volunteering and tackling loneliness.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans her Department has to update the loneliness strategy in the context of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting people to have the social connections they need. Our ambition to strengthen social connection is a key part of achieving wider government work to create a healthier society, more connected communities and support young people. My department has been working hard to ensure social connection and loneliness are embedded in all government policy making, including the recently published Pride in Place strategy, the upcoming Men’s Health Strategy and National Youth Strategy.
In addition we are funding a project to develop the Tackling Loneliness Hub, which was set up to provide a forum for people working on loneliness to come together and share insights, research and best practice. My officials are exploring how the Hub can be made more accessible to the full range of people who work on loneliness, from healthcare professionals to volunteers, sports coaches to youth workers, researchers to policy makers.
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 criteria her Department used to select the delivery areas for the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund; and how often the list of delivery areas is reviewed.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund was launched in January 2023 as an up to £30 million package of funding designed to widen participation in volunteering and tackle loneliness in 27 disadvantaged areas across England. In April 2025, the KYN Fund was extended until March 2026, with an additional up to £4.5m of government funding.
The list of 27 areas eligible for KYN funding was identified using the English Index of Multiple Deprivation and the Community Needs Index. To ensure a balanced distribution between area types, the nine highest-need local authorities were selected from each of the three categories: large urban areas, medium urban areas, and rural and small urban areas. Further information on the selection methodology is publicly available on gov.uk under Annex A of the application guidance for the ‘KYN Fund Intermediary Grant Maker Competition’.
The Department does not review the list of KYN Fund delivery areas at specific intervals. This is because organisations within the delivery areas were eligible for funding until the original Fund end date (31 March 2025). In April 2025, the Fund was extended until March 2026, specifically making available uplifts to existing grant awards to organisations in the original 27 eligible delivery areas that had previously received KYN funding between 2022 and 2025.
We recognise that we are unable to reach every area in need of support with a fund of this size. A key objective of the Fund, therefore, is learning about what works in these areas. An evaluation of the Fund will therefore be published in due course.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of houses in multiple occupation on levels of (a) loneliness and (b) mental health issues in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has no plans to make such an assessment. We will keep the regulation of HMOs under review.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to strengthen retrospective rural-proofing of her Department's policies.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department keeps the impact of its policies on rural communities up and down the country under continual review and has strengthened retrospective rural-proofing in three ways.
Firstly our Transport Appraisal framework is rigorous and provides structured guidance during the appraisal process. It ensures that local context is effectively captured and that place-based analysis is appropriately conducted, including within rural communities.
Secondly, the Department consistently considers the distributional impacts of its policies through the application of equalities impact assessments. These assessments include a thorough review of potential differential impacts on communities including rural communities, ensuring that Ministers are fully informed when making policy decisions.
Thirdly, we are commissioning and publishing independent evaluations of programmes with significant rural reach- such as Demand Responsive Transport pilots funded through the Rural Mobility Fund and the Tackling Loneliness with Transport pilots - and will publish further evaluation outputs in the coming months to inform future policy and guidance.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of burnout among unpaid carers in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities have duties to support unpaid carers and are required to deliver sustainable, high-quality care and support services. The Government’s Better Care Fund provides support to unpaid carers, including short breaks and respite services.
The Department regularly engages with local authorities, including Surrey County Council, on matters relating to unpaid carers and wider social care issues. According to data from NHS Digital, in 2023/24, Surrey County Council supported 760, or 19%, of unpaid carers through respite or other forms of carer support delivered to the cared-for person. We do not hold data to assess trends in the level of burnout among unpaid carers in the Surrey Heath constituency.
Independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research suggests that high intensity unpaid care is associated with an increased likelihood of poorer outcomes, including loneliness and social isolation, when compared to people who do not provide unpaid care. The severity of these outcomes differs based on factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity.
The Office for National Statistics has estimated, using the 2021 Census and adjusting for age, that the proportion of residents of the Surrey Heath Borough District providing unpaid care is slightly lower than in the Southeast region or England as a whole. This is especially true for the proportion of residents providing higher levels of unpaid care.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of levels of access to respite care for unpaid carers in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities have duties to support unpaid carers and are required to deliver sustainable, high-quality care and support services. The Government’s Better Care Fund provides support to unpaid carers, including short breaks and respite services.
The Department regularly engages with local authorities, including Surrey County Council, on matters relating to unpaid carers and wider social care issues. According to data from NHS Digital, in 2023/24, Surrey County Council supported 760, or 19%, of unpaid carers through respite or other forms of carer support delivered to the cared-for person. We do not hold data to assess trends in the level of burnout among unpaid carers in the Surrey Heath constituency.
Independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research suggests that high intensity unpaid care is associated with an increased likelihood of poorer outcomes, including loneliness and social isolation, when compared to people who do not provide unpaid care. The severity of these outcomes differs based on factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity.
The Office for National Statistics has estimated, using the 2021 Census and adjusting for age, that the proportion of residents of the Surrey Heath Borough District providing unpaid care is slightly lower than in the Southeast region or England as a whole. This is especially true for the proportion of residents providing higher levels of unpaid care.