Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the ecological and environmental damage caused by the collision between two ships in the North Sea on 10 March.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra worked with multiple organisations, including the Centre of Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). Cefas’s Premiam Monitoring Coordination Cell (PMCC) was set up immediately following this incident. This cell implements post-incident monitoring to assess the impacts of marine pollution incidents and as part of this, shellfish (seafood) and seawater samples were collected in the days and weeks following the incident. The analysis from these samples has indicated that there were no significant adverse ecological or environmental impacts due to fuel or chemicals released from either vessel, or during the response to the incident.
Plastic nurdles and burned debris washed ashore along the Lincolnshire and North Norfolk coast following the incident. Large quantities of plastic pollution and debris were recovered from the shoreline and the sea. Work is still ongoing regarding this, with Environment Agency staff regularly visiting affected sites to assess and if necessary, remove newly visible pollution.
The PMCC has now been stood down, but the impacts of this incident are continuously monitored as part of routine ongoing water and environmental sampling in the area.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to bring forward reforms to improve NHS efficiency.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The merger of NHS England and the Department will lead to a smaller, leaner and more agile department. Alongside this, the restructuring of integrated care systems and commissioning support units is set to reduce running costs and NHS England is also tackling corporate cost growth in providers. These ongoing reforms will transform the way the centre and the National Health service works, prioritise resources for the front line and deliver significant efficiency savings. NHS efficiencies also include more effective use of medicines, commercial levers, automation, shared corporate services and reduced use of agency staff.
Looking forward, the funding provided at the recent Spending Review will enable the NHS to achieve 2% productivity growth each year, and we will shortly be publishing the 10-Year Health Plan that will set out the wider reform agenda.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to procure a land cruise missile.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Strategic Defence Review signifies a landmark shift in our deterrence and defence: moving to warfighting readiness to deter threats and strengthen security in the Euro-Atlantic. Through the Strategic Defence Review, the UK’s defence and deterrence is being bolstered with 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons and a new £1.5 billion Government investment in munitions and energetics factories.
Complex weapons, of which cruise missiles are one option, are a necessary part of our warfighting and deterrence. The exact laydown of our complex weapons capability mix is confidential, and it would be inappropriate to comment outside of information that will be included in the Defence Investment Plan.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on the refit of HMS Dragon.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
HMS Dragon has completed her Power Improvement Project (PIP) upkeep, which includes installation of three new diesel generators, an additional high voltage switchboard and broader control system dependencies.
HMS Dragon has returned to the Fleet having achieved Materiel Assessment Inspection on 1 May 2025.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce shop theft in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level, up 20% on year up to December 2024. We will not stand for this.
We are providing £5 million over the next three years to continue to fund a specialist analysis team within Opal, the National Policing Intelligence Unit for serious organised acquisitive crime, to crack down on the organised gangs targeting retailers.
We are also investing £2 million over the next three years in the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) which provides a resource for both police and businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime.
Via the Crime and Policing Bill we will repeal the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, which means it can only be tried a magistrate’s court. This will send a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously. Also included in the Bill is a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.
I chair the Retail Crime Forum which brings together the retail sector, security providers and law enforcement agencies to ensure we understand the needs of all retailers and to promote collaboration, share best practice and to work collectively to tackle the serious issue of retail crime. This includes the development of a new strategy to tackle shop theft published by policing, retail sector representatives and industry as part of collective efforts to combat shop theft.
The strategy builds on previous progress made by police and retailers but provides a more comprehensive and intelligence-led approach to tackle all perpetrators of shop theft – not just organised criminal gangs.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of children who will receive free school meals in (a) Preston, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West in the (i) 2024-25 and (ii) 2025-26 academic years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets, supporting parents in decisive action to improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
Providing over half a million children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds with a free, nutritious lunchtime meal every school day will also lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning children get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.
For 2024/25, the department’s data on FSM can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. To find the total number of pupils in the Preston constituency, see the ‘School level underlying data 2025 (csv, 22 Mb)’ under ‘additional supporting files’.
For 2025/26, the department has published data on the number of children who could benefit from expanded provision by constituency/region/local authority. This can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-expansion-impact-on-poverty-levels.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of children who will become eligible for free school meals following the extension to households in receipt of Universal Credit in (a) Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard constituency, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) the East of England and (d) England in the 2026-27 academic year.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets, supporting parents in decisive action to improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
Providing over half a million children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds with a free, nutritious lunchtime meal every school day will also lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning children get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.
We have published data on the number of children who could benefit from expanded provision by constituency/region/local authority and this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-expansion-impact-on-poverty-levels.
Asked by: Paul Kohler (Liberal Democrat - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of fraudulent insurance claims that have been made by people who stage road traffic collisions to gain compensation there have been in the last 12 months.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the harm caused by these types of fraudulent claims. This is why we have launched an Insurance Fraud Charter with key insurance firms to agree a series of voluntary measures to reduce fraud against the sector and consumers.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau reports that there has been 118 reports of Insurance related Fraud in the past 13 months.
Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56822 on Israel: Military Aid, if he will make it his policy to stop this training.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence keeps under careful consideration its policies on training being provided.
Fewer than five IDF personnel are currently enrolled in non-combat military academic courses in the UK.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) filled and (b) unfilled full-time equivalent roles there were in each of the NHS regional teams in (i) 2023-24, (ii) 2024-25 and (iii) 2025-26.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table sets out the full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in NHS England’s regional teams as of 30 March 2025:
Directorates / Regions | Budgeted FTE | Staff List FTE | Vacant FTE | Vacancy Rate |
Region - East of England | 804.1 | 650.2 | 153.9 | 19.10% |
Region - London | 1,032.50 | 916.7 | 115.8 | 11.20% |
Region - Midlands | 1,085.70 | 929.7 | 156.1 | 14.40% |
Region - North East & Yorkshire | 844.7 | 759.3 | 85.4 | 10.10% |
Region - North West | 756.6 | 684.7 | 71.9 | 9.50% |
Region - South East | 949.2 | 783.6 | 165.5 | 17.40% |
Region - South West | 710.3 | 621.5 | 88.8 | 12.50% |
Total | 6,183.00 | 5,345.70 | 837.3 | 13.50% |
Source: NHS England
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