Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Wednesday 15th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As my hon. Friend knows, I care deeply about the future of our community pharmacies. There are over 10,500 community pharmacies across the country and they are working incredibly hard to serve their patients. I am pleased that about 80% of people live within a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy. That is why we are backing them with Pharmacy First, with £645 million of extra funding, whereby people can now go to see their pharmacist, rather than their GP, to get treatments for the seven most common ailments, such as ear infections and the like. Not only will that ensure that they can get treatments closer to home, but it will help to deliver our plan to cut waiting lists and get people the care they need more quickly.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

Q10. Three North Tyneside schools have been identified as having a structural problem—not reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete—and hundreds of pupils are now being taught off site. The costs of putting those schools right significantly outweigh the £3.5 million school condition allocation funding for all of North Tyneside. Will the Prime Minister ensure that the Department for Education applies this policy: if it is alerted to significant issues with a building that cannot be managed with local resources, it will provide additional support on a case-by-case basis?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising the case. As she knows, the Department for Education has provided extensive support and funding to all those schools that have RAAC, which in the end was less than 1% of all schools that could have been affected. More generally, there is the very significant amount we are investing in school rebuilding and maintenance. I am sure the Education Secretary will have heard her concerns and will write to her in due course.