Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the discontinuation of the Skills Bootcamps programme on (a) upskilling and (b) retraining individuals in Somerset for 2026-27 financial year.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Skills Bootcamp programme has not been discontinued.

We continue to support the delivery of Skills Bootcamps, in order to benefit more adults, employers, and the economy, and funding remains available for Skills Bootcamps in Somerset in the 2026-27 financial year.

We are giving local areas greater control of the delivery of Skills Bootcamps in line with our commitment to devolution, supporting areas to use Skills Bootcamps to more closely meet the needs of their local employers and economy.

A new funding model for local areas from 2026-27 will ensure the distribution of funding remains fit for purpose and sustainable as the programme matures.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help tackle the decline in native wild birds in (a) Yeovil constituency (b) Somerset and (c) the British Isles.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

We are committed to delivering our statutory biodiversity targets which will support the recovery and conservation of native wild birds.

At a local level, Defra has supported Somerset Council in preparing its Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which also covers the Yeovil constituency. Publication is expected shortly. The strategy will set out priorities for nature recovery and map specific proposals for habitat creation and improvement that will benefit many species including native wild birds.

Nationally, government action to restore and create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042, alongside projects funded through Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, will further support the conservation and recovery of a wide range of bird species. Within the farmland environment, Environmental Land Management schemes include actions that provide food, shelter, and nesting habitat for a range of bird species.

In addition, to support delivery of our statutory species targets, Defra is developing a detailed Threatened Bird Recovery Plan. This plan aims to improve coordination, and drive the effective delivery, of actions to recover our most threatened bird species.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce the number of drink driving incidents in Yeovil constituency.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government takes road safety very seriously and is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads.

On 7 January 2026, the Department for Transport published the Government’s Road Safety Strategy alongside an open consultation on proposed changes to penalties for motoring offences, including drink and drug driving. The consultation closes on 31 March 2026. It includes proposals to consult on lowering the drink drive limit in England and Wales, including consideration of a lower limit for novice drivers; reviewing penalties and options such as alcohol interlock devices; and considering powers to suspend the driving licence for those suspected of drink and/or drug driving pending court attendance or, where relevant, forensic analysis.

Alongside this work, the Department for Transport (DfT) is working with partners, including the National Police Chiefs Council and Police and Crime Commissioners, on operational pilots to assess opportunities for enhancing the roads policing approach to drink and drug driving. These will feed into the Roads Policing Innovation Programme announced under the Road Safety Strategy, which is scheduled to begin in 2026.

The enforcement of road traffic law and how resources are deployed locally, including in Yeovil, is an operational matter for the police.

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 adequacy of the accessibility of obtaining proof of a new hearing loss diagnosis from the NHS is for people in Yeovil constituency.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

National Health Service audiology services are locally commissioned, and the responsibility for meeting the needs of non-hearing people lies with local NHS commissioners.

NHS Somerset commissions a range of hearing loss support services, with services provided at Yeovil Hospital and Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, as well as in community hospitals for easier access, with further services provided in primary care.

In January 2026, the new community diagnostic centre at Yeovil Hospital opened and it includes audiology services.

Audiology services are provided by the Somerset Foundation Trust, which provides an ‘individual management plan’ for newly referred patients and will send letters as proof of a patient’s hearing loss or need for hearing aids.

At the Somerset Foundation Trust, there has been considerable effort in recent years to improve waiting times and access to audiology services to support patients with hearing loss. Compared to the beginning of 2023/24, the proportion of patients seen within six weeks of referral has risen by over 20%, from 68.7% to 89.1%. The number of people waiting more than six weeks has gone from over 350 to approximately 100. This means that people are receiving diagnosis and specialist input sooner.

NHS Somerset is currently in the process of bringing together a working group which comprises key people from NHS Somerset, the Somerset Foundation Trust, general practices, patients with hearing loss, and members of the public to work together to improve access to audiology services.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help reduce the number of non-essential scientific experimentations on live animals.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 25th November 2025 to Question UIN 91769 https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-11-17/91769

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the phonics screener for the early identification of dyslexia in primary schools.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

Early identification of need and support is critical to improving outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with dyslexia.

There are several assessments in place to measure progress and help teachers to identify where pupils may require additional support with literacy. These include the phonics screening check, the end of key stage 1 non-statutory assessments and the key stage 2 statutory assessments. The phonics screening check helps teachers to identify pupils who may need extra help and enables schools to benchmark their pupils against national performance. This is not specifically designed to test for dyslexia.

The English Hubs programme is dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading. Reading Ambition for All is a continuous professional development programme to support the lowest attaining children in reading, with a particular focus on those with SEND. This programme is delivered by 34 English hubs, reaching more than 600 schools, this academic year.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the social housing sector in (a) Yeovil constituency, (b) Somerset and (c) England.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 28 January 2026 (HCWS1283)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of trends in the level of administrative errors made by social housing providers when a resident transitions from Housing Credit to Universal Credit.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The verification process to assure that the correct housing amount is included in the Universal Credit Award provides opportunities for claimants to challenge the amount, should they disagree with the amount verified as correct by their Landlord/Housing Provider. This amount also features on their monthly award statement so continues to be transparent.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to help improve the efficiency of His Majesties Revenue and Customs' operations.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

As published in the Spending Review 2025 Departmental Efficiency Plans, HM Revenue and Customs will be delivering significant efficiencies of £886m per year by 2028-29 in five areas:

• moving to digital services – HMRC will use digital services as its main form of customer communication and the primary method of interaction. These services are more convenient, more productive, and more cost-effective;
• improving and modernising the IT estate – HMRC will replace its legacy IT infrastructure with modern platforms and services. Moving to modern IT platforms reduces risk, enables decommissioning of costly systems, and provides more productive digital tools for staff and customers;
• continuous improvement and productivity – HMRC has a strong track record of continuous improvement activity. Improvements in training, guidance and retention have also enabled HMRC to deliver productivity benefits;
• restructuring the physical estate – HMRC will consolidate its offices into modern regional centres, exit some sites and streamline its facilities contracts; and
• upstream compliance – HMRC aims to prevent non-compliance from happening proactively, rather than reacting when it has occurred. This prevents costly compliance and litigation, as well as closing the tax gap.

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 raise awareness amongst men in Yeovil constituency about the risks of breast cancer.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Health Service in England encourages everyone, including men in the Yeovil constituency, to check their breast and chest regularly for firm lumps, changes or thickened areas of tissue, and to consult their general practitioner straight away if they have any concerns.

To increase knowledge of cancer symptoms, and address barriers to acting on them, the NHS runs Help Us Help You campaigns. These campaigns focus on recognising a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging body awareness, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers, including breast cancer, at an earlier stage.

NHS England and other NHS organisations, nationally and locally, publish information on the signs and symptoms of many different types of cancer, including breast cancer. Further information on breast cancer symptoms in men can be found on the NHS.UK website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/breast-cancer-in-men/symptoms-of-breast-cancer-in-men/

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 people walking on (a) cancer prevention and (b) cancer recovery.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Being physically active, including walking and brisk walking, can help with the prevention and management of long-term health conditions, such as some cancers. Movement is an important part of care for people going through cancer treatment, helping to support recovery and boosting mental health and wellbeing.

The recently published National Cancer Plan is putting quality of life at the heart of cancer care, including physical activity to help patients through treatment successfully. Every patient will get a personalised plan that looks at their physical, mental, and practical needs, with support increasingly delivered through neighbourhood services and accessible digitally through the NHS App.

Under the plan we will deliver a universal digital-first prehabilitation offer for all cancer patients through the NHS App and other digital channels. This will include signposting to other existing digital services such as exercise classes and walking apps like NHS Active 10, ensuring cancer patients can best prepare for their treatment at, or close to, home.

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 reducing the starting age for routine mammograms to 40.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Each year, over 15 million people are invited for screening by National Health Service screening programmes, with over 10 million taking up the invitation. Through our NHS screening programmes, we can reduce mortality and morbidity from cancer and other conditions in the population who appear healthy and have no symptoms, by detecting conditions at an earlier, more treatable stage.

We are guided by the independent scientific advice of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) on all screening matters. It is only where there is robust evidence that an offer to screen provides more good than harm that a screening programme is recommended.

As screening programmes can also cause harms, each of the adult screening programmes has both an upper and lower age range, within which there is good scientific evidence that the benefits of screening outweigh the harms.

The NHS Breast Screening Programme does not currently offer screening to women younger than the age of 50 for breast cancer due to the lower risk of women under this age developing breast cancer, and the fact that women below 50 tend to have denser breasts tissue. The density of breast tissue reduces the ability of getting an accurate mammogram, the accepted screening test for breast cancer.

There is therefore a risk of unnecessary treatment and distress for women who do not have breast cancer, but who would be subjected to invasive and painful medical treatments and diagnostic tests.

We are in line with most European countries, most of whom screen women between the ages of 50 to 69 years old.

The UK NSC recognises that screening programmes are not static and that, over time, they may need to change to be more effective. Work is underway within the breast screening programme to investigate the possibility of routinely screening below the currently recommended age. The AgeX research trial has been looking at the effectiveness of offering some women one extra screen between the ages of 47 and 49 years old.

It is the biggest trial of its kind ever to be undertaken and will provide robust evidence about the effectiveness of screening in these age groups, including the benefit and harms. The UK NSC will review the publication of the age extension trial when it reports.

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 ensure that people over the age of 71 can request a breast cancer screening in Yeovil constituency.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

People in Yeovil who are over the age of 71 years old can request breast cancer screening once every three years by contacting their local National Health Service breast screening programme directly.

They will be offered an appointment at either the nearest mobile screening van, which rotate around the county on a three-yearly cycle, or the static screening centre at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she had made of the potential implications for her policies of the British Dyslexia Association's report entitled Lost in the system: Councils’ blind spot on dyslexia, published on 3 February 2026.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

As reflected in the British Dyslexia Association’s report, the effective early identification and intervention is critical in improving the outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. In an inclusive education system, settings should be confident in accurately assessing children and young people’s learning and development and meeting any educational needs with evidence-based responses.

There are a number of national assessments already in place to measure progress and help teachers identify where pupils may require additional support with literacy, such as the phonics screening check, and end of key stage 2 assessments. A range of measures have also been introduced that aim to support the effective teaching of reading, including for those with special education needs and disabilities or those at risk of falling behind. This includes the English Hubs programme, the reading and writing frameworks, the Reading Ambition for All programme and the published list of department-validated high-quality phonics programmes for schools.

To further support settings to identify need early, we are strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve early identification in mainstream settings, including through collaboration with UK Research Innovation.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of local authorities' guidance on how to (a) assess or (b) identify (i) dyslexia or (ii) support literacy difficulties.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

As reflected in the British Dyslexia Association’s report, the effective early identification and intervention is critical in improving the outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. In an inclusive education system, settings should be confident in accurately assessing children and young people’s learning and development and meeting any educational needs with evidence-based responses.

There are a number of national assessments already in place to measure progress and help teachers identify where pupils may require additional support with literacy, such as the phonics screening check, and end of key stage 2 assessments. A range of measures have also been introduced that aim to support the effective teaching of reading, including for those with special education needs and disabilities or those at risk of falling behind. This includes the English Hubs programme, the reading and writing frameworks, the Reading Ambition for All programme and the published list of department-validated high-quality phonics programmes for schools.

To further support settings to identify need early, we are strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve early identification in mainstream settings, including through collaboration with UK Research Innovation.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase training on Personal, Social, Health and Economic education for teachers in Yeovil constituency.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The revised relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance was published on 15 July 2025.

The department will invest £3 million in a teacher training fund over the next two years to ensure that the new curriculum has the greatest impact and £5 million to pilot healthy relationships training delivered by external providers.

Following the Curriculum and Assessment Review, published on 5 November 2025, we will strengthen financial literacy content and sequencing in citizenship and maths. More details on the conclusions and recommendations from the Curriculum and Assessment Review are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-final-report.

To ensure all pupils benefit from the refreshed national curriculum, we will ensure that core training throughout a teacher’s career has a strong focus on high-quality adaptive teaching, formative assessment and high expectations for all. This includes initial teacher training and the early career framework.

The government commissioned Oak National Academy to develop resources for schools in line with new curriculum requirements.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of changing the national curriculum to increase awareness of cancer prevention amongst pupils in Yeovil constituency.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

It is important to educate people about causes and symptoms of cancer, and we are supportive of efforts to do this at an early age.

Revised relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance was published on 15 July 2025. Cancer awareness and other specific cancer-related content is included. At secondary school, as part of their studies on health protection and prevention and understanding the healthcare system, pupils will be taught the importance of taking responsibility for their own health, including regular self-examination and screening.

Schools may teach about cancer awareness in other areas of the current national curriculum. The secondary science curriculum ensures pupils are taught about non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, and the impact of lifestyle factors. In design and food technology, schools should highlight the importance of nutrition. We are developing a new national curriculum with teachers, curriculum experts, pupils and parents, which schools will start teaching from September 2028.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if her Department will fund and deliver a public awareness campaign in rural Somerset to promote the updated Highway Code as part of the new Road Safety Strategy.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Following updates to the Highway Code in 2022, the department ran THINK! advertising campaigns nationally to raise awareness of the changes.

Local authorities are responsible for delivering road safety education and have a statutory duty to take steps both to reduce and prevent collisions. THINK! Highway Code campaign resources are available for local authorities to download from the THINK! website and are free to use for educational purposes: https://www.think.gov.uk/campaign/highway-code-changes/.

Via the THINK! campaign, we are also running year-round radio filler adverts across England and Wales encouraging compliance with the Highway Code.

Guidance to improve safety for those walking, cycling and horse riding. We will also continue to promote the changes via THINK! and Department for Transport social media channels, as well as through partner organisations.

In addition to the Highway Code activity, THINK! also runs paid advertising campaigns focused on the priority issues of speed, drink driving and drug driving. The primary audience for these campaigns is young men aged 17-24, who are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the road than drivers aged 25 and over. All THINK! campaigns are run nationally, therefore rural Somerset is included.

As set out in the Road Safety Strategy, more work is needed to continue embedding these changes and overall awareness of the Highway Code. We are considering options in this area, and further details will be shared in due course.

Community sport spaces and Sport England

Review of the student loan system

Child protection from illicit vapes

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank

Community spaces

Grey belt policy and the impact on villages and rural communities

Radiotherapy in the National Cancer Plan

Bird gathering licences

Sinking of SS Tilawa

Found: Would you consider reaching out to other Members—Lewis Atkinson, Adam Dance or Adrian Ramsay—to consider