Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
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 support Natural England in their responsibilities in wildfire prevention, including in agreeing land management plans.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the lead Government department for wildfire. Defra works closely with MHCLG and supports Natural England (NE) to deliver its responsibilities.
This includes the recently published Environmental Improvement Plan commitment that by 2030 NE will conduct research on increasing the natural resilience of habitats to wildfires, such as through re-wetting or restoring hydrological function, including case studies of success. An initial scoping review will be reported on in the annual progress report in 2027. This will develop our understanding of actions we can take to naturally reduce the risk of wildfires.
Alongside this, Defra supports NE in:
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Emergency Services Network will be fully operational, including phone-based location tracking capabilities for emergency responders.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The programme’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that have user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.
The Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) has successfully concluded two major re-procurements. In November 2024, the Mobile Services contract was awarded to BT/EE, followed by the award of the User Services contract to IBM in December 2024. With these committed delivery partners firmly on board, ESMCP has made excellent progress into full delivery mode.
The programme has finalised a revised Programme Business Case, which has been endorsed by the Senior Users of the three Emergency Services and representatives from the devolved nations. The Business Case is expected to complete departmental and HM Treasury approvals in early 2026. Our user community remains actively engaged in planning the deployment and rollout of the Emergency Services Network (ESN) and ensuring a safe transition from Airwave. Early adoption of a service-ready solution is on track for early 2028, with full transition from Airwave targeted for completion by the end of 2029.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessments his Department has made of how to best support patients suffering with overlapping illnesses.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the growing prevalence and complexity of overlapping and co-existing chronic illnesses and long-term conditions, and the importance of improving diagnosis, management, and support for these patients.
Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we are expanding community diagnostic services, introducing Neighbourhood Health Centres, and deploying multidisciplinary teams to provide holistic support. Patients will benefit from enhanced NHS App functionality, including My Medicines and My Health, and will be able to self-refer to specialist services where appropriate.
Additionally, the 10-Year Health Plan’s commitments on artificial intelligence will give clinicians advanced tools for faster diagnosis, predictive analytics, and personalised care planning. For people with long-term conditions, this means earlier interventions, better monitoring of complex needs, and more time for clinicians to focus on patient-centred care rather than administrative tasks. The plan also commits to 95% of people with complex needs having a personalised care plan by 2027.
The appointment by NHS England of a National Specialty Adviser on multi-morbidity provides expert leadership to improve care for people with multiple long-term conditions, ensuring services are better coordinated, evidence-based, and focused on holistic patient needs.
We also recognise that doctors can find it challenging to diagnose Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) because these conditions share symptoms with many other disorders.
Resources such as the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Syncope Toolkit for PoTS and the EDS Toolkit, now maintained by Ehlers-Danlos Support UK, are improving clinician awareness of both conditions. The National Institute for Care Excellence provides a clinical knowledge summary on blackouts and syncope to support consistent assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. NHS England commissions a National Diagnostic Service for rare EDS subtypes.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department taking to help improve the diagnosis of overlapping illnesses such as PoTs and EDS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the growing prevalence and complexity of overlapping and co-existing chronic illnesses and long-term conditions, and the importance of improving diagnosis, management, and support for these patients.
Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we are expanding community diagnostic services, introducing Neighbourhood Health Centres, and deploying multidisciplinary teams to provide holistic support. Patients will benefit from enhanced NHS App functionality, including My Medicines and My Health, and will be able to self-refer to specialist services where appropriate.
Additionally, the 10-Year Health Plan’s commitments on artificial intelligence will give clinicians advanced tools for faster diagnosis, predictive analytics, and personalised care planning. For people with long-term conditions, this means earlier interventions, better monitoring of complex needs, and more time for clinicians to focus on patient-centred care rather than administrative tasks. The plan also commits to 95% of people with complex needs having a personalised care plan by 2027.
The appointment by NHS England of a National Specialty Adviser on multi-morbidity provides expert leadership to improve care for people with multiple long-term conditions, ensuring services are better coordinated, evidence-based, and focused on holistic patient needs.
We also recognise that doctors can find it challenging to diagnose Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) because these conditions share symptoms with many other disorders.
Resources such as the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Syncope Toolkit for PoTS and the EDS Toolkit, now maintained by Ehlers-Danlos Support UK, are improving clinician awareness of both conditions. The National Institute for Care Excellence provides a clinical knowledge summary on blackouts and syncope to support consistent assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. NHS England commissions a National Diagnostic Service for rare EDS subtypes.