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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on considering method of production labelling reform as a part of the Government’s wider welfare strategy; and when she expects to publish further details.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Putney, Fleur Anderson, on 29 January 2026, PQ UIN 106592.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether a decision has been made on the proposal to raise the threshold for consulting Active Travel England on residential developments from 150 to 250 units; and if she will publish the outcome of the consultation.

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

The proposal to amend Active Travel England's consultation criteria for new planning applications forms part of a wider consultation undertaken by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

As the department responsible for the planning system, MHCLG is leading on the formal response to the consultation. Any decision on whether to raise the threshold for consulting Active Travel England on residential developments from 150 to 250 units, and the publication of the consultation outcome, will be announced by MHCLG in due course.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what metrics her Department is using to assess whether the 2022 Highway Code Changes are understood and followed by the public; and what recent assessment she has made of compliance levels.

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

Improving road safety is one of my Department’s highest priorities. Injuries and fatalities from road collisions caused by driving are unacceptable, and this Government will work hard to prevent these tragedies for all road users. That is why on 7 January 2026, we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all.

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

Via the THINK! campaign, we are also running year-round radio filler adverts encouraging compliance with the guidance to improve safety for those walking, cycling and horse riding.

The Department has assessed public understanding of the 2022 Highway Code changes through survey research which tracks levels of awareness and self‑reported understanding and compliance over time.

• The percentage of road users reporting to know either a little or a lot about the changes increased from 36% in January 2022 to over 50% in August 2022 and up to 70% in September 2023, with 86% of road users having heard of the changes by that time.

• Understanding of pedestrian priority at junctions increased from 52% to 72%, and cyclists riding 2 abreast rising from 30% to 46%.

• Following the second phase of the campaign in summer 2023, 81% of drivers claimed to leave a gap of 1.5M when passing a cyclist all or most of the time. 79% of drivers claimed to pass horse riders and horse drawn vehicles with at least 2M distance and at under 10mph all or most of the time.

• Of the respondents that recognised the campaign advert, nine in ten said they had taken action as a result.

• More recent figures show a sustained increase in those saying it is unacceptable to not leave enough space for cyclists and horse riders, from 60% in March 2024 to 68% in April 2025.

However, as set out in the 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.

As our road environment and technologies evolve, providing education for all road users throughout their lifetime is vital to improving road safety.

Although failure to comply with the advisory rules of the Highway Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, contraventions of these rules may be used as evidence in court to establish liability for a road traffic offence. Advisory rules include those which begin ‘should/should not’ and ‘do/do not’.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the revised Programme Business Case for the Emergency Services Network has received Departmental and HM Treasury approval.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme’s revised Business Case (PBC 2025) was approved by the Home Office Investment Committee on 18 December 2025.

The PBC has subsequently been submitted to HM Treasury and is currently undergoing the Treasury Approval Point process, including consideration by HM Treasury and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Final government approval is expected following completion of this process in April 2026.

The Programme continues to operate within agreed funding and remains subject to the Government’s established assurance and approvals framework.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce outpatient waiting times for neurology appointments in North East Hampshire constituency.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Modernisation of outpatient care is a top priority for the Government so that waits for outpatient appointments are shorter and elective pathways are more productive. The majority of people on the waiting list, including for neurology, are waiting for outpatient care. Through our Elective Reform Plan (ERP), we have expanded the Advice and Guidance (A&G) scheme, which helps ensure patients get care in the right place and only see a specialist if it’s really necessary, freeing up capacity in secondary care for those who need it, including certain patients with neurology conditions or symptoms. The ERP also commits to reducing missed appointments and unnecessary follow ups to further free up capacity. This will benefit patients across England, including in North East Hampshire.

The 10-Year Health Plan builds on the ERP with a more sustainable vision for elective care where, by 2035, most outpatient care will happen outside of hospitals. Patients' access to specialists, including neurologists, will be improved by providing this specialist care in the community where possible and increasing digital access to specialists through the NHS App, where it’s more convenient for patients.

The Medium-Term Planning Framework outlines targets for the National Health Service from 2026/27 to 2028/29 to deliver the 10-Year Health Plan’s ambitions. This includes an ask of systems to transform pathways to give patients more control over their follow up care to reduce unnecessary appointments and expand the use of Advice and Guidance from April so that, by October, all requests/referrals across the 10 specialties providers deemed to have the most potential for this model to be effective go via an elective Single Point of Access. This will mean a more efficient approach to triaging patients, where all appropriate requests and referrals, excluding urgent suspect cancer, will flow through a single ‘front door’ to support clinical triage to the most appropriate service or outcome, meaning timelier, more joined up care for patients.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide additional funding for safety measures for NHS staff.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Everyone working in the National Health Service has a fundamental right to be safe at work. Individual employers are responsible for the health and safety of their staff, and they put in place measures, including security, training, and emotional support for staff affected by violence, abuse, or harassment. There are currently no plans to provide additional funding for safety measures for NHS staff.

At a national level there are several policy measures being implemented and developed to help keep staff safe and to prevent and reduce violence in the workplace. This includes measures to improve data and reporting, strengthen risk assessment, and improve training and support for victims. This will be bolstered by the introduction of a new set of staff standards, as detailed in the 10-Year Health Plan. The standards will be included in the NHS Oversight Framework and act as an early warning signal for the Care Quality Commission.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the safety of frontline NHS staff, including receptionists working in GP surgeries.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Everyone working in the National Health Service has a fundamental right to be safe at work without fear of violence or abuse.

Individual employers are responsible for the health and safety of their staff, and they put in place measures, including, security, training, and emotional support for staff affected by violence, abuse, or harassment.

At a national level there are several policy measures being implemented and developed to help keep staff safe and to prevent and reduce violence in the workplace. This includes measures to improve data and reporting, strengthen risk assessment, and improve training and support for victims. This will be bolstered by the introduction of a new set of staff standards, as detailed in the 10-Year Health Plan. The standards will be included in the NHS Oversight Framework and act as an early warning signal for the Care Quality Commission.

Additionally, the You and your general practice guidance makes clear that general practice staff should be treated with respect. A practice also reserves the right to remove patients from their list if they are violent or abusive to staff. The You and your general practice guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/you-and-your-general-practice-english/

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of job evaluation scores for pharmacy assistants.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

This specific assessment has not been made.

Agenda for Change pay is underpinned by the Job Evaluation Scheme (JES). This scheme was developed through collaboration between National Health Service leaders, NHS trade unions, and independent job evaluation experts. The JES is a structured method of comparing job demands and seeks to ensure that staff receive equal pay for work of equal value.

The JES focuses on the demands of the role as set out in the job documentation, for example the job description and person specification, and not the skills and knowledge an individual has. The requirements, as set out in the job documentation, are then analysed using the JES to determine the relative job demand, or weight, of the role which in turn determines which pay band the role sits in. This model of weighting has been legally tested and proven to be robust.

All local employing organisations are responsible for correctly and consistently implementing the JES to ensure staff are paid correctly for the work they are asked to deliver.

The NHS Staff Council’s Job Evaluation Group is responsible for maintaining the national role profiles that are used to support job evaluation practice.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to introduce pay progression for Change Band 2 roles.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

As part of the 2023 Agenda for Change (AfC) pay deal between the Government, employers, and trade unions in England, it was agreed to uplift the value of the bottom pay point of Band 2 to the same value as the top pay point of that band. This position was ratified by the NHS Staff Council, a partnership body made up of trade unions and employers that has overall responsibility for the AfC pay system and terms and conditions of service.

The Government accepted the NHS Pay Review Body recommendations for 2024/25 and 2025/26 in full, which included a recommendation to provide the NHS Staff Council with a funded mandate to make improvements to the AfC pay structure. Any changes to the AfC pay structure, including for Band 2 staff, will be for the NHS Staff Council to agree.

The Department will work closely with the NHS Staff Council to agree changes to the pay structure which will be backdated to 1 April 2026.

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 levels of provision of hoists and other accessibility equipment in GP surgeries to enable disabled and wheelchair‑using patients to undergo routine screening, including cervical smear tests; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that such equipment is available locally so that patients are not required to travel long distances to access routine NHS services.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We want disabled people’s access to, and experience of, healthcare services to be equitable, effective, and responsive to their needs.

Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged.

Commissioners are responsible for ensuring any necessary equipment or environmental adaptations are delivered within general practices.

NHS England is rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag which enables the recording of key information about a disabled patient or client and the reasonable adjustments to care and treatment that they need, to ensure support can be tailored appropriately and equitably.

Guidance and free training on the Flag is available for health and social care staff.

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 (a) pay progression and (b) career development opportunities for the lowest-paid NHS staff.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Section 1 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service, also referred to as Agenda for Change (AfC), sets out the principles for pay progression in the National Health Service in England. It states that pay progression for all AfC pay points, within each pay band, is conditional upon employees demonstrating that they have the requisite knowledge and skills and competencies for their role and that they have demonstrated the required level of performance and delivery during the review period.

The Government accepted the NHS Pay Review Body recommendations for 2024/25 and 2025/26 in full, which included a recommendation to provide the NHS Staff Council with a funded mandate to make improvements to the AfC pay structure.

Improvements to the AfC pay structure, including any band progression for the lowest paid NHS staff, will be for the NHS Staff Council to agree. The NHS Staff Council is a partnership body made up of trade unions and employers and has overall responsibility for maintaining the AfC pay system and associated terms and conditions of service.

The Department intends to issue this mandate as soon as possible. Once the mandate is confirmed, the Department will work closely with the NHS Staff Council to agree reforms to the pay structure which will be backdated to 1 April 2026.

It is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure career development opportunities for their lowest paid staff through investing in the future of their workforce and ensuring appropriate ongoing training and continuing professional development.

King's Guard's ceremonial bearskin caps

Import and sale of real fur

Heating oil prices

International Women's Day 2026 and women’s inclusion in placemaking

Found: Attendance Sarah Owen (Labour, Luton North) (Chair) (added 11 Sep 2024) 49 of 50 (98.0%) Alex Brewer

Found: Current membership Sarah Owen (Labour; Luton North) (Chair) Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat; North East

Found: Current membership Sarah Owen (Labour; Luton North) (Chair) Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat; North East

Submit Evidence (by 8 May 2026)

The Women and Equalities Committee will examine different ways women and girls can be involved in sport beyond participating as athletes, players and competitors.