Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children and young people received speech and language therapy in the area covered by Central East ICB in each of the last three year.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The requested data is not centrally held, but the Hon Member may find useful information on the National Health Services provided in her region at the Fingertips website at the following link:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profiles
On the underlying issues raised by these questions, the independent review into the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, led by Professor Peter Fonagy, was published on 9 October. The review provides analysis and makes recommendations across a wide range of issues relating to prevalence and rates of diagnosis, and the current provision of services.
The Government issued an initial response on the day of publication, available at the link below, but we will set out the full action we are taking in response to the review recommendations in our new Mental Health Strategy to be published later this year, including in relation to the issues raised by the Hon Member.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-pledges-earlier-support-to-tackle-mental-health-crises
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) children and young people and (b) adults received an autism assessment in the area covered by Central East ICB in the latest 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The requested data is not centrally held, but the Hon Member may find useful information on the National Health Services provided in her region at the Fingertips website at the following link:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profiles
On the underlying issues raised by these questions, the independent review into the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, led by Professor Peter Fonagy, was published on 9 October. The review provides analysis and makes recommendations across a wide range of issues relating to prevalence and rates of diagnosis, and the current provision of services.
The Government issued an initial response on the day of publication, available at the link below, but we will set out the full action we are taking in response to the review recommendations in our new Mental Health Strategy to be published later this year, including in relation to the issues raised by the Hon Member.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-pledges-earlier-support-to-tackle-mental-health-crises
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children and young people accessed NHS mental health support in the area covered by Central East ICB in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The requested data is not centrally held, but the Hon Member may find useful information on the National Health Services provided in her region at the Fingertips website at the following link:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profiles
On the underlying issues raised by these questions, the independent review into the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, led by Professor Peter Fonagy, was published on 9 October. The review provides analysis and makes recommendations across a wide range of issues relating to prevalence and rates of diagnosis, and the current provision of services.
The Government issued an initial response on the day of publication, available at the link below, but we will set out the full action we are taking in response to the review recommendations in our new Mental Health Strategy to be published later this year, including in relation to the issues raised by the Hon Member.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-pledges-earlier-support-to-tackle-mental-health-crises
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps her Department has taken to support the long-term financial sustainability of local newspapers and local journalism.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is concerned about the long-term financial sustainability of local newspapers and local journalism and recognises the vital role they play in scrutinising local institutions and reflecting communities’ views and perspectives. We are committed to ensuring a healthy and plural local media for the benefit of communities and citizens across the UK and published Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan earlier this year.
The actions we are taking will support local media organisations across the country to innovate and adapt their business models for the online world, while incentivising and encouraging the production of high quality, trustworthy news on which communities depend. As part of the Action Plan, we launched a Local News Fund worth £6m in 2026/27 and up to a further £6m in 2027/28, to help ensure the long term provision of local news. Local media faces a complex range of challenges and funding represents just one aspect of our approach. It will help the industry adapt in the short-medium term, before longer term measures set out in the Plan begin to take effect in helping enable a free, plural and thriving online local media ecosystem. Bids for 2026/2027 have now closed and we will publish a list of successful grantees in due course.
As part of the Action Plan, we have also
Launched an Inspiring the Future journalism careers campaign in the North West to inspire young people to pursue careers in local media. The campaign will conclude shortly and, subject to funding and evaluation, we hope to roll it out nationwide.
Uplifted the Community Radio Fund, now worth £1m over each of the next 3 years. The Fund closed for bids for funding in this financial year on 14 October.
Published our Media Green Paper, which sought views on a range of matters including options to require social media to make news content from commercial local (and national) news publishers as well as public service media, prominent and easily discoverable.
We are also planning to launch a public consultation on statutory notices by the end of this year, we will be responding in due course to our BBC Charter Green Paper including in relation to the role of the BBC in the local news market, and we will shortly publish a refreshed National Action Plan for the Safety of Journalists.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many disclosures have been made under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme in (a) Bedfordshire, (b) Cambridgeshire and (c) Hertfordshire in each of the last three years.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme sets out procedures for sharing information about a person’s known history of violence or abuse to members of the public to prevent further crime.
The DVDS has two procedures for disclosing information:
Data on the number of disclosures under the schemes is collected by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and published by the Office for National Statistics at Domestic abuse and the criminal justice system - Office for National Statistics.
Data on the number of disclosures under these schemes by the police in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire in the last three years, are shown in the below tables. Note that these data are not classified as accredited official statistics and caution should be taken when comparing data between years due to differences in completeness and recording practices over time.
Bedfordshire | Year ending March 2023 | Year ending March 2024 | Year ending March 2025 |
Number of Right to Know disclosures | 34 | 122 | 208 |
Number of Right to Ask disclosures | 111 | 135 | 256 |
Cambridgeshire | Year ending March 2023 | Year ending March 2024 | Year ending March 2025 |
Number of Right to Know disclosures | 80 | 82 | 135 |
Number of Right to Ask disclosures | 86 | 113 | 295 |
Hertfordshire | Year ending March 2023 | Year ending March 2024 | Year ending March 2025 |
Number of Right to Know disclosures | 4 | 85 | 437 |
Number of Right to Ask disclosures | 94 | 446 | 235 |
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department plans to measure the success of the National Year of Reading.
Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
An external evaluation of the National Year of Reading will be published in spring 2027. The department will work with the National Literacy Trust to consider the findings, including which interventions, programmes and other aspects of the National Year of Reading have worked well. The findings will help shape future policy decisions.
The National Literacy Trust’s 2026 Annual Literacy Survey, published this June, showed the first increase in children’s reading enjoyment in five years. The emerging interim findings also indicate that the National Year of Reading is having a meaningful impact: one in five adults recognise the campaign, and of those, three in five say it has influenced their reading. Additionally, the findings also show that seven million adults report that the campaign has positively changed their reading behaviours.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were on the transplant waiting list in (a) Bedfordshire (b) Cambridgeshire and (c) Hertfordshire in (i) 2023/24, (ii) 2024/25 and (iii) 2025/26.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for organ donation in the United Kingdom and manages the NHS Organ Donor Register and national transplant waiting list.
NHSBT publishes data on the transplant waiting list at the link below, including breakdowns by transplant centre:
However, NHSBT does not publish waiting list data by patients' place of residence and therefore county-level breakdowns are not available.