Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
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 reduce water bills in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government committed to reforming the WaterSure affordability scheme and published its response to the public consultation on 6 March 2026. Proposed changes will expand eligibility to include disability benefits – meaning a further 53,000 low-income households will see significant savings. The reforms will also alter the way the price cap is determined, with most existing recipients seeing further savings of up to £100. Together the changes will mean around 300,000 households will see substantial help with their bills.
Water companies are also more than doubling social tariff support for vulnerable customers by 2030 and Government is working with industry to keep their schemes under review to ensure vulnerable customers receive the support they need. We are considering ways to drive more consistency and increase awareness of the support consumers can access. Defra also expects companies to hold themselves accountable for their public commitment to end water poverty by 2030.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps she has taken to support grassroots Rugby in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to and can benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities, including rugby.
We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding.
Sport England provides long term investment of £16.9 million to the Rugby Football Union and £15.7 million to the Rugby Football League between 2022 and 2029, the National Governing Bodies for rugby to support grassroots participation. It also supports grassroots clubs and projects around the country, which has included support for rugby facilities at Spartans RFC in Gloucester in 2024/25.
Since summer 2024, the Government has also provided £6.7 million into the Women’s Rugby World Cup Legacy Programme Impact 25, which has benefited 850 clubs across the country . These clubs have received investment which goes towards supporting girls of all ages to get involved in rugby. This includes clubs in the Gloucester constituency such as Drybrook RFC who received £10,000 towards improving facilities at the club.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
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 effectiveness of health services available to children with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not routinely make assessments of the effectiveness of health services at a constituency level, and has therefore not made an assessment of the effectiveness of health services available to children with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) in Gloucester. The planning and delivery of National Health Services are the responsibility of local integrated care boards, which assess the needs of their local populations and commission services accordingly.
NHS England continues to work with eating disorder services and local commissioners to improve access to assessment and treatment for all children and young people with a suspected eating disorder, including those presenting with ARFID. Lessons from previous pilots commissioned to improve access to support and develop training on ARFID has contributed to this work. In January 2026, NHS England also updated guidance on children and young people’s eating disorders, including ARFID, that seeks to strengthen early identification and intervention of eating disorders, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist community eating disorder services as soon as an eating disorder is suspected.
Community children and young people’s eating disorder services across England provide assessment and treatment for eating disorders, including ARFID, and local areas are able to commission training and adapt care pathways to ensure services meet the needs of patients with this condition.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to get young people into work in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government’s ambition is to transform young people’s prospects, by ensuring every one of them has the chance to earn or learn through a Youth Guarantee.
We have already taken the first steps towards delivering a Youth Guarantee, including launching Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in England, announcing funding to almost double Youth Hubs across Great Britain, and launching an Independent Report into Young People and Work, to identify potential areas for reform to better support young people with health conditions and disabilities.
At the budget we announced the expansion of the Youth Guarantee, backed by a £820 million investment over the next three years to reach almost 900,000 young people across Great Britain. This includes expansion of Youth Hubs to more than 360 areas across Great Britain and a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, offering a dedicated session and follow-up support to 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit. This investment will also create around 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training. In addition, it will provide guaranteed jobs to around 55,000 young people aged 18-21.
The Department works closely with local partners to ensure support for young people reflects local labour market needs. In Gloucestershire, this includes working with Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC) Employment & Skills Hub, where the Department supported delivery of the 100 Futures initiative, targeting 100 young people for six‑week work placements to help young people build confidence, boost employability skills and move close to work.
Gloucester Jobcentre Plus also works with GCC’s Step Forward programme to provide enhanced employability support for Care Leavers. This includes regular engagement with the Care Leavers Team, Work Coach drop-in sessions at the Hideaway (Shire Hall) and a pilot offering flexible learning opportunities to help Care Leavers gain Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) cards, with training funded by DWP and delivered by local Care Leaver Team staff.
Gloucester Jobcentre Plus is also supporting young people through the Movement into Work placements and launched a mini–Youth Zone, bringing partner organisations directly into the 18–24-year-old workspace. This includes weekly engagement from local voluntary and community organisations (including SPEAR, Commercial Foundation, Young Gloucestershire, Healthy Lifestyles, Step Forward, Inclusion Gloucestershire), helping to provide a more holistic and accessible support for young people.
In addition, the Department is supporting the local Integrated Care Board’s Widening Access Demonstrator programme, targeting 100 young adults (16–30) from deprived communities to enter work experience, volunteering, education or employment.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
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 trends in the level of childhood obesity in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data is not available by parliamentary constituency but is available at a local authority district level.
The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) collects data on children aged four to five years old, namely those in Reception, and 10 to 11 years old, namely those in Year 6. It provides detailed trend data on children’s weight status, including childhood obesity.
Data on obesity prevalence from the NCMP for the four academic years 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 is provided in the attached table, with 2024/25 being the most recent year for which data is available. For the Gloucester local authority district, the prevalence of obesity in 2024/25 for both children aged four to five years old, and those aged 10 to 11 years old is similar to the values for 2021/22.
Data for England is also included in the table for comparison. For children aged four to five years old, prevalence of obesity in Gloucester has been similar to the prevalence in England between 2021/22 and 2024/25. For children aged 10 to 11 years old, the prevalence of obesity was higher in Gloucester compared to England in 2022/23 and 2024/25, and similar to England in 2021/22 and 2023/24.
Data for Gloucester on child obesity for children in Reception is available on Fingertips at the following link:
Data for Gloucester on child obesity for children in Year 6 is available on Fingertips at the following link:
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
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 help improve the uptake of diabetes checks in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Gloucestershire has a county wide programme in place to improve diabetes care and increase uptake of these checks. Current actions include:
These steps aim to support earlier diagnosis, more consistent monitoring, and better outcomes for people living with diabetes in Gloucester and across the county.
The latest data from the quarterly National Diabetes Audit for 2025/26 indicates Gloucestershire’s steady improvement in both the delivery of key checks and the achievement of the recommended treatment targets for people with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress has been made on delivering specialist mental health provision in every school in Gloucester by 2029.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As of April 2025, 88% of pupils and learners and 76% of schools and colleges in Gloucester constituency were covered by a Mental Health Support Team (MHST), compared to 52% of pupils and learners and 41% of schools and colleges nationally. Further data for 2024/25 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision. This has been available since 16 May 2025 at national, regional and local authority level and since 10 July 2025 at constituency level.
Around six in ten pupils nationally are expected to have access to an MHST by April 2026. Data on MHST coverage is collected annually.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent steps he has taken to help tackle homelessness among veterans in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This Government is fully committed to ensuring that veterans in Gloucester and across the UK have access to the support they need on housing. That is why we have committed an additional £12 million to ensure the continuation of the Reducing Veteran Homelessness programme. Op FORTITUDE has also been extended, putting the service that has already supported over 1,000 veterans on a sustainable footing. These programmes will deliver three years of support services across the UK for veterans at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
In December last year, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published A National Plan to End Homelessness. The Ministry of Defence contributed to this strategy including committing to ensuring that all councils are aware of service provision in their area to support veterans at risk of homelessness.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
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 dog attacks in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has reconvened the Responsible Dog Ownership taskforce to explore measures to promote responsible dog ownership across all breeds of dog. The taskforce is considering four themes: educating the public on how to stay safe around dogs, training for both dogs and their owners, enforcement, and improving data on dog attacks. The Government looks forward to receiving its findings and recommendations in due course.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help improve teacher retention rates in Gloucester constituency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Retaining more skilled teachers is key to delivering our pledge to recruit 6,500 additional teachers. Our ‘Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff’ service, developed alongside school leaders, provides a range of resources for schools to review and reduce workload, and improve staff wellbeing.
We are also providing targeted retention incentives worth up to £6,000 after tax for early career teachers in key subjects, with three schools eligible for this in the Gloucester constituency and 18 in the wider local authority. These incentives are available alongside a pay rise of nearly 10% over two years for all teachers.
We lose too many female teachers from the profession. We will fund schools to double the period of full maternity pay from four weeks to eight weeks.
We are also funding a programme focused on embedding flexible working, an important driver for teacher retention, in schools and multi academy trusts (MATs). These schools and MATs champion flexible working and provide bespoke peer support to other local schools.
The flexible working ambassador school for the South West, including Gloucester, is Malmesbury School and can be contacted through the programme website: https://flexibleworkingineducation.co.uk/about-fwams.