Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what actions he is taking to reduce the length of time older people spend on trolleys in Accident and Emergency departments, including cases where patients wait many hours or days; and what assessment he has made of the impact of such waits on dignity, safety and health outcomes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that urgent and emergency care performance has fallen short in recent years and is taking action to improve services for patients. We are committed to restoring accident and emergency waiting times to the National Health Service constitutional standard and to reducing long waits that can result in patients receiving care in inappropriate settings. To support this, we are investing £450 million to expand same-day and urgent care services and to improve hospital flow, with a focus on addressing the longest waits and improving patient experience.
As committed to in the Urgent and Emergency Care plan, we will publish data on the prevalence of corridor care for the first time. NHS England has been working with trusts since 2024 to put in place, new reporting arrangements to drive improvement. The data quality is currently being reviewed, and we expect to publish the information shortly.
Where corridor care cannot be avoided, we have published updated guidance to support trusts to deliver it safely, ensuring dignity and privacy is maintained to reduce impacts on patients and staff.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets out clear actions to deliver improvements, reducing the proportion of patients waiting more than 12 hours for admission or discharge to less than 10% of the time. This includes expanding urgent community care, such as urgent community response, neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams, and virtual wards, to reduce avoidable emergency department attendances and hospital admissions. We have asked NHS trusts to focus on eliminating discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by issues within the hospital, and to work with local authorities on eliminating the longest delays. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework sets out a year-on-year trajectory to improve performance towards the constitutional standard, reduce long waits, and improve safety and efficiency in emergency departments.
We have also introduced new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care to support better hospital flow. These set minimum expectations for timely review, availability of advice, and coordinated care when multiple specialist teams are involved, to improve patient care and flow through the hospital.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
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 that older patients are not discharged from hospital prematurely due to bed pressures; and what measures are in place to safeguard patient safety during the discharge process.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all patients are discharged from hospital appropriately with the right care and support in place. Clinicians in every speciality use a set of criteria and clinical judgement to determine when a patient is medically fit for discharge, and where people need further care after discharge, multi-disciplinary care transfer hubs bring together the National Health Service, local authorities, social care, housing, and other professionals to make arrangements for safe and timely discharge.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms are in place to ensure that patients discharged from hospital receive appropriate aftercare and follow‑up, particularly older patients at higher risk of complications; and whether his Department plans to improve coordination of post‑discharge support.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to work with the systems facing the greatest challenges to embed best practice in discharge processes, improve patient flow, and ensure timely follow‑up and community support for those most at risk of complications.
For people who need further care after discharge, a multi-disciplinary care transfer hub in each area brings together National Health Service, local authority, social care, housing, and other professionals to ensure timely discharge and suitable ongoing care and support.
As part of the Better Care Fund framework for 2025/26, the NHS and local authorities in every area are encouraged to work together to review the capacity needed to support hospital discharge for people with more complex needs. This includes ensuring there is sufficient capacity to rehabilitation and recovery services to support a timely and effective discharge, or to support avoidable admissions. It is for local systems to determine the right mix of services for their population.
In 2026/27, the Better Care Fund will continue to focus on those services that are essential for integrated health and social care, such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation, and reablement.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
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 improve coordination between NHS services and local government in providing aftercare and community support for elderly and frail people following discharge from hospital.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to work with the systems facing the greatest challenges to embed best practice in discharge processes, improve patient flow, and ensure timely follow‑up and community support for those most at risk of complications.
For people who need further care after discharge, a multi-disciplinary care transfer hub in each area brings together National Health Service, local authority, social care, housing, and other professionals to ensure timely discharge and suitable ongoing care and support.
As part of the Better Care Fund framework for 2025/26, the NHS and local authorities in every area are encouraged to work together to review the capacity needed to support hospital discharge for people with more complex needs. This includes ensuring there is sufficient capacity to rehabilitation and recovery services to support a timely and effective discharge, or to support avoidable admissions. It is for local systems to determine the right mix of services for their population.
In 2026/27, the Better Care Fund will continue to focus on those services that are essential for integrated health and social care, such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation, and reablement.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how will PRN data be accuracy maintained, in the context of lengths of shipping times for exported material.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Recent regulatory changes seek to ensure that exporters provide and maintain accurate, verifiable data to help combat fraud within the system. This includes ensuring that packaging waste that leaves the UK for recycling reaches its intended destination before PERNs can be issued, helping to drive down fraud in the system.
Changes in the regulations mean that PRN evidence can now only be issued once the material has been confirmed as received by the overseas recycling facility. Before this change evidence could be issued at the point of export. This will increase the accuracy of the data.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of requiring exporters to claim PRNs only once material has reached its final destination on those exporters.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Recent regulatory changes seek to ensure that exporters provide and maintain accurate, verifiable data to help combat fraud within the system. This includes ensuring that packaging waste that leaves the UK for recycling reaches its intended destination before PERNs can be issued, helping to drive down fraud in the system.
Changes in the regulations mean that PRN evidence can now only be issued once the material has been confirmed as received by the overseas recycling facility. Before this change evidence could be issued at the point of export. This will increase the accuracy of the data.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether steps have been put in place to allow retrospective PRN/PERN registrations for the period during which the market has been closed.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The PRN/PERN market remains operational. Contracts, sales and payments for PRNs & PERNs remain outside the digital system and operators are able to enter into agreements to contract sales before the PRN/PERN digital functionality is in place.
Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 a new requirement was introduced mandating all packaging waste recyclers to be registered from 2026.
The Environment Agency and Defra created an interim application system which opened on 1 September 2025 enabling operators to submit Registration and Accreditation applications. Accredited operators can engage with producers & compliance schemes directly to agree contractual terms for the supply of PRN/PERNs.
We are making good progress on the delivery of capability for accredited operators to be able to record and issue PRN/PERNs in the digital service.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency arrangements have been put in place to allow PRN/PERN registration while the new system is unavailable.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The PRN/PERN market remains operational. Contracts, sales and payments for PRNs & PERNs remain outside the digital system and operators are able to enter into agreements to contract sales before the PRN/PERN digital functionality is in place.
Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 a new requirement was introduced mandating all packaging waste recyclers to be registered from 2026.
The Environment Agency and Defra created an interim application system which opened on 1 September 2025 enabling operators to submit Registration and Accreditation applications. Accredited operators can engage with producers & compliance schemes directly to agree contractual terms for the supply of PRN/PERNs.
We are making good progress on the delivery of capability for accredited operators to be able to record and issue PRN/PERNs in the digital service.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the PRN system disruption on small and medium-sized reprocessors.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working closely with key trade associations and industry stakeholders to understand the potential impact of delays to the availability of the new PRN digital system, particularly on smaller reprocessors and exporters, and in the plastics and glass recycling sectors. Based on consultation with stakeholders, we have prioritised providing the data that would help them most and support them to continue trading more confidently. The Government committed to keeping affected businesses updated and have issued weekly updates in addition to our helpdesk service. As part of our outreach to businesses, we are encouraging businesses them to share any key feedback and insights on the impact of the delays with us.
The Government will continue to meet with sector bodies and compliance schemes on a weekly basis during February to monitor impacts on businesses and PRN prices.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of PRN market disruption on the plastics and glass recycling sectors.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working closely with key trade associations and industry stakeholders to understand the potential impact of delays to the availability of the new PRN digital system, particularly on smaller reprocessors and exporters, and in the plastics and glass recycling sectors. Based on consultation with stakeholders, we have prioritised providing the data that would help them most and support them to continue trading more confidently. The Government committed to keeping affected businesses updated and have issued weekly updates in addition to our helpdesk service. As part of our outreach to businesses, we are encouraging businesses them to share any key feedback and insights on the impact of the delays with us.
The Government will continue to meet with sector bodies and compliance schemes on a weekly basis during February to monitor impacts on businesses and PRN prices.