Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of National Highway’s ability to ensure that important signage is legible and free from graffiti.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department monitors National Highways’ performance through established sponsorship and reporting arrangements, including its approach to safety-critical asset defects on the strategic road network. Through these arrangements, the Department is confident that National Highways has appropriate processes in place to identify and address graffiti where it affects the legibility of important signage.
National Highways manages graffiti through its routine maintenance programme, in line with the Asset Delivery Asset Maintenance Requirements. Its traffic officers patrol the motorway network 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and identify and report urgent or safety-critical asset defects, including graffiti that obscures or renders road signage illegible.
National Highways also identifies graffiti through regular safety inspections, with frequencies determined on a risk basis. These are generally carried out every seven days on the motorway network and up to every 28 days on lower-volume trunk roads. Graffiti that is likely to cause offence, or which makes signage illegible, is treated as a priority and is often addressed within 24 hours.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what arrangements are in place to scrutinise the NHS Business Services Authority’s processes for issuing, enforcing, reviewing and refunding NHS dental Penalty Charge Notices.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is responsible for the administration of dental penalty charge notices (PCNs) in accordance with statutory regulations and national exemption policy. Patients have the opportunity to challenge PCNs if they were entitled to claim free prescriptions or dental care or if think they have an exceptional reason not to pay. Where a PCN is challenged, NHSBSA undertakes evidence-based case reviews and will remove the PCN where appropriate.
No recent assessment has been made of the practice of historic National Health Service dental PCNs or the processes for challenging them.
With respect to the ministerial accountability, operational independence, and financial oversight of NHSBSA, I refer the Hon Member to the published framework agreement between NHSBSA and the Department, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the status of the NHS Business Services Authority as an arm’s-length body of the Ministry means in respect of (a) ministerial accountability, (b) operational independence and (c) financial oversight.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is responsible for the administration of dental penalty charge notices (PCNs) in accordance with statutory regulations and national exemption policy. Patients have the opportunity to challenge PCNs if they were entitled to claim free prescriptions or dental care or if think they have an exceptional reason not to pay. Where a PCN is challenged, NHSBSA undertakes evidence-based case reviews and will remove the PCN where appropriate.
No recent assessment has been made of the practice of historic National Health Service dental PCNs or the processes for challenging them.
With respect to the ministerial accountability, operational independence, and financial oversight of NHSBSA, I refer the Hon Member to the published framework agreement between NHSBSA and the Department, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the process for challenging historic NHS dental Penalty Charge Notices and refunding penalties is robust and efficient.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is responsible for the administration of dental penalty charge notices (PCNs) in accordance with statutory regulations and national exemption policy. Patients have the opportunity to challenge PCNs if they were entitled to claim free prescriptions or dental care or if think they have an exceptional reason not to pay. Where a PCN is challenged, NHSBSA undertakes evidence-based case reviews and will remove the PCN where appropriate.
No recent assessment has been made of the practice of historic National Health Service dental PCNs or the processes for challenging them.
With respect to the ministerial accountability, operational independence, and financial oversight of NHSBSA, I refer the Hon Member to the published framework agreement between NHSBSA and the Department, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the practice of historic NHS dental Penalty Charge Notices.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is responsible for the administration of dental penalty charge notices (PCNs) in accordance with statutory regulations and national exemption policy. Patients have the opportunity to challenge PCNs if they were entitled to claim free prescriptions or dental care or if think they have an exceptional reason not to pay. Where a PCN is challenged, NHSBSA undertakes evidence-based case reviews and will remove the PCN where appropriate.
No recent assessment has been made of the practice of historic National Health Service dental PCNs or the processes for challenging them.
With respect to the ministerial accountability, operational independence, and financial oversight of NHSBSA, I refer the Hon Member to the published framework agreement between NHSBSA and the Department, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Ministry is taking to ensure FCA-authorised lenders are accountable for representations made by their introducer networks.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, authorised financial services firms are responsible for representatives they appoint to engage in regulated financial services activities. Authorised firms that use appointed representatives (ARs – of which Introducer ARs are a subset) are known as principal firms. Principal firms are responsible for ensuring their ARs maintain high standards of conduct and comply with all relevant regulatory requirements. This includes introducer ARs.
The government is introducing changes to the AR regime through the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2026. The Bill will enhance the ability of the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure that principal firms have the necessary expertise, resource and control systems to provide robust oversight of appointed representatives. The Bill will also extend the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) directly to ARs, which means that a consumer who believes they have been treated unfairly by an appointed representative can take their complaint to FOS.
In relation to credit brokers, authorised lenders are in many cases liable for the actions of the brokers they work with as a result of the Consumer Credit Act, regardless of whether or not those brokers are ARs appointed by the lender.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations she has made to the Government of Israel regarding the detention and release of medical personnel in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 15 July in response to Question 16811.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the cost to the NHS of treating conditions (a) caused and (b) exacerbated by (i) tobacco, (ii) alcohol and (iii) drug use.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The available estimates of the cost to the National Health Service of treating conditions caused and exacerbated by tobacco and alcohol are shown in the following table:
Substance | Estimated NHS cost | Source of Estimate |
Tobacco | £1.8 billion annually | Action on Smoking and Health, 2025 |
Alcohol | £4.9 billion annually | Institute of Alcohol Studies, 2021/22 |
Smoking is estimated to cost society £21.9 billion per year in England.
Estimates for drug use are more limited but based on data from the Office for National Statistics and the independent review of drugs by Professor Dame Carol Black, the harms associated with wholly drug-related hospital admissions are estimated at £37 million. This cost includes admissions for mental and behavioural disorders, overdoses and poisonings, and drug-related neonatal disorders.
Comparisons of costs should not be made between estimates above because of the different methodologies used in their construction.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will consider taking steps to increase protections for private renters during the process of moving between tenancies, including in relation to tenancy references and the requirement to serve notice on an existing tenancy before a new tenancy is secured.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 78379 on 16 October 2025.
Asked by: Beccy Cooper (Labour - Worthing West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on private renters of letting agents and landlords declining to provide tenancy references until a tenant has served notice on their existing tenancy.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 78379 on 16 October 2025.