Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his Department will work with prison governors to implement appropriate contingency plans for inmate wellbeing in the event of heating failures.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We continue to work with prison Governors to ensure appropriate contingency measures are in place to mitigate the impact of heating and hot water systems at a prison becoming inoperative.
Contingency plans are in place with the Ministry of Justice’s Facilities Management providers to enable them to respond to any incidents that impact upon heating, hot water, or loss of critical services to site as a priority and these plans are regularly reviewed.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that heating failures on the secure estate are fixed promptly.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We continue to work with prison Governors to ensure appropriate contingency measures are in place to mitigate the impact of heating and hot water systems at a prison becoming inoperative.
Contingency plans are in place with the Ministry of Justice’s Facilities Management providers to enable them to respond to any incidents that impact upon heating, hot water, or loss of critical services to site as a priority and these plans are regularly reviewed.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the safety of inmates at HMP Holme House when the heating is not functioning.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice treats any disruption to the heating and hot water supply to any prison as a priority and implements contingency measures to rectify incidents that occur as soon as practically possible.
Safety and decency remained the primary focus throughout the recent disruption of the heating system at HMP Holme House, with staff instructed to monitor residential conditions closely and escalate any concerns immediately.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, a) whether Voluntary Controlled schools will be eligible for nomination under the school rebuilding programme and b) which responsible body would need to nominate a Voluntary Controlled school for the next round of the school rebuilding programme.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is investing almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) from 2025/26 through to 2034/35, delivering rebuilding projects at over 500 schools across England within the existing programme and expanding the SRP with a further 250 schools to be selected.
The department plans to launch a nomination process early this year to identify schools for the next 250 places. Responsible bodies will be invited to submit schools for assessment at that point. We will publish full details on GOV.UK when the process launches.
Voluntary controlled schools are eligible for consideration under the SRP, alongside other state funded schools and sixth form colleges in England. The responsible body for a voluntary controlled school is the relevant local authority.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to Written Parliamentary Questions 98665, 98666 and 98668, what recourse exists for Voluntary Controlled schools to carry out urgent repairs to the school estate when the local authority fails to provide funding.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is investing almost £3 billion per year in capital maintenance by 2034/35 to improve the condition of the school and college estate, rising from £2.4 billion in 2025/26.
As part of this, Norfolk Council received a School Condition Allocation of almost £5.5 million for the 2025/26 financial year to invest across its maintained schools, including voluntary controlled schools in South Norfolk constituency. We expect to set out allocations for the 2026/27 financial year in the spring.
The department expects local authorities to carefully prioritise investment based on evidence of need, so that school buildings remain safe, operational and compliant with relevant regulations. Voluntary controlled schools should speak to their local authority about any issues so that they are considered when prioritising current and future investment.
The department provides additional advice and support to responsible bodies on a case-by-case basis where there are significant and urgent safety issues with buildings that cannot be managed independently.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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 take steps to ensure Enhertu remains available on the NHS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service in England are made on the basis of recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) following an evaluation of a treatment’s costs and benefits. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is important that they are made independently and on the basis of the available evidence.
NICE has recommended Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) for use through the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer after one or more anti-HER 2 treatments and for treating HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer after two or more anti-HER2 therapies. Enhertu is now funded for eligible patients in England through the Cancer Drugs Fund in line with NICE’s recommendations. NICE will consider the evidence collected on the use of Enhertu through the Cancer Drugs Fund into account in making recommendations for the NHS on whether it should be routinely funded by the NHS.
NICE published guidance in July 2024 on the use of Enhertu for the treatment of HER-2 low metastatic and unresectable breast cancer and was unfortunately unable to recommend it for routine NHS funding.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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 improve community healthcare in rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s 10 Year Health Plan commits to three big shifts which includes increasingly moving services away from centralised hospitals into the wider community. Integrated care boards are responsible for the planning and commissioning of health services. In doing so ICBs must take into account the needs of their local population, which includes meeting the healthcare needs of their rural populations.Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2025 to Question 80333, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of funding public awareness campaigns, including advertisements at airports and ports, on (a) foot and mouth disease and (b) African swine fever.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Biosecurity is a priority for this Government. To protect UK farmers and animals from serious diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever, we used the Christmas period as an opportunity to remind the public about the personal imports ban on travellers from the EU and EEA countries bringing dairy and meat products to GB, that came into force last year. This included promoting awareness of the rules to the travelling public and extending our reach through partnership channels across Government and with industry. Our insights survey results indicate that over 90% of respondents are aware that they should not bring back meat and dairy products from these countries.
Any decisions on funding paid campaigns will be made based on the current threat level, evidence of effectiveness and available resources, ensuring maximum impact in protecting UK biosecurity.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2025 to Question 80333 if she will take steps to help increase the audience reach of her Department's digital communications on risks of personal imports, including the risks of (a) foot and mouth disease and (b) African swine fever.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Biosecurity is a priority for this Government. To protect UK farmers and animals from serious diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever, we used the Christmas period as an opportunity to remind the public about the personal imports ban on travellers from the EU and EEA countries bringing dairy and meat products to GB, that came into force last year. This included promoting awareness of the rules to the travelling public and extending our reach through partnership channels across Government and with industry. Our insights survey results indicate that over 90% of respondents are aware that they should not bring back meat and dairy products from these countries.
Any decisions on funding paid campaigns will be made based on the current threat level, evidence of effectiveness and available resources, ensuring maximum impact in protecting UK biosecurity.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
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 (a) alter and (b) mitigate the National Institute for Care and Excellence's downgrading of terminal cancer to moderately severe.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not classified terminal cancer as moderately severe. The NICE is an independent body and is responsible for developing the methods and processes it uses to evaluate whether new medicines should be recommended for routine National Health Service funding.
In developing recommendations on whether medicines represent a clinically and cost effective use of NHS resources, NICE is able to apply a weighting that recognises the additional value that society places on treatments for severe conditions. The weighting that is applied is calculated for each appraisal based on information on the expected shortfall in life expectancy and quality of life of people with the condition taking into account existing treatment options. NICE has concluded for several appraisals of medicines for advanced cancer that a weighting should be applied based on the severity of the condition. The latest data for appraisals published up to September 2025, show that NICE has recommended 84.8% of treatments for advanced cancers since the severity modifier was introduced compared to 69.1% under its previous methods.
NICE is monitoring the impact of the changes made following the methods review and has committed to considering modular updates to its methods and processes in the future. NICE has also commissioned research to gather further evidence on societal preferences that will inform future methods reviews.