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 potential impact of the number of ICU beds on trends in the level of cancellations of scheduled and vital surgeries; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that surgeries that have been rescheduled for this reason are not cancelled.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

No specific assessment has been made on the specific impact of intensive care unit (ICU) bed unavailability on levels of cancelled surgeries. However, tackling waiting lists is a top priority for the Government, and this includes ensuring that patients requiring inpatient treatment will have access to high quality post-operative care.

Between July and September 2025, 0.91% of elective admissions were cancelled last minute by the provider for non-clinical reasons, with 20,189 last minute cancellations, an improvement of 0.06% from the same period the previous year when 0.97% of elective admissions were cancelled last minute, with 21,249 last minute cancellations.

The Department does not hold data broken down by the reason for cancellation, but the rescheduling rate has also improved. If an NHS hospital cancels a patient's operation for non-clinical reasons on the day of admission or day of surgery, the NHS Constitution states it must be rescheduled within 28 days. Between July and September 2025, 21.2% of cancelled elective operations which were not treated within 28 days, so, whilst there is still work to do, this is an improvement from 22.7% in the previous year.

This winter, local systems have been asked to place a particular focus on reducing bed occupancy and improving patient flow. More broadly for 2025/26, 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 to eliminate the longest delays, starting with those of over 21 days. This will mitigate against the risk of cancelled or rescheduled operations due to intensive care bed unavailability. Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, also set out actions to enhance perioperative care, which can shorten patients’ length of hospital stay and minimise postoperative complications, freeing up hospital beds for those who need them.

Wider elective care reforms will also help make the best use of clinical capacity, so that if a patient’s surgery is cancelled on the day due to ICU bed unavailability, they can be offered a new date for their procedure without delay. This includes new and expanded dedicated surgical hubs to deliver common procedures, thereby freeing up capacity for more complex patients, tackle missed appointments, introduce more straight-to-test pathways, and reduce unnecessary follow up appointments through widening remote monitoring and patient-initiated follow-ups.

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 free up hospital beds and support individuals whose families delay hospital discharges to avoid paying for health care costs.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Enabling people to be discharged from hospital promptly with the right care and support contributes to better outcomes and a speedier recovery for patients, as well as preventing the loss of independence.

As set out in the statutory guidance on hospital discharge and community support, people do not have the right to remain in an acute or community hospital bed if they no longer have a clinical need to be in hospital. When a person is medically fit for discharge, local areas should, as far as possible, offer choice for individuals on the care and support they receive, and National Health Service bodies and local authorities have a duty to involve patients, carers, and their families, where considered appropriate, in this process. Further details can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hospital-discharge-and-community-support-guidance/hospital-discharge-and-community-support-guidance

In instances where a person’s preferred care package or placement is unavailable, an appropriate alternative should be offered whilst a person awaits availability of their preferred choice.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to provide adequate facilities and funding for hospital staff to ensure they are able to do their work effectively.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is investing in services and facilities to help National Health Service staff provide high quality care. The 2025 Spending Review (SR25) has prioritised health, with an increase of £29 billion in real terms by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24, and delivered the largest ever health capital budget, rising to £15.2 billion by the end of the Spending Review period for 2029/30.

We have set out our ambition for the NHS in the 10-Year Health Plan, backed up the 10 Year Infrastructure Plan. This will deliver:

• over £6 billion of additional capital to be invested in diagnostic, elective, and urgent and emergency capacity in the NHS over five years, including £1.65 billion in 2025/26 to deliver new surgical hubs, diagnostic scanners, and beds to increase capacity for elective and emergency care;

• £30 billion in capital funding over five years, from 2025/26 to 2029/30, in day-to-day maintenance and repair of the NHS estate, and a £6.75 billion investment over the next nine years to target the most critical building repairs;

• £1.6 billion to continue supporting NHS England’s national Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete programme across the SR25 period;

• 250 Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHCs) through the NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme supporting the neighbourhood health service, with local multidisciplinary hubs reducing reliance on hospital outpatients and expanding access to primary care. The first 120 NHCs are due to be operational by 2030 funded through a mixture of public private partnerships and public capital; and

• over £400 million over four years for improvements in the primary care estate, with half of this funding supporting the upgrades of the existing estate to deliver NHCs.

This investment, together with the forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan, will continue to ensure that NHS staff, both in hospitals and in the community, can provide care at the right time and in the right place in line with our 10-Year Health Plan ambitions.

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 ensure that societal groups, such as young women and girls, who present a-typical symptoms do not receive delayed diagnosis because standard symptoms are based on other societal groups.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The General Medical Council’s (GMC) Good Medical Practice Guidance sets out that “good medical professionals recognise that patients are individuals with diverse needs, and don’t make assumptions about the options or outcomes a patient will prefer. They listen to patients and work in partnership with them”.

The standard of training for doctors is the responsibility of the GMC. They set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses and medical schools to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the GMC’s outcome standards. The GMC also approves the training and curricula for post-graduate specialty training.

All United Kingdom registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the GMC’s Good Medical Practice. In 2012 the GMC introduced revalidation which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice, gives patients confidence doctors are up to date with their practice, and promotes improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in national illiteracy levels; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that groups at high risk of illiteracy receive adequate education.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

​​High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading and writing, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

The government has committed £28.3 million this financial year to support and drive high and rising standards in reading. This includes supporting the teaching of phonics, early language and reading for pleasure via our English Hubs, including the Reading Ambition for All programme, which aims to improve reading outcomes for children that need additional support, including those with special educational needs and disabilities. We are also building secondary schools' capacity to support students with reading needs by providing new reading training.

We are setting an ambition for 90% of children to meet the expected standard in the Phonics Screening Check by the end of year 1, through an improved focus on the children that struggle in the earliest years. We are also introducing a reading check for all pupils in year 8, to ensure that schools are identifying and providing support to pupils who need it at the beginning of secondary school.

This is alongside launching the National Year of Reading 2026, which will have a targeted focus on certain priority groups including boys aged 10 to 16, parents from disadvantaged communities, and early years children.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to electric Vehicle Excise Duty on the use of internal combustion engine vehicles.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that electric vehicles (EVs) contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.

The Government is also committed to ensuring that driving an electric vehicle is an attractive choice for consumers; the eVED rate paid by electric car drivers will therefore be half the equivalent fuel duty rate paid by the average petrol/diesel driver, meaning that it will still be cheaper to own and run an EV for the majority of EV drivers, with a reduced rate for plug-in hybrid drivers.

The Government has set out the expected impacts of eVED and other Budget measures, including Exchequer and behavioural impacts, in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK.

There are uncertainties, but the number of internal combustion engine cars is still expected to fall over time as electric car sales increase; EV sales are forecast to more than triple from nearly 0.5 million sales in 2025/26 to around 1.6 million by 2030/31.

Found: Q680 Bradley Thomas: But specifically in relation to our energy system?

Found: Members present: Bill Esterson (Chair); Lizzi Collinge; Graeme Downie; Wera Hobhouse; Mike Reader; Bradley Thomas

Found: Members present: Bill Esterson (Chair); Lizzi Collinge; Graeme Downie; Wera Hobhouse; Mike Reader; Bradley Thomas

Submit Evidence (by 27 Mar 2026)

The Committee is inquiring into what reforms are needed to the UK electricity market to enable the transition to clean, lower cost energy by 2023.