Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken for Gateway (a) 2 and (b) 3 approvals under the Building Safety Regulator; and if he will provide additional support for (i) manufacturers and (ii) contractors whose businesses are affected.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has established a dedicated external remediation team who assess all building control approval applications for cladding remediation. The team is already delivering engagement events to improve developers’ understanding of the requirements, and therefore increase the quality of applications and approval rates.

The BSR is also in the process of establishing a remediation enforcement unit, to oversee escalations from government/partner regulators where remediation is not progressing quickly enough. The unit will have access to additional, dedicated resources for building control work to deal with the increasing demand, and to help increase the pace of remediation works.

We recognise that delays in assessing Gateway approval applications are unacceptable, which is why we announced reforms on 30 June including carving out the BSR from the Health and Safety Executive and establishing the Regulator as a standalone body with a clear focus on building safety.

The BSR is already making operational and policy changes to speed up decision making, particularly on building control approval, including through the introduction of an Innovation Unit. Early signs are positive with all applications in the Innovation Unit so far on track to exceed or meet the 12-week SLA as they progress through the application process.

In addition to this, BSR has initiated a new approach of batching applications so they can be processed by multidisciplinary teams formed by Registered Building Control Approvers with oversight from BSR.

The BSR is continually improving the suite of guidance that supports those with duties in understanding what the law requires of them and how they can comply. New guidance with the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has been published to help applicants better understand what’s needed for a successful submission.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the upcoming NHS Workforce Plan will include measures to improve the recruitment and retention of staff in women’s health services.

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

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that adequate (a) training and (b) funding is made available for schools to meet the needs of children with physical challenges requiring individualised support.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The government is committed to strengthening the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system to help improve outcomes for children and young people.

The department has published allocations for £740 million high needs capital in 2025/26. This funding is intended to create facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit pupils’ needs. It can also be used to adapt mainstream schools to be more accessible and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.

Funding for schools is increasing by £4.2 billion by financial year 2028/29, compared to this financial year 2025/26. This additional funding will provide an above real terms per pupil increase on overall schools funding, which will take per-pupil funding to its highest ever level and enable us to transform the SEND system. We intend to set out plans for reforming the SEND system in further detail in the coming months.

The department has recently commissioned the Council for Disabled Children to produce new guidance for schools on their duties towards their disabled pupils under equality law, including a new handbook on their accessibility duty, available here: https://councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/files/Accessibility%20plans%20and%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010%20A%20handbook%20for%20schools.pdf. We have also commissioned a forthcoming training package to complement that guidance.

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 help reduce waiting lists for people needing urgent allergic care.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is working closely with a range of stakeholders from across the Government, the National Health Service, voluntary organisations, and patient representative groups, including the National Allergy Strategy Group, to consider how allergy care and support could be improved.

The Government is committed to returning accident and emergency waiting times to the safe operational waiting time standards set out in the NHS Constitution. In doing so, we will be honest about the challenges facing the health service and serious about tackling them.

The Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 was published on 6 June 2025 and focuses on improvements that will make urgent and emergency care better every day. The plan will:

• ensure that at least 78% of patients in accident and emergency departments will be seen within four hours; and
• reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharge from an emergency department to less than 10%.

Further information on the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/

In July 2025, we published the 10-Year Health Plan to create a new model of care, to be fit for the future. This includes establishing the Neighbourhood Health Service, to shift care into the community and reduce demand in emergency departments, which is backed by almost £450 million of capital investment. Further information on the 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future

Freezing of Local Housing Allowance

Buying community energy locally

Non-indexed pre-1997 pensions

Extinction of the slender-billed curlew

Five-year indefinite leave to remain pathway for Skilled Worker visa holders