Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
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 of access to dentistry in the Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on dentistry is available in the Dental statistics – England 2023/24 dataset, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, and available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324
The data for the NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board (ICB), which includes Ely and Cambridgeshire, shows that 27% of adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the previous 24 months up to June 2025, compared to 40% in England, and that 55% of children were seen by an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months up to June 2025, compared to 57% in England.
We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.
ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children that have required access to free school meals in each of the last five years in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department publishes data on free school meals (FSM) in its annual ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication, available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. The most recent data was published on 5 June, and the next publication is planned for summer 2026.
To access FSM data for the Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency for the 2024/25 academic year, refer to the file titled 'School level underlying data 2025 (CSV, 22 MB)', located in the 'Additional supporting files' section.
To access data from previous academic years, visit the 'Releases in this series' section on the publication website. Then, locate the 'School level underlying data' file under 'Additional supporting files'.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
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 85516 on Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling, when she plans to publish (a) the summary of that consultation and (b) her Department's response.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A consultation on the latest round of proposed fisheries byelaws, which proposes further restrictions on bottom trawling, closed on 29 September. The Marine Management Organisation is now carefully considering all responses received, and decisions will be made in due course.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
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 3 November to Question 85521 on Farmers: Mental Health and Productivity, for what reason the Department does not intend to undertake such research.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We undertake research where evidence does not exist to inform the policy decisions we take and our future research priorities will in part be guided by the Farming Roadmap when that is published next year. We know from working with farming charities that there are significant impacts from poor mental health in farming and have utilised their research, such as the Big Farming Survey, to understand the factors influencing mental health and resulting from, including productivity.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October to Question 84015 on Legal Aid Scheme: Ely and East Cambridgeshire, when the Legal Aid Agency last assessed the adequacy of legal aid provision in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency; and if they will undertake a new assessment in that constituency.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) continually assesses supply across all procurement areas. The LAA’s network of regional contract managers located throughout England and Wales provide intelligence-led information based on contact with legal aid service providers. In addition, the LAA regularly reviews available supply to make sure there is adequate provision for legal aid, in all categories of law, and takes operational action where it can, to respond to market pressures that may arise.
For civil contracts the LAA commissions and monitors the supply of legal aid services across larger geographic areas called procurement areas, rather than by local authority or parliamentary constituency. These areas vary depending on the type of civil law.
Ely and East Cambridgeshire fall within several procurement areas, which cover all civil categories of law for which legal aid is available. All of these procurement areas exceed the minimum required number of legal aid providers. In addition to local providers, national services are also available to your constituents. These include early legal advice through the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service, and telephone-based support for housing, debt, education, and discrimination issues via Civil Legal Advice.
Criminal legal aid contracts are commissioned nationally. The LAA monitors and take measures within its control to ensure there is sufficient coverage for local duty solicitor schemes, in this case the Cambridge and Ely scheme. These schemes are based on demand, so the number of solicitors may vary between areas.
As set out in the response to PQ 84015, the LAA is satisfied there is currently adequate provision of legal aid services in Ely and East Cambridgeshire.
Details about legal aid providers are published in the LAA’s official statistics (Tables 9.1–9.9). These figures help the LAA monitor the availability of services across different legal categories and regions in England and Wales.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate she has made of the funding required for Network Rail to undertake detailed planning for the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement Scheme.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State updated Parliament on the 7th of July regarding which rail and road infrastructure projects will progress following the completion of the 2025 Spending Review. The Ely Area Capacity Enhancement and upgrades to Haughley Junction were not among those projects funded at this time.
The previous government had committed to a number of infrastructure projects that were unfunded, this includes the EACE and Haughley Junction schemes.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of dementia care provision in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is empowering local leaders with the autonomy they need to provide the best services to their local community, including for those with dementia.
That is why we have published the D100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool. This will help simplify best practice for system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia. The tool is available at the following link:
We will also deliver the first ever Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia, and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of removing the relevant target from the NHS Operational Planning Guidance 2025-6 on the dementia diagnosis rate.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Darzi Investigation found that there are too many targets set for the National Health Service, which made it hard for local systems to prioritise their actions or to be held properly accountable.
Our aim is to give more power to local systems and let them decide how they use local funding to best meet the needs of their local population.
NHS Planning Guidance is not an exhaustive list of everything the NHS does, and the absence of a target does not mean it is not an area of focus. We remain committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7%.
We will deliver the first ever Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework to deliver rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia, and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect NHS priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how his Department measures the (a) accessibility of GPs and (b) GPs' workload.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The General Practice Patient Survey (GPPS) measures patient satisfaction and ease of access to general practice (GP) services. The Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency sits within the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board, where 69% of respondents to the 2025 GPPS reported a good experience of contacting their GP and 74% of respondents reported a good overall experience with their practice.
It is challenging to accurately estimate GPs’ workload as much of their work is not reflected in published data, and in addition to delivering appointments, GPs will manage referrals, complete paperwork, and, in the case of GP partners, manage the practice itself.
We know that high workloads can be a key driver for GPs reducing their contracted hours or leaving the profession altogether, impacting access to GPs. That’s why we are tackling morale through drivers such as growing the workforce and reducing bureaucracy through our Red Tape Challenge. Expanding capacity in GPs will improve access for patients, as well as alleviating high workloads, by making more appointments available.
Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
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 of the adequacy of access to GPs in Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The General Practice Patient Survey (GPPS) measures patient satisfaction and ease of access to general practice (GP) services. The Ely and East Cambridgeshire constituency sits within the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board, where 69% of respondents to the 2025 GPPS reported a good experience of contacting their GP and 74% of respondents reported a good overall experience with their practice.
It is challenging to accurately estimate GPs’ workload as much of their work is not reflected in published data, and in addition to delivering appointments, GPs will manage referrals, complete paperwork, and, in the case of GP partners, manage the practice itself.
We know that high workloads can be a key driver for GPs reducing their contracted hours or leaving the profession altogether, impacting access to GPs. That’s why we are tackling morale through drivers such as growing the workforce and reducing bureaucracy through our Red Tape Challenge. Expanding capacity in GPs will improve access for patients, as well as alleviating high workloads, by making more appointments available.