Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his department are taking steps to support the use of the Play Well Toolkit in NHS healthcare settings.

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

The Department recognises the importance of supporting and maintaining children’s right to play in healthcare settings. Games and active play in all settings build social skills and promote children’s well-being.

To support this, in June 2025 NHS England and Starlight, a national charity for children’s play in healthcare, co-published the Play Well Toolkit. The toolkit provides guidance on best practice, and includes a checklist to support the auditing, monitoring, and evaluation of services. NHS England is promoting the Play Well toolkit to managers of health play services across a wide range of settings, including community clinics, emergency departments, children’s hospices, and acute paediatric wards.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national register of opticians licensed to carry out DVLA eyesight tests.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is responsible for ensuring that all drivers meet the medical standards required for safe driving, including for eyesight. Drivers who notify the DVLA of a medical condition that may affect their eyesight may be asked to have a formal vision test. These tests are conducted by Specsavers on behalf of the DVLA. The current contract for this purpose was awarded to Specsavers in February 2025 following a competitive tender exercise. There are no plans to introduce a national register of opticians licensed to carry out these tests.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Draft National Planning Policy Framework, published on 16 December 2025, whether it is his policy that green belt land between villages should not be considered of importance when assessing whether proposed development may cause the coalescence of established settlements.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government’s proposed changes to Green Belt policy are set out in Chapter 13 of the consultation ‘National Planning Policy Framework: proposed reforms and other changes to the planning system’. The consultation is open for responses until 10 March 2026 and can be found on gov.uk here.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to Section 51 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, when he will lay regulations to delegate the power to set fees for planning applications to local planning authorities.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Planning and Infrastructure Act provides the Secretary of State with the power to delegate the setting of planning fees to local planning authorities.

The process for local fee setting will be set out in regulations this year. We will shortly also be consulting on a national default fee, which will be the baseline from which local planning authorities can vary and set their own fees.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how organisations providing mental health services to children and young people can engage with the Independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism.

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

My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has launched an independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism. We are deeply concerned that many adults, young people and children with mental health conditions, ADHD and autism have been let down by services and are not receiving timely or appropriate support and treatment. This Government has already taken significant steps to stabilise and improve NHS mental health services but there is much more to do. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a new approach to mental health.

Therefore, this independent review will inform our new approach to mental health, so people receive the right support, at the right time and in the right place. Likewise, the review will inform our approach so that people with ADHD and autistic people have the right support in place to enable them to live well in their communities.

As this is an independent review, it is for the Chair and Vice-chairs to consider who to consult and the relevant forums for engagement, that are relevant to deliver the terms of reference, set by the Department.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2025 to Question 90360 on Business Rates, when the Valuation Office Agency provided the draft valuations for the 2026 Rating List to her Department.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HM Treasury does not receive the full ratings list, as that would require data on named individual businesses to be shared, which would impact taxpayer confidentiality.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the letter from the Leader of the House of Commons of 15 January 2026, reference AC/MP1190, on what date her Department plans to respond to hon. Member for St Albans.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

I will write to you as soon as practicably possible.

Peter Hill, visiting every pub in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2020

Nuclear Regulatory Review and habitats regulations

Social media for under 16s

St David’s Day (Dydd Gwyl Dewi)

UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons

Deregistration of international non-governmental organisations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Newborn bloodspot screening for spinal muscular atrophy

Cumulative disruption proposals and the right to protest

Contribution of legal immigrants

Impact of proposed immigration changes on migrants living in the UK

UK arms export licensing and conflict in Sudan

Ukrainian Permission Extension Scheme

Sale of caged hens’ eggs

Found: invested in businesses, which is what drives up productivity.48 Speaking for the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper