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 reduce waiting times for ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist appointments.

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

Cutting elective care waiting times, including for ear, nose, and throat services (ENT), is a key priority for the Government. Between July 2024 and June 2025, we delivered 5.2 million additional appointments, compared to the previous year, more than double our pledge of two million. The latest data from August 2025 shows the ENT waiting list, currently at 627,206, has reduced by 31,000, or 4.7%, since the start of July 2024.

ENT is identified as a priority in the Elective Reform Plan. Specific actions to reform ENT include expanding non-surgical community-based ENT services, maximising pharmacy first approaches, and developing one-stop clinical models to support patients needing ear care and patients with rhinitis. We are also focussing on reducing unwarranted variation in surgical pathways, supporting nationwide adoption of high-flow operating lists, and promoting greater ENT and paediatric ENT access at surgical hubs.

Surgical hubs focus on driving improvement in six high volume specialties, including ENT. There are currently 124 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England. Additionally, as outlined in the Elective Reform Plan, we will continue to promote greater ENT access at surgical hubs and greater partnership working with the independent sector to deliver more non-urgent care, free at the point of use.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken to process Access to Work applications.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are committed to reducing the time taken to process Access to Work applications and are considering the best way to deliver that for customers. We have increased the number of staff processing Access to Work applications. We prioritise applications from customers who are about to start a job or are renewing existing support. In March 2025, DWP published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to consult on the future of Access to Work. Alongside this, we are exploring further changes within the current policy framework to reduce the time taken to process Access to Work applications.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to reduce the cost of creating new walking, wheeling and cycling routes on disused railways.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Local authorities are empowered to decide where investment is made in their areas. As such, it is for local authorities to consider whether disused railway lines would be suitable for active travel routes and to work with National Highways, in their role as custodians of the historic rail estate, to assess the viability of any particular routes.

In the Spending Review we announced that we are allocating £616 million for Active Travel England from 2026-27 to 2029-30 to support local authorities to build and maintain walking and cycling infrastructure. This is in addition to the almost £300 million funding for active travel in 2024/25 and 2025/26 which we announced in February.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of pavement parking on levelks of (a) wellbeing, (b) social isolation and (c) economic opportunities of disabled people.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government fully understands the serious problems that vehicles parked on the pavement, and other obstacles on the pavement, can cause for pedestrians, especially for people with mobility or sight impairments and disabled people with wheelchairs, prams or pushchairs. To inform next steps, the Department has considered the potential options, assessing the costs and benefits to households and businesses, which includes well-being, social isolation and economic opportunities. This assessment drew on existing evidence, including the 2020 pavement parking consultation. We will announce the next steps and publish our formal response as soon as possible.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of whether the Palestinian Authority education curriculum (a) for 2025-2026 and (b) in general meets UNESCO standards for (i) peace and (ii) tolerance in school education.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given on 29 October to question 79968.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has conducted a review of (a) the effectiveness of police enforcement of and (b) the level of compliance with the ban on live hunting under the Hunting Act 2004.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra has not undertaken such reviews. The enforcement of the Hunting Act is an operational matter for the police. It is for individual Chief Constables to determine how their resources are deployed and it is for locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners to hold their forces to account.

Found: South) Mr Peter Bedford (Conservative; Mid Leicestershire) Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat; Torbay) Damien Egan

Found: South) Mr Peter Bedford (Conservative; Mid Leicestershire) Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat; Torbay) Damien Egan

Found: present: Debbie Abrahams (Chair); Rushanara Ali; Johanna Baxter; Mr Peter Bedford; Steve Darling; Damien Egan

Found: South) Mr Peter Bedford (Conservative; Mid Leicestershire) Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat; Torbay) Damien Egan

Found: South) Mr Peter Bedford (Conservative; Mid Leicestershire) Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat; Torbay) Damien Egan

The last time the State Pension age went up there was a jump in the number of pre-pensioners (people aged 60+ but below pension age) in poverty. This group are the joint poorest among working age adults.