Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many training places were allocated for GPs in each year since 2015.

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

NHS England publishes the number of posts and fill rates for medical specialty training programmes, including general practice training. Data for 2013 to 2025 is available at the following link:

https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/fill-rates

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the requirement for consultant radiologists in the the NHS as of 1 June 2026 and what number were employed.

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

NHS England publishes monthly information on the composition of the workforce employed by National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards in England. This includes information on the number of consultant radiologists. The information can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

Information on the number of doctors by grade and specialty can be found for each month in the file ‘NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data table, [date]’ on worksheet ‘4’.

No specific central assessment has been made of the requirement for consultant radiologists in the NHS, with decisions on the provision of local services being managed by individual NHS service providers and commissioners.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what has been the average time delay for Avanti West Coast trains in each of the five years up to and including 2025.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department does not routinely hold this data. It is the responsibility of train operating companies to collect this information. Wider performance data is however publicly available through The Office of Rail and Road's data portal. This can be found at: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/.

Whilst the question refers to calendar years, railway performance information is presented in four-weekly rail periods as standard.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many documents an SME has to complete before being considered eligible to bid for contracts with his Department.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The specific accreditation requirements placed on a supplier will vary from contract to contract, but will typically include the need to provide cyber security certification, financial records and appropriate insurance.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many Avanti West Coast trains have been delayed between Liverpool and London each of the five years up to and including 2025.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department does not routinely hold this data. It is the responsibility of train operating companies to collect this information. Although not on a line of route basis, wider performance data is publicly available through the Office of Rail and Road's data portal. This can be found at: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/.

Whilst the question refers to calendar years, railway performance information is presented in four-weekly rail periods as standard.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK based Start-up businesses have contacted his Department in the past 12 months seeking to inquire on or bid for defence related work.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Ministry of Defence does not hold centrally recorded data on the number of UK-based start-up businesses that have contacted the Department in the last 12 months to enquire about, or bid for, defence-related work. A "start-up" is not a category routinely captured within the Department's supplier or engagement systems, and businesses engage with Defence through a wide range of channels, including correspondence, meetings, supplier engagement events, trade shows, webinars and online platforms. In addition, unsuccessful bidders are not recorded by company growth stage, and therefore the Department cannot provide a reliable figure.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to improving access for small and innovative businesses. In January 2026, the Defence Office for Small Business Growth was established to help reduce barriers to entry, simplify engagement with Defence, and support non-traditional suppliers and start-ups seeking to work with the Department.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in each year since 2015.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson

The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) collects data on cancer incidence across a range of tumour types and stages. Data showing the annual incidence rate of stage four lung cancer can be found at the following link:

https://nhsd-ndrs.shinyapps.io/incidence_and_mortality/

The following table shows the incidence rate of stage four lung cancer from 2015 to the most recently published data available, from 2023:

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any money has been diverted away from Op Kindred's budget to other budgets in the MOD during the past 12 months.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

No funding has been diverted from the £3 billion a year that has been committed in support of Ukraine and encompasses Taskforce KINDRED.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the current wait time for cancer patients, from GP referral to being seen by a specialist in the Widnes and Halewood constituency.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson

The Department does not hold cancer waiting times data at a parliamentary constituency level. NHS England publishes cancer waiting times statistics by National Health Service provider and integrated care board, including performance against the faster diagnosis standard (FDS) which replaced the former two-week wait standard in October 2023, as the FDS measures whether patients referred urgently with suspected cancer have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days.

NHS England also continues to publish data on the time from an urgent suspected cancer referral to a first outpatient attendance and from an urgent breast symptomatic referral to a first hospital assessment. However, these measures do not necessarily indicate when a patient is first seen by a cancer specialist, as they may include attendance with a consultant-led team member, attendance at a diagnostic clinic, or a direct diagnostic test through a straight-to-test pathway. This data is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/monthly-data-and-summaries/2026-27-monthly-cancer-waiting-times-statistics/

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the health of the River Mersey.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

River ecological health status is based on Cycle 3 classifications in the River Basin Management Plans (RBMP), which were classified in 2019, partially updated in 2022, and again partially updated in 2025. The 2019 and 2022 classifications are publicly available, and the 2025 classifications are being readied for publication this Summer. Alongside this, the Environment Agency is currently reviewing all river classifications, reasons for failure, waterbody-level measures and river basin plan objectives, preparing for the December 2027 publication of Cycle 4. Cycle 4 baseline classifications are expected in 2028.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for patients to receive results from a CT scan at each acute hospital Trust in England as at 1 June 2026.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson

The average waiting time for patients to receive diagnostic results is tracked and published using the Diagnostic Imaging Dataset (DIDS).

The median number of days from request to test for diagnostic imaging, including computed tomography scans, for 2025/26 is available on table two at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostic-imaging-dataset/diagnostic-imaging-dataset-2025-26-data/

This covers diagnostic imaging in all settings, including emergency referrals, which in most cases would have been delivered on the same day. Data from June 2026 is not yet available, but NHS England is implementing improvements to DIDS in 2026/27 and data for May will be published in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) CT Scanners and (b) MRI scanners were in NHS hospitals on (i) 1 April 2015, (ii) 1 April 2020 and (iii) April 2026.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson

The number of computed tomography (CT) scanners and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners in National Health Service hospitals is published by the National Imaging Data Collection (NIDC) asset register.

The published NIDC data does not cover data from 2015 or 2020, but the latest published data shows that there were 656 MRI scanners and 757 CT scanners across England in 2024/25. The publications for 2022/23 to 2024/25 can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostic-imaging-dataset/national-imaging-data-collection/

The 2025/26 NIDC closes for submissions shortly, with publication of this data expected later this year. Published data is shown by NHS provider, both acute and specialist NHS trusts, by integrated care board, and by imaging network.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GPs there were in Widnes each year since 2020.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales

The following table shows full time equivalent (FTE) doctors in general practice in Widnes and Halewood constituency in the period between March 2020 and March 2026:

Source: NHS England

Notes:

1. Data does not include estimates for practices that did not provide fully valid staff records.

2. Data does not include general practitioners (GPs) employed directly by primary care networks (PCNs) as PCNs may operate across constituency boundaries.

3. FTE refers to the proportion of full time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. 1 would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time.  In GPs in Training Grade contracts 1 FTE = 40 hours and in this table these FTEs have been converted to the standard wMDS measure of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours for consistency.

4. Figures shown do not include staff working in Prisons, Army Bases, Educational Establishments, Specialist Care Centres including Drug Rehabilitation Centres, Walk-In Centres and other alternative settings outside of traditional general practice such as urgent treatment centres and minor injury units.

5. Practices in Widnes and Halewood constituency were identified using the practice postcode and the National Statistics Postcode Lookup.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the levels of sewage inflow into the River Mersey.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Environment Agency’s 2025-2030 Water Industry National Environment Programme is assessing risks from storm overflows in the Mersey catchment. The programme requires United Utilities to investigate the impact of over 450 storm overflows and to complete three investigations aimed at developing a catchment scale approach to reducing sewage discharges.

Found: Devon) Michelle Scrogham (Labour; Barrow and Furness) Fred Thomas (Labour; Plymouth Moor View) Derek Twigg

Found: Derek Twigg: Both, basically.

Found: Slaughter (Labour; Hammersmith and Chiswick) Emily Thornberry (Labour; Islington South and Finsbury) Derek Twigg

Submit Evidence (by 7 Oct 2026)

This inquiry will examine the UK’s resilience and preparedness for conflict, asking whether the UK government is meeting its obligations under NATO’s Article 3. The inquiry will also look at what powers the proposed Defence Readiness Bill might need to include to enable civil assistance to military authority in the event of a conflict.

Submit Evidence (by 6 Sep 2026)

No description available