Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to improve time to diagnosis for children and young people with suspected Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

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

Services for children with suspected juvenile idiopathic arthritis are commissioned in line with the national service specification for paediatric rheumatology services.

The national service specification helps to reduce waiting times for diagnosis by mandating clear referral pathways and rapid access to specialist paediatric rheumatology teams. It sets national standards requiring timely triage of suspected cases, prioritisation of urgent referrals, and availability of multidisciplinary expertise for early assessment. The specification ensures consistency across regions, minimises delays caused by local variation, and supports faster initiation of diagnostic tests and treatment planning.

Additionally, the 10-Year Health Plan’s commitments to expand community diagnostic centres for quicker access to tests, introduce digital tools to support early symptom monitoring and triage, and improve the integration between primary care and specialist services will further streamline referral pathways and ensure children receive timely assessment and treatment.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle elective care waiting times, including joint replacement surgery, in North Herefordshire constituency.

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

The Government is committed to putting patients first, nationally and in North Herefordshire. That is why, in the Elective Reform Plan, we committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment. Having delivered 5.2 million extra appointments, we have more than doubled our pledge to deliver an extra two million during our first year in office.

Thanks to our modernisation and record investment, waiting lists have been falling for the first time in over a decade. Since the Government came into office it has decreased by over 230,000, despite over 26.4 million referrals onto the waiting list.

North Herefordshire is predominantly served by the Wye Valley NHS Trust, which has seen recent performance improvement in the trauma and orthopaedic (TO) waiting list. Between July 2024 and September 2025, the proportion of waits within 18 weeks for patients on the TO list increased by 5.7%, to 51.8%. The number waiting more than 52 weeks has also fallen by nearly 40%. Since November, high volume weekend lists for joint replacement procedures have also commenced at the Wye Valley Trust.

Nationally, the number of patients on TO waiting lists waiting within 18 weeks has improved by 3.7% and the number waiting more than 52 weeks has fallen by almost 16,000 over the same period.

We know there is more to do to tackle elective waiting lists including for joint replacement surgery. That is why we have invested £1.65 billion in capital funding in 2025/26 to expand and enhance surgical capacity, which includes funding for surgical hubs, the majority of which offer joint replacement surgeries.

As of December 2025, 123 surgical hubs are operational across England including three in the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System, the most recent being the Wye Valley Elective Surgical Hub which opened in July 2024. These dedicated and protected surgical hubs focus on high volume low complexity surgeries and protect elective care from winter and emergency pressures by using ring-fenced staff and facilities, reducing cancellations and improving efficiency.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Ofcom’s regulation of (a) Evri and (b) other parcel delivery companies on (i) the recruitment, vetting and oversight of self-employed couriers, (ii) the suitability and safety of vehicles used for parcel delivery and (iii) consumer protection and complaints resolution in the context of reports of ((A) lost, (B) delayed and (C) improperly delivered parcels; and whether he plans to strengthen regulatory requirements for such operators.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

It is important that all parcel operators provide a good service to their customers and reduce the number of lost, delayed or improperly delivered parcels as far as possible. Evri and other parcel operators are independent businesses, and the government has no role in their operational decisions. All delivery companies must comply with employment and traffic or vehicle safety obligations.

Ofcom, the independent regulator for postal services, requires that all operators have a straightforward, accessible, and affordable complaints process. It does not regulate the employment models of Evri or other delivery companies.

Convention on Cluster Munitions and preventing UK involvement in their production

UK arms export licensing and conflict in Sudan

Winter NHS corridor care

Children and blast injuries, Save the Children report

Border violence

Political education

US military build-up in the Caribbean

Higher education pension cuts

Right to trial by jury

Union of Agricultural Work Committees in the Occupied West Bank

Armed exports to the United Arab Emirates and the situation in Sudan

UK participation in Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Found: from Members The following Members made oral representations: • Alex Sobel, Sarah Olney and Ellie Chowns