Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of using bareboat chartering commercial vessels to augment the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s work supporting Royal Navy operations.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary continues to provide the Royal Navy’s afloat support using its own civilian crewed vessels.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when he expects to launch the call for evidence in relation to the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations and related processes.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We launched a call for evidence on Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) on 8th April to gather input from all interested parties. We committed to reviewing the regulations to consider how to simplify and clarify the transfer process for businesses, while still providing the appropriate protections to employees who are affected by the transfers. We value the feedback from our stakeholders and aim to make changes where they will have a positive impact for employees and businesses alike.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the (a) consultation responses and (b) feedback from impacted people on proposed changes to the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme are taken into account.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 30 October, the Government launched a public consultation on proposed changes to the infected blood compensation scheme. The core purpose of this consultation was to gather views on how the Government intends to implement the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations, and responses from the infected blood community were particularly encouraged.
Every response to this consultation is being considered carefully and with the seriousness the issue deserves. The consultation closed on 22 January, and the Government will publish its response within 12 weeks of this closing date.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential effect of the cost profile of (a) rail and (b) road freight operations on modal shift.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department does not hold data on relative changes to operating costs between road and rail freight. As part of continued support for the rail freight sector, the Department has operated the Mode Shift Revenue Support scheme since 2010. Network Rail also offers the Access Charges Discount Policy to stimulate growth, supporting new to rail traffic.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will list the total funding received to date by each freight transport company in the infrastructure development phase of the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) R&D programme has provided £58 million to date to 18 UK freight transport companies across different project consortia to support the purchase and demonstration of the heaviest zero emission HGVs, and associated infrastructure.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the average age of (a) locomotives and (b) wagons on the rail freight network.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The rail freight industry is mainly privately owned and operated, so the Department does not keep data on the age of these privately owned assets.
The regulator for rail, the Office of Rail and Road holds some data on freight rolling stock which can be found here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/infrastructure-and-environment/rail-infrastructure-and-assets/ .
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any UK military personnel were onboard the USS Charlotte (SSN-766) on 4 March 2026 and, if so, how many personnel were onboard.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
We do not comment on the details of either submarine operations, or the details of individual assignments of UK Service personnel.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 address the shortage of and the level of prices paid for basic medicines by community pharmacies.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We already have two arrangements in place to reduce community pharmacies dispensing at a loss and to ensure that overall, they are paid enough as part of their Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) funding. These are the medicine margin arrangements and concessionary prices.
Regarding the medicine margin arrangements, the medicine margin is the difference between the reimbursement price and the price the pharmacy was charged by the supplier. Community pharmacy reimbursement arrangements include an amount of medicines margin that pharmacies are allowed to retain as part of CPCF funding. The Department assesses the medicine margin through a quarterly medicine margin survey, which ensures that in totality, pharmacies are paid the allowed medicine margin above what it cost them to purchase medicines overall.
For concessionary prices, the Department relies on competition and efficient purchasing by community pharmacies to keep prices of medicines down. This has led to some of the lowest prices in Europe and allows prices to react to the market. In an international market this ensures that when demand is high and supply is low, prices in the United Kingdom can increase to help secure the availability of medicines for UK patients. When the market price of a medicine suddenly increases, concessionary prices can be granted in that month, increasing the reimbursement price above the Drug Tariff price, with the aim of mitigating pharmacy contractors dispensing at a loss. In addition, there is a ‘retrospective top-up payment for concessionary prices’, which provides an additional payment to contractors when the margin survey indicates that despite a concessionary price, there was an under payment for a specific product.
More broadly, medicine supply chains are complex, global, and highly regulated. There are a number of reasons why supply can be disrupted, many of which are not specific to the UK and outside of Government control, including manufacturing difficulties, access to raw materials, sudden demand spikes or distribution issues, and regulatory issues. There are approximately 14,000 licensed medicines and the overwhelming majority are in good supply.
While we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, we have a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise and to mitigate risks to patients. These include close and regular engagement with suppliers, and use of alternative strengths or forms of a medicine to allow patients to remain on the same product and expediting regulatory procedures. In addition, we utilise sourcing unlicensed imports from abroad, adding products to the restricted exports and hoarding list, use of Serious Shortage Protocols, and issuing National Health Service communications to provide management advice and information on the issue to healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, so they can advise and support their patients.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
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 reform NHS Drug Tariff reimbursement to ensure community pharmacies are not required to dispense medicines at a loss.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We already have two arrangements in place to reduce community pharmacies dispensing at a loss and to ensure that overall, they are paid enough as part of their Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) funding. These are the medicine margin arrangements and concessionary prices.
Regarding the medicine margin arrangements, the medicine margin is the difference between the reimbursement price and the price the pharmacy was charged by the supplier. Community pharmacy reimbursement arrangements include an amount of medicines margin that pharmacies are allowed to retain as part of CPCF funding. The Department assesses the medicine margin through a quarterly medicine margin survey, which ensures that in totality, pharmacies are paid the allowed medicine margin above what it cost them to purchase medicines overall.
For concessionary prices, the Department relies on competition and efficient purchasing by community pharmacies to keep prices of medicines down. This has led to some of the lowest prices in Europe and allows prices to react to the market. In an international market this ensures that when demand is high and supply is low, prices in the United Kingdom can increase to help secure the availability of medicines for UK patients. When the market price of a medicine suddenly increases, concessionary prices can be granted in that month, increasing the reimbursement price above the Drug Tariff price, with the aim of mitigating pharmacy contractors dispensing at a loss. In addition, there is a ‘retrospective top-up payment for concessionary prices’, which provides an additional payment to contractors when the margin survey indicates that despite a concessionary price, there was an under payment for a specific product.
More broadly, medicine supply chains are complex, global, and highly regulated. There are a number of reasons why supply can be disrupted, many of which are not specific to the UK and outside of Government control, including manufacturing difficulties, access to raw materials, sudden demand spikes or distribution issues, and regulatory issues. There are approximately 14,000 licensed medicines and the overwhelming majority are in good supply.
While we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, we have a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise and to mitigate risks to patients. These include close and regular engagement with suppliers, and use of alternative strengths or forms of a medicine to allow patients to remain on the same product and expediting regulatory procedures. In addition, we utilise sourcing unlicensed imports from abroad, adding products to the restricted exports and hoarding list, use of Serious Shortage Protocols, and issuing National Health Service communications to provide management advice and information on the issue to healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, so they can advise and support their patients.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide additional support to rural community pharmacies to mitigate the potential impact of increases in costs, including for (a) wages, (b) energy, (c) business rates and (d) medicines.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2025/26 funding for the core community pharmacy contractual framework was increased to £3.1 billion. This represented the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service at the time, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. This included funding for the Pharmacy Access Scheme, which provides additional funding to more isolated pharmacies to support patient access.
As part of delivering the Pharmacy First service, pharmacy contractors receive a monthly fixed payment if they meet specific requirements, which include minimum activity levels. From June 2025, pharmacies delivering 20 to 29 consultations receive £500, while those with at least 30 consultations continued to receive £1,000 monthly. The new lower tier of payment supports pharmacies with lower potential for delivery, including rural pharmacies, and has increased the number of pharmacies qualifying for Pharmacy First fixed payments.
The Department is currently consulting with Community Pharmacy England on any proposed changes to reimbursement and remuneration of pharmacy contractors for 2026/27. As part of this we will consider financial pressures on the sector.