Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that public community health initiatives continue to be inclusive for all participants.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
There is no established definition of public community health initiatives. Most local health services are commissioned by NHS integrated care boards. Each integrated care board must have regard to the need to reduce health inequalities, with respect both to the ability of people to access health services and the outcomes achieved for them by the provision of health services.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 support ICBs to engage with communities that may not trust the NHS.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On behalf of my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Department will set the direction, issuing clear guidance to integrated care boards and local authorities on obtaining and actioning the views of local people on health and care services.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that compensation awarded to armed forces (a) veterans and (b) their families is not classified as income.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Payments intended to compensate individuals for personal injury would generally fall within established tax principles that treat compensation for personal injury as non-taxable. If payments are made which specifically represent loss of earnings, they will be subject to income tax under miscellaneous income rules.
For compensation paid under some schemes, specific tax treatment applies. Current and former armed forces personnel can claim compensation for any injury or illness which was caused by service. Family members may claim for compensation for personnel whose death was caused by service. Payments made under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme are tax free. More information can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/armed-forces-compensation-scheme-afcs
The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme applies from 6 April 2005. Claims for injuries, illnesses or death prior to that date are covered by the War Pensions Scheme, which also compensates using tax free payments.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of the NHS providing free detail repairs for teeth damaged by seizures.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be more vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for assessing the needs of their population and ensuring that the relevant dental services are available.
Free National Health Service dental care is available to people who are: under 18 years old, or under 19 years old and in full-time education; pregnant or have had a baby in the previous 12 months; being treated in an NHS hospital and treatment is carried out by the hospital dentist, keeping in mind that patients may have to pay for any dentures or bridges; and receiving low-income benefits, or under 20 years old and a dependant of someone receiving low-income benefits.
Support is also available through the NHS Low Income Scheme for those patients who are not eligible for exemption or full remission. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/dental-costs/get-help-with-dental-costs/
1.8 million additional courses of NHS dental treatment were delivered in the seven months between April and October 2025 compared to the corresponding months prior to the 2024 General Election, nearly half of which were delivered to children.
From April 2026, we began introducing a package of reforms to address some of the pressing issues that dental teams have been experiencing. These reforms will prioritise those with the greatest need, shifting care away from clinically unnecessary check-ups.
We are also committed to fundamentally reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how the new safer streets guidance for women and girls will help ensure that women feel safer when cycling as well as walking.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
On 25th March, Active Travel England set out its intention to publish guidance during 2026 as part of a programme of work to support authorities to design safer streets for women and girls.
The programme is under development this year with the intention to deliver guidance in a range of formats to ensure it is practical, engaging and easy to adopt.
This will include an introductory guidance document on the topic of gender and active travel, and a revised best practice guide for community consultation and engagement. A schedule of training is expected to follow in the new year for council officers, developers and practitioners. Guidance will consider active travel inclusive of walking, wheeling and cycling.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department is taking steps to help people use cheaper forms of transport such as (a) cycling and (b) walking during continued fuel cost pressures.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This Government recognises that investment in active travel gives people affordable transport choice to cut the cost of living. In December 2025, the Government announced £626 million funding for local authorities from 2026/27 to 2029/30 to deliver walking, wheeling and cycling schemes. This builds on the almost £300 million funding announced in February 2025 for 2024/25 and 2025/26. A further £108 million was announced in March for cycle training and walk to school programmes over the next three years.
The Government will shortly be publishing the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS3) following a consultation in the autumn of 2025.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how the Government’s Better Connected transport strategy will ensure that walking and cycling are fully integrated into the wider transport system.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Better Connected: A Strategy for Integrated Transport recognises the crucial role that walking, wheeling and cycling play in connecting people and places, either as the whole trip or as part of accessing the wider transport network. It commits Active Travel England to develop a framework for assessing the quality and connectivity of walking, wheeling and cycling routes to rail stations, as well as cycle parking provision.
The strategy is supported by the Government’s new Local Transport Plan (LTP) guidance, under which local transport authorities should set out in their LTPs how walking, wheeling and cycling will be enabled, prioritised and integrated with other forms of local transport.
The Government is also providing significant investment in active travel, including £626 million funding for local authorities from 2026/27 to 2029/30, and will publish the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS3), shortly.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when his Department last reviewed the list of statutory consultees; and when the Department next plans to review it.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
On 18 November 2025, the government launched a consultation on reforms to the statutory consultee system, which sought views on the scope of what statutory consultees advise on, and removing statutory consultee status from certain bodies.
The consultation, which closed on 13 January 2026, is available on gov.uk here.
We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who will hold data controllership for the Single Patient Record; and who will be liable should the patient data be misused.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Single Patient Record (SPR) will improve outcomes for patients by giving professionals access to all the key information they need to deliver care, in one place, affording safer decision-making with fewer information gaps.
No decision has been made on the arrangements for how the SPR will be delivered, and what the implications are for data controllership.
We will be consulting with general practitioners through a series of national engagement events starting in June 2026. This follows our programme of deliberative engagement with the public in 2024, which aimed to understand how a SPR could be designed in a way that maximises benefits and is trusted by the public, and the outcomes from this engagement are helping to shape our approach to the SPR.
It is in the best interest of all parties to have an agreed position on key issues such as data controllership. Data controllership is a specific legal term under UK General Data Protection Regulation that reflects the reality on the ground of who decides what data is collected and how it is used. In effect, a data controller is a decision-maker on the use of data and is accountable for its use.
The following points are our starting position, which we look forward to discussing with the profession.
Health and care organisations will remain data controllers for the data they hold in their practices, and what they share with the SPR, to provide services to their patients.
Regulations made under the bill will require relevant health and care organisations, including general practices, to share relevant data with the SPR for the purpose of making it available to clinicians in different care settings, to improve the care of their patients.
Where, in accordance with the regulations, the SPR operator determines the means and purposes of processing data in the SPR, they will also become a data controller, with responsibilities to comply with the data protection legislation.
There is no date for publication of any legal or governance frameworks which will apply, although these will be published before any data is processed within the SPR.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department have made of the potential merits of the creation of an operationally independent regulatory function for NHS providers and commissioners.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As an arm’s length body, the Care Quality Commission delivers an operationally independent function of regulatory oversight for the quality and safety of health and adult social care.
In addition, operational oversight of providers and commissioners is currently the responsibility of NHS England. Under our proposed reforms, this responsibility will return to the Department with ministers directly accountable to Parliament.
The Department has therefore not identified a need to establish a separate operationally independent regulatory function for commissioners.