Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help protect the health of people using inland waters for recreation.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government will bring forward legislation through the Clean Water Bill, announced in the King’s Speech on 13 May, to deliver major reforms to the water system.
Public health will be at the heart of these reforms, alongside measures to strengthen regulation, improve water quality and tackle pollution at source, as set out in the Water White Paper.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to inland waters for recreational users.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing. Public access onto around 3,400 miles of our regulated inland waterways, including several of the larger rivers, is available through the licensing regimes of the navigation authorities that own or manage them.
As set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, Defra committed to consulting on measures to ensure that everyone has access to nature close to home and to strengthen the public’s legal rights to access through an Access to Nature Green Paper to be published during this Parliament. This includes exploring the feasibility of increased access onto unregulated waterways, and Defra is committed to working with stakeholders as this develops.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 improve the level of transparency and accountability in the distribution of Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme funding at the local level.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for the allocation and distribution of Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) funding to primary care networks (PCNs). This system is applied consistently across the National Health Service in England.
The PCN Additional Roles Reimbursement Sum is updated each year via updates to the Network Contract DES Contract Specification and supporting guidance, namely Chapter 10 of the specification and Chapter 7 of the guidance. The specification and the guidance are available at the following two links:
For 2026/27, it equates to £27.668 and a PCN's maximum entitlement is calculated by multiplying the £27.668 ARRS Sum by the PCN Contractor Weighted Population as of 1 January 2026. PCNs can calculate their entitlement by using the General medical services and primary care network income ready reckoner from 1 April 2026, which is available at the following link:
The scheme is subject to annual review as part of the consultation on the GP Contract with professional representatives. NHS England works closely with the Department to implement any changes identified as part of this process.
In October 2024 the Government announced changes to the ARRS which allows PCNs to recruit general practitioners (GPs) through the scheme for 2024/25. Since October 2024 over 3,700 GPs have been recruited through the ARRS.
As part of the 2026/27 GP Contract, we are increasing flexibility of the scheme by removing the restriction that ARRS funding can only be used for recently qualified GPs, increasing the maximum reimbursement amount for GP roles to reflect experience, and enabling PCNs to recruit a broader range of ARRS roles, where agreed with the commissioner.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to expand the Community Pharmacy Independent Prescriber programme in 2026-27 financial year.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recently announced a £340 million uplift to community pharmacy funding, a 10% increase, recognising the essential role pharmacies play in supporting patients and the wider National Health Service. As part of this, we are funding the rollout of NHS Independent Prescribing nationwide from Autumn 2026, building on the success of Pharmacy First and the Pharmacy Contraception Service to help pharmacists use their clinical skills and provide more on-the-spot care for common conditions.
Under the new contractual framework, pharmacists with an independent prescribing qualification, including those graduating from September 2026, will be able to assess patients and prescribe medicines directly. This rollout draws on learning from successful NHS pathfinder sites. In the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, the pathfinder delivered 2,434 consultations up to 31 December 2025, of which 2,248, or 92.4%, were completed without onward referral and 1,424, or 58.5%, resulted in a pharmacist issuing a prescription, demonstrating its positive impact.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 ensure all new pharmacy graduates from September 2026 are able to independently prescribe.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recently announced a £340 million uplift to community pharmacy funding, a 10% increase, recognising the essential role pharmacies play in supporting patients and the wider National Health Service. As part of this, we are funding the rollout of NHS Independent Prescribing nationwide from Autumn 2026, building on the success of Pharmacy First and the Pharmacy Contraception Service to help pharmacists use their clinical skills and provide more on-the-spot care for common conditions.
Under the new contractual framework, pharmacists with an independent prescribing qualification, including those graduating from September 2026, will be able to assess patients and prescribe medicines directly. This rollout draws on learning from successful NHS pathfinder sites. In the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, the pathfinder delivered 2,434 consultations up to 31 December 2025, of which 2,248, or 92.4%, were completed without onward referral and 1,424, or 58.5%, resulted in a pharmacist issuing a prescription, demonstrating its positive impact.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 effectiveness of the Community Pharmacy Independent Prescriber trials in Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recently announced a £340 million uplift to community pharmacy funding, a 10% increase, recognising the essential role pharmacies play in supporting patients and the wider National Health Service. As part of this, we are funding the rollout of NHS Independent Prescribing nationwide from Autumn 2026, building on the success of Pharmacy First and the Pharmacy Contraception Service to help pharmacists use their clinical skills and provide more on-the-spot care for common conditions.
Under the new contractual framework, pharmacists with an independent prescribing qualification, including those graduating from September 2026, will be able to assess patients and prescribe medicines directly. This rollout draws on learning from successful NHS pathfinder sites. In the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, the pathfinder delivered 2,434 consultations up to 31 December 2025, of which 2,248, or 92.4%, were completed without onward referral and 1,424, or 58.5%, resulted in a pharmacist issuing a prescription, demonstrating its positive impact.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to reform Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme funding.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for the allocation and distribution of Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) funding to primary care networks (PCNs). This system is applied consistently across the National Health Service in England.
The PCN Additional Roles Reimbursement Sum is updated each year via updates to the Network Contract DES Contract Specification and supporting guidance, namely Chapter 10 of the specification and Chapter 7 of the guidance. The specification and the guidance are available at the following two links:
For 2026/27, it equates to £27.668 and a PCN's maximum entitlement is calculated by multiplying the £27.668 ARRS Sum by the PCN Contractor Weighted Population as of 1 January 2026. PCNs can calculate their entitlement by using the General medical services and primary care network income ready reckoner from 1 April 2026, which is available at the following link:
The scheme is subject to annual review as part of the consultation on the GP Contract with professional representatives. NHS England works closely with the Department to implement any changes identified as part of this process.
In October 2024 the Government announced changes to the ARRS which allows PCNs to recruit general practitioners (GPs) through the scheme for 2024/25. Since October 2024 over 3,700 GPs have been recruited through the ARRS.
As part of the 2026/27 GP Contract, we are increasing flexibility of the scheme by removing the restriction that ARRS funding can only be used for recently qualified GPs, increasing the maximum reimbursement amount for GP roles to reflect experience, and enabling PCNs to recruit a broader range of ARRS roles, where agreed with the commissioner.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 NHS trusts to recruit newly qualified nurses.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the employment of newly qualified nurses are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts. Trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Department is working closely with NHS England, employers and educators to improve transition into the workforce. We are also supporting improvements to workforce planning through a student movement dashboard. The dashboard will enable NHS England teams, universities and employers to understand where future vacancies will arise and signpost newly graduated students towards these roles, supporting better alignment between job vacancies and anticipated supply of graduating students.
Our upcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will go further to ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 introducing a named clinical lead for every woman accessing NHS maternity services to improve continuity of care and accountability for patient outcomes.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the potential for continuity of care within maternity services to improve women’s experience of maternity care and reduce inequalities in outcomes. However, maternity services need to have enough staff with the right skills in the right places to implement continuity of care teams safely.
NHS England has encouraged providers to prioritise the establishment of Enhanced Midwifery Continuity of Care teams where staffing allows, which provide care to women and families experiencing the greatest vulnerability and social complexity to help reduce health inequalities. Over £10 million in recurrent funding has supported these teams, including maternity support workers releasing additional midwifery time in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods.
An independent evaluation found that enhanced model of continuity of carer teams provided greater capacity for midwives to deliver enhanced care to the women that are most likely to experience poor outcomes. An evaluation of longer-term outcomes will be available in 2027.
NHS England has not made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of continuity of care teams in international settings but continues to learn from best practice both in England and internationally. The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce is comprised of experts and key stakeholders from across the maternity and neonatal sector, and wider health sector. This includes families, clinicians, academics, royal colleges and international expertise.
The National Health Service has established Maternal Medicine Networks (MMNs) across England to improve access to specialist medical care for women with chronic and acute medical problems during pregnancy. This approach has been strengthened by the Maternal Care Bundle, which requires all NHS trusts to put pathways in place from all acute settings to the MMNs for acutely unwell pregnant or recently pregnant women. presenting with symptoms or diagnostic uncertainty; and for women with complex epilepsy.
In January 2026, NHS England published the Improving Postnatal Care Toolkit, to support ICBs to improve postnatal care. This highlights the importance of seamless co-ordination between services, with a dedicated professional overseeing and co-ordinating every stage of a woman’s postnatal care and particularly for women and infants with multiple social and medical needs.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 effectiveness of small, consistent maternity care teams in improving maternal outcomes such as in the Netherlands, Sweden and New Zealand; and whether he has considered the potential merits of adopting elements of maternity care models used in said countries where continuity of care is prioritised.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the potential for continuity of care within maternity services to improve women’s experience of maternity care and reduce inequalities in outcomes. However, maternity services need to have enough staff with the right skills in the right places to implement continuity of care teams safely.
NHS England has encouraged providers to prioritise the establishment of Enhanced Midwifery Continuity of Care teams where staffing allows, which provide care to women and families experiencing the greatest vulnerability and social complexity to help reduce health inequalities. Over £10 million in recurrent funding has supported these teams, including maternity support workers releasing additional midwifery time in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods.
An independent evaluation found that enhanced model of continuity of carer teams provided greater capacity for midwives to deliver enhanced care to the women that are most likely to experience poor outcomes. An evaluation of longer-term outcomes will be available in 2027.
NHS England has not made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of continuity of care teams in international settings but continues to learn from best practice both in England and internationally. The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce is comprised of experts and key stakeholders from across the maternity and neonatal sector, and wider health sector. This includes families, clinicians, academics, royal colleges and international expertise.
The National Health Service has established Maternal Medicine Networks (MMNs) across England to improve access to specialist medical care for women with chronic and acute medical problems during pregnancy. This approach has been strengthened by the Maternal Care Bundle, which requires all NHS trusts to put pathways in place from all acute settings to the MMNs for acutely unwell pregnant or recently pregnant women. presenting with symptoms or diagnostic uncertainty; and for women with complex epilepsy.
In January 2026, NHS England published the Improving Postnatal Care Toolkit, to support ICBs to improve postnatal care. This highlights the importance of seamless co-ordination between services, with a dedicated professional overseeing and co-ordinating every stage of a woman’s postnatal care and particularly for women and infants with multiple social and medical needs.