Jeevun Sandher

The Government is delivering revenue support to hydrogen production through the Hydrogen Production Business Model. This is being combined with demand-side measures including innovation and capital funding for industrial and transport users, as well as the development of environmental requirements on fuel-use and emissions.

In addition our National Wealth Fund will directly invest in ports, hydrogen and industrial clusters across the country, including £500 million to support the manufacturing of green hydrogen. And we will reward clean energy developers with a British Jobs Bonus.

The National Wealth Fund was announced by the Chancellor on 9 July and further details will be set out at the International Investment Summit on 14 October. In the meantime, projects can approach UKIB who assesses each opportunity on a deal-by-deal basis and can be contacted by making an enquiry on the UKIB website.

Great British Energy will be an operationally independent company, overseen by a Board, rather than Ministers, benefitting from industry-leading expertise and experience across its remit. The Bill establishing Great British Energy is currently going through Parliament.

To ensure that communities are better protected from flooding, Defra has established a ministerially led cross-Governmental Flood Resilience Taskforce, with the first meeting taking place in September. The Flood Resilience Taskforce will ensure that preparedness and resilience to flooding is reviewed regularly before the start of the main flood season; and that it is continuously improved to ensure optimum protection to people, homes and businesses.

In advance of the winter flood season, the Environment Agency has been directed to carry out maintenance of its flood defence assets across Loughborough. This includes monthly operational checks of structures including outfalls / control gates, weekly operational checks and clearance of debris screens. A structural survey of the flood wall at Quorn is also scheduled for this autumn.

The Lampard Statutory Inquiry began public hearings in September 2024. The Department will await the findings of the Inquiry and will consider its recommendations once submitted by the Chair. In the meantime, we are working with NHS England to understand the factors driving poor quality and safety in inpatient and community mental health settings to ensure patients are treated with dignity and respect throughout their treatment in a mental health hospital.

We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, as well as taking pressure off those currently working in the system. NHS England has allocated £1.9 million of emergency short term funding, from October 2024 to March 2025, for the recruitment of newly qualified GPs in the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB). The LLR Workforce Steering Group is reviewing options for how this additional resource can be used most effectively across the LLR ICB, including within the Loughborough area.

Newly qualified GPs are also being offered support through the LLR Primary Care Training Hub, which provides high quality education, training, and support to those working in primary care. The hub is currently working up a local offer of support for newly qualified GPs following the cessation of the national fellowship scheme in March 2024. This local offer will include continuing professional development, leadership development and wellbeing support, peer networking, and focused mentoring sessions, and will be delivered flexibly to enable GPs to access the support that they need.