Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to expand the Flood Resilience Scheme to households which (a) have been affected outside named storms and (b) are at risk of flooding in the future.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences.
Included in this programme, the Environment Agency is working proactively with local authorities to deliver Property Flood Resilience (PFR) projects, where it is cost beneficial to do so, in areas where PFR is the best solution for reducing flood risk. The EA’s PFR programme is focused on reducing risk to those households and businesses at the highest risk.
Separately, we continue to support those who were affected by last year’s Storms Babet and Henk thought the PFR grant scheme, which can provide up to £5000 for eligible households and businesses to install PFR measures.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Flood Recovery Framework will be activated for the flooding in Leicestershire.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My thoughts remain with householders and business owners impacted by flooding after the recent heavy rainfall, flooding is a devastating experience for all those affected.
Government support in the aftermath of flooding is only provided in exceptional circumstances and at present, overall, the scale of impacts is not sufficiently significant for the Flood Recovery Framework to be activated. However, my officials continue to review impacts data and stand ready to support as appropriate.
Activation of the Framework is not limited to flooding following named storms and, when activated, provides a range of support to business and households in eligible areas.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
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 maternity services in Leicestershire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following Care Quality Commission inspections in January 2024, the trust has strong improvement plans in place for maternity services at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital (LGH). Many actions from both the 2023 and 2024 inspections are already complete or well underway, with key achievements including a targeted improvement programme for Induction of Labour, and implementing a new Telephone Triage system to reduce delays and improve experience.
In September and November, the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) respectively opened a new maternity theatre and a new day assessment unit at the LGH, meaning that planned and emergency caesareans can take place in separate areas, further improving access to non-urgent appointments. The UHL have also welcomed 40 midwives, with 28 more due to start before the end of 2024. The trust has also recruited three new consultant obstetricians, alongside nine speciality doctors. The UHL have over 230 student midwives in training, and the trust is also seeing a higher proportion of permanent employees, with the turnover rate reducing to just over 7%, as of April 2024, versus 10% the previous year.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to support Ukraine.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In chairing the UN Security Council on 18 November, the Foreign Secretary made clear that UK support for Ukraine is ironclad. We have stepped up the delivery of vital military equipment, led the way in investing in Ukraine’s defence industrial base, and imposed major new sanctions upon Russia. As the Prime Minister has said, we must double down and give Ukraine the support it needs for as long as it needs.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
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 integrate the recommendations of the Lampard inquiry into mental health services nationwide.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
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 recruit more GPs in Loughborough constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Flood Resilience Task Force is taking to help protect communities in Loughborough constituency from flood damage.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
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.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to support (a) clean hydrogen generation, (b) the use of hydrogen in (i) heavy industry and (ii) transportation and (c) the (A) skills and (B) infrastructure required for the hydrogen economy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how investors in hydrogen projects in Loughborough constituency can request funding from (a) the National Wealth Fund and (b) GB Energy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
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.