Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to improve food supply security across the UK.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient food supply chain built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes.
Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 help reduce regional inequalities in health outcomes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to increase the amount of time people spend in good health and prevent premature deaths, with an ambitious commitment to halve the healthy life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest regions.
We know that everyday life poses greater health risks to the most disadvantaged in society, and that the current model of care works least well for those who already experience disadvantage and are far more likely to have complex needs. To help tackle this, we will distribute National Health Service funding more equally locally, so it is better aligned with health need.
Further to this, much of what determines health and wellbeing is influenced by factors other than health services. As a result, we are taking bold action across the Government on the social determinants of health to build a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.
Cross-Government activity includes the introduction of Awaab’s Law, ensuring landlords will have to fix significant damp and mould hazards, and legislating for a new statutory health and health inequalities duty for strategic authorities.
We support the NHS’s CORE20PLUS5 approach which targets action to reduce health inequalities in the most deprived 20% of the population and improve outcomes for groups that experience the worst access, experience, and outcomes within the NHS. The approach focuses on improving the five clinical areas at most need of accelerated improvement, namely cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory, maternity, and mental health outcomes, in the poorest 20% of the population, along with other disadvantaged population groups identified at a local level.
In addition, we know that the Carr-Hill formula, the United Kingdom’s formula for allocating core funding to general practices (GPs), is considered outdated, and evidence suggests that GPs serving in deprived parts of England receive on average 9.8% less funding per needs adjusted patient than those in less deprived communities, despite having greater health needs and significantly higher patient-to-GP ratios. This is why we are currently reviewing the formula to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people who are victims of human trafficking.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not have an up-to-date estimate of the number of victims of human trafficking. Understanding the true scale of modern slavery is difficult due to a few factors, including the hidden nature of the crime.
We understand from recent estimates by NGOs that well over 100,000 individuals in the UK may be affected by this crime.
Data on the number of identified potential victims of modern slavery in the UK, as indicated through National Referral Mechanism (NRM) referrals, are published every quarter. In total, 19,125 potential victims of modern slavery were referred in 2024 (with latest 2025 annual figures to be published later this month). We continually look to improve the quality and provision of these statistics. The NRM statistics publications can be found here: National Referral Mechanism statistics - GOV.UK.
The Government remains firmly committed to ensuring that all victims of human trafficking and modern slavery are effectively identified and supported to rebuild their lives, while taking action to bring those who exploit vulnerable people to justice.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 maximise the amount of time surgeons spend in theatre.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is taking steps to maximise the amount of time surgeons spend in theatre so they can get through theatre lists more quickly. This includes providing additional capacity via surgical hubs to get through high volume, low complexity lists, and by other productivity measures to free up clinicians’ time to spend in theatres.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the a) longest and b) shortest custodial sentence handed down for possession of a Class B drug with intent to supply was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The data requested is published by the Ministry of Justice.
The Sentencing Council’s guideline on ‘Possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply’ can be found here: https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/guidelines/supplying-or-offering-to-supply-a-controlled-drug-possession-of-a-controlled-drug-with-intent-to-supply-it-to-another/ which sets out the relevant factors for courts to consider when sentencing for this offence.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many tonsillectomies were carried out on children in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A count of finished consultant episodes in England for children aged zero to 17 years old with a primary or secondary procedure of tonsillectomy from 2020/21 to 2024/25 is as follows:
The increase in the number of procedures carried out each year between 2020/21 and 2024/25 reflects the National Health Service’s ongoing work to recover elective activity following the disruption caused by the COVID‑19 pandemic and represents a return to pre-pandemic levels of treatment.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, on what date her Department first raised with the BBC that the announcement on Graduated Driver Licensing scheme could be made on the BBC’s day of road safety coverage.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department for Transport has not made an announcement on a Graduated Driving Licensing scheme.
Whilst we are not considering further restrictions on newly qualified drivers such as carrying passengers or driving at night, as announced on the 7 January, we are consulting on a Minimum Learning Period in England, Scotland, and Wales before learner drivers can take their test, and on a lower drink drive limit for novice drivers..
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that people with cystic fibrosis have access to Orkambi, Symkevi and Kaftrio on the NHS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In July 2024, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved three disease modifying treatments, Orkambi, Symkevi, and Kaftrio, as treatment options for eligible National Health Service patients with cystic fibrosis, under the terms of a commercial agreement reached between NHS England and the manufacturer, Vertex. These treatments are now routinely funded by the NHS in England for eligible patients.
Across England, further access to Orkambi, Symkevi, and Kaftrio on the NHS for people with cystic fibrosis who do not meet the eligibility requirements in the NICE guidance, is guided by the NHS England commissioning statement at the following link:
This means that means approximately 95% of people with cystic fibrosis in England are now eligible for modulator therapy.
NICE is an England-only body. Health is largely a devolved matter and decisions on the availability of medicines for use in the NHS in the devolved administrations is a matter for the devolved government.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her most recent annual estimate is for the amount of waste deposited illegally across England and Wales.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Waste is a devolved matter and the information provided in this answer is for England only.
The Environment Agency (EA) focuses on tackling large-scale waste crime in England, often linked to organised criminal activity while fly-tipping is managed by local authorities.
The EA has no estimate of the total amount of waste deposited illegally each year - by its nature waste crime is hidden and so inherently difficult to measure. The EA estimates that the amount of waste deposited in illegal waste sites which came to their attention in 2025 was 845,906 tonnes. In addition to this, waste will have been deposited during 2025 at sites which came to EA’s attention in earlier years. This waste is of varying types, with significantly different environmental impacts. As these are estimates the true figure may be more or less. The estimates only relate to those sites of which the EA is aware.
Defra does not have an estimate for the total amount of fly-tipped waste in England annually. However, local authorities in England are required to report fly-tipping incidents to Defra, which are published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fly-tipping-in-england. These figures are separate to the large-scale incidents dealt with by the EA, and we expect that they exclude the majority of private-land incidents.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure effective regulation and enforcement is in place to tackle the environmental and financial impact of waste crime.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to tackling waste crime from the fly-tippers who blight our towns and villages to the serious and organised crime groups who are exploiting the waste sector. Those responsible for committing waste crime, rather than taxpayers, should cover the cost of cleaning up the mess they create.
We are making policy and regulatory reforms to close loopholes exploited by criminals and have increased the Environment Agency’s (EA’s) budget for waste crime enforcement by over 50% this year to £15.6 million.
The EA hosts the Joint Unit for Waste Crime which brings together the EA, HMRC, National Crime Agency, the police, waste regulators from across the UK and other operational partners to share intelligence and tasking to disrupt and prevent serious organised waste crime. Our extra funding has enabled the EA to double the size of the Joint Unit for Waste Crime. Overall, the EA has been able to increase its frontline criminal enforcement resource in the Joint Unit for Waste Crime and area environmental crime teams by 43 full time staff.