Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 on Northern Ireland.
Answered by Matthew Patrick - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Northern Ireland Office)
This month has shown just how volatile the world is and the importance of the investment this Government is making in our defences.
My assessment is that the Defence Growth Deal’s potential is transformative for businesses small and large across Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to financially support retail and hospitality businesses on the high street.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government is taking significant steps to support retail and hospitality businesses on high streets. From April 2026, we are introducing permanently lower business‑rates multipliers for retail, hospitality and leisure properties, worth nearly £900 million a year and benefiting over 750,000 premises. In recognition of the impact of the revaluation on bills, the government has introduced £4.3 billion transitional support package, to protect ratepayers from large overnight increases.
We have also announced further targeted support for pubs, and from April eligible pubs will receive a 15% cut to their new business‑rates bills, followed by a two‑year real‑terms freeze. We are also more than doubling the Hospitality Support Fund, with £10 million funding over three years. Later this year, we will bring forward a new High Streets Strategy, to help reinvigorate our communities.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what action the Department is taking to [a] raise awareness, [b] improve support, and [c] tackle women's heart health.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we fix the National Health Service and tackling women’s heart health will be key aspect of our mission.
To accelerate progress on the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a Cardiovascular Disease Modern Service Framework (CVD MSF) later this year. The Department and NHS England are engaging widely with stakeholders to co-produce the CVD MSF, ensuring that experts, people and communities are at the heart of its development.
The renewed Women’s Health Strategy will update on the delivery of the 2022 Strategy and set out how the Government is taking further steps to improve women’s health, including action regarding CVD, as we deliver the 10-Year Health Plan.
Alongside this, since January, the Government has run the Healthy Choices Quiz campaign which supports women to prioritise health improvements and take proactive action on a range of behaviours, many of which support heart health.
Furthermore, work to improve access to the NHS Health Check programme, a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme, is ongoing. The programme prevents around 500 heart attacks or strokes annually and every year, around 770,000 women complete an NHS Health Check. The Department is currently piloting the NHS Health Check Online service in local authorities across England, which will allow women to undertake their health check at home, at a time and place convenient to them.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of including cardiovascular disease in the Government's Women's Health Strategy.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we reform the National Health Service, and women’s equality will be at the heart of our mission. We know that women deserve better, which is why we are delivering our commitment that women’s health will never be neglected again. Strong progress has already been made in turning the commitments in the 2022 Women's Health Strategy into tangible action.
The renewed strategy will update on the delivery of the 2022 Women’s Health Strategy and set out how the Government is taking further steps to improve women’s health as we deliver the 10-Year Health Plan. It will also address gaps from the 2022 strategy and drive further change on enduring challenges such as creating a system that listens to women, and that tackles health inequalities. We are currently considering evidence from experts to inform the contents of the renewed strategy.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking the tackle the number of vacant properties on high streets.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This government is taking action to revitalise our high streets, including tackling vacancy through High Street Rental Auctions, which empower local authorities to bring long-term vacant commercial properties back into use. This is complemented by place-based regeneration funding, including up to £5.8 billion through the Pride in Place programme, supporting 284 places, including Leigh.
The government will also bring forward a High Streets Strategy, backed by at least £150 million, to revive some of the most struggling high streets.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of disapplying VAT for the conversion of non-residential buildings into accommodation.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
To support the delivery of new homes, conversions of buildings from a commercial to a residential use are subject to a reduced rate of VAT at 5%. The reduced 5% rate also applies to conversions of buildings from one residential use to another and to renovations of residential buildings that have been empty for at least two years.
Further information on VAT on building works can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buildings-and-construction-vat-notice-708
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
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 support housing-with-care for older people.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to enhancing provision and choice for older people in the housing market. The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to consider the recommendations from the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report.
Both departments are also working together on the development of the Government’s forthcoming long-term housing strategy.
More broadly, at the Spending Review, the Government announced £39 billion for a new Social and Affordable Homes Programme over ten years from 2026/27 to 2035/36. The programme has been designed to be flexible to support the greater diversity of supply needed in the housing market, including supported housing for older people.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in response to Question tabled on 15 December 2025, UIN 99871, if the Government can outline what steps are being taken to ensure the needs of people with severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis are adequacy met.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The final delivery plan on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), published in July 2025, includes an action for the Department and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for severe ME/CFS. Officials from the Department have commenced discussions with NHS England on how best to take forward this action.
The third and final session in NHS England’s newly-developed ME/CFS e-learning series, Managing Severe ME/CFS, is now live on the NHS Learning Hub. This session provides practical, evidence-based guidance for healthcare professionals to support people living with severe and very severe ME/CFS.
Additionally, as set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. We exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million appointments, tests, and operations in our first year of government, having delivered 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025. This will help people with severe ME/CFS to get support sooner.
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out a transformed vision for elective care by 2035, where most interactions no longer take place in a hospital building, instead happening virtually or via neighbourhood services. We will empower patients by giving them greater choice and control and establishing expected standards for making their experience of planned NHS care as smooth, supportive and convenient as possible, including for people with severe ME/CFS.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will consider Tourette's in its Independent Review into Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This review focuses on mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. Tourette’s is a neurological disorder and therefore it will be at the Chair's discretion as to how far the review considers Tourette's with this in mind.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Department can outline the length and mechanism for delivery of the new mandatory safeguarding learning programme for the NHS workforce.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Mandatory safeguarding training in NHS England is a strict, contractual obligation for all staff. The current Statutory and Mandatory Training e-learning programme has been developed to align with the UK Core Skills Training Framework which sets out 11 statutory and mandatory training topics for all staff working in health and social care settings.
NHS England is collaborating with national and local subject matter experts to create a new approach and some revised content to the mandatory and statutory learning for all National Health Service staff, which includes all statutory safeguarding duties and programs for NHS Providers. We expect this to be rolled out to the NHS later this year.