Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of specialist Parkinson's nurses working in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold centrally a constituency‑level breakdown of specialist Parkinson’s nurse numbers. Specialist Parkinson’s nursing provision across Lincolnshire is delivered through locally commissioned neurology and community services, with integrated care boards (ICBs) responsible for ensuring that patients can access appropriate Parkinson’s specialist support.
NHS England has advised that the NHS Lincolnshire ICB commissions the Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust to provide this service. There are currently four specialist nurses working with people with Parkinson’s across the county. The nurses work county-wide, which means that the ICB is unable to provide a breakdown for a specific constituency.
The Department continues to work with NHS England to improve access to specialist neurology services, including for people living with Parkinson’s.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to promote the manufacturing sector in (1) Lincolnshire and (2) the East Midlands.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to supporting manufacturing in Lincolnshire and the wider East Midlands. We are backing the sector through targeted investment, skills programmes and support for innovation. The East Midlands Freeport – England’s only inland freeport – is creating new manufacturing opportunities, attracting investment and generating high‑skilled jobs. Through the Local Growth Fund, we are helping local authorities and businesses strengthen supply chains and adopt new technologies. Manufacturers across Lincolnshire and the East Midlands also benefit from wider UK measures, outlined in the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan.
The sector plan sets out how the Industrial Strategy will be delivered for the sector by reforming the business environment to build resilience, removing supply side barriers, developing a digitally literate and highly skilled workforce through the Upskilling and Reskilling programme, and unlocking the economic potential of advanced manufacturing clusters.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency regarding trials of puberty blockers.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has met with a variety of stakeholders to discuss gender services, including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Given that there are live legal proceedings, we are unable to comment on the details of the PATHWAYS trial of puberty suppressing hormones.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many libraries have (1) closed and (2) opened in Lincolnshire in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As the libraries development agency for England, Arts Council England collects and publishes data on library closures and openings in its annual English Public Libraries Location Dataset. The dataset can be found at the following link: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries/supporting-libraries and will be updated in April 2026 with figures for 2025.
The English Public Libraries Location Dataset 2024 shows the following for Lincolnshire:
Calendar Year | Static Library Closures | Static Library Openings |
2016 | 0 | 13 |
2017 | 0 | 1 |
2018 | 3 | 2 |
2019 | 0 | 0 |
2020 | 0 | 0 |
2021 | 0 | 0 |
2022 | 0 | 0 |
2023 | 0 | 0 |
2024 | 0 | 0 |
2025 | Data not yet available | Data not yet available |
2026 | Data not yet available | Data not yet available |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many women in South Holland and the Deepings constituency are in receipt of Pension Credit.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The latest Pension Credit caseload statistics show that as of August 2025, there were 1,698 female recipients of Pension Credit in South Holland and the Deepings. This data is available via: DWP Stat-Xplore.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much Innovate UK funding has been awarded to organisations based in Lincolnshire in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Innovate UK’s grant funding database shows that during the most recent three full financial years, Innovate UK offered £26.8 million in grant awards to organisations registered in Lincolnshire. This is broken down by financial year as follows:
Financial year | Committed funding |
2022/23 | £11,783,553 |
2023/24 | £8,618,065 |
2024/25 | £6,444,029 |
Total | £26,845,647 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department has held discussions with the Home Office on the increased use of Virtual Private Networks by criminals following the introduction of the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Making the UK a safer place to be online is a priority for the Government, and the Online Safety Act is central to this. Officials from DSIT and the Home Office meet regularly to discuss the implementation of the Act and wider online safety issues.
While there is currently no evidence that VPNs are being used more by criminals following the introduction of the Act, the Government continues to monitor the impact of circumvention techniques on the online environment. VPNs also have legitimate uses including protecting users’ privacy and supporting secure access to services.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many staff in her Department are reliant on a visa for employment.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
There are 55 members of staff in the Department that hold a visa which permits them to work in the United Kingdom.
This figure includes staff on work and other visa routes. It does not include individuals granted pre or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
All staff are required to demonstrate a valid right to work in accordance with Home Office requirements.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any civil servants hired by his Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence does not recruit candidates on the basis of protected characteristics. All appointments are made on merit, in line with the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. Compliance with these principles is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission. Civil Service recruitment is governed by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, which requires that all appointments to the Civil Service are made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 ensure that patients released from hospital who need a wheelchair get one as soon as possible.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services. This includes both temporary wheelchair provision to support hospital discharge and National Health Service wheelchair services which support people of all ages with long-term mobility needs.
NHS England supports ICBs to reduce delays and regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs. Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from clinical commissioning groups, now ICBs, on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. On 9 April 2025, NHS England published the Wheelchair Quality Framework, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs, such as offering personal wheelchair budgets, and aims to tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience, and access. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
In October 2025, we published the NHS medium-term planning framework, requiring all ICBs and community health services to actively manage and reduce waits above 18 weeks and to develop a plan to eliminate all 52-week waits. The community health services situation report will be used to monitor ICB performance against waiting-time targets in 2026/27, and it currently monitors waiting times for children, young people and adults under “Wheelchair, orthotics, prosthetics and equipment”. These targets will guide systems to reduce longest waits and improvement initiatives to meet these targets may affect waits that are over 18 weeks and 52 weeks.