Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
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 increase grant funding for men’s mental health support charities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recently announced a Men's Health Strategy which will seek to improve the health and wellbeing of all men in England and take a life-course approach. This includes finding the right ways to promote healthier behaviours, improving outcomes for health conditions that hit men harder, and encouraging more men to come forward for healthcare, including mental health. The strategy will be informed by a call for evidence to understand what is working and what more needs to be done. We will consider all the levers at our disposal in drawing up plans for the strategy.
The 12-week call for evidence will gather vital insights from the public, health and social care professionals, academics and employers so the Government can properly consider how to prevent and tackle the biggest issues facing men from all backgrounds. We will be looking at where the learning can be used to inform future policy and funding bids.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of moving non-clinical service delivery decision-making from managers to (a) consultants and (b) specialist doctors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are the strategic commissioners of health and care services in England. NHS England has asked the ICBs to reduce the duplication of functions, to achieve efficiencies and reduce their running costs, with the aim to direct the cost savings towards front line National Health Service health and care services.
No assessment has been made in regard to moving any non-clinical services to clinical staff. We expect the ICBs to review their functions whilst acting as strategic commissioners, and this includes where multiple assurance and regulatory functions are being done by different organisations, wider performance management, and comms and engagement, which similarly exists in local authorities, providers, and regions, with a view of delegating these functions appropriately.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has a (a) grassland policy group and (b) person responsible for grassland policy.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There is no single group responsible for grassland policy, as policies affecting grasslands cut across several Defra policy areas. These include Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMs), National Biodiversity, Protected Sites and Protected Landscapes. There are also a range of habitat and species specialists in Natural England, including for grasslands.
This Government is committed to delivering our legally binding biodiversity targets which includes our habitat target to restore or create 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside of protected sites by 2042. We are delivering this target over a wide range of habitats, including wildlife-rich grasslands.
Protected Landscapes (National Landscapes, National Trails and National Parks) work together through the Big Chalk partnership, which seeks to protect and restore our nature-rich chalk grasslands.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support rural primary schools with declining pupil numbers.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The government recognises the challenges some schools are facing due to falling pupil rolls.
Local authorities hold the statutory place planning function, ensuring there are sufficient schools in their area to meet the needs of pupils. It is for local authorities, in collaboration with academy trusts and other local partners, to balance the supply and demand of school places, in line with changing demographics, as they have done for many years.
We expect local authorities and their partners to consider options for the utilisation of space, including repurposing space for early years, where primary schools can play a crucial role in the delivery of new places, and special educational needs and disabilities provision, as well as options for the reconfiguration or merging of provision where appropriate.
Local authorities may also set aside some of the ‘schools block’ funding of their Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) to support falling rolls. This is intended to support schools where planning data shows that the surplus places will be needed in future years. The department has allocated £176 million in Growth and Falling Rolls funding to local authorities in 2025/26 through the DSG. The responsibility for how Growth and Falling Rolls funding is allocated rests with the local authority.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of levels of school transport provision in remote rural areas.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Derbyshire Dales to the answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54948.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of requiring short-term holiday lets to inform customers about private water supplies.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has not made an assessment of this matter.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure farmers receive payments from the Rural Payments Agency on time.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) understands the importance of cashflow for farmers and rural businesses. It makes payments for schemes and grants against published performance indicators and continues to look at opportunities to issue payments as promptly as possible.
Performance in relation to the financial year (1 April to 31 March) is reported each year within the RPA Annual Report and Accounts and will be published next month.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is his Department taking to increase awareness about the risks of skin cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to advise patients to follow National Health Service guidance on reducing the risk of skin cancer. This advice is available publicly on the NHS website, at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/melanoma-skin-cancer/
NHS England run Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address the barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that tenant farmers are protected from eviction when landowners choose not to renew existing tenancies.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to ensuring agricultural tenancies are fair and collaborative. Agricultural tenancy agreements grant tenant farmers statutory protections. In cases of a tenancy ending all parties are encouraged to employ the Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Code of Practice, which sets out expected standards for constructive tenancy negotiations.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help speed up the roll out of digital infrastructure in national parks.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The rollout of broadband infrastructure in national parks is led by commercial suppliers, in discussion with the relevant National Park Authority.
Reforms to the Electronic Communications Code in 2017, alongside the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022, have created a framework which encourages network deployment.
We will continue to work with the industry to improve 4G coverage in areas of natural beauty and national parks via the Shared Rural Network (SRN). On 28 May we announced that over 50 existing mobile masts had been upgraded for the SRN, with over half of them providing new coverage to areas of outstanding natural beauty or national parks.
Alongside the SRN, our ambition is for all populated areas to have higher quality standalone 5G by 2030. We are committed to having the right policy and regulatory framework to support this and we continue to work with industry to deliver this.