Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what her Department’s timeframe is for making decisions on the future of the Midlands Engine.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Midlands Engine have undertaken a range of valuable work and have supported collaboration on shared growth opportunities.

The English Devolution White Paper published in December 2024 last year sets out our intention in future to support mayors in working together across boundaries.

We have now consulted on our minded to decision not to extend funding for the six pan-regional partnerships beyond the agreed allocations to the end of the 2024-25 financial year. We are currently considering the responses received, and we expect to announce our decision very soon.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of pupils(a) behaviour and (b) violence on the number of disrupted learning hours to other pupils.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The National Behaviour Survey (NBS), delivered through the department’s omnibus panel surveys, is the department’s vehicle to gather evidence on pupil behaviour and to understand how it potentially impacts on learning.

The behaviour survey questions allow the department to build up a national picture over time and act as a signpost to what schools need. In May 2024, teachers reported that for every 30 minutes of lesson time, 7 minutes were lost due to misbehaviour.

The department will continue to use data from the NBS to inform future strategy and policy improvements on behaviour.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of food procured by the public sector in Derbyshire is from British farmers.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

As part of the Government’s New Deal for Farmers, it was announced that, where possible, we will back British produce, including that grown in Derbyshire. Over the next year, for the first time ever, the Government will review food currently bought in the public sector and where it is bought from. This work will start right away and be a significant first step in understanding how to capitalise on the Government’s purchasing power: informing any changes to public sector food procurement policies in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prescription prepayment certificates have been issued in (a) England and (b) Mid Derbyshire in the last five years.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Prescription Prepayment Certificates (PPCs) are issued by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) on behalf of the Department. The following table shows the number of three and 12 month PPCs issued in England over the last five years, as well as the current financial year up to 27 February 2025:

It has not been possible to collate data for the Mid Derbyshire area alone, as this would require the NHSBSA to hold postcodes for all addresses in this area, which it does not have. However, the following table shows the number of PPCs issued in the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) over the last five years, as well as the current financial year up to 27 February 2025:

In addition, the following two tables show the number of hormone replacement therapy PPCs issued since its launch, in England and the NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB, respectively, for the financial year 2023/24 and the current financial year up to 27 February 2025:

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS staff are absent from work due to musculoskeletal health issues; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of fast-tracking treatment for such staff.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Data published by NHS England shows that during the month of October 2024, there were 317,167 full time equivalent days lost due to musculoskeletal health issues for National Health Service staff. These account for 13% of all sickness absences over the month. The published data does not allow for the identification of the specific number of staff absent from work due to musculoskeletal health issues.

On 1 March 2025, the Government and Nuffield Health announced access for 4,000 NHS staff to Nuffield Health’s Joint Pain Programme. The programme is aimed at those staff who are off work due to chronic joint pain or who are struggling with pain whilst at work.

Sickness absence is managed at an organisational level across the NHS. NHS organisations have policies and procedures to manage attendance and reduce sickness absence. Employers should develop local policies and procedures in line with Annex 26 of the NHS staff terms and conditions of service (Agenda for Change) handbook and should access NHS England’s Employer’s Sickness Absence Toolkit.

In 2023, NHS England published a strategy for the NHS and partner organisations to work together to develop and invest in occupational health and wellbeing services for NHS staff over the next five years. NHS England is currently leading a comprehensive review, the Staff Treatment Access Review, of how to deliver a more equitable and consistent offer to staff that supports their wellbeing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on supporting NHS trusts to meet their annual sickness absence targets.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Data published by NHS England shows that during the month of October 2024, there were 317,167 full time equivalent days lost due to musculoskeletal health issues for National Health Service staff. These account for 13% of all sickness absences over the month. The published data does not allow for the identification of the specific number of staff absent from work due to musculoskeletal health issues.

On 1 March 2025, the Government and Nuffield Health announced access for 4,000 NHS staff to Nuffield Health’s Joint Pain Programme. The programme is aimed at those staff who are off work due to chronic joint pain or who are struggling with pain whilst at work.

Sickness absence is managed at an organisational level across the NHS. NHS organisations have policies and procedures to manage attendance and reduce sickness absence. Employers should develop local policies and procedures in line with Annex 26 of the NHS staff terms and conditions of service (Agenda for Change) handbook and should access NHS England’s Employer’s Sickness Absence Toolkit.

In 2023, NHS England published a strategy for the NHS and partner organisations to work together to develop and invest in occupational health and wellbeing services for NHS staff over the next five years. NHS England is currently leading a comprehensive review, the Staff Treatment Access Review, of how to deliver a more equitable and consistent offer to staff that supports their wellbeing.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what funding his Department has provided to (a) support and (b) promote opportunities for domestic hydropower.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Smart Export Guarantee came into force on 1 January 2020 and requires major electricity suppliers to offer a tariff to buy electricity exported by small low-carbon generators, including small hydro.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a landscape and visual impact scheme in relation to energy infrastructure projects in rural areas.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The impacts, including visual, of energy infrastructure projects on the landscape are important considerations in decision-making, and the National Policy Statements (NPS) for energy set stringent requirements and standards on developers. Proposals for projects that are subject to the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 must be accompanied by an Environmental Statement describing the aspects of the environment, including landscape and visual impacts, likely to be significantly affected. The NPSs also set the criteria for good design for energy infrastructure, including consideration of visual appearance and how it relates to the landscape it sits within.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of using development hydropower on the sites of established historic watermills.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Officials continue to engage with the British Hydropower Association regarding the future role the UK’s remaining small-scale hydropower resource, including sites of historic watermills, can play in the UK energy system.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking as part of the Curriculum and Assessment Review to consider the use of audiobooks in schools.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review will support the innovation and professionalism of teachers, enabling them to adapt how they teach the curriculum to their students’ lives.

The Review Group will publish an interim report in early spring setting out its interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work, and publish its final report with recommendations this autumn.

The department respects the autonomy of teachers in terms of what resources they choose to use or recommend to their individual pupils, based on individual need in their own educational context and circumstances.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps her Department has taken to tackle the shortfall in armed forces recruitment over the last five years; and whether these measures have been tailored to each branch of the military.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The new Government inherited a crisis in recruitment and has made it a priority to address this with a series of work streams designed to improve Armed Forces recruitment, modernising and refining our policies and processes to attract the best possible talent. Our actions are designed to deliver the widest positive impact across our Armed Forces, but we also pursue activities aimed at the specific requirements of the single Services to maximise effect.

To provide the widest benefit across the Armed Forces, we have delivered a 35 per cent pay increase for new recruits; one of the largest pay increases in the last 20 years for existing personnel; scrapped over 100 outdated medical policies; introduced a new military direct-entry cyber pathway which is now recruiting; and set an ambition to make a conditional offer of employment to candidates within 10 days, and a provisional training start date within 30 days.

Furthermore, we have announced the award of the contract for the new tri-service Armed Forces Recruiting Service (AFRS) which will join the recruitment activity of the Services together. AFRS will provide a streamlined, single-entry point for prospective recruits, recruiting from the broadest spectrum of society to attract the best talent from across the country.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support rural (a) museum and (b) arts and music venues in (i) Mid Derbyshire constituency and (ii) the East Midlands.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Secretary of State announced a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund on 20 February. This will include support to museums, arts and music venues across the country and is a critical step that this Government is taking to help create jobs, boost local economies, and expand access to arts and culture for communities.

This is in addition to steps already being taken to support arts and culture via the Arts Council England (ACE). In the East Midlands, ACE is providing regular National Portfolio funding to 72 organisations from 2023-2027. This includes more than £8.7 million to nine museum services including Derby Museums and Creswell Crags. £4.8 million has been awarded to eight music organisations including Derby based Baby People and Sinfonia Viva (the orchestra of the East Midlands).

Across the East Midlands, since 2021, ACE has also awarded £37.5 million to music organisations and projects via the Grassroots Music Fund, and £7.5 million to regional museum projects via the Museum Estate and Development Fund.

In the Mid Derbyshire constituency, ACE has supported eight individual artists since 2021 through its Developing your Creative Practice grants, providing a total of £73,111 of funding across visual arts and music. ACE has also made six awards across combined arts, literature, theatre and museums in the constituency through National Lottery Grants, totalling more than £272,000.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure the museum sector contributes to her Department's tourism-related objectives.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government has set out its ambition for the United Kingdom to welcome 50 million international visitors per year by 2030, as part of its plans for the country to remain one of the most visited worldwide, driving economic growth. The new Visitor Economy Advisory Council has been appointed to identify ways to drive economic growth and remove barriers to opportunities in DCMS sectors.

Many tourists cite our vibrant culture and heritage offer as one of their main motivators for visiting the UK. We are providing additional support to our national museums and galleries with a 5% uplift to their budgets, along with £120m for critical estates maintenance in 2025/26, to help our most visited sites across the country to continue to be open to the world.

Our historical and creative heritage are crucial in driving tourism to all parts of the country; alongside continued Arts Council England and Local Authority investment, we are also supporting our regional museums via the new £20 million Museum Renewal Fund, and a new £25m round of the Museum Estate and Development Fund.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure successful partnerships between civic museums and industry to address the skills gap.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

This Government is committed to making sure that cultural venues up and down this country are supported to reach their full potential.

That is why the Secretary of State announced a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund on the 20th February, to support museums, arts venues, libraries, and heritage sites nationwide. This major investment will create jobs, boost local economies, and expand access to arts and culture for communities.

As part of this package, £45 million will be going to local and civic museums through the Museum Renewal Fund and Museum Estate and Development Fund to help tackle urgent infrastructure issues, preserve community programmes and protect these treasured institutions for generations to come. This is a major step being taken by this Government to support regional museums.

The large, diverse collections held by civic museums serve as a rich source of creativity and inspiration, fuelling our Creative Industries ecology and inspiring the creatives of tomorrow. Museum and industry partnerships can be hugely beneficial. To give a local example, Derby’s Museum of Making has a well-established partnership with Rolls Royce, supporting its ‘Institute of Steam’ learning programme, aiming to equip young people with crucial design, technology and engineering skills.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the impact of patent lengths on research into treatments for glioblastoma.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Intellectual property rights in the United Kingdom are not condition specific. The Government considers the UK’s current patent system to strike the right balance between incentivising research and innovation and supporting access to medicines for the National Health Service.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve (a) literacy and (b) access to books in schools.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.

In recognition of this, the department has implemented a range of measures to support reading for pleasure. The English Hubs programme supports the teaching of phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure, with a further £23 million committed for the 2024/25 academic year to support this work. Furthermore, the government’s reading framework provides guidance on improving the teaching of reading, to ensure that every child is not only able to read proficiently but also develops a genuine love of reading.

On 5 February, the government announced a £2 million investment to drive high and rising standards in reading and writing. Building on the success of phonics, teachers will receive additional training to help children progress from the early stages of phonics in reception and year 1 through to reading fluently by the time they leave primary school. This will be delivered through the English Hubs programme. In secondary school, teachers will be offered new training and resources this year to help them support readers at all levels, and next year the department will commission further training that will be focused specifically on struggling readers in secondary school who are at risk of falling behind. The department will also publish a writing framework in the summer, which will be a first step to support schools in delivering high quality writing provision across England.

The government has also established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, in line with the government’s ambition for a curriculum that delivers excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics.

Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that the department allocates. This school funding can be used to fund books, librarians, school libraries and book corners. In Autumn Budget 2024 an additional £2.3 billion was announced for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26. Public libraries complement school libraries in giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school.

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 adequacy of communication systems between GP surgeries and pharmacies.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government recognises the importance of effective communication between general practice (GP) surgeries and pharmacies, to ensure safe and coordinated patient care. Over recent years, several digital initiatives have been introduced to reduce the reliance on fax and paper, and to enhance this communication, including NHSmail, the Electronic Prescription Service, and the Summary Care Record. These systems allow pharmacists to access patient information and support prescription processing.

GP Connect is a national service introduced in 2018, and further strengthened in the 2025/26 GP Contract, that allows authorised health and social care workers in a variety of care settings to access their patients' GP records. The aim of GP Connect is to support better, more joined-up clinical care by opening up information and data held within GP IT systems, so that registered community pharmacists can view and update records. This initiative supports the Pharmacy First service, which empowers pharmacists to offer a full consultation and provide treatment for seven common health conditions.

The Community Pharmacy Information Standard informed the plan to recover access to primary care published in May 2023. This set out a range of actions to improve communication between GP surgeries and community pharmacies, harnessing digital technology to streamline referrals, increase access to clinical information to support patient care and update the patient record in an efficient and timely way. The Government remains committed to strengthening primary care integration and to fixing the front door of the National Health Service.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Bob Blackman (Chair); Jess Brown-Fuller; Jonathan Davies; Mary Glindon

Found: Legislation); Judith Cummins (First Deputy Chairman); Caroline Nokes (Second Deputy Chairman); Jonathan Davies

Found: Legislation); Judith Cummins (First Deputy Chairman); Caroline Nokes (Second Deputy Chairman); Jonathan Davies

Found: Legislation); Judith Cummins (First Deputy Chairman); Caroline Nokes (Second Deputy Chairman); Jonathan Davies