Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 improve cross-border cooperation on farming pollution regulations between England and Wales.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to building stronger ties and working collaboratively with the Welsh Gov-ernment on shared priorities that deliver for all our citizens including tackling pollution, restoring nature and supporting our farmers.
Effective regulations play an important part of in reducing diffuse agricultural pollution and cleaning up our waters, as well as supporting improvements to farm businesses. Both Governments are working closely with regulators, local farmers and other key partners in England and Wales on these issues, for example by working with local farmers and environmental NGOs, alongside the Wye Nutrient Management Board and the Wye Catchment Partnership who are leading efforts to tackle pollution in the Wye.
Please also see the announcement below for more detail regarding what is being done to tackle pollution in the Wye: UK and Welsh Government unite in £1m fund to transform River Wye - GOV.UK.
In a joint initiative worth up to £1 million, Defra and Welsh Government will fund comprehensive cross-border research on the River Wye, to understand pollution and other pressures (such as wildlife decline, flood risk, high and low flows), and develop plans to tackle these issues in the catchment.
This funding, supported by UK and Welsh Governments, will ensure farmers, environmental campaigners, citizen scientists and other local experts, can help us gather essential evidence about what is causing this iconic river to be so polluted, and chart a course towards improving water quality and restoring nature.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of regional inequalities of access to GP appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to improving capacity and access to local services across the country. Integrated care boards (ICBs) and general practices (GPs) have a statutory duty to ensure sufficient provision of medical services, tailored to the needs of their local populations, accounting for factors like population growth, deprivation, and demographic change.
While GPs operate as independent contractors, they are held to nationally agreed standards under the GP Contract, which is reviewed and improved annually. The 2024/25 contract is backed by the largest increase in GP funding in years, specifically an £889 million uplift. This investment supports key reforms to improve access across the country, including a new requirement for practices to offer online appointment requests throughout core opening hours.
We will continue working closely with ICBs to monitor and address variations in access, so that every patient can get the care they need, when they need it.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 increase the availability of GP appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is determined to fix the front door of our National Health Service, making it easier for everyone to see a general practitioner (GP) when they need to.
In October 2024, we injected £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to enabling the recruitment of 1,000 newly qualified GPs across England, which will increase the number of appointments delivered and care for thousands of patients.
We’ve just delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of NHS resources. For the first time in four years, the General Practitioners Committee England backed the new 2025/26 contract, which includes key reforms to improve access, for instance by making sure that patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are mandatory timescales for (a) nursing homes requesting an assessment for (i) continuing healthcare funding and (ii) funded nursing care and a checklist referral being completed and (b) checklist referrals for (A) continuing healthcare funding and (B) funded nursing care being completed and full assessments being completed.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The statutory guidance, National framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care, sets out the principles and processes for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and National Health Service-funded nursing care (FNC), so that people are assessed and receive care in a timely way. Further information on the statutory guidance is available at the following link:
The national framework sets the expectation that the overall assessment and eligibility decision-making process for CHC should, in most cases, not exceed 28 calendar days, from the date that the integrated care board receives the positive checklist, to the eligibility decision being made. There are no mandatory timescales for the completion of a CHC checklist referral when requested by a nursing home. There are no mandatory timescales for a decision to be made about FNC eligibility.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce hip replacement waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.
We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.
Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a hip replacement.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.
We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.
Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to renew the Farm Facilitation Fund beyond March 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We recognise the importance of farmer and land manager collaboration. In future years we want to make it easier for farmers to build partnerships and secure the advice and support they need to deliver on a range of priorities in their local area.
That’s why the Agricultural Transition Plan Update, published in January 2024, committed to the development of an expanded and improved facilitation fund.
To support this change, we are not opening further rounds of the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund. We are still funding existing agreements.
Ahead of the Spending Review, we are testing how we develop a more flexible approach to supporting farmer networks and partnerships. We will learn from the evaluation of the Facilitation Fund, which proves the benefits of collaboration but also shows that we need to improve the design, so it is less burdensome for participants, and we can increase uptake.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 provision of mental health services to acute mental health patients leaving in-patient facilities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings makes clear that National Health Service mental health trusts should have a clear plan in place for the ongoing care and support that a patient requires after discharge from a mental health inpatient setting. This should cover their pharmacological, physical health, psychological, social, cultural, education, housing and finances, and any other individual needs or wishes.
Individual trusts providing mental health inpatient services are expected to closely monitor hospital discharge performance data to ensure discharge arrangements are operating effectively and safely across the system and are also subject to monitoring, inspection and regulation by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
In response to the CQC’s review of the care and treatment provided to Valdo Calocane and of services provided by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, NHS England asked every provider of mental health services to review the care received by people with serious mental illness who require intensive community treatment and follow-up but where engagement is a challenge.
Alongside this, NHS England is also developing new core standards of care for community mental health services to support the continued improvement of care.
As part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and shift care from hospitals into the community by improving community and crisis services, NHS England is piloting new models of care in the community for those with the most serious mental illnesses. New mental health centres open in six neighbourhood areas from this spring and will provide people and their families with support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if they are in crisis without needing to book an appointment, as well as provide housing or employment advice to support them to stay well. A key feature of the model is continuity of care whereby the same team will support people with serious mental illnesses throughout all stages of their interaction with services, including transitions between hospital and the community.
The Mental Health Bill, currently before Parliament, also aims to strengthen discharge arrangements for people detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department monitors the quality of support provided by NHS trusts to people with acute mental health conditions when they leave in-patient care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings makes clear that National Health Service mental health trusts should have a clear plan in place for the ongoing care and support that a patient requires after discharge from a mental health inpatient setting. This should cover their pharmacological, physical health, psychological, social, cultural, education, housing and finances, and any other individual needs or wishes.
Individual trusts providing mental health inpatient services are expected to closely monitor hospital discharge performance data to ensure discharge arrangements are operating effectively and safely across the system and are also subject to monitoring, inspection and regulation by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
In response to the CQC’s review of the care and treatment provided to Valdo Calocane and of services provided by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, NHS England asked every provider of mental health services to review the care received by people with serious mental illness who require intensive community treatment and follow-up but where engagement is a challenge.
Alongside this, NHS England is also developing new core standards of care for community mental health services to support the continued improvement of care.
As part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and shift care from hospitals into the community by improving community and crisis services, NHS England is piloting new models of care in the community for those with the most serious mental illnesses. New mental health centres open in six neighbourhood areas from this spring and will provide people and their families with support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if they are in crisis without needing to book an appointment, as well as provide housing or employment advice to support them to stay well. A key feature of the model is continuity of care whereby the same team will support people with serious mental illnesses throughout all stages of their interaction with services, including transitions between hospital and the community.
The Mental Health Bill, currently before Parliament, also aims to strengthen discharge arrangements for people detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in investigating complaints on solicitor conduct.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The legal profession in England and Wales operates independently of government. The responsibility for regulating the sector sits with the approved regulators, overseen by the Legal Services Board (LSB). The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales. More information regarding the conduct solicitors must adhere to can be found here: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/code-conduct-solicitors/.
As part of its role, the SRA investigates consumers’ complaints when allegations of solicitor misconduct are made and has a number of disciplinary powers, including the power to issue fines and refer an individual to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which can suspend or strike a solicitor off the roll.
Given the sector’s independence, it would not be appropriate for the Ministry of Justice to interfere with decisions made by the SRA during these investigations, or its processes.
If individuals remain unhappy with the decisions reached by the SRA, they can contact their complaints team at: complaintsteam@sra.org.uk or via https://www.sra.org.uk/home/contact-us/.
Whilst the LSB oversees the regulators (such as the SRA and the BSB) and ensures they fulfil their statutory responsibilities, it does not have jurisdiction to review regulators’ decisions or process on individual cases.