Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an estimate of the number of franchises operating in England and Wales between 2015-2024.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade does not hold data on franchise numbers.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to limit online foreign influence in the UK's democracy.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
It is, and always will be, an absolute priority to protect our democratic processes from both mis- and disinformation and from foreign interference. Any new regulation addressing mis and disinformation must be carefully balanced with the need to protect freedom of expression and the legitimate public debate which is also crucial to a thriving democracy. Since March, the Online Safety Act has required services to take steps to remove illegal disinformation content. Illegal disinformation content includes state-sponsored disinformation in scope of the Foreign Interference Offence, and disinformation aimed at disrupting elections where it is a criminal offence in scope of the regulatory framework. This can include false statements of fact about a candidate’s personal character or conduct and undue influence on voters.
The Defending Democracy Taskforce, which coordinates work to protect UK political parties, elected officials and electoral infrastructure from threats including foreign interference and the Joint Election Security and Preparedness unit coordinates work to protect UK elections and referendums. The Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan launched last month to disrupt and deter spying from states.
The Government’s strategy for modern, secure and inclusive elections, published in July, sets out our plan to strengthen oversight of and safeguards against known and emerging threats, including foreign interference. We will deliver a robust and proportionate response to known risks, protecting the integrity of our system and reinforcing public trust in democracy.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of regulations governing online political advertisements.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Under existing regulations, campaigners are required to include an imprint with their name and address on printed and digital campaigning material. Imprint rules play an important role in promoting trust in our democratic process by ensuring voters can clearly see who is behind political campaigning material.
The Government is committed to strengthening our democracy and upholding the integrity of elections. As part of this, we intend to add unregistered third-party campaigning organisations to the list of entities who are required to include a digital imprint on their organic digital campaigning material and extend the Electoral Commission’s remit to be the primary enforcer of all imprint rules.
The Government has no plans at this time to introduce a public database for online political advertisements, but welcome the steps taken by social media companies to create “advert libraries”.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to introduce a database inclduing all published online political advertisements.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Under existing regulations, campaigners are required to include an imprint with their name and address on printed and digital campaigning material. Imprint rules play an important role in promoting trust in our democratic process by ensuring voters can clearly see who is behind political campaigning material.
The Government is committed to strengthening our democracy and upholding the integrity of elections. As part of this, we intend to add unregistered third-party campaigning organisations to the list of entities who are required to include a digital imprint on their organic digital campaigning material and extend the Electoral Commission’s remit to be the primary enforcer of all imprint rules.
The Government has no plans at this time to introduce a public database for online political advertisements, but welcome the steps taken by social media companies to create “advert libraries”.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of protections for franchisees from changes to their terms and conditions made by franchisors.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) recognises the challenges franchisees can face and is monitoring this area closely. I understand that you recently met with Minister Bryant to discuss this matter, and we anticipate further meetings to take place in the future involving DBT officials.
The franchising industry currently self-regulates through the British Franchise Association, which has a Code of Ethics, and the Quality Franchise Association provides a Code of Conduct.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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 ensure that hospices receive the funding required to raise staff pay in line with nationally agreed NHS pay rises.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hospices, as independent organisations, are free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment and, therefore, it is for them to determine what is affordable within the financial model they operate and how to recoup any additional costs they face, including what contractual arrangements are reached with their commissioners.
NHS England uprates national allocations in line with the pay rises for integrated care boards (ICBs). It is down to the local contractual arrangements, and whether this includes the increases for pay rises or not, as to what the hospice can afford. There is, therefore, no single model which is consistent across England.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are also providing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.
A number of MPs wrote to me in relation to Hospice UK’s four-point plan for hospice funding. I have responded to this letter.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and enable ICBs to address challenges in access, quality, and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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 hospice contracts reflect the cost of the services they provide and the needs of their local populations.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has considered plans to fully fund the specialist palliative care, advice and assessment provided by hospices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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 national accountability for equitable provision of palliative care across England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
This is further clarified in the recently published Strategic Commissioning Framework and the Medium Term Planning Guidance, which makes clear the expectation that integrated care boards should understand current and projected service utilisation and costs, creating an overall plan to more effectively meet these needs through neighbourhood health.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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 reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to reducing premature mortality from heart disease and stroke by 25% in the next 10 years. To accelerate progress towards this ambition, we will publish a Modern Service Framework for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) in 2026, which will identify the best evidenced interventions, and drive innovation in prevention, treatment, and care. The Department and NHS England are working closely to deliver the CVD modern service framework and will engage widely throughout its development.
Alongside this, the NHS Health Check, a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme which aims to detect those at risk of heart disease and stroke aged between 40 and 74 years old, engages over 1.4 million people and through behavioural and clinical interventions, prevents approximately 500 heart attacks and strokes a year. To improve access with the programme, we are piloting an NHS Health Check online service so that people can undertake a check at a time and place that is convenient to them.
We have invested in hypertension case-finding for those over 40 years old in community pharmacies, and nearly 4.2 million people have received a free blood pressure check through the service since October 2021.