Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
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 of the potential merits of increasing open access care models in mental health services; and if he will take steps to ensure that people have access to timely support without requiring referral or meeting high eligibility thresholds.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the announcement on this subject made by my rt. Hon. Friends, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 5 August 2026, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-expansion-of-community-mental-health-support-across-england
Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications of the Dillon judgement for his Department's policies.
Answered by Hilary Benn
The Supreme Court confirmed that the ICRIR is capable of delivering human rights-compliant investigations, and reaffirmed the Government’s position on the interpretation and application of Article 2 of the Windsor Framework. The judgment also showed that the Government was right to address the main flaws in the Legacy Act - namely the immunity scheme - which was wrong in principle and never came into force. While the question of immunity was not before the Supreme Court, the Court chose to refute the main argument put forward for it. Following the judgment, it is clear that the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill is the only viable way to generate confidence across communities, enable information sharing by the Irish authorities and put in place the necessary safeguards for our former service personnel.Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has the Department made of the potential merits of funeral directors becoming a a) licensable or b) inspectable activity under existing environmental health frameworks.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government offers its deepest sympathies to all those affected by the events referred to in these questions.
Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the recruitment and management of Environmental Health Officers to fulfil their statutory obligations. Environmental Health Officers have no statutory role relating to funeral homes.
The Department has not made an assessment or collected data on regulatory gaps, environmental health standards, or the merits of inspection relating to funeral directors, but are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) who are leading the government response to the Fuller Inquiry. An interim update on the Inquiry’s Phase 2 recommendations was published in December 2025, and DHSC has committed to publishing the Government’s full response in summer 2026. That response will set out the Government’s position on any potential future changes to oversight or regulation of the funeral sector.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has the department made of the adequacy of environmental health inspections with regard to the case of Elkin & Bell Funeral Directors, Portsmouth Crown Court 2026.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government offers its deepest sympathies to all those affected by the events referred to in these questions.
Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the recruitment and management of Environmental Health Officers to fulfil their statutory obligations. Environmental Health Officers have no statutory role relating to funeral homes.
The Department has not made an assessment or collected data on regulatory gaps, environmental health standards, or the merits of inspection relating to funeral directors, but are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) who are leading the government response to the Fuller Inquiry. An interim update on the Inquiry’s Phase 2 recommendations was published in December 2025, and DHSC has committed to publishing the Government’s full response in summer 2026. That response will set out the Government’s position on any potential future changes to oversight or regulation of the funeral sector.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data does the department collect on environmental health breaches associated with a) poor hygiene, b) storage of bodies or c) handling practices in funeral premises.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government offers its deepest sympathies to all those affected by the events referred to in these questions.
Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the recruitment and management of Environmental Health Officers to fulfil their statutory obligations. Environmental Health Officers have no statutory role relating to funeral homes.
The Department has not made an assessment or collected data on regulatory gaps, environmental health standards, or the merits of inspection relating to funeral directors, but are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) who are leading the government response to the Fuller Inquiry. An interim update on the Inquiry’s Phase 2 recommendations was published in December 2025, and DHSC has committed to publishing the Government’s full response in summer 2026. That response will set out the Government’s position on any potential future changes to oversight or regulation of the funeral sector.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has the department made of possible regulatory gaps concerning funeral directors with particular regard to a) environmental health and b) public safety.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government offers its deepest sympathies to all those affected by the events referred to in these questions.
Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the recruitment and management of Environmental Health Officers to fulfil their statutory obligations. Environmental Health Officers have no statutory role relating to funeral homes.
The Department has not made an assessment or collected data on regulatory gaps, environmental health standards, or the merits of inspection relating to funeral directors, but are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) who are leading the government response to the Fuller Inquiry. An interim update on the Inquiry’s Phase 2 recommendations was published in December 2025, and DHSC has committed to publishing the Government’s full response in summer 2026. That response will set out the Government’s position on any potential future changes to oversight or regulation of the funeral sector.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment has been made of standards of environmental health particular to funeral directors as settings which could impact public health.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government offers its deepest sympathies to all those affected by the events referred to in these questions.
Local authorities are independent employers, responsible for the recruitment and management of Environmental Health Officers to fulfil their statutory obligations. Environmental Health Officers have no statutory role relating to funeral homes.
The Department has not made an assessment or collected data on regulatory gaps, environmental health standards, or the merits of inspection relating to funeral directors, but are working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) who are leading the government response to the Fuller Inquiry. An interim update on the Inquiry’s Phase 2 recommendations was published in December 2025, and DHSC has committed to publishing the Government’s full response in summer 2026. That response will set out the Government’s position on any potential future changes to oversight or regulation of the funeral sector.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to apply trial by a single judge sitting alone retrospectively to defendants who have already entered a plea and elected trial by jury.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is focused on bringing down the backlog as soon as possible. Once the criminal court reforms come into force, they will apply to existing cases, provided the trial has not yet commenced. This will mean that cases which are past the point of initial mode of trial determination, but have not yet commenced trial, will be able to be changed from jury trial to trial by judge alone (either under the Crown Court Bench Division or on the grounds of technical complexity or length). Cases which are in the Crown Court will be retained within that jurisdiction.
Cases already part-way through a jury trial will proceed with a jury trial. Similarly, cases already assigned to one court jurisdiction (magistrates’ court or Crown Court) will not be reallocated to another jurisdiction.
The reason for taking this approach is so that the time savings and benefits of the reforms can be felt as soon as possible. Allowing pending cases to be tried by judge alone will enable us to start tackling the open caseload as soon as the new legislation is enacted, delivering swifter justice for victims without compromising defendants’ rights or fairness. It will also avoid two different procedures running in parallel in the Crown Court as a result of arbitrary cut-off dates. The application of procedural changes to existing cases is consistent with longstanding legal practice.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the current average number of Crown court courtrooms that are not sitting in a month is; and what steps he is taking to address the issue of Crown Courts not sitting.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 6 January to question 100312.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Independent - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has conducted an assessment of Crown Court and Magistrates’ Court sitting time lost as a result of the late production or non-production of defendants in custody.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data on the number of trials declared ineffective due to the non-production of defendants can be found here: Trial effectiveness at the Criminal Courts tool.
In the most recent reported quarter (July to September 2025) – non-production of defendants accounted for less than 2% of ineffective trials.
Securing data on the impact that late production or non-production of defendants has had on sitting time would come at a disproportionate cost, due to the time required to process this information.