Lauren Sullivan

The Water (Special Measures) Act will enable the Environment Agency (EA) to build on its transformation in the way it regulates the water industry, enabling it to take faster, firmer action against poor performance. It will speed up civil penalties for less serious offences, so that it can focus prosecutions on the most serious offending. It will require water companies to publish information regarding the frequency and duration of discharges from all emergency overflows within an hour of a discharge occurring.

The EA has expanded the number of staff dedicated to regulating the water industry, including regulatory officers, data analysts, and enforcement specialists, whilst developing new digital systems and significantly increasing the number of water company inspections.

The EA works with water companies to develop investigations into microplastics, having been recognised as a significant standalone issue. The water industry is also funding further investigations. This will shape understanding regarding how the levels of microplastics entering the environment through wastewater treatment processes can be reduced.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) aims to process all applications as quickly as possible. However, driving licence applications where a medical condition(s) must be investigated can take longer as the DVLA is often reliant on information from third parties, including medical professionals, before a licence can be issued.

In 2024/25 the average time to make a licensing decision in medical cases was 44 working days, a significant reduction from 54 working days in the previous financial year.

Drivers with diabetes, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, visual impairments, sleep conditions or heart conditions can renew their driving licence online.

The DVLA continues to make improvements to the services provided to drivers with medical conditions and is introducing a new strategic system to process cases. This will provide better services for customers and allow straightforward applications to be processed more quickly.

Most applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing the driver can meet specific criteria. More information can be found online at: (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inf1886-can-i-drive-while-my-application-is-with-dvla)

The Government recognises the need to recruit on merit, irrespective of a persons' age. Age diversity within the workforce brings numerous benefits to businesses, in addition to broader advantages such as fresh perspectives and knowledge-sharing.

The 2010 Equality Act provides strong protection against direct and indirect age discrimination in employment, rendering it unlawful for employers to discriminate against employees or job applicants based on age.

The Government also acknowledges the key role employers play in helping older individuals to remain in or re-enter the workforce, and the importance of embracing policies conductive to this support. My Department engages with employers to ensure their recruitment practises attract and support the retention of older people. This includes making businesses aware of good practice and encouraging employers to sign the Age-Friendly employer pledge.

As announced in the recent Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers advice. This new service will transform our ability to support people into work, help those on low pay to increase their earnings, and create a more flexible workforce for a fast changing, higher skilled jobs market. This transformation is expected to contribute to economic growth by addressing local skills gaps and providing tailored support to meet the needs of local labour markets.

The Government has no current plans to extend statutory regulation to sports therapists. The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) operates a voluntary registers programme, which provides a proportionate means of assurance for unregulated professions, that sits between employer controls and statutory regulation by setting standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for unregulated health and social care occupations. There are currently two voluntary registers for organisations relating to sports therapy accredited by the PSA.

The Government wants National Health Service patients to be able to benefit from access to clinically and cost-effective new treatments, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the NHS on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NICE is currently developing guidance for the NHS on whether ruxolitinib should be routinely funded by the NHS, based on an assessment of its costs and benefits.

The NICE was unfortunately unable to recommend ruxolitinib as a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources in its final draft guidance published on 18 July. The NICE received four appeals against its draft recommendation which were heard by an independent panel on 11 October 2024. The appeal panel remitted the evaluation of ruxolitinib to the appraisal committee with the instruction to take all reasonable steps to address the issues raised in the upheld appeal points. The committee will consider the upheld appeal points at a future meeting scheduled for 14 May 2025.

It is right that the NICE makes its decisions at arm’s length of the Government and in line with its carefully developed methods and processes. As such, it would not be appropriate for me to intervene in the NICE’s decision-making.

Visa processing times are published on the UKVI website at Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). UKVI are currently processing applications on the overwhelming majority of its visa routes within their published customer service standards.

We are working with Welsh government on a range of shared priorities, which includes rail connectivity.

We are investing an historic £445 million into Welsh rail to right years’ of underfunding by previous governments and unleash Wales’ economic potential.

This will mean new stations, enable more and faster trains on the key lines across North and South Wales, connecting people with the new, well-paid jobs we’re creating across Wales.