Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help shorten waiting times for dementia diagnoses.

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

A timely diagnosis is vital to ensuring that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care, and support that can help them to live well and remain independent for as long as possible.

We remain committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7%. The Government is also committed to transforming diagnostic services, including the detection and diagnosis of dementia, and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computerized tomography scanners.

The Dementia Care Pathway: Full Implementation Guidance, commissioned by NHS England, outlines the dementia care pathway and the associated benchmarks to support improvements in the delivery and quality of care and support. It showcases good-practice examples of services that have successfully reduced their waiting times. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/default-source/improving-care/nccmh/dementia/nccmh-dementia-care-pathway-full-implementation-guidance.pdf

To support recovery of the dementia diagnosis rates and implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, NHS England has developed a dashboard for management information purposes. The aim is to support commissioners and providers of memory services with appropriate data and enable targeted support where needed.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide additional support to carers of people with Parkinson’s disease.

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

The Government is committed to ensuring that families have the support that they need.

Local authorities have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers and carers of people with Parkinson’s disease.

To support unpaid carers, on 7 April 2025 the Government increased the Carer's Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196, the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage. This represents the largest increase in the earnings limit since the Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.

We are also providing support for unpaid carers. The Better Care Fund can be used for unpaid carer support, including short breaks and respite services for carers. The Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF) has also provided a total of £42.6 million to support innovation and scaling in adult social care. More than half of the ARF projects are focused on identifying, recognising, and supporting unpaid carers.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to prevent child poverty in Ashfield constituency, in the context of disability benefit reforms.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government. The Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish a Child Poverty Strategy looking at levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. We are listening carefully to the voices of children and families living in poverty, including children with disabilities and special educational needs. Later this month, the Taskforce will meet with external experts, including disability charities and organisations, to discuss the impact of poverty on disabled children specifically.

Alongside our work on the Child Poverty Strategy, we have set out ambitious plans to reform employment support and support disabled people and people with health conditions to stay in work and get back into work. Our Get Britain Working (GBW) White Paper includes £15 million funding to support trailblazers and local development of GBW plans. We announced in our Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work, backed up by £1 billion of new funding.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many disabled people were on the waiting list for social housing in the last 12 months.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

My Department does not hold data on the number of disabled people on social housing registers (waiting lists).

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many foreign nationals have been granted social housing in the last year.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

People are generally eligible for social housing if they have leave to remain in the UK and have recourse to public funds. The Home Office decides whether persons from abroad have leave to remain in the UK and whether they have recourse to public funds.

Only individuals that are eligible can join housing registers and be given a social housing tenancy. For those who are eligible, housing needs will be considered on an equal basis in accordance with the relevant local authority’s housing allocation scheme.

There were 33,000 new social lettings in England to households whose lead tenant was a non-UK national in 2023/24. This constitutes 13% of all new social lettings that year (262,000 lettings). The Department does not hold data on the nationality of individual members of households in social housing, but such households can contain UK nationals as well as non-UK national lead tenants.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will introduce trauma training in nurseries and schools to support (a) children in care and (b) children who have been adopted.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Children in care and care leavers are significantly more likely to have experienced trauma and have poor mental health. The latest departmental data shows that two thirds of children become looked after due to abuse or neglect, and we know that care-experienced adults are at four to five times greater risk of suicide attempt than their peers. Knowing the significant trauma that many of these children and young people have experienced and its lasting impact, providing effective support is crucial.

To support children in care and those who have previously been in care, including children adopted from state care, Pupil Premium Plus funding of £2,630 is provided per eligible child, per year. For looked-after children, this funding is managed by the local authority’s Virtual School Head and can be used to facilitate a wide range of educational support including additional mentoring, tuition and therapeutic services. Many Virtual School Heads work closely with schools to support the implementation of whole-school, trauma-informed practice. For previously looked-after children, Pupil Premium Plus is paid to, and managed by, the child’s school and can be used to facilitate a wide range of educational support.

All maintained schools and academies must appoint a designated teacher to promote the educational achievement of the children in care or previously in care on the school’s roll. Designated teachers have an important role in ensuring staff can identify signs of potential issues and understand where the school can draw on specialist services. This includes identifying signs of potential mental health issues and understanding the impact that these issues, including experiences of trauma, can have on children in care or previously in care and their ability to engage in learning.

Schools have the flexibility to decide what pastoral support they provide to best meet the individual needs of all their pupils. This includes how they approach supporting children who may be particularly vulnerable, such as those who have experienced trauma. The department recognises that many schools do use trauma informed practices as part of their approach.

To help schools support their pupils, the government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.

The department will also recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults, and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.

To support education staff, the department provides a range of guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing. For example, a resources hub for mental health leads and a toolkit to help choose evidence-based early support for pupils, which include resources on trauma.

Personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is crucial for all children to lead healthy and happy lives and is fundamental to their cognitive development. This is why PSED is one of the three prime areas of learning set out in the early years foundation stage statutory framework that all early years providers in England must follow. This statutory framework can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2.

The department’s online child development training for early years educators includes a module dedicated to supporting children’s PSED and covers attachment theory, including how trauma can impact a baby and young child’s attachment style. This training is available at: https://child-development-training.education.gov.uk/.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many disability benefit claimants will be impacted by the disability benefit reforms in Ashfield constituency.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released from Nottinghamshire prisons as part of the early release scheme since July 2024.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

This Government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, with our prisons on the brink of collapse. We took the necessary action to prevent the complete breakdown in law and order that we were facing when we were elected, by introducing the SDS40 scheme. Unlike the previous Government’s disastrous ECSL scheme, SDS40 has exclusions for domestic abuse related offences and sought to give probation as much time as possible to prepare for releases.

SDS40 applies to all prisons in England and Wales and data on early prison releases from Nottinghamshire prisons forms a subset of prison releases data which is intended for future publication. In accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, we may not give any early indication of the contents of this statistical report.

On 07 November, the Ministry of Justice published transparency data on how many offenders were released on the first days of Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 of SDS40 (1,889 prisoners on the first day of Tranche 1, and 1,223 prisoners on the first day of Tranche 2).

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to reduce homelessness among veterans.

Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 903640 on 7 April 2025.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the Work Capability Assessment decisions made between January 2022 and November 2024, broken down by mental and behavioural disorders.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment decisions by grouped medical condition, including ‘mental and behavioural disorders’, are published on Stat-Xplore in the sections ‘ESA Work Capability Assessments’.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Statistics on Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment decisions by grouped medical condition, including ‘mental and behavioural disorders’, are available at Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment statistics, April 2019 to December 2024 - GOV.UK in section 6 of the document and table 7 of the tables.

Information on lower level conditions is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish a breakdown of work capability assessment decisions by medical condition between January 2022 and November 2024.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment decisions by grouped medical condition, including ‘mental and behavioural disorders’, are published on Stat-Xplore in the sections ‘ESA Work Capability Assessments’.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Statistics on Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment decisions by grouped medical condition, including ‘mental and behavioural disorders’, are available at Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment statistics, April 2019 to December 2024 - GOV.UK in section 6 of the document and table 7 of the tables.

Information on lower level conditions is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish a breakdown of work capability assessment decisions in each month between January 2022 and November 2024.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Statistics on Work Capability Assessment decisions by month of decision are published on Stat-Xplore in the sections ‘ESA Work Capability Assessments’ and ‘Universal Credit Work Capability Assessments’.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps is he taking to support the steel industry.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Steel is a top priority for this Government. As shown with the passing of the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act, this Government will not hesitate to take unprecedented steps to safeguard the future of steelmaking in the UK, protecting jobs, national security and supply chains.

We have completed the roll out of the British Industry Supercharger, which from this month means our steel industry will save an estimated £320mn – £410mn this year. This is on top of continuing the network charging compensation scheme.

We have taken action to make public procurement of UK-made steel easier and increased support for businesses to report unfair international trade practices. We have continued to develop the policy and approach for the steel strategy.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much her Department has spent on keeping foreign nationals imprisoned in prisons in each of the last five years.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

We do not disaggregate prison run costs by nationality and the cost to hold individuals depends on category of prisons. Our unit costs for holding prisoners are published on GOV.UK alongside the HM Prison and Probation Service Annual Reports and Accounts. Data on the number of Foreign National Offenders in custody is published in Offender Management Statistics quarterly on GOV.UK.

Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced. The Ministry of Justice will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation. Between 5 July 2024 and 22 March 2025, 3,594 FNOs have been returned – 16% more than the 3,101 in the same period 12 months prior, under the previous government.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will remove net zero targets for key strategic industries.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Our targets are there to help us seize the economic opportunity of the century – and we are absolutely committed to them.

So, instead of leaving great British industries without a long-term plan for their future, we will help them become more secure and sustainable, creating and protecting hundreds of thousands of jobs across the UK.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, regarding the report entitled Seventh Carbon Budget by the Committee on Climate Change, published on 26 February 2025, whether his Department has made an estimate of the cumulative capital expenditure required for (a) transmission grid upgrades, (b) distribution grid upgrades and (c) household insulation measures to 2050.

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

The actual costs of delivering the Seventh Carbon Budget will be determined by the choices that government makes. The costs and funding scenarios set out in the CCC’s Seventh Carbon Budget report are illustrative and do not represent government policy and Government is not bound to accept their recommendations.

In 2022, the Government published the Electricity Networks Strategic Framework which included an estimate of cumulative 2021-2050 load-related total expenditure for net zero of £100-120bn for onshore transmission and £70-90bn for distribution network.

The Warm Homes Plan will help people find ways to save money on energy bills and transform our ageing building stock into comfortable, low-carbon homes that are fit for the future. We will upgrade up to 5 million homes across the country by accelerating the installation of efficient new technologies like heat pumps, solar, batteries and insulation.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made an estimate of the percentage reduction in heat demand that household insulation measures will deliver on existing housing stock.

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

The Department publishes annual estimates of the impact of installing insulation measures through government schemes on domestic gas consumption in England and Wales.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were assessed for a role in the Prison Service by nationality in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Department welcomes job applications from everyone, irrespective of background, identity, experience, or circumstance, and particularly those underrepresented in our workforce.

The number of people assessed for a role in the prison service by nationality from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 is provided in the attached table 1.

All staff undergo robust assessments and training before they work in prisons. Our strengthened vetting process roots out those who fall below our high standards.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people applied to join the Prison Service by nationality in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Department welcomes job applications from everyone, irrespective of background, identity, experience, or circumstance, and particularly those underrepresented in our workforce.

The number of people who applied for a role in the prison service by nationality from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 is provided in the attached table 1.

All staff undergo robust assessments and training before they work in prisons. Our strengthened vetting process roots out those who fall below our high standards

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is he taking to reduce NHS waiting times in Ashfield.

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

We are ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care, including in the Ashfield constituency. We have already exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments, with three million more delivered between July 2024 and January 2025.

In Ashfield, Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board has been working with local National Health Service trusts and independent sector providers to secure additional capacity to see, diagnose and treat patients; review all waiting times; reduce any inequity of waits; and support patient choice.

We have also increased diagnostic capacity in Ashfield through investment in new computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scanners and reducing wasted appointments through improved communication with patients. This has resulted in waits for diagnostic tests improving significantly, contributing to improvements in the overall waits for diagnosis and treatment. It has also led to a reduction in the number of patients waiting more than 52 weeks for surgery and improvements in the number of patients who are seen and treated within 18 weeks.

Found: in Common and the Together Coalition (2024) 14 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/24/lee-anderson-stripped-of-tory-whip-over-sadiq-khan-comment

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