Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 participation in the bowel cancer screening programme in Ashfield.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Bowel cancer screening is delivered through the national NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, which invites eligible people aged 50 to 74 years old every two years, with those aged over 74 years old able to request a test kit. Data for the programme is available at a Nottinghamshire level, and as of January 2026, the test kit return rate was 64.9%, compared with a national average of 54.3%. All individuals in Nottinghamshire with a positive test result were offered an appointment with a specialist screening practitioner within the 14‑day national standard.
NHS England Midlands has implemented a range of measures to increase participation in the screening programme across Nottinghamshire, including for residents of Ashfield. These measures include:
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 uptake for bowel cancer screenings.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Coverage of bowel cancer screening has been increasing in recent years. In 2019, 60.5% of people took the offer up, while now it is 71.8%.
The bowel cancer screening programme has standards, including thresholds. The acceptable threshold is the lowest level of performance which screening services are expected to attain. The achievable threshold represents the level at which the screening service is likely to be running optimally.
The threshold levels have recently been reviewed, with changes taking effect from 1 April 2025. The new coverage thresholds for people aged between 60 and 74 years old is an acceptable level of more than or equal to 62%, and an achievable level of more than or equal to 76%.
To further increase coverage across England, NHS England is doing the following:
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 any (a) delays delays to CQC inspections and (b) changes in the level demand in the social care system does not affect the frequency of inspections of care homes.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is holding the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to account for its performance and has strengthened oversight following Dr Penny Dash’s review of the CQC’s operational effectiveness, including improvements in timeliness of assessments.
The CQC has pledged to respond rapidly to urgent and extreme risks, prioritising services registered for over a year without assessment or inspection and those with outdated ratings. From January 2026, this refreshed approach will enable the CQC to prioritise settings, including care homes.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the CQC completed 2,292 assessments of adult social care services. From 1 April 2025 to 22 March 2026, the CQC completed 3,546 assessments of adult social care services, an increase of 55%.
The CQC is piloting a number of initiatives to increase the number of assessments they can deliver in adult care per year to ensure care settings are inspected regularly, and these will be rolled out in the first half of the 2026/27 financial year.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 care homes are inspected regularly.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is holding the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to account for its performance and has strengthened oversight following Dr Penny Dash’s review of the CQC’s operational effectiveness, including improvements in timeliness of assessments.
The CQC has pledged to respond rapidly to urgent and extreme risks, prioritising services registered for over a year without assessment or inspection and those with outdated ratings. From January 2026, this refreshed approach will enable the CQC to prioritise settings, including care homes.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the CQC completed 2,292 assessments of adult social care services. From 1 April 2025 to 22 March 2026, the CQC completed 3,546 assessments of adult social care services, an increase of 55%.
The CQC is piloting a number of initiatives to increase the number of assessments they can deliver in adult care per year to ensure care settings are inspected regularly, and these will be rolled out in the first half of the 2026/27 financial year.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to prevent warehouse and fulfilment jobs listed as not requiring English from being offered.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government does not collect data on the English language proficiency of private sector employees, which includes warehouse workers.
Employers can choose how they recruit for their organisation, but they must follow a fair process.
Health and safety law does not require workers to be able to speak English, but the Health and Safety Executive states that employers have a duty to provide comprehensible information. This does not have to be in English, but risks, safety measures and emergency procedures must be clearly communicated to all workers.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of having non-fluent English speakers in warehouse jobs on health and safety.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government does not collect data on the English language proficiency of private sector employees, which includes warehouse workers.
Employers can choose how they recruit for their organisation, but they must follow a fair process.
Health and safety law does not require workers to be able to speak English, but the Health and Safety Executive states that employers have a duty to provide comprehensible information. This does not have to be in English, but risks, safety measures and emergency procedures must be clearly communicated to all workers.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has issued guidance on English language requirements for employment within warehouses.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government does not collect data on the English language proficiency of private sector employees, which includes warehouse workers.
Employers can choose how they recruit for their organisation, but they must follow a fair process.
Health and safety law does not require workers to be able to speak English, but the Health and Safety Executive states that employers have a duty to provide comprehensible information. This does not have to be in English, but risks, safety measures and emergency procedures must be clearly communicated to all workers.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information his Department holds on the number of warehouse workers who cannot speak fluent English.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government does not collect data on the English language proficiency of private sector employees, which includes warehouse workers.
Employers can choose how they recruit for their organisation, but they must follow a fair process.
Health and safety law does not require workers to be able to speak English, but the Health and Safety Executive states that employers have a duty to provide comprehensible information. This does not have to be in English, but risks, safety measures and emergency procedures must be clearly communicated to all workers.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2026 to Question 118868 on Personal Independence Payment, when he expects additional health professionals to be recruited.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department continues to work closely with its Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment suppliers to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place to meet operational demand. Recruitment of health professionals is a continuous activity undertaken by suppliers in line with contractual requirements and the need to maintain appropriate levels of trained staff.
Staffing levels are managed continuously by suppliers to respond to regional demand and ensure service quality.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse report published in June 2025, what steps her Department is taking to strengthen taxi and private hire vehicle licensing regulations.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government response to Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse committed to legislate to tackle the inconsistent standards of taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) driver licensing. As a first step, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill seeks a power for the Secretary of State to set national standards for taxi and PHV licensing and to enable the suspension, with immediate effect, of any licence issued by any authority in whose area it is being used if such action is needed to protect public safety.
If passed, this would enable government to set robust standards for licensing right across England and provide licensing authorities with greater powers to keep vulnerable children and, indeed, all members of the public safe, wherever they live or travel.
The Department continues to consider further options for reform, including out-of-area working and enforcement. We need to ensure that taxis and PHVs are able to work in a way that facilitates the journeys passengers want and need to make, in a consistently safe way, whilst achieving the best overall outcomes for passenger safety.
The Government is currently consulting on making all local transport authorities responsible for taxi and PHV licensing. Administering licensing across larger areas would further increase consistency in licensing and enable better resourced authorities to make better use of their current and proposed enforcement powers.