Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether customers are entitled to reimbursement where they incur costs, including the installation of private pumping equipment, as a result of reductions in mains water pressure by water companies.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Customers are protected through statutory standards and compensation arrangements where water company service falls short. When water pressure falls below these standards and normal domestic use is impaired, customers may be entitled to compensation through the Guaranteed Standards Scheme.
Water company performance, including the reliability of supply, is subject to regulatory oversight by Ofwat, and companies are held to account where outcomes do not meet required standards.
We have strengthened these protections in recent reforms, including increasing compensation payments and ensuring customers are properly reimbursed following disruption, alongside plans for a new independent Water Ombudsman to provide binding decisions and improve access to redress where issues arise.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what rights to compensation or redress are available to customers whose mains water pressure is reduced to a level that impairs normal domestic use.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Customers are protected through statutory standards and compensation arrangements where water company service falls short. When water pressure falls below these standards and normal domestic use is impaired, customers may be entitled to compensation through the Guaranteed Standards Scheme.
Water company performance, including the reliability of supply, is subject to regulatory oversight by Ofwat, and companies are held to account where outcomes do not meet required standards.
We have strengthened these protections in recent reforms, including increasing compensation payments and ensuring customers are properly reimbursed following disruption, alongside plans for a new independent Water Ombudsman to provide binding decisions and improve access to redress where issues arise.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what oversight regulators undertake to ensure that reductions in mains water pressure are not used as an alternative to infrastructure investment by water companies.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ofwat monitors water pressure as part of statutory service standards and can take enforcement action if companies fail to maintain adequate levels. Companies must report pressure performance annually, and Ofwat scrutinises their investment plans through the price review process to ensure they are not avoiding necessary infrastructure upgrades. The Drinking Water Inspectorate also oversees supply issues that could affect consumer protection. Regulators therefore have clear mechanisms to prevent companies using pressure reductions as an alternative to proper investment.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what minimum standards apply to mains water pressure for domestic customers; and what steps are taken to ensure that water companies remain compliant with those standards when adjusting network pressure.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies must meet minimum service standards set through the Guaranteed Standards Scheme, including maintaining adequate water pressure and providing compensation where these standards are not met. The Government strengthened protections in July 2025 by increasing compensation for low water pressure incidents, with payments rising up to £250 and applied automatically to eligible customers’ accounts.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his department issues to water companies on the use of reductions in mains water pressure as a method of managing leakage or supply constraints.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government does not issue guidance to water companies to reduce mains water pressure as a method of managing leakage or supply constraints. Companies are expected to control leakage through investment and efficiency. They must also meet minimum pressure standards under the Guaranteed Standards Scheme, with compensation payable where these are not met.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 improve training for healthcare professionals on recognising and managing endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government acknowledges the importance of ensuring healthcare professionals are adequately trained and educated on women’s health conditions including endometriosis and polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) and we have taken action to address this.
The General Medical Council (GMC) has introduced the Medical Licensing Assessment to encourage a better understanding of common women’s health problems among all doctors as they start their careers in the United Kingdom. The content for this assessment includes several topics relating to women’s health including endometriosis and PMOS.
Women's health is included the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) curriculum for trainee general practitioners (GPs), including gynaecology, sexual health and breast health. The curriculum also covers the healthcare needs of women across all diseases seen in primary care as it is important women are treated holistically. This ensures that all future GPs receive education on women’s health.
The RCGP has also published a Women’s Health Library which brings together educational resources and guidelines on women’s health from the RCGP, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare. This resource is continually updated to ensure GPs and other primary healthcare professionals have the most up-to-date advice to provide the best care for their patients.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has developed a women’s and reproductive health topic suite, and updated guidelines on endometriosis in 2024 to make firmer recommendations for healthcare professionals on referral and investigations for women with suspected diagnosis. These clinical guidelines support healthcare professionals to provide care for women with endometriosis.
Generally, employers in the health system are responsible for ensuring that their staff are trained to the required standards to deliver appropriate treatment for patients.
The renewed Women’s Health Strategy was published on 15 April 2026. The renewed strategy sets out a bold, long‑term plan to transform how the health and care system listens to, supports and delivers for women and girls. It puts women’s voices and choices at the centre of care, drives faster improvements in services and outcomes that matter most to women, and tackles long‑standing health inequalities across the life course. The strategy aligns with the 10-Year Health Plan to shift care into the community, harness digital innovation and strengthen prevention so women can live healthier, more fulfilled lives.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in child mortality rates among children living in temporary accommodation in England in each of the last six years; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce health risks and prevent avoidable deaths among those children.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is building on the ambitious action set out in our 10-Year Health Plan, by working across-Government to support children in temporary accommodation. We will introduce a clinical code for children in temporary accommodation, ensuring these families are proactively contacted by health services, and ending the practice of discharging newborn babies into bed and breakfasts or other unsuitable shared accommodation.
In the refreshed guidance for the Healthy Child Programme, published in February 2026, we state that health visitors should prioritise arranging a visit as soon as possible to families known to have transferred into temporary accommodation.
The Department is considering the recommendations set out in the recently published Child Mortality in Temporary Accommodation Report, and taking forward actions, some of which are already in policy development. The report is available at the following link:
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, who the intended audience was for her Department's social media content featuring Gemma Collins on 19 May 2026.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The aim of the department's communications is to reach audiences impacted by, or who may benefit from, the work we do, including the many who do not read government press notices or government channels. The recent social media activity featuring Gemma Collins was primarily aimed at at 16 to 19-year-olds who might consider studying V Levels and level 2 pathways. We also aimed to reach their parents, carers, and teachers, all of whom are influential in a young person’s education choices. This content directed users through to our V-Levels Education Hub page for more information and 80% of the content reached non-followers of the department’s social media pages.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of support for fuel poor households.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Tackling fuel poverty is a priority for this Government. That is why the Government recently published a new fuel poverty strategy for England alongside the Warm Homes Plan, to ensure that many more fuel poor households are protected by 2030.
With this new strategy, Government is determined to double the pace at which we slash fuel poverty.
This strategy is accompanied by our £15 billion Warm Homes Plan – the biggest home upgrade plan in British history. The actions set out in this plan will reduce energy use, lower bills for millions of households, and help to lift up to a million families out of fuel poverty by 2030.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 reduce waiting times for ophthalmology services in Newbury constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, across all specialties. In March 2026, we hit our first interim target of 65% performance against that standard. For ophthalmology, performance in March reached 72.9%, 4.6% up from a year earlier.
We remain focused on further improving elective waiting times, including for ophthalmology services. We are expanding the number of surgical hubs, like the one at West Berkshire Community Hospital, which provide dedicated and protected elective capacity to drive improvement in six specialities, including ophthalmology. We are reducing missed appointments through enhanced two-way communication between hospitals and patients, supported by artificial intelligence prediction tools. We are also expanding the use of remote monitoring and patient-initiated follow up, where appropriate, to offer patients more flexibility over their care.
From 2027, our new ‘online hospital’, NHS Online, will help to reduce patient waiting times across England by giving people on certain pathways, including glaucoma, conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, and cataracts, the choice of getting the specialist care that they need from their home. NHS Online will deliver the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years across all specialities.