Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February to Question 110590 on Breast Cancer: Screening, whether the National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Registry will include women assessed as being at moderate or high risk of breast cancer who do not have an identified genetic mutation.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Registry already includes some women who do not have an identified genetic mutation. National cancer registration data collects high-quality data in the National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Registry on women at very high risk of breast cancer according to The Surveillance of women at very high risk of developing breast cancer guidelines, which are available at the following link:
As well as women at high risk of breast cancer who have an identified genetic mutation, the registry collects data on ‘risk-equivalent’ women who have a strong family history of breast cancer, but who have not undertaken a definitive genetic test and therefore do not have an identified genetic mutation. Their eligibility criteria can be found at the following link:
Women from the breast cancer after radiotherapy dataset, or BARD, are also included. These women have received radiotherapy to the chest area involving breast tissue for the treatment of lymphoma between the ages of 10 and 35 years old. They are identified by linking national cancer registration data to the national Radiotherapy Dataset within National Disease Registration Service, as both are nationally mandated datasets.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many outstanding Access to Work scheme payments there were in (a) February 2026, (b) October 2025 and (c) April 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Access to Work (AtW) operates as a reimbursement grant, which means that the service or support must be provided before any payment can be made. Once AtW support has been approved, the customer can then submit their claim for payment. Customers have up to nine months to submit claims for their approved costs. As a result, on any individual day, there will always be claims awaiting review and payment. On average, we are currently processing and clearing claims within 13 days. We have plans in place to reduce this to 10 days.
As of the 1st of February 2026, there were 16,389 payment claims being processed.
As of the 1st of October 2025, there were 9,103 payment claims being processed.
As of the 1st of April 2025, there were 28,499 payment claims being processed.
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were waiting for decisions on Access to Work scheme claims as of (a) February 2026, (b) October 2025 and (c) April 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of Access to Work applications has risen significantly. We are committed to reducing waiting times. We also prioritise applications from customers who are due to start work within the next four weeks, as well as renewals for existing grants, to minimise disruption to employment.
In March 2025, the Department published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, launching a consultation on the future of Access to Work and how the scheme can better support disabled people in employment. We are reviewing all aspects of the programme as we develop plans for reform following the conclusion of the consultation.
As of the 1st of February 2026, there were 66,218 applications awaiting a decision.
As of the 1st of October 2025, please refer to the answer given on 22 October 2025 to Question UIN 80759. As of the 1st of April 2025, please refer to the answer given on 10 June 2025 to Question UIN 56299.
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how his Department plans to promote the National Year of Reading within the criminal justice system.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The National Year of Reading is a welcome opportunity to promote a wide range of activity to improve literacy and engagement with reading for people in custody and on probation.
As part of this work we have appointed the first ever Prison Reading Laureate, the author Lee Child. He will champion the transformative power of reading across the criminal justice system, continue expansion of his successful literacy pilot programme which has been running in a number of prisons since 2025 and will bring in more authors to work with prisons across the country, promoting the benefits of reading to rehabilitation.
Reading is a priority for HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) who work with many voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations such as the Reading Agency and National Literacy Trust. A programme of work is planned throughout this year to improve national access to books and facilitate workshops with authors. The Youth Custody Service is also launching its first ever Literacy Festival to inspire reading amongst some of the most complex children in our society.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department plans to promote the National Year of Reading within early years policy and strategy.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Year of Reading is a UK-wide campaign aiming to tackle long-term declines in reading enjoyment.
Reading together is one of the most powerful ways to build a child’s language and communication skills, strengthen early bonds, and spark a lifelong love of reading. This is why early years is one of the priority groups for the National Year of Reading.
The ‘Go All In’ campaign positions reading as a powerful way for parents and families to increase quality time with their children and explore shared interests further, rather than reading being seen as a parental obligation.
The National Year of Reading includes a major physical and online marketing campaign, as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout the year.
The government is also investing around £500 million in the national rollout of the Best Start Family Hubs, which includes simple, practical tips to help parents feel confident in sharing stories, songs and books.
Early years settings and all interested parties are encouraged to sign up to www.goallin.org.uk for more information and to receive regular updates.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department plans to promote the National Year of Reading within early years policy and strategy.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Year of Reading is a UK-wide campaign aiming to tackle long-term declines in reading enjoyment.
Reading together is one of the most powerful ways to build a child’s language and communication skills, strengthen early bonds, and spark a lifelong love of reading. This is why early years is one of the priority groups for the National Year of Reading.
The ‘Go All In’ campaign positions reading as a powerful way for parents and families to increase quality time with their children and explore shared interests further, rather than reading being seen as a parental obligation.
The National Year of Reading includes a major physical and online marketing campaign, as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout the year.
The government is also investing around £500 million in the national rollout of the Best Start Family Hubs, which includes simple, practical tips to help parents feel confident in sharing stories, songs and books.
Early years settings and all interested parties are encouraged to sign up to www.goallin.org.uk for more information and to receive regular updates.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how her Department plans to promote the National Year of Reading within policy and strategy for public libraries.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Public libraries are central to the success of the National Year of Reading’s campaign to engage people of all ages with reading. The Reading Agency has been appointed to work with sector partners to deliver and support public library engagement. The Summer Reading Challenge in 2026, and World Book Night, the annual celebration of reading for adults on 23 April 2026, will be key moments for libraries during the National Year of Reading 2026. Throughout the year, The Reading Agency will provide public libraries with resources, toolkits, and print and digital materials to support their work.
This is part of the broader programme of government support for the National Year of Reading including the £5 million funding for secondary schools to purchase books the Chancellor announced during her budget speech.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of integrating all at risk screening for breast cancer into the National NHS Breast Screening Programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The new and world-leading NHS National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Registry (NICPR), part of the National Disease Registration Service, will help the National Health Service to deliver proactive, targeted prevention, surveillance, and earlier diagnosis for people and their families. Women at Very High Risk (VHR) of breast cancer are now identified within the NICPR and referred into the NHS Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP), which has enabled reconciliation to ensure that all identified women are safely referred into the programme. This is a step towards a fully electronic referral VHR process into the NHSBSP.
The Government is advised on all screening matters by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific advisory committee which is made up of leading medical and screening experts. Where the UK NSC is confident that offering screening provides more good than harm, they recommend a screening programme.
In 2022 the remit of the UK NSC was expanded to include targeted, and risk stratified screening, in addition to population screening. So far, the UK NSC has not made a recommendation for targeted screening of women at a moderate or high risk of breast cancer.
Currently, if women reach the criteria for moderate or high- risk screening with surveillance recommended, this is offered as part of screening provision managed locally with NHS trusts.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities within the most deprived decile receive above average increases in Core Spending Power in each year of the local government funding settlement.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Following extensive consultation and engagement, we are realigning funding distributed through the Local Government Finance Settlement with need and deprivation. These updates will account for local circumstances, including for different ability to raise income locally from council tax. By using the most up to date data available, the government will be able to assess local authorities' relative demand for services more effectively. This includes using the most up to date 2025 Indices of Multiple Deprivation in our assessment of need.
We introduced the £600 million Recovery Grant in 2025-26 to support the most deprived local authorities. Following a large number of representations, the government has consulted on its plans to maintain the Recovery Grant across the multi-year Settlement; and to provide a Recovery Grant Guarantee, ensuring that upper-tier authorities in receipt of Recovery Grant see an increase of at least 5% in 2026-27, 6% in 2027-28 and 7% 2028-29, compared to their 2025-26 income, subject to a cap of £35m.
As a result of our reforms, the most deprived places – such as Blackpool – will see increases in government funding which ensure that their Core Spending Power per head will on average be higher than in less deprived places.
The government is considering the responses received following the consultation of the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026 to 2027 and will set out a position when the final Settlement is published in early February.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the number of drink-driving related (a) deaths and (b) serious injuries in Blackpool North and Fleetwood for each of the past 5 years.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Statistics regarding drink driving in personal injury road collisions in Great Britain are based on data reported to police using the STATS19 system.
The estimated number of fatalities and serious injuries in drink-drive collisions for Blackpool North and Fleetwood between 2019 and 2023 (the latest 5 years available) are given in the table below.
Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Values of 0 indicate that the estimated number of fatalities or serious injuries is less than 5:
Year | Fatalities | Serious injuries (adjusted) |
2023 | 0 | 0 |
2022 | 0 | 10 |
2021 | 0 | 0 |
2020 | 0 | 0 |
2019 | 0 | 0 |
These figures are based on the results of breath tests conducted by the police at the scene of personal injury road collisions and combined with data from coroners on blood alcohol levels of those killed in collisions.
On 7 January 2026 we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all. The Strategy sets an ambitious target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65% by 2035. Alongside the strategy we published a consultation on reforms to motoring offences, including lowering the drink drive limit in England and Wales and introducing tougher penalties for driving without insurance or without a licence.