Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions he has had with independent SMEs on the impact of his Department's policies.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The UK has 5.5m SMEs and we are committed to hardwiring their voice into government policy, engaging with them in various ways including through roundtables, visits and events.

Hundreds of individual SMEs have been engaged across all sectors and regions as part of co-designing our SME Strategy, including through roundtables across key areas, such as High Streets, Markets and Finance as well as specific policy events such as at Wilton Park.

Engagement with individual SMEs will continue to be a priority pre and post-launch of the SME Strategy to assess the impact of these policies on SMEs across the UK.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much and what proportion of funding the National-Level Transport Scheme allocates to the (a) investigation and (b) completion of business cases; and to the immediate construction of schemes that are ready to build.

Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The department does not recognise the ‘National-Level Transport Scheme.’ and is therefore unable to provide an answer to this question.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has completed the capital review of transport projects.

Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Capital Review was undertaken by an external panel of independent experts, and has now concluded.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will take steps to highlight the importance of safety at railway level crossings during the school summer holidays.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Educating users is critical to ensuring that level crossings are used safely and we look to Network Rail as the owner of these assets to do this. Network Rail produces a wide range of educational material on safety on and around the railway, including on level crossing safety, which it promotes through media campaigns and through school and community events. It recognises that the school holidays can pose particular challenges and focuses significant effort in attending local schools and community events in the vicinity of level crossings to promote railway safety.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of good quality agricultural land being used for the development of large scale solar farms.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra produces statistical estimates of agricultural land areas each year from the annual June Survey of Agriculture:

• In 2024, the utilised agricultural area (UAA) in England was 8.7 million hectares and this has remained broadly stable, only changing by around +/-1% each year over the past decade. Full breakdowns of agricultural land areas are published here Agricultural land use in England - GOV.UK

• In 2024, around 7,300 hectares of this land were used for solar panels (less than 0.1% of UAA). However, 50% of this land is still being used for agricultural production e.g. for livestock grazing.

It is recognised that solar can, when delivered in line with relevant planning policy, have a positive impact on the natural environment, and large-scale solar farms can contribute significant gains for local biodiversity with intelligent design and planning.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of school career services in (a) highlighting and (b) encouraging apprenticeships.

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

The department has introduced a ladder of support and intervention, as set out in our careers statutory guidance, to support compliance with the provider access legislation which requires schools to offer pupils encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships. We will continue to monitor compliance, the support in place and the impact on young people.

We will also continue to monitor progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks, especially benchmarks 5, 6 and 7 which are relevant for highlighting and encouraging apprenticeships take-up.

Alongside this, the Careers and Enterprise Company’s (CEC) future skills questionnaire shows a move from 38% understanding of apprenticeships in year 7 to 88% by year 13.

There are multiple resources available to schools and young people to highlight and encourage apprenticeships participation:

• CEC’s network of Careers Hubs (covering 95% of schools and colleges) works with schools and colleges to support their careers education programmes.
• The Skills for Careers Apprenticeships support page, which can be found here: https://www.skillsforcareers.education.gov.uk/pages/training-choice/apprenticeships.
• CEC’s resource directory, found here: https://resources.careersandenterprise.co.uk/.
• ‘Amazing Apprenticeships’ resources and support for schools and colleges.
• The ‘Find an apprenticeship’ government website which currently hosts over 40,000 live vacancies and is available here: https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch.

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 updates made to NHS England guidance help inform the NHS 10 Year Health Plan; and which stakeholders in the eating disorders sector have provided views in his Department's consultation processes.

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

The 10-Year Health Plan was developed jointly between the Department and NHS England. All relevant NHS England guidance has been considered as part of the development of the plan.

We received 1,650 submissions to the 10-Year Health Plan from partner organisations. This included responses from the Faculty of Eating Disorders and BEAT, the eating disorder charity. We also received responses from 120 mental health organisations who may have an interest in eating disorders. However, this information is not held in a format that allows this interest to be identified separately.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the investigation of the pensions regulator into NHSBSA.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is an independent body responsible for the regulation of work-based pension schemes in the UK. TPR conducts its supervisory and investigatory functions independently of the Government. As such, it would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on an ongoing investigation being undertaken by the Regulator.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with local authorities on the Kinship Allowance Pilot Scheme; and when that scheme will begin.

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

The department is ensuring that a fair and transparent process is used to identify which local authorities are best placed to deliver the Kinship Allowance Pilot, through a published expression of interest process. The application window for the expression of interest has now closed.

The department has communicated clear guidance on this process to local authorities through webinars, published expression of interest guidance and a two-week clarification window, following the launch of the expression of interest application window.

The Pilot will launch this autumn, following the announcement of successful pilot local authorities in September.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of remedial pension savings statements (a) remain outstanding and (b) have been issued.

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

As of 22 July 2025, 108,742 remedial pension savings statements have been issued to NHS Pension Scheme members. 34,404 members either have a statement outstanding or require further calculations to determine whether a statement is needed.

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 24 February 2025 to Question 28133 NHS Business Services Authority: Workplace Pensions, whether the Pensions regulator has required the NHS Business Services Authority to remedy the (a) errors and (b) delays in NHS pensions.

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

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is in regular contact with The Pensions Regulator to report on the delivery of the McCloud remedy. They are following all advice, guidance, and recommendations put forward by the regulator.

The NHSBSA has taken all available steps to bring in external support to boost its statement production capacity. It has also recruited significant numbers of staff and is reprioritising existing staff to support the implementation of the McCloud remedy. The Pensions Regulator is aware of the proactive measures that the NHSBSA is taking to rectify any previous statements where necessary.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the delays in issuing (a) remedial pension savings statements and (b) remedial service statements on patient care.

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

The delays related to remediable service statements should have no direct impact on patient care. The members facing immediate financial consequences from their remedy benefit choice are retired members of the NHS Pension Scheme.

We understand from regular conversations with staff representatives that the highest-earning NHS Pension Scheme members have expressed concerns about predicting the tax consequences of taking on overtime prior to receiving a remedial pension savings statement (RPSS). Whilst no assessment has been made of the potential impact of RPSS delays specifically on patient care, there is no clear evidence from National Health Service payroll data that the annual allowance pension tax regime, to which RPSS’ relate, constrains the activity of the consultant workforce in aggregate. A range of factors may influence personal decisions around intentions to take on extra work, making it difficult to measure the unique impact of tax measures or statement delays.

From 6 April 2023, the standard annual allowance threshold increased from £40,000 to £60,000, giving individuals scope for greater tax-free pension growth. The tapered annual allowance further restricts the amount of tax-free pension saving available to the very wealthiest in society. The taper applies when taxable earnings reach £200,000.

Where NHS Pension Scheme members do incur annual allowance pension tax charges, these do not have to be met in the current tax year. The NHS Pension Scheme offers a Scheme Pays facility through which individuals can ask the scheme to pay the tax on their behalf in exchange for a fair reduction in the generous pension benefits paid at retirement.

The NHS Business Services Authority is continuing work to deliver outstanding statements as quickly as possible, and a process is in place for members to self-identify for a prioritised statement.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the outstanding (a) remedial pension savings statements and (b) remedial service statements to be delivered.

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

We have commissioned the independent Chair of the NHS Pension Scheme Pension Board to lead an urgent and targeted review of the NHS Business Service Authority’s (NHS BSA) revised plans for the delivery of the McCloud remedy for NHS Pension Scheme members. This will provide an additional level of scrutiny and assurance of the NHS BSA’s delivery plan for the remaining statements. A further Written Ministerial Statement will confirm the new timetable once the review has reported.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure that decision making about the return of the BCSSS investment reserve can be made as swiftly as possible.

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

I met the BCSSS Trustees on 22 April, 11 June and 22 July and confirmed the Government’s commitment to considering their proposals regarding the reserve and the future of the scheme. DESNZ will now engage HM Treasury with a view to agreeing a way forward on the transfer of the reserve to members.

I am aiming to reach agreement on an outcome that can be implemented later this year which will benefit scheme members.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of reducing the share of expenditure on hospital care on his Department's goal for 92 percent of patients to be treated within 18 weeks by 2029.

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

The Elective Reform Plan (ERP) sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to achieve the target that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by 2029. The ERP includes several efforts which will see care delivered differently. This includes addressing the challenges in diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and other tests that are needed to reduce elective and cancer waits. We will upgrade the NHS App, so patients can book and rearrange appointments, choose which hospital to be treated at, receive test results, and choose if they want to be seen in person or remotely.

The 10-Year Health Plan set out how we will take that further. At present, roughly 80% of all elective care does not require admitted treatment but takes place in outpatient settings, mostly in hospitals. By 2035, two thirds of this care will take place digitally or in the community closer to home, with patients able to access the best of their local hospital in a much more responsive way, such as via a local neighbourhood health centre or at home via digital channels. This will deliver more timely, efficient, and flexible care, which is better for patients and will mean we reduce the numbers joining the waiting lists in the first place.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to p.98 of the document entitled Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, if he will list the training requirements identified as (a) irritating staff and (b) adding unnecessary burdens staff's working days.

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

The 10-Year Health Plan set out an action to review the amount of statutory and mandatory training that healthcare professionals are required to undertake. This follows a large national engagement exercise with members of the public and health and care staff. As part of this engagement, members of staff shared their poor experiences of mandatory training, citing that the training can be, repetitive or irrelevant to their role and takes them away from treating patients.

The exact amount of statutory and mandatory training completed varies, depending on which organisation they work for, their role or roles, and the frequency of their movement between organisations, for instance resident doctors rotating between organisations may have to repeat some of the training.

On average, it is estimated that nationally defined statutory and mandatory training takes up to eight hours or one day per person per year, and locally mandated training will add to this. This considerable investment of time must be balanced against the fact that this training is both important, for instance safety training and emergency preparedness training, and often required by law.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2025 to Question 61898 on Railways: Midlands, whether any funding announced in the Spending Review 2025 has been allocated to support Network Rail's work to develop a business case for later phases of the Midlands Rail Hub between Birmingham and destinations in Leicestershire.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The first phase of Midlands Rail Hub (‘Western’ scope) would enable additional trains each hour between Birmingham and South Wales and the South West, and on Birmingham’s Cross City Line. This includes extending Chiltern services from Moor Street to Snow Hill station by improving connectivity across the region. The costs and delivery timescales for later phases are subject to further development work and subsequent investment decisions.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions her Department has had with local authorities on the potential impact of Business Improvement Districts on levels of local business investment.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government recognises the important role Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) can play in improving the local trading environment and attracting investment to their area. We frequently engage with local authorities and BID membership bodies such as, British BIDs and Association of Town & City Management, to keep informed about the performance of BIDs, including the investment they attract external to the levy.

We are keen for BIDs to continue to be leaders in the regeneration of their area and we encourage BIDs to work in partnership with their local authority to deliver growth in their local area.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2025 to Question 57372 on Chagos Islands: Sovereignty, what the costs were to his Department of the Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

As set out by the Secretary of State in his statement on 22 May 2025, the Agreement is at a cost of less than 0.2% of the annual defence budget and secures a base which is vital for UK national security for over a century. It represents good value for UK taxpayers.

A bill to implement the Treaty was introduced by the Government to the House of Commons on 15 July 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the recovery pathways for the care of patients who have had a sudden cardiac arrest not related to myocardial infarction.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

A cardiac arrest is caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, which occurs when the heart isn’t working properly and causes the heart to stop beating. Each year approximately 30,000 people receive resuscitation for an out of hospital cardiac arrest in the United Kingdom.

Only one in 10 people that have a cardiac arrest survive to go home from hospital. Fast and effective action will help save the lives of people suffering a cardiac arrest, as the chances of survival from a cardiac arrest that occurs out of hospital doubles if the person receives immediate resuscitation or a high energy shock to the heart, known as defibrillation.

The National Health Service committed to improving community first response and building defibrillator networks to help save 4,000 lives by 2028. This is being supported by educating the general public, including young people of school age, about how to recognise and respond to an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

NHS England is also working with partners such as the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to harness new technology and ensure the public and emergency services are able to rapidly locate this life saving equipment in an emergency.

Patients who survive cardiac arrest and their families are supported through referral to local NHS services, and this will include rehabilitation such as cardiac and neurological rehabilitation and mental health services for psychological support.

There are different pathways for cardiac arrest survivors, depending on the severity of the damage caused by the cardiac arrest. For people being discharged from secondary care and those with ischemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, cardiac rehabilitation services are available in every region.

In December 2024, to support local systems to commission high quality cardiac rehabilitation, NHS England published Commissioning standards for cardiac rehabilitation, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-standards-for-cardiovascular-rehabilitation/

These standards of care complement the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document, published in 2023, to support the delivery of high-quality care and adherence to evidenced-based practice. Further information on the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document is available at the following link:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/66cc563eecc7a22020c7da6c/t/66ffa8f20aef5d0b272c6b0e/1728030962905/BACPR+Standards+and+Core+Components+2023.pdf

The national audit for cardiac rehabilitation assesses practices against these standards of care and publishes the results annually, with the 2024 report available at the following link:

https://www.cardiacrehabilitation.org.uk/site/docs/NCP_CR%20Certification_Report_2024_Final.pdf

NHS England is committed to improving support for cardiac arrest survivor. NHS England has provided additional funding to all ICBs to increase the provision of cardiac rehabilitation across England, where clinically indicated patients can access cardiac rehabilitation following cardiac arrest.

For patients with more complex needs it may be appropriate for them to be referred to Level 1 or 2 inpatient specialist services for short term post-acute rehabilitation, which may be followed by specialist rehabilitation in the community as appropriate.

Patients and their families may also be signposted to appropriate charities such as the BHF’s Cardiac arrest webpage and the Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK’s website, with further information available on both, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/conditions/cardiac-arrest

https://suddencardiacarrestuk.org/

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 the potential impact of the information sharing duties in the (a) Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and (b) Crime and Policing Bill on GPs.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to improving information sharing across services to help safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education and the Home Office on their respective information sharing proposals, which are included in Department for Education’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the Home Office’s Crime and Policing Bill.

The information sharing proposals aim to establish a clear and consistent process to share information. To support the formulation and test the feasibility of these proposals, we have engaged with health stakeholders, including general practitioners, though a variety of forums. We will continue to engage with health stakeholders as we plan for the effective implementation of the use of the single unique identifier, the information sharing duty, and the child sexual abuse mandatory reporting duty.

The Department for Education has published an impact assessment on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments

The Home Office and the Ministry of Justice have published an impact assessment on the Crime and Policing Bill, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/crime-and-policing-bill-2025-impact-assessments

We will continue to support the departments leading on the respective bills to review and update these documents, once the bills have completed their passages through the House of Lords.

Found: public bill committee The Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary for Health and Social Care, Dr Luke Evans

Found: withdrawn following assurances from the minister that the government was exploring the matter.14 • Dr Luke Evans

Found: Devolved powers in the development of the Code of Practice The Shadow Minister, Luke Evans MP raised