Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made about the current levels of [i] drink driving and [ii] drug driving related accidents and fatalities on roads in the [i] UK, and [ii] Leicestershire.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Statistics regarding drink and drug driving in personal injury road collisions in Great Britain are based on data reported to police using the STATS19 system.

The estimated number of collisions and fatalities in drink-drive collisions for Great Britain and Leicestershire for 2023 (the latest figures available) are given in the table below.

Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 therefore 0 fatalities for Leicestershire indicates that the estimated number was less than 5:

These 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.

While STATS19 does not attribute cause of collision, reporting officers attending the scene are able to assign up to 6 road safety factors which, in their opinion, based on the information available within a short time of the collision, they consider may have contributed to it.

In 2024, the latest year available data there were 18 personal injury collisions in Leicestershire where “affected by drugs” was assigned to a driver or rider in the collision. This is 3% of all collisions in Leicestershire where a police officer attended the collision and assigned at least 1 road safety factor, the comparison for Great Britain is 3% of collisions.

There was 1 fatality in Leicestershire in a personal injury collision where “affected by drugs” was assigned to a driver or rider in the collision, this is 4% of all fatalities in Leicestershire in collisions where a police officer attended the collision and assigned at least 1 road safety factor, the comparison for Great Britain is 8% of fatalities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what materials will be provided by the Government for the (a) the Premier League and (b) Samaritans in the Together Against Suicide Partnership.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As part of England's first ever Men's Health Strategy, the Government announced a groundbreaking partnership with the Premier League to tackle male suicide and improve health literacy. We will work with the Premier League to co-create materials that promote signposting to existing mental health and suicide prevention support. The partnership will also champion NHS England’s new Staying Safe from Suicide guidance, embedding its principles across club staff and driving adoption of the associated e-learning among mental health practitioners within club networks, ensuring best practice reaches those supporting players and fans. Further information on the Staying Safe from Suicide guidance and the associated e-learning is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/staying-safe-from-suicide/#

https://www.minded.org.uk/Component/Details/849008

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent topics has he discussed with external bodies when considering the potential impacts of proposals to reduce jury trials.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

In developing his recommendations, Sir Brian Leveson and his expert advisers, including Professor David Ormerod, engaged with several external bodies with invaluable expertise of our Criminal Justice System including criminal legal organisations, charities, academics, and members of the judiciary. A full list is at Annex C of his report.

When considering Sir Brian’s recommendations and developing our proposals, I have engaged regularly with stakeholders and relevant sectors over the last 12 months including representatives from the legal sector (Law Society, Bar Council, Criminal Bar Association), victims and victims representatives (the Victims Commissioner, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Rape Crisis), judiciary (Circuit leaders, Judicial leadership), magistracy (Magistrates’ Association, Magistrates’ Leadership Executive), non-governmental organisations (Appeal, JUSTICE, Transform Justice), court staff in criminal courts around the country (Wood Green, Snaresbrook) and similar international jurisdictions. For example, I met judges and visited courts in Canada, which uses types of judge-only trial.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which external bodies has he recently spoken to about the potential impacts of proposals to reduce jury trials.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

In developing his recommendations, Sir Brian Leveson and his expert advisers, including Professor David Ormerod, engaged with several external bodies with invaluable expertise of our Criminal Justice System including criminal legal organisations, charities, academics, and members of the judiciary. A full list is at Annex C of his report.

When considering Sir Brian’s recommendations and developing our proposals, I have engaged regularly with stakeholders and relevant sectors over the last 12 months including representatives from the legal sector (Law Society, Bar Council, Criminal Bar Association), victims and victims representatives (the Victims Commissioner, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Rape Crisis), judiciary (Circuit leaders, Judicial leadership), magistracy (Magistrates’ Association, Magistrates’ Leadership Executive), non-governmental organisations (Appeal, JUSTICE, Transform Justice), court staff in criminal courts around the country (Wood Green, Snaresbrook) and similar international jurisdictions. For example, I met judges and visited courts in Canada, which uses types of judge-only trial.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had with [i] Local Councils and [ii] third party charities and advice organisations to understand the potential challenges faced with [a] supporting people with council tax debts and [b] using bailiffs to collect unpaid council tax.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government has recently consulted on the administration of council tax, including its collection and enforcement. As part of this consultation, my officials held direct engagement sessions with local councils and the debt advice sector on these issues. The government is currently considering all responses to the consultation and will publish its response in due course.

Separately, the Ministry of Justice has consulted on proposals to introduce independent statutory regulation of the enforcement sector. The government will publish its response to that consultation in due course.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to consider increasing the number of sitting days at [a] Leicester Crown Court [b] Coventry Combined Court Centre and [c] Warwick Crown Court.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government is committed to bearing down on the backlog. In the Crown Court for this financial year, we have allocated 111,250 sitting days - the highest number of sitting days on record and over 5,000 more than the previous Government funded for the last financial year.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Lady Chief Justice continue discussions on the allocation for 2025-26 as part of the Concordat process and we will say more in due course.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to PQ82726 answered on 21 October 2025 about Cross Country Strikes, whether her Department has recently had discussions on that dispute with key parties to seek a resolution.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

CrossCountry kept the Department advised on their progress this autumn resolving issues raised by the RMT. It was welcome news that on 2 December the RMT confirmed to CrossCountry that proposed strike action was suspended and they were no longer in dispute with CrossCountry, so passengers can book their travel on this basis.

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 1 December 2025 to Question 87412, how many applications have been received to NHS England’s voluntary redundancy scheme.

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

NHS England’s voluntary redundancy scheme opened on 1 December 2025 and closed for applications on 16 December 2025. Applications to the scheme are currently being reviewed.

Our ambition is to let as many people leave voluntarily as possible and alongside ongoing recruitment controls and natural staff turnover, we believe this will allow us to make significant progress towards the 50% headcount reduction.

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 1 December 2025 to Question 87412, if he will make an estimate of the potential cost of the applications received to NHS England’s voluntary redundancy scheme.

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

The estimated overall cost of redundancy exits across the Department, NHS England, integrated care boards (ICBs) and commissioning support units is estimated at approximately £1 billion to £1.3 billion. This calculated estimate was informed by inputs from subject matter experts across both organisations, including human resources, the transformation team, and other relevant functions, to ensure that the estimate reflected the full range of financial and operational implications, as well as staff exit estimates provided by ICBs. The process included designing modelling frameworks, integrating workforce data, stress-testing scenarios and ensuring alignment between the Department’s and NHS England’s finance teams.

The redundancy and restructuring programme is now in the stage of active policy development. Final costs are subject to actual take-up of exit schemes and calculated individual costs, which is being continuously monitored.