Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the ratio of nurses and doctors is in the (a) North and (b) South of England.

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

NHS England publishes monthly statistics showing the size and make up of staff employed in the National Health Service in England, and these include the number of full time equivalent (FTE) doctors and nurses employed by NHS trusts and integrated care boards grouped by the seven regional NHS areas. Further information is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

The Office for National Statistics publishes estimates of populations resident in the seven NHS England regional areas. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/datasets/populationprojectionsforsubintegratedcareboardsbyfiveyearagegroupsandsexengland

The above information has been used to create the information in the following table which shows, for each of the seven NHS regions, the number of FTE doctors, nurses, and health visitors from which a ratio of nurses to doctors for different geographies can be calculated as well as a comparison of the ratio of the number of doctors and nurses per 10,000 population:

Sources: NHS Workforce Statistics, published by NHS England, and the Population projections for sub-integrated care boards by five-year age groups and sex, England, published by the Office for National Statistics.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in the Tees Valley region were eligible for free school meals in 2023/24 and in 2025/26; how many are expected to be eligible in 2026/27; and what the estimated total value of support provided through free school meals and associated programmes in the Tees Valley will be in 2026/27 compared with 2023/24.

Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026, including in the Tees Valley region. This will ensure an additional half a million children across the country will receive a healthy, nutritious meal, putting £500 back in families’ pockets and lifting 100,000 children out of poverty.

The department publishes data on eligibility for FSM. Regional data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2025-26. In 2025/26, 37,752 children are eligible in the 5 local authority areas within Tees Valley. Following the expansion of FSM to all on Universal Credit from September 2026, the department expects approximately 51,000 children to be eligible based on data from the Department for Work and Pensions.

We are also improving the eligibility checking system to support schools and local authorities to identify and enrol eligible pupils more efficiently. Schools receive funding for FSM as part of their overall core funding. Additional funding for FSM expansion will be provided through the expansion of the grant.

At a national level, we have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multi-year spending review period to cover additional meal costs.

Prohibiting Members of Parliament from having paid second jobs

Deaths of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough

Celebration of English traditions

78th anniversary of the creation of the National Health Service