Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court cases listed for trial in a Crown Court were (a) cancelled and (b) rescheduled in (i) Lancashire, (ii) Cumbia and (iii) Greater Manchester in the last three years.

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

The Ministry of Justice publishes information concerning trials which are rescheduled (ineffective) but does not have a measure of trials “cancelled” - rather we publish information concerning trials which are cracked.

A cracked trial is a trial that does not go ahead on the day as an outcome is reached and so does not need to be re-scheduled. This occurs when an acceptable plea is offered by the defendant, or the prosecution offers no evidence against the defendant.

This data regarding trial effectiveness at the Crown Court including cracked and ineffective trials by LCJB area is published in the “Trial effectiveness in the courts” data tool (latest to March 2025). This can be downloaded from the Criminal Court Statistics landing page here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ADHD assessments are outstanding for (a) children and (b) adults in Lancashire; and what steps he is taking to ensure that people receive a timely assessment.

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

For the first time, NHS England published management information on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) waits at a national level, on 29 May 2025, as part of its ADHD data improvement plan. It has also released technical guidance to integrated care boards (ICBs) to improve the recording of ADHD data, with a view to improving the quality of ADHD waiting time data and to publishing more localised data in future. NHS England has also captured examples from ICBs who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services and is using this information to support systems to tackle ADHD waiting lists and provide support to address people’s needs.

NHS England has established an ADHD taskforce which is bringing together those with lived experience with experts from the National Health Service, education, charity, and justice sectors, to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing services and support. An interim report was published on 20 June 2025, with the final report expected later in the summer.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding has been allocated to tackle Serious Organised Crime for police forces in (a) Lancashire, (b) Cumbria, and (c) Greater Manchester in (a) this financial year and (b) the 2026-27 financial year.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

In 2025-26, the Home Office are providing c.£1 billion to the National Crime Agency to tackle Serious and Organised Crime.

The Home Office does not allocate Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) specific funding to local police forces as setting annual budgets is the responsibility of chief constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners.

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 30 June 2025 to Question 60420 on Health Services: Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of cancelled appointments (a) at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and (b) in England; and what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of missed appointments at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in the last three years.

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

As set out in the Plan for Change, we will ensure that 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015. The Government is clear that to help achieve this target we must reduce the cancellation of procedures wherever possible.

The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, states that systems and providers will be expected to consistently focus on the smaller aspects of service delivery that can make a big difference in reducing cancellations, including embedding theatre scheduling for elective surgery, and reviewing list allocation for past and upcoming theatre lists.

At the Lancashire Teaching Hospital, a number of initiatives are in place to reduce the number of cancelled appointments, including theatre efficiency and utilisation programmes, focused on the reduction of late starts, improved turnaround times, and reduced overruns. The opening of the new elective admissions unit, the Lancashire Elective Surgery Unit, at the Royal Preston Hospital supports improved admission processes and theatre efficiency. Investment in the Hospital Sterilisation and Decontamination Unit workforce and tracking systems within theatres helps reduce the number of cancellations due to equipment issues. This is in addition to improved administrative processes to ensure care is delivered in the most productive way.

No specific assessment has been made of the cost of cancelled appointments at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

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 30 June 2025 to Question 60419 on Surgery: Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of cancellations of elective operations for non-clinical reasons at (a) Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and (b) hospitals in England.

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

As set out in the Plan for Change, we will ensure that 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015. The Government is clear that to help achieve this target we must reduce the cancellation of procedures wherever possible.

The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, states that systems and providers will be expected to consistently focus on the smaller aspects of service delivery that can make a big difference in reducing cancellations, including embedding theatre scheduling for elective surgery, and reviewing list allocation for past and upcoming theatre lists.

At the Lancashire Teaching Hospital, a number of initiatives are in place to reduce the number of cancelled appointments, including theatre efficiency and utilisation programmes, focused on the reduction of late starts, improved turnaround times, and reduced overruns. The opening of the new elective admissions unit, the Lancashire Elective Surgery Unit, at the Royal Preston Hospital supports improved admission processes and theatre efficiency. Investment in the Hospital Sterilisation and Decontamination Unit workforce and tracking systems within theatres helps reduce the number of cancellations due to equipment issues. This is in addition to improved administrative processes to ensure care is delivered in the most productive way.

No specific assessment has been made of the cost of cancelled appointments at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding her Department has allocated to local authorities to provide youth services in (a) Preston and (b) Lancashire over the next three years.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Local authorities hold the statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. Local Authorities fund youth services from their Local Government Finance Settlement in line with local need.

This Spending Review provides over £5 billion of new grant funding over the next three years for local services that communities rely on. This includes £3.4 billion of new grant funding which will be delivered through the Local Government Finance Settlement within financial years 2026-27 to 2028-29.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what funding her Department has allocated to local authorities to provide arts and culture in (a) Preston and (b) Lancashire over the next three years.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Typically, DCMS does not directly fund local authorities, nor their arts and cultural organisations, which are commonly funded by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Arts Council England.

In last month’s spending review, the government committed to providing an additional £3.4 billion of grant funding to local government in 2028‑29 compared to 2024‑25. This equates to an average annual real terms increase in overall local authority core spending power of 3.1% across the spending review period.

Whilst individual decisions on how to invest departmental resources will be determined in due course, there will be significant investment into Arts and Culture over the spending review period, including to Arts Council England (ACE) which will continue to support local arts programmes and projects across the country.

In the 2024-25 financial year, ACE provided over £450k of funding to arts projects in Preston, and almost £6.5 million to arts organisations and projects across Lancashire. Details of this funding can be found on the ACE website here https://culture.localinsight.org/#/map

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many claims for compensation have been made under the Windrush Scheme from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Information on the number of people who have received documentation confirming their status and the number of people who have been granted British citizenship under the Windrush Scheme is published as part of the quarterly Transparency Data release. The latest published data, covering the period up to the end of Quarter 1 2025, is available here: Windrush Status Scheme data: Q1 2025.

Information on the number of claims received by the Windrush Compensation Scheme is published as part of the monthly Transparency Data release. The latest published data, covering the period up to the end of May 2025, is available here: Windrush Compensation Scheme data: May 2025 - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people received documentation confirming (a) their status and (b) British Citizenship under the Windrush Scheme between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Information on the number of people who have received documentation confirming their status and the number of people who have been granted British citizenship under the Windrush Scheme is published as part of the quarterly Transparency Data release. The latest published data, covering the period up to the end of Quarter 1 2025, is available here: Windrush Status Scheme data: Q1 2025.

Information on the number of claims received by the Windrush Compensation Scheme is published as part of the monthly Transparency Data release. The latest published data, covering the period up to the end of May 2025, is available here: Windrush Compensation Scheme data: May 2025 - GOV.UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding has been allocated to the police to help tackle hate crimes against people from the LGBQT+ community in (a) Lancashire, (b) Cumbria and (c) Greater Manchester.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government is also committed to giving police the resources they need to tackle crime. That is why the Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years. This builds on the 25/26 police funding settlement, which provides funding of up to £19.6 billion for the policing system in England and Wales and includes an additional £200 million to kickstart the first phase of putting 13,000 additional police officers and personnel into neighbourhood policing roles. As usual, more detail on force funding allocations will be set out at the provisional police settlement.

It is for Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners to make operational decisions, including how to allocate resources based on their local knowledge and experience.

We currently fund an online reporting portal to ensure victims do not have to visit a police station to report any hate crime they experience, and we also fund a National Hub which provides expert advice to police forces across the country on what they can do to tackle the increasing levels of online hate crime.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department plans to have further phases of civil service relocation; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of relocating civil servants to (a) Preston and (b) other host cities.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The next phase of Places for Growth will move thousands more roles out of London to bring the Civil Service closer to the communities it serves. Preston will continue to have a thriving Civil Service community as part of the North West Digital and Cyber Security corridor. Government departments can also continue to build on the existing Civil Service presence there if it aligns with their business needs.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convictions for manslaughter there have been in (a) Lancashire, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) Liverpool in cases involving suicide where domestic abuse was a contributing factor.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for manslaughter by Police Force Area in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. The latest data is available up to December 2024. This can be downloaded at the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

However, it is not possible to provide the number of convictions for manslaughter involving suicide where domestic abuse was a contributing factor, as this information is not held centrally in the Court Proceedings Database.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to increase the number of electric vehicle charging stations in (a) Preston, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable and accessible charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle (EV). As of 1 June 2025, the Government and industry have supported the installation of 80,552 publicly available charging devices, up 29% on this time last year.

Lancashire County Council, which includes Preston, was allocated over £10.8 million capital and resource funding through the Government’s Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund to leverage additional private investment and increase the number of local public chargepoints across the area. More broadly, the North West Region has been allocated almost £56.6m capital and resource funding through the LEVI Fund. In total, the £381m LEVI Fund will support the installation of at least 100,000 local chargepoints across England.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for asylum applications in the latest period for which data is available; and what steps her Department plans to take to reduce the time taken to process asylum applications.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)

Available data on processing of asylum claims is published in table ASY_01 of the ‘Immigration and Protection data’. The latest data is as of 31 March 2025.

The Home Office continues to invest in a programme of transformation and business improvement, to speed up decision making and improve the quality and consistency of our work.

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 help ensure that patients seeking fertility treatment are protected from unregulated concierge IVF clinics that fall outside the remit of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

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

Digital clinics do not currently fall within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act and therefore are out outside of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) remit at present.

The HFEA published Modernising Fertility Law in November 2023, which made a number of recommendations for legislative change, including around its regulatory powers.

Ministers have met with the HFEA Chair and discussed the emerging regulatory challenges. The Government is considering the HFEA’s priorities for changing the law and will decide how to take this forward at the earliest opportunity.

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 (a) encourage the installation of heat pumps and (b) ensure that homes are properly insulated to support the effective operation of those heat pumps.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government is making is easier for households to install heat pumps. This includes increasing the budget for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and amending Permitted Development Rights in England to give households greater flexibility to install a heat pump.

Our schemes such as the Warm Homes: Local Grant, Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and Energy Company Obligation provide support for energy efficiency measures and low carbon technologies like heat pumps.

The Warm Homes Plan (WHP) will focus on ensuring homes are more comfortable to live in and cheaper to heat. In many cases, that will mean improvements to the fabric of the building in order to maximise the bill savings and thermal comfort, alongside switching to low carbon heat. Further detail on the WHP will be announced by October.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the English national concessionary travel scheme, if she will extend (a) free bus travel to before 9.30am and (b) eligibility for free buss travel to (i) companions and (ii) carers of disabled people who are unable to travel alone.

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

The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age. The ENCTS costs around £700 million annually and any changes to the statutory obligations would therefore need to be carefully considered for its impact on the scheme’s financial sustainability.

However, local authorities in England do have the power to offer concessions in addition to their statutory obligations, for example, by extending the times passes can be used or offering companion passes for those travelling with someone eligible for the ENCTS. The decision on whether to offer discretionary concessions is for the local authority to make depending on their needs and circumstances.

The Government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country. Lancashire County Council has been allocated £27.1 million of this funding. Funding allocated to local authorities to improve services for passengers can be used in whichever way they wish. This could include extending the discretionary concessions available.

The Government recently conducted a review of the ENCTS, which included considering travel times for disabled passholders and is currently considering next steps.

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