Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether additional recurrent funding will be provided alongside implementation of the proposed NHS dental contract reforms.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We are committed to reforming the dental contract by the end of this Parliament, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability.
The financial pressures and the cost of new commitments for the National Health Service are analysed as part of the Spending Review process. The 2025 Spending Review sets departmental budgets for day-to-day spending up to 2028/29 and for capital for five years to 2029/30. This level of funding growth is intended to support the NHS in delivering the Government’s priorities, including commitments set out in the Government’s Plan for Change. Further detail is provided at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html
The Government has committed to hold a Spending Review every two years. The process for the next Spending Review, due to be held in 2027, will be set in due course.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 NHS dental funding levels on the recruitment and retention of dentists providing NHS care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
Since July 2024, the Government has been rebuilding a broken National Health Service dentistry system. We have delivered 1.8 million more dental treatments and reduced the underspend from £392 million in 2023/24 to just £36 million in 2024/25, maximising the treatments provided for taxpayers’ money.
We have brought into force a package of reforms this year to address some of the most pressing issues that dentists and dental teams have been experiencing, including rewarding them more fairly for treating patients with urgent and complex needs.
Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions to rebuild NHS dentistry. We are increasing the supply of dentists through a sustained expansion of 50 new dental school places and an increase in exams to allow 2,000 more internationally qualified dentists to practise in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many meetings he has had with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to discuss planning reforms relating to permitted development rights and the National Planning Policy Framework for telecommunications infrastructure.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has not had any meetings with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to discuss planning reforms relating to permitted development rights and the National Planning Policy Framework for telecommunications infrastructure.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the response to proposed planning reforms relating to permitted development rights and the National Planning Policy Framework for telecommunications infrastructure.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Questions UIN 124803 on 20 April 2026.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to accelerate proposed planning reforms relating to permitted development rights and the National Planning Policy Framework for telecommunications infrastructure.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Questions UIN 124803 on 20 April 2026.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to support businesses reliant on gas that are unable to transition to electric, to support them moving to hydrogen.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We recognise that hydrogen will play an important but focused role in decarbonising hard‑to‑electrify industrial sectors, particularly within industrial clusters where shared transport and storage infrastructure can be developed efficiently.
The Hydrogen Production Business Model incentivises investment in new low carbon hydrogen production and encourages users to switch to low carbon hydrogen by making it a price competitive decarbonisation option.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment has he made of the potential impact of the delay in publishing the UK hydrogen strategy on a) investment into the UK Hydrogen market and b) companies transitioning from gas to hydrogen.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We understand the importance of providing clarity to businesses across the hydrogen sector, including investors and companies that may transition to hydrogen.
We plan to publish the Hydrogen Strategy, alongside a package of other policy documents, as soon as possible. This will set out Government’s vision and objectives for hydrogen, and how we intend to work with industry to continue to transform ambition into action.
In the meantime, we remain focused on delivery and are supporting projects currently in the pipeline. Successful HAR1 projects are moving to final investment decision, construction and operation phases, and a proposed funding package of £86.5m has been agreed to support ITM’s electrolyser manufacturing expansion in Sheffield.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she is taking to support the development of Hydrogen Storage.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Hydrogen has the potential to support decarbonisation and economic growth across the UK, including through low carbon dispatchable power and inter-seasonal energy storage, to help balance a renewables-based power system.
We are progressing the design of the hydrogen transport and storage business models and the first allocation round. Over the past few months, my department has held workshops for industry to present proposals for the business model design, and draft eligibility and assessment criteria for the competition.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to question 5167 on Patents: Disclosure of Information, what recent discussions the minister has had with major companies on the effectiveness of the IPO online search tool.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) regularly engages with key stakeholders and users to inform the development and improvement of its intellectual property search services. Feedback gathered through this engagement is considered and, where appropriate, incorporated into the ongoing development of the tools.
The IPO provides a range of online search services to help businesses and members of the public access information relating to UK intellectual property rights, including patents, trade marks and registered designs. The IPO is committed to ensuring these services remain accessible, effective and responsive to user needs.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to FOI2025/18430 and Internal Review IR2026/03033, concerning background papers relating to the meeting on 28 August 2019 attended by Boris Johnson, Peter Thiel and Dominic Cummings, what specific prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs was identified as arising from disclosure of those papers.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
As set out in its response of 4 February 2026, the Cabinet Office recognises that there is a public interest in the transparency in how it makes decisions on responses to written parliamentary questions.
However, effective responses to written parliamentary questions rely on a safe space within which issues can be discussed openly and frankly.
The disclosure of the requested information would have a prejudicial effect on these relationships, which would not be in the public interest.