Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department is taking to help households adapt to rising temperatures.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Warm Homes Plan sets out our approach to upgrading the nation’s homes, including climate adaptation. Over this Parliament, we intend to introduce the most appropriate, cost-effective passive cooling measures into our capital schemes, to support low-income consumers and those in social housing.
Passive cooling measures include internal blinds, external shutters, reflective window films, and cooler building materials. These enhance thermal comfort in hot weather and, when paired with active cooling, help mitigate energy bill increases.
We recognise that in some cases active cooling is needed to protect those most vulnerable to overheating and have taken steps to enable access to clean heat technologies that can also provide cooling functionality when necessary. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme will provide £2,500 grants for air‑to‑air heat pumps, which can also provide cooling.
The Government also embed overheating considerations through the Decent Homes Standard (DHS), Awaab’s Law, and the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help schools adapt to rising temperatures.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department takes periods of hot weather and heatwaves seriously and has published a climate risk assessment. We continue to support responsible bodies and schools to provide education in a safe environment. The department has also published guidance to support education settings during hot weather, available at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2026/06/hot-weather-and-heatwaves-guidance-for-schools-and-other-education-settings/. This advice draws on guidance from the UK Health Security Agency.
We are improving infrastructure and strengthening resilience across the education estate through our Education Estates Strategy. This includes a new Renewal and Retrofit Programme, backed by £710 million to 2029/30, to improve the condition of school and college buildings and increase resilience to climate change so buildings can last for decades to come and are net zero ready. We are investing almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance to improve the condition of the school and college estate, and investing almost £20 billion through to 2034/35 in the School Rebuilding Programme to rebuild over 750 schools across England with buildings that are future proofed against the risks of climate change.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help workplaces adapt to rising temperatures.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to ensuring workplaces are safe in the modern world, and in ‘Next Steps to Make Work Pay’ we committed to look at how to modernise health and safety guidance for extreme temperatures.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Great Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety and provides guidance for employers to manage the risk to workers, including from extreme heat. HSE issued a press release on Friday 19 June to raise awareness of the workplace risks to workers in the hot weather. This year, HSE will also be launching a public consultation on proposed changes to the Approved Code of Practice for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, including those relating to workplace temperature.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 compatibility of using BMI threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery and the Government's commitment to reducing health inequalities in regions with (a) lower life expectancy and (b) higher rates of obesity and musculoskeletal conditions.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of individual integrated care boards to determine policies for their local area, including that of Body Mass Index (BMI) threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery. As with all surgery, BMI should be considered as one part of a holistic, personalised perioperative evaluation of the risks versus clinical need for joint replacement surgery of an individual patient.
The National Health Service and local government provide a range of services to help people living with overweight and obesity to manage their weight, which may include individuals waiting for joint replacement surgery, where they meet other eligibility criteria. These range from multi-component behavioural programmes, such as the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme, to specialist services for those living with severe obesity and associated co-morbidities.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 improve the (a) data and (b) metrics used in musculoskeletal services.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data is fundamental to the effective delivery of health services, underpinning service improvement and ultimately improving outcomes for patients.
Musculoskeletal (MSK) data for secondary care, including orthopaedics, spinal services, paediatric orthopaedics, and adult and paediatric rheumatology are regularly reviewed by the NHS England Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) specialty programmes in NHS England, and work is undertaken with hospitals and within NHS England to make improvements where they are identified.
The Joint Work and Health Directorate is also funding GIRFT to deliver the MSK Community Delivery Programme, which aims to improve MSK community services, reduce waiting lists, improve outcomes, and address health-related barriers to work.
The programme has a focus on strengthening MSK leadership, improving data recording and submission, supporting digitally enabled services, and using data and benchmarking to drive performance improvement.