Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Environment Agency is taking to investigate, regulate and monitor the potential impact of water pollution originating from highway runoff.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Highways outfalls discharge run-off from roads during rainfall and may collect and discharge contaminants to the environment. The Environment Agency (EA) will assess and take action on substantiated reports of pollution, and this includes from the highways sector. It is the responsibility of highways authorities to identify and take action where an outfall poses a risk to the environment, including during rainfall events. There is no requirement for highways authorities to hold an environmental permit to operate surface water outfalls. The EA is inputting to National Highways’ pilot monitoring project and supports their investment programme to mitigate high risk outfalls.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of supplier lock-in risks in relation to the NHS Federated Data Platform contract.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill

The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.

The NHS FDP is delivering for the NHS, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently. Since March 2024, more than 100,000 additional patients have been supported to undergo procedures in theatres partly by increasing theatre utilisation. Nearly 94,000 people have been supported on their cancer journey, with 7% seeing a reduction in the time it took to diagnose their cancer. There has been a 14% decrease in delays discharging patients staying in hospital for more than seven days, freeing up beds for those who need them most. NHS England publishes quarterly information on benefits realised from the FDP, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechnology/nhs-federated-data-platform/impact/fdp-uptake-and-benefits/

As at end May 2026, 170 trusts have signed up for the NHS FDP, including the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The contract for the NHS FDP has multiple measures, including ensuring the NHS owns the intellectual property for all the products and that they can be migrated to alternative providers, to ensure transparency, interoperability, and a smooth transition at the end of the contract period. These provisions are designed to mitigate vendor lock-in and support the NHS in maintaining control over its data and digital infrastructure.

The platform is underpinned by the NHS Canonical Data Model, which provides a consistent and open data schema that all parties connecting to the NHS FDP must use. This ensures that data can be shared and understood across different systems and platforms.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support is available to local authorities to maintain public library services.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

Each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within their available resources.

Core funding for libraries is through the Local Government Finance Settlement. In 2026-27 the government will make available £78 billion in Core Spending Power for local authorities in England, a 6.1% increase compared to 2025-26.

In January 2026 the DCMS Secretary of State announced continued investment in the Libraries Improvement Fund, meaning £27.5 million over the period 2025-30. This will enable library services across England to invest in a range of projects to upgrade buildings and technology.

DCMS also supports library services with discussions on proposed changes to their statutory library service and best practice from other library services who have undertaken similar changes.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support is available to maintain historic church buildings that also serve as community spaces.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

On 20 May, this government announced the £92 million Places of Worship Renewal Fund to support capital works keeping listed places of worship safe, open, and in public use. Community benefit is considered as part of the assessment.

We also provide the Churches Conservation Trust £3 million per annum to maintain more than 350 churches, and are providing £42 million to support communities to take on the buildings they love, including buildings that were places of worship, through the Heritage Revival Fund.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 relating to the removal of marriage value in leasehold enfranchisement will be brought into force, and what the current timetable is for implementation.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government is committed to implementing measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 to make enfranchisement cheaper and easier.

The Act sets the method for calculating the price of a statutory lease extension or freehold acquisition, known as the valuation process. It removes the requirement for marriage value to be paid, caps the treatment of ground rents in the valuation calculation at 0.1% of the freehold value, and allows government to prescribe the rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium.

Valuation rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium will be set by the Secretary of State in secondary legislation. We will consult on valuation rates and commence the relevant provisions as soon as possible.

As per the Written Ministerial Statements made on 21 November 2024 (HCWS244) and 27 January 2026 (HCWS1278), primary legislation will be required to rectify a small number of specific flaws in the 2024 Act before the Act’s enfranchisement provisions are commenced.

It was confirmed in the King’s Speech on 13 May 2026 that fixes to these flaws will be included in the forthcoming Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to review the level of fees payable to legal aid solicitors undertaking mental health legal aid work.

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

The Government recognises the vital work of mental health lawyers in supporting those who are vulnerable and I am grateful for all that they do to support their clients. We are committed to supporting the sustainability of the sector.

In preparation for the 2028 mental health legal aid contracts, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) will engage with stakeholders including the Mental Health Lawyers Association to gather views on how best to support the sustainability of the market. These insights will inform LAA’s approach and help shape future contracts that support providers in delivering high-quality legal aid services.

We have secured additional funding of over £200 million over the Spending Review period for legal aid transformation, recovery from the cyber-attack, and for moving our legacy systems to a modern and secure technology platform. The transformation programme aims to support sustainability for all providers – including those undertaking mental health legal aid work – by ensuring new digital systems streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens.

The Government is making significant investments in legal aid. We are delivering the first major fee uplifts for civil legal aid since 1996, increasing spend on immigration and housing work by £20 million per annum once fully implemented. Whilst these investments are not targeted at mental health legal aid specifically, they are important steps towards improving services and sustainability across the civil legal aid system.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Key target hit with 8,500 extra mental health workers in the NHS, published on 30 June 2026, what proportion of the additional mental health workers are currently working in (a) child and adolescent mental health services and (b) adult mental health services.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government has delivered on its commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament, three years ahead of schedule.

These new staff include over 1,200 new doctors, over 4,500 new nurses, and a range of other support staff, primarily psychological professions, which will help to ease pressure on busy mental health services.

Of the 8,532 new mental health full-time equivalent staff in post between 30 June 2024 and 30 April 2026, 1,552 were recorded in ‘Mental Health Child and Adolescent’ and ‘Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’, the equivalent to 18% of the increase. This is not a full count of all children and young people’s mental health staff, as the published data does not consistently identify where all staff work. It is therefore not possible to provide a reliable breakdown of the additional mental health workforce between child and adolescent mental health services and adult mental health services from the published data.

However, these additional staff are deployed across the system to support a range of national priorities, improving access and reducing waiting times for both adults and children and young people.

Further detail is available in NHS workforce statistics, published monthly by NHS England, available at the following link:

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

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of delays in HMRC VAT registration processing on construction businesses; and if she will consider changes to the VAT registration rules to allow businesses to recover input VAT on materials purchased for taxable supplies where HMRC processing delays result in those materials being used before a VAT registration application has been processed.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)

Businesses can only recover input VAT once they are VAT registered. However, once registered, they may recover VAT on goods purchased up to four years before that date.

HMRC processes the vast majority of VAT registration applications promptly, with 95% currently processed within the service standard of 40 working days. The Government has no plans to change the VAT registration rules in this area.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that young people have access to education, skills, and career opportunities arising from investment in research and innovation in Ribble Valley constituency.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)

The Government is investing a record £58.5 billion in research and development between 2026/27 and 2029/30 to support growth and the creation of high-skilled jobs across the UK. This includes funding for UKRI-supported Centres for Doctoral Training in the North West, helping to develop the next generation of researchers and innovators. Around the country, UKRI is investing in around 5000 new PhD studentships each year.

Alongside this, the Government has invested £200m in the TechFirst programme that will reach one million students across every secondary school in the UK, including 400,000 students attending the most disadvantaged schools. This will also provide funding for scholarship, research and employment opportunities for thousands of young people across the country. This includes supporting a pilot in the North West that will combine AI skills training with Level 3 apprenticeships, creating a direct pathway for young people at risk of becoming NEET into skilled employment and informing future national rollout.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to support locally led innovation investment in a) Ribble Valley constituency and b) Lancashire.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)

Through the Lancashire Devolution Deal, the Government is providing up to £20 million in capital funding during the current Spending Review period to support innovation-led growth across Lancashire, including assets to maximise the benefits of the National Cyber Force Headquarters at Samlesbury, which lies within Ribble Valley constituency.

UKRI funding for Lancashire increased from £97 million in 2022–23 to £107 million in 2023–24, demonstrating continued investment in the region's research and innovation strengths.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of guaranteeing every child the opportunity to attend an outdoor residential on pupils' wellbeing.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The government recognises outdoor opportunities as a valuable part of the childhood experiences we want all children and young people to have.

Participation in enrichment activities can be associated with a range of positive outcomes, including wellbeing, life satisfaction and better mental health.

Our enrichment framework, published on 15 June, sets an expectation that all schools and colleges should offer a broad and well-rounded enrichment offer. Access to nature, outdoors and adventure, including camps, is specifically identified as one of the five areas that offers should cover as a minimum and highlights examples of offers including residentials.

The department is supporting the provision of more opportunities through the £132 million ‘Every Child Can’ programme and will be supporting 400 schools in deprived areas to develop offers in line with the benchmarks through our £22.5 million Enrichment Enhancement Programme. We will also be working to grow provision in areas where access is limited, working with Baroness Grey-Thompson as enrichment ambassador for this area.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has considered introducing an entitlement to an outdoor residential experience for every child during their time at school.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The government recognises outdoor opportunities as a valuable part of the childhood experiences we want all children and young people to have.

Participation in enrichment activities can be associated with a range of positive outcomes, including wellbeing, life satisfaction and better mental health.

Our enrichment framework, published on 15 June, sets an expectation that all schools and colleges should offer a broad and well-rounded enrichment offer. Access to nature, outdoors and adventure, including camps, is specifically identified as one of the five areas that offers should cover as a minimum and highlights examples of offers including residentials.

The department is supporting the provision of more opportunities through the £132 million ‘Every Child Can’ programme and will be supporting 400 schools in deprived areas to develop offers in line with the benchmarks through our £22.5 million Enrichment Enhancement Programme. We will also be working to grow provision in areas where access is limited, working with Baroness Grey-Thompson as enrichment ambassador for this area.

Found: Members present Florence Eshalomi, in the chair Lewis Cocking Chris Curtis Mr Lee Dillon Maya Ellis

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Chi Onwurah (Chair); Tom Collins; Emily Darlington; Maya Ellis

Found: West) (Chair) Tom Collins (Labour; Worcester) Emily Darlington (Labour; Milton Keynes Central) Maya Ellis

Found: Keynes North) Ashley Dalton (Labour; West Lancashire) Mr Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat; Newbury) Maya Ellis

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Chi Onwurah (Chair); Tom Collins; Maya Ellis; Dr Allison Gardner

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Chi Onwurah (Chair); Tom Collins; Maya Ellis; Dr Allison Gardner