Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce the waiting times for diagnosis of (a) autism and (b) ADHD for children and young people.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of the integrated care board (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the National Health Service to deliver improved outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. Since publication, NHS England has been supporting systems and services to identify where there are challenges for implementation and how they might overcome these.
In respect of ADHD, NHS England has established an ADHD taskforce, which is working to bring together those with lived experience with experts from the NHS, education, charity, and justice sectors. The taskforce is working to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including timely and equitable access to services and support, with the final report expected in the summer of 2025.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending building regulations to require future accessible and adaptable dwelling to include (a) step-free entrances and (b) wet rooms.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government recognizes the importance of ensuring that new housing is accessible and adaptable to meet the diverse needs of individuals throughout their lives. Accessibility standards for homes are governed by Part M of the Building Regulations 2010, which set out requirements for reasonable access and use of buildings. The Building Regulations are not retrospective; they apply only to new homes or those undergoing a material change of use.
There are three standards of accessibility prescribed in the Building Regulations: M4(1), M4(2), and M4(3). M4(1) is the current standard, ensuring reasonable provision for people to access and use the dwelling and its facilities. Optional standards M4(2) and M4(3) provide enhanced accessibility, with M4(2) requiring features such as a living area and step-free access at entrance level, wider doorways and corridors, and clear access routes to windows. Homes built to M4(2) standards also offer greater potential for future adaptability. M4(3), the highest optional standard, ensures that homes can be easily adapted to meet the needs of wheelchair users.
Everyone should be able to access a home that is suitable for them and meets their needs. That is why providing a range of safe and suitable accessible housing is part of the Government's ambition to deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next five years. Offering those with mobility challenges a better choice of accommodation supports independent living, fosters community connections, and reduces health and care costs.
Planning rules already require councils to consider the needs of disabled people when planning new homes. The revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), issued in December 2024, promotes mixed-use and mixed-tenure developments, which can include housing designed for specific groups. Local authorities are expected to assess the size, type, and tenure of housing needed for different groups in their communities, including older people and those with disabilities, and to reflect this in their Local Plans. Such an approach supports the creation of diverse communities and the timely delivery of housing. The government will shortly set out its policies on accessible new build housing, reinforcing our commitment to ensuring everyone has access to a safe, suitable home.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 31 July 2024 to Question 1176 on Park Homes: Sales, what her policy is on the longstanding concerns about the regulation of park home sites and the requirement to pay site owners a commission upon sale of a park home.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The park homes sector is an important part of the housing market.
The government recognises that there are longstanding concerns about the requirement to pay site owners a commission upon sale of a park home.
We will set out plans in due course to seek further evidence from the sector on the rationale for the commission.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that people with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome receive adequate medical support.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). The UK Rare Diseases Framework sets out four priorities collaboratively developed with the rare disease community, which include better coordination of care and improving access to specialist care, treatments, and drugs. We remain committed to delivering under the framework and published the fourth annual England action plan on 28 February 2025, which reports on progress.
NHS England commissions some specialist services for patients with EDS, which are currently delivered by two centres in England, namely the London North West University Healthcare Trust and the Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. The complex EDS service provides diagnosis and advice to referrers on the treatment and management of complex cases.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to (a) utilise the complex patient access scheme to make Ruxolitinib available on the NHS and (b) consider other options for vitiligo patients to receive that medication.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is for the marketing authorisation holder to propose a complex patient access scheme for a medicine being evaluated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which would then be considered by the NICE and NHS England through the established process. The marketing authorisation holder has proposed a commercial agreement for ruxolitinib but the NICE was unable to recommend it as a clinically and cost effective use of National Health Service resources at the price proposed in its final draft guidance, published in July 2024. A number of organisations appealed against the draft guidance. The NICE has not yet published final guidance, and its Appraisal Committee will consider the upheld appeal points at a future meeting, scheduled for 14 May 2025. The NICE is open to working with NHS England to ensure that commercial arrangements that are operationally manageable for the NHS can be taken into account.
Where the NICE does not recommend a treatment as a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources, it will not usually be routinely funded by the NHS. NHS commissioners are, however, required to consider exceptional funding requests for individual patients.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) public health services and (b) adult social care on demand for (i) primary and (ii) acute NHS services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
42 integrated care boards (ICBs) across England are responsible for meeting the healthcare needs and demands of their respective populations. There is evidence that public health and adult social care interventions of different kinds can be effective, and cost-effective, in preventing or delaying the onset of ill health, which in turn supports better use of health and care resources. A shift from treatment to prevention and from acute hospital services to community are part of the three strategic shifts underpinning our 10-Year Health Plan.
We also recognise the need to alleviate pressures through increasing supply and reducing demand. We will make sure the future of general practice is sustainable by training more general practitioners, guaranteeing a face-to-face appointment for all those who want one and delivering a modern booking system. For example, in the NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB, 539,000 general practice appointments were delivered in December 2024, up from 510,000 in December 2023. Additionally, in early 2025, the Government will publish a plan setting out how urgent and emergency care services across England will be supported to deliver improvements.
Furthermore, for 2025/26, approximately £9 billion will be committed to the Better Care Fund (BCF), a framework for ICBs and local authorities to make joint plans and pool budgets for the purposes of delivering better joined-up care. This includes around £3.3 billion provided to local authorities and £5.6 billion to ICBs.
Its main objectives are to support:
- the shift from sickness to prevention;
- people living independently; and
- the shift from hospital to home.
These objectives should reduce demand on services, and the recently revised BCF framework, published on 30 January 2025, sets out the actions that local authorities and ICBs should take to achieve these objectives, including improving discharge, preventing avoidable admissions, reducing the pressure on social care, intermediate care, unpaid carers and housing.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of numbers of local authority planning officers to support planning reform.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government appreciates that planning departments across the country are experiencing challenges with recruitment, retention, and skills gaps and that in many cases these issues are having a negative impact on service delivery.
At the Budget, the Chanceller announced a £46 million package of investment into the planning system as a one-year settlement for 2025-2026. A proportion of this funding will be used to support capacity and capability in local planning authorities, including the recruitment and training of 300 graduate and apprentice planners and developing the skills needed to implement reforms and unlock housing delivery.
This will be further underpinned by increases in planning fees that will help improve the resourcing of planning application services, so that local planning authorities can fund the skills they need.
More broadly, the Department’s established Planning Capacity and Capability programme is also developing a wider programme of support, working with partners across the planning sector, to ensure that local planning authorities have the skills and capacity they need, both now and in the future, to modernise local plans and speed up decision making, including through innovative use of digital planning data and software.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of council run youth centres in (a) tackling youth crime and (b) supporting young people.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government recognises the vital role youth services play in reducing a young person’s likelihood of becoming involved in crime. This will be a vital element of our Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships, to intervene earlier to ensure this cohort is identified and offered support in a more systematic way, as well as creating more opportunities for young people in their communities, through the provision of open access to mental health and careers support.
In addition, in 2025/26 DCMS will launch the Local Youth Transformation pilot, which will support local authorities to build youth service capacity. They will also allocate over £85m of capital funding in 2025/26 to create fit-for-purpose, welcoming spaces for young people, including launching the new Better Youth Spaces fund, which will allocate at least £26m for youth clubs to buy new equipment and undertake renovations. This will also include completing the Youth Investment Fund projects.
The Home Office does not measure the outcomes for council run youth centres.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 5.149 of the Autumn Budget, whether receipts from right to buy sales (a) are ringfenced for new council housing or (b) can be used for general spending by local authorities.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
At the Budget on 30 October 2024, the Chancellor confirmed that local authorities can now retain 100% of their receipts from Right to Buy sales.
Approximately 65% of these receipts are conditionally retained by councils on the basis that they will be used for replacement social housing and approximately 35% may be used for any capital purpose, including for replacement housing.
In our recent Reforming the Right to Buy consultation, we sought views from local authorities and other stakeholders on simplifying the rules governing the use of Right to Buy receipts. We are analysing responses to that consultation and will set out next steps in due course.
Asked by: Michael Payne (Labour - Gedling)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will issue guidance to local authorities on priority need for housing for people living with HIV.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question 19575 on 20 December 2024.