Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 commission a review into the adequacy of housing bands used to calculate council tax bands.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The government has no plans to commission a review of council tax bands. The Government is committed to keeping taxes on working people as low as possible.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has she made of the impact on her policies of the levels of damp and mould affecting housing managed by Onward Homes in Halton.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to working with social housing providers to ensure that homes are safe, decent, warm, and free from damp and mould.
The Deputy Prime Minister made a Written Ministerial Statement on 6 February (HCWS423) confirming that the government will bring Awaab’s Law into force for damp and mould in October 2025.
Awaab’s Law will empower social tenants to hold their landlords to account by law if they fail to investigate and fix hazards within their homes within set timescales. Tenants will be able to hold their social landlords to account by seeking redress through the Housing Ombudsman Service or taking legal action through the courts for a breach of contract.
The government is also committed to consulting on a new Decent Homes Standard and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards this year which will enable upfront preventative measures on disrepair and deliver improvements to tackle damp and mould.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of having a dedicated mental health professional in every school.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future, we will provide access to a mental health professional in every school in England, so that mental health conditions can be identified early on and prevented from developing into more serious conditions in later life.
We are working with our colleagues at NHS England and the Department for Education to consider options to deliver this commitment.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 improve the quality of care in maternity units.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government continues to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its three-year plan for maternity and neonatal services. The plan sets out how the NHS will make maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families.
As part of the delivery plan, all local leadership teams are taking part in a Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme, helping them to develop and maintain a positive safety culture. Additional funding has also been provided for Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships to ensure local voices are used to inform decisions and services.
An updated version of the ‘Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle’ is being rolled out across England, which is a package of interventions aimed to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and preterm birth, as well as initiatives to reduce inequalities. 14 Maternal Medicine Networks have been developed across England to ensure that women with chronic and acute medical problems related to pregnancy have access to specialist management and care.
While good progress has been made, the Government recognises that there are real issues within maternity services. Whilst change will not happen overnight, we are determined to go further to ensure all women and babies receive the care they deserve, and have committed to providing support to trusts failing on maternity care, recruit thousands of new midwives, and tackle the unacceptable inequalities that exist.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to reduce diagnosis times for endometriosis.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health and improving the diagnosis times for gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis.
We have taken urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan. In gynaecology, the plan supports innovative models offering patients care closer to home, and the piloting of gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres.
Endometriosis is also included in the core curriculum for general practitioners, and for obstetricians and gynaecologists. The General Medical Council is introducing the Medical Licensing Assessment for the majority of incoming doctors, including all medical students graduating from the academic year 2024/25 and onwards. Within this assessment are a number of topics relating to women’s health, including endometriosis. This will encourage a better understanding of endometriosis among doctors as they start their careers in the United Kingdom.
Clinical guidelines support healthcare professionals to diagnose and treat conditions. In November 2024 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published updated recommendations on the diagnosis, management, and treatment of endometriosis. This is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng73
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 improve survival rates for acute myeloid leukaemia.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to the Hon. Member for Wokingham on 20 January 2025 to Question 23624.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
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 support young people with mental health issues.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Too many young people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are too long. 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, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services in England to reduce delays and provide faster treatment.
We will also provide access to a specialist mental health professional in every school in England, and roll out Young Futures hubs in every community. We are working with our colleagues at NHS England and across Government to consider options to deliver these commitments.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of electric cars charging infrastructure.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
A widespread, easy-to-use and reliable network of public chargepoints is crucial to support the electric vehicle transition. As of 1 February 2025, the Government and industry have supported the installation of 74,234 publicly available charging devices in the UK, alongside over 680,000 private chargepoints in England alone, supporting drivers to switch to EVs.
In 2024, nearly 20,000 public charging devices were added to the network, making it a record year. Government investment will continue to support public chargepoint rollout, including the £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund which, alongside private investment, is estimated to deliver a further 100,000 chargepoints alone.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of progress in meeting sustainable aviation fuel targets.
Answered by Mike Kane
The sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) Mandate – which came into effect at the start of this year - is the UK’s key policy to decarbonise jet fuel. It obligates the supply of an increasing amount of SAF in the overall UK aviation fuel mix; starting at 2% in 2025, reaching 10% in 2030 and 22% in 2040.
The Government has considered feedstock availability and SAF technology readiness in setting targets which are both ambitious and deliverable. To support delivery of the Mandate’s targets, we are taking actions to grow supply of SAF. We are providing £135m to support 13 UK SAF projects through the Advanced Fuels Fund and have allocated an additional £63m of funding to March 2026.
The Government has also committed to introduce an industry-funded revenue certainty mechanism.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to encourage the aviation industry to use more sustainable aviation fuel.
Answered by Mike Kane
The SAF Mandate – which came into effect at the start of this year - is the UK’s key policy to decarbonise jet fuel. It obligates the supply of an increasing amount of SAF in the overall UK aviation fuel mix; starting at 2% in 2025, reaching 10% in 2030 and 22% in 2040.
We are also taking steps to grow a UK SAF industry. The Advanced fuels Fund (AFF) provides grants to support SAF projects looking to develop large scale production facilities in the UK. We have extended the AFF for a further year to March 2026, with an extra £63m of funding.
The Government has also committed to introduce an industry-funded revenue certainty mechanism. On 29 January 2025, we published our response to the SAF Revenue Certainty Mechanism consultation, confirming that we are proceeding with the guaranteed strike price model.