Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visa applications for dependents of skilled health workers were rejected due to issues with birth certificates issued by the country of origin in 2024.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of implementing the Firearms Act 2023 without a transitional period to apply for personal firearm certificates on miniature rifle clubs.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Firearms Act 2023 introduced legislation to strengthen firearms controls by making it a requirement for the operator of a miniature rifle range to have a firearm certificate and undergo police licensing checks.
The Firearms Act 2023 was commenced on 1 May 2025 and police forces had been preparing for implementation in advance of this date, including by considering applications from miniature rifle club operators prior to commencement to ensure that operators could comply with the requirements of the new legislation.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to review regional differences in the (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment and (c) ongoing care for people with coeliac disease across NHS services in England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Most services for long-term conditions, including for people with coeliac disease, are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs). It is the responsibility of ICBs, working with clinicians, service users, and patient groups, to develop local services and care pathways that meet patients’ needs. The Government expects ICBs to take account of relevant guidelines and best practice in designing their local services, and to ensure consistency of approaches between ICBs.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of conditions for use by healthcare professionals and commissioners in England. NICE guidelines are not mandatory and do not replace the judgement of clinicians in determining the most appropriate treatment for individual patients.
The NICE guideline, Coeliac disease: recognition, assessment and management, published in 2015 and reviewed in 2019, is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng20
The NICE also publishes clinical knowledge summaries (CKS) as a source of information mainly for national Health Service staff working in primary care. A CKS on the clinical management of coeliac disease, which was last revised in May 2020, is available at the following link:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/coeliac-disease/
We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS and improve care for people, including those with long-term conditions like coeliac disease. A central and core part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and how we ensure we provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to make it more accessible, proactive, and tailored for patients wherever they live in England.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many private homes adaptation were (a) completed on schedule and (b) were completed behind schedule by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation in 2024; and how many of those projects are still incomplete.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
In 2024 the Defence Infrastructure Organisation completed three private home adaptation projects, all of which were completed on schedule.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the rule change preventing nurseries and preschools from charging for additional hours on the financial viability of early years providers; and what steps she is taking to support childcare providers with operational costs.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
It is the government’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The department does not prevent early education and childcare providers from charging parents for hours that are additional to any government funded early education place to which they are entitled. These are a private transaction between parents and their provider.
However, where providers agree to offer early education entitlements places that are funded by the taxpayer, it is a statutory requirement that those places must be available free of charge to parents. This means that mandatory charges associated with entitlements places are not permitted, and this was confirmed by the High Court in February this year. However, as departmental statutory guidance sets out, providers may offer and charge parents for food and extras, such as nappies, on an optional basis.
Next year alone, the department plans to provide over £8 billion for the early years entitlements. This is a more than 30% increase compared to 2024/25.
The government is delivering the largest ever uplift to the early years pupil premium, increasing the rate by over 45% to up to £570 per eligible child per year.
The department has confirmed funding rates for 2025/26 and announced a new £75 million expansion grant to support providers to deliver the additional staff and places required for next September.
A further £37 million of capital funding has been allocated to create or expand 300 school-based nurseries.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 access to NHS services for deaf people.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, including deaf people.
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed in the National Repository to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the National Health Service and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated. Following the launch of the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard, published September 2023, the flag went live in the National Care Record Service and is being rolled out across England.
Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including deaf people. NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with Student Finance England on the (a) ease of access to and (a) adequacy its customer services.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Student Finance England (SFE) is part of the Student Loans Company (SLC). The SLC is a wholly owned government company which delivers student finance services to students on behalf of the four UK Governments (the shareholders).
The department is responsible for oversight of the SLC, and my noble Friend, the Minister for Skills meets regularly with the SLC chair and chief executive. Alongside the other shareholders, the department sets key performance targets in the SLC Annual Performance and Resource Agreement. These targets include measures for customer service and satisfaction and are monitored at the SLC Board and through Board committees. The department and the shareholders scrutinise data relating to the quality of customer experience, including call response times and contact resolution.
Since the 2022/23 financial year the SLC has invested in improving its digital platforms for students and customers. Customers now have a variety of options to contact the SLC, including online account interactions, virtual assistants, live chat, social media and by telephone or in writing.
The SLC reports on customer satisfaction targets for applicants, students, sponsors, and customers in its Annual Report and Accounts. The most recent publication can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/slc-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024/slc-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-2024.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 quality of wound care, in the context of the disbandment of the National Wound Care Strategy Programme in March 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The outcome of the National Wound Care Strategy Programme was to implement consistently high wound care across England by reducing unnecessary variation, improving safety, and optimising patient experience and outcomes.
NHS England’s work on wound care has now transitioned into its business as usual service, and work is continuing to support the spread of best practice across England. Additionally, to further improve the quality of wound care, a pressure ulcer improvement diagnostic and discovery phase of work was agreed as a priority component of the national wound care programme, undertaken in partnership with the National Wound Care Strategy Programme team, the National Nursing Directorate, providers, and integrated care systems.
Resources developed through the National Wound Care programme are accessible on the NHS Futures website.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandating new cars sold to have speed limiters.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We currently have no plans to introduce mandatory speed limiters for new vehicles.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of radiologists working in the NHS in (a) England and (b) Tunbridge Wells Hospital; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of radiologists working in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data published by NHS England shows that as of December 2024, there are 3,998 full-time equivalent (FTE) consultants in the speciality of clinical radiology employed in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. Of these, there are 28 FTE consultants employed in the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. Data is not available for the workforce of specific hospitals within NHS hospital trusts.
When including doctors of all grades, there are 5,844 FTE doctors working in the specialty of clinical radiology in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England, 35 of which are employed in the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.
We are committed to training the staff we need, including radiologists, to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. To reform the NHS and make it fit for the future, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan as part of the Government’s five long-term missions.
Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual NHS employers. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.