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 (a) strengthen protections for NHS whistleblowers and (b) prevent repercussions for those who raise patient safety concerns.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has been clear that the silencing of whistleblowers will not be tolerated, and that National Health Service staff should have the confidence to speak out and come forward if they have concerns.
There is a network of more than 1,200 local Freedom to Speak Up Guardians across healthcare in England, whose role is to help and support NHS workers who want to speak up about any concerns that they have. There is also a national Freedom to Speak Up policy, published by NHS England, which sets out the minimum standards for local Freedom to Speak Up policies across the NHS, with all NHS organisations having been instructed to adopt this policy. These initiatives sit alongside legal protections for whistleblowers, which have been strengthened so that they also prohibit discrimination against job applicants on the grounds that they have spoken up in the past.
In November 2024, the Department launched a consultation on options for regulating NHS managers, with the aim of improving leadership quality and accountability. This will help ensure that the NHS has strong and effective leadership in place, and that leaders and managers are held accountable for their practice. The consultation closed on 18 February 2025 and had strong engagement, receiving nearly 5,000 responses.
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 (a) extending and (b) removing the 30-day time limit for completing a blue badge application.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
While there is no time limit for completion of a Blue Badge application in legislation, in order to comply with UK data handling regulations personal data relating to an application on the Blue Badge online application system is deleted after thirty days. In that thirty-day period applicants are able to save and return to their online application.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that households on private water networks have access to the same (a) provision for leak allowances and (b) other protections as households supplied directly by water companies.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local authorities are the regulators for private water supplies. The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has information about private water supplies on their website, some of which covers private supply networks.
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 allowing local councils to review applications by utility firms for emergency roadworks in order to determine when the roadworks should take place.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Emergency works are defined in legislation as works needed to deal with dangers to life and property and so must be carried out urgently. For these, and other urgent works needed to restore customer connections or deal with leaks, permits must be submitted to the relevant highway authority within two hours of works starting on site. The authority can assess these permits and request works are completed by a particular time.
Authorities are also required to evaluate the operation of their permit schemes, annually for the first three years of operation and then every three years after that.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to prevent freeholders holding leaseholders liable for outstanding service charges incurred by the previous leaseholder.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The seller of a leasehold property is legally responsible for service charges owed up until the completion of the sale to the next leaseholder. A freeholder cannot require a leaseholder to pay charges owed by the previous leaseholder if the new leaseholder has not agreed this as part of the sale contract. The government would expect the incoming leaseholder’s solicitors to act in their client’s best interests in advising them and negotiating the terms of the sale contract.
If a landlord tries to claim that a leaseholder is liable for charges for which they are not liable, we recommend that the leaseholder seeks independent legal advice on how to proceed. Free initial advice is available from the government’s Leasehold Advisory Service. The landlord may be able to take action against the previous leaseholder regarding their failure to pay service charges due for the previous leaseholder’s period of ownership.
The government believes that all liabilities and ongoing financial responsibilities should be made clear to potential purchasers of leasehold properties, prior to purchase.
The landlord should provide relevant information, including on any ongoing or planned service charges, and specify how regularly these charges will be reassessed or increased, during purchase of the property. This is most often set out in a Leasehold Property Enquiry form 1 (LPE1) enquiry form. Prospective buyers and their legal representative are advised to check this information carefully and take it into account when negotiating the purchase price of the property.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the Chief Secretary to the Treasury plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells on seizing frozen Russian assets, dated 16 January 2025.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The correspondence from the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells is receiving urgent attention and a response will be issued by HM Treasury in due course.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with BT on the speed of the Digital Voice rollout; and what steps he is taking to ensure (a) elderly people, (b) vulnerable people and (c) people reliant on medical alarm systems are given support.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This is an issue the Government takes very seriously. The Government is determined to ensure that any risks arising from the industry-led migration from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated, for all customers across the UK.
I chaired two roundtables with communication providers on this issue in September and November 2024, which included BT. Major communication providers and network operators signed voluntary charters in December 2023 and March 2024, and the Government secured further commitments to protect vulnerable customers during the PSTN migration in November 2024. DSIT officials regularly meet, with signatories of the PSTN charters, including BT, to monitor how they are meeting the safeguards. This includes discussions on the speed of the rollout.
The Department has acknowledged that customers who may be considered vulnerable in the context of the digital switchover may require additional support. A definition of vulnerable customers was published in November 2024. It includes those who are telecare and other social or medical alarm users. Any customer, including the elderly, can also self-identify as requiring additional support.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) protecting consumers from planned obsolescence in (i) video games and (ii) other digital software and (b) requiring publishers to make game content available for offline use upon server shutdown.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is aware of issues relating to the life-span of digital content, including video games, and we appreciate the concerns of players of some games that have been discontinued. We have no plans to amend existing consumer law on digital obsolescence, but we will monitor this issue and consider the relevant work of the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) on consumer rights and consumer detriment.
Video games sellers must comply with existing consumer law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA) and Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs). However, there is no requirement in UK law for software companies to support older versions of their products. Decision-making is for those companies, taking account of commercial and regulatory factors and complying with existing consumer law.
There may be occasions where companies make decisions based on the high running costs of maintaining older servers for games with declining user bases. If software is offered for sale that is not supported by the provider, then this should be made clear, for example on product webpages and physical packaging.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which body has responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the cycle path between Pembury Hospital and Tonbridge.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area, including cycle paths. Kent County Council is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the non-motorised user route that runs from Pembury Hospital to Vauxhall Lane, Tonbridge.
This Government takes the condition of our country’s roads very seriously and is committed to supporting local authorities in maintaining and renewing the local highway network and tackling the maintenance backlog. The Government has already announced a funding uplift of £500 million for the 2025/26 financial year compared to 2024/25, with Kent County Council receiving an additional £14.2 million for highway maintenance.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people were killed in road traffic collisions on the A21 in Tunbridge Wells constituency in each year since 2019.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of people killed in reported road collisions on the A21 in the Tunbridge Wells constituency in each year since 2019 are shown in the table. The latest year for which data is available is 2023.
Year | Number of fatalities |
2019 | 2 |
2020 | 2 |
2021 | 1 |
2022 | 0 |
2023 | 1 |