Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to deliver the commitment in the 2025 Environmental Improvement Plan to legislate to end the sale of horticultural peat; and what her timetable is for bringing forward such legislation.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government plans to legislate for a ban on the sale of peat and peat containing products when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children are classified as being in deep material poverty in Camborne and Redruth constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold data on the number of children in deep material poverty broken down by geographical region or constituency. Geographical analyses are usually presented as 3-year averages due to the volatility of single year estimates based on small sample sizes. We anticipate regional breakdowns being available in future years, once more data becomes available. More information can be found at: Deep material poverty: Financial year ending 2024 - GOV.UK.
As deep material poverty is impacted by a range of un-modellable factors, such as families’ broader resources, support networks and financial resilience, it is not possible to model reductions in deep material poverty in the same way as for relative low income. Instead, we have provided analysis on number of children in deep material poverty who will gain from the strategy, which can be found here: Child Poverty Strategy: Impact on low income poverty levels and children gaining in the UK: December 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department has taken to help ensure that the Infected Blood Compensation Authority claims process is accessible to people whose historic NHS records are missing or partially redacted.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Scheme has been designed to minimise as far as possible the burden on those applying, and as set out in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2024, eligibility for the Scheme will be determined based on the balance of probabilities. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority will provide assistance to those who believe their medical records have been lost or destroyed.
In addition to this, on 3 July 2025, the Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office wrote to the Chairs of the PAC and PACAC Committees to set out the measures being taken to prioritise faster compensation payments, and one of these measures is to use the powers in the Victims and Prisoners Act to get records from the Infected Blood Inquiry, and using testimony to contribute to the assessment of proof of infection.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, to what extent young people with long-term health conditions such as epilepsy have been included in the Department’s co-creation process for the forthcoming Schools White Paper.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government understands the impact of epilepsy and other long-term medical conditions on the way pupils feel included and supported in school life. The statutory guidance ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ recommends the use of individual healthcare plans as good practice. They can help schools support pupils with medical conditions, providing clarity about what needs to be done, when and by whom. The school, healthcare professionals and parents should agree, based on evidence, when a healthcare plan would be appropriate. The government has committed to reviewing the statutory guidance, and we intend to consult on revised guidance. The current guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.
Our aim is to ensure that schools are better equipped to support all pupils with medical conditions, including those with epilepsy, as part of our wider ambition to create more inclusive schools through the forthcoming Schools White Paper.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the role of Individual Healthcare Plans in supporting the safety and inclusion of pupils with long-term health conditions, such as epilepsy, at school.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The government understands the impact of epilepsy and other long-term medical conditions on the way pupils feel included and supported in school life. The statutory guidance ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ recommends the use of individual healthcare plans as good practice. They can help schools support pupils with medical conditions, providing clarity about what needs to be done, when and by whom. The school, healthcare professionals and parents should agree, based on evidence, when a healthcare plan would be appropriate. The government has committed to reviewing the statutory guidance, and we intend to consult on revised guidance. The current guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.
Our aim is to ensure that schools are better equipped to support all pupils with medical conditions, including those with epilepsy, as part of our wider ambition to create more inclusive schools through the forthcoming Schools White Paper.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to allow pharmacies to independently proscribe medication.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no legislative barriers for pharmacists who are appropriately trained to independently prescribe. The 10-Year Health Plan set out how we will transition community pharmacy from being focused largely on dispensing medicines to becoming integral to the Neighbourhood Health Service, which will include making prescribing part of the National Health Services delivered by community pharmacists.
Earlier this year, we laid legislation to modernise legislation governing the supervision of activities by a pharmacist in a pharmacy. This legislation, which will come into effect following a transition period, is intended to make greater use of the wider pharmacy workforce, such as registered pharmacy technicians, in dispensing therefore freeing up pharmacists to deliver more clinical services.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of tidal stream technologies to his Department's clean energy targets.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Clean Power 2030 Action Plan acknowledges that whilst emerging renewable technologies, such as tidal stream, are expected to play a limited role in the 2030 energy mix, our ability to deploy at scale could be important to the U K ’s achievement of longer-term decarbonisation objectives.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 managerial support for GPs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Regarding the oversight of general practices (GPs), GPs are independent businesses, providing primary care services based on a National Health Service GP Contract to their local populations. Most commonly, GPs are run by GP partners who, alongside other GPs and healthcare staff, are responsible for running their own practice.
NHS England has delegated its responsibilities for the direct commissioning of primary care services, for instance primary medical, dental, ophthalmic, and community pharmacy services, to integrated care boards (ICBs).
The responsibilities delegated are set out in the standard delegation agreement between NHS England and each ICB. This includes contractual management and supporting the improvement and transformation of services. Further information on the delegation agreement is available at the following link:
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole and reflects this government’s commitment to improve support for general practice and ease pressure on general practitioners.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 ensure that pay awards for NHS staff are reflected in general practice settings.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government looks to the independent pay review bodies for a pay recommendation for NHS staff, including both contractor and salaried general practitioners (GPs). They consider a range of evidence from organisations, including the Government, the National Health Service and trade unions to reach their recommendations.
The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) has recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with last year, we accepted the DDRB’s pay recommendation. We have provided an increase to core funding for practices to allow this 4% pay uplift, on top of the provisional 2.8% uplift already provided, to be passed on to salaried and contractor GPs. The additional funding will also allow for pay uplifts for other salaried general practice staff. Information on the funding increase was communicated to practices on 31 July 2025. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/implementing-the-2025-26-gp-contract/
The Government has written to GP Committee England to set out its expectations regarding the extra funding being used to fund uplifts for all staff and a letter to ICBs was published on 31 July, available at the following link:
We expect GP contractors to implement pay rises to other practice staff in line with the uplift in funding they have received. As self-employed contractors to the NHS, it is up to general practices how they distribute pay and benefits to their staff.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to establish (a) accountability and (b) oversight mechanisms for the (i) storage and (ii) use of personal data under future digital identity card policies.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Inclusion, usefulness, and security are the principles guiding the new digital ID. The digital ID will draw on the best practice of cyber security from around the world and we have begun engagement with the UK’s leading security experts—including the National Cyber Security Centre.
The digital ID programme will respect all existing UK laws, including GDPR, so that any data sharing is necessary for the purposes of the activity and only the minimum amount of data is shared. We will launch a full public consultation on all these proposals in the new year.