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 support individuals with epilepsy whose condition is not well-controlled by existing therapies; and what funding his Department has allocated to support research in this area.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We want a society where every person, including those with long-term conditions such as epilepsy, receives high-quality, compassionate continuity of care, with their families and carers supported. We will change the National Health Service so that it becomes not just a sickness service, but one able to prevent ill health in the first place. This will help us be better prepared for the change in the nature of disease and allow our services to focus more on the management of chronic, long-term conditions, including epilepsy.

At the national level, there are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with epilepsy, including the RightCare Epilepsy Toolkit, and the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology.

The Department funds research into epilepsy via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR spent almost £19 million on 46 epilepsy research projects in the five years from April 2019 to March 2024. Additionally, over this period, more than 9,500 people were enabled to participate in epilepsy research by the NIHR Clinical Research Network, now the NIHR Research Delivery Network.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including epilepsy. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.

The NIHR also works closely with other Government funders, including UK Research and Innovation, which is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and includes the Medical Research Council, to fund research into epilepsy to improve treatments and prevent poor health outcomes for patients.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to reallocate £8.3 billion of HS2 funding for road repairs.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The additional £500 million that the Chancellor has announced at the Budget for local highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year represents an increase of nearly 50% in comparison to the current financial year. This goes above and beyond the funding that had been provisionally earmarked for 2025/26 as part of the previous Government’s Network North programme and shows that this Government is serious about tackling the maintenance backlog on local roads.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding for pothole repairs is available to London boroughs.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Transport policy is devolved to the Mayor of London and Transport for London. It is up to the Mayor to decide how much of the wider funding for London’s transport is passed down to the boroughs, who are also able to use other sources of locally raised income to fund highway maintenance activities in their areas.

This Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local highway network. As part of this, it has a commitment to enable local highway authorities in England to fix up to a million more potholes a year.

The Government will confirm funding allocations for 2025/26 to English local highway authorities in due course.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much new funding is available for pothole repairs excluding funding previously allocated following the cancellation of HS2.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The additional £500 million that the Chancellor has announced at the Budget for local highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year represents an increase of nearly 50% in comparison to the current financial year. This goes above and beyond the funding that had been provisionally earmarked for 2025/26 as part of the previous Government’s Network North programme and shows that this Government is serious about tackling the maintenance backlog on local roads.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on motorists of pay-per-mile road charges.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department has not undertaken any such assessment since the conclusion of the road pricing demonstrations project in 2011.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of running a public health campaign raising awareness of cardiac risk in young people.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to improving access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces and reducing inequalities in access to these life saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED fund, launched in in September 2023, the Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the fund.

The Department selected a joint bid from Smarter Society as its independent partners to manage grant applications. Smarter Society has reviewed funding applications against requirements specified by the Department. These requirements are to ensure that resources are allocated to where there is the greatest need, for example remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest, including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Mr Clive Betts (in the Chair); Nesil Caliskan; Peter Fortune; Lloyd

Found: present: Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Chair); Mr Clive Betts; Mr Luke Charters; Anna Dixon; Peter Fortune

Found: Q77 Peter Fortune: When we look at the figure, there is a 50% increase.