Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the number of delayed discharges from hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all patients are discharged from hospital appropriately with the right care and support in place. The Model Discharge Pathway has been published, to support timely, safe, and clinically led discharge from hospital. The Model Discharge Pathway is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/model-discharge-pathway/
It provides a framework that organisations can use to review and strengthen local discharge arrangements. The publication was developed with clinical and operational leaders and brings together good practice already being delivered across the National Health Service.
Additionally, in February 2026, the Government published guidance setting out new arrangements for the Better Care Fund, requiring NHS integrated care boards and local authorities to pool over £9 billion of funding to prevent avoidable hospital admissions and reduce delayed hospital discharges with more integrated health and social care services.
We are continuing to work with NHS trusts and local authorities to embed best practice in discharge processes. Areas experiencing the most significant challenges with discharge delays and urgent and emergency care performance are receiving targeted support to drive those improvements.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the National Year of Reading having engaged 6,800 schools and early years settings, and 11,000 teachers and early years practitioners, so far.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Reading for pleasure is hugely important and brings a wide range of benefits, from increased wellbeing, confidence and empathy to better vocabulary and aptitude for learning. That is why this government, in collaboration with our delivery partner, the National Literacy Trust (NLT), has declared 2026 the National Year of Reading, a UK-wide campaign to inspire a love of reading, combining a universal campaign with a targeted focus on priority groups who are least likely to read for pleasure.
The department is pleased that the campaign has attracted significant attention, momentum and engagement since its launch in January. The department’s ambition is that it will make a lasting change to the reading habits of the nation to address the decline in reading for pleasure and unlock one of the most powerful tools for equity and opportunity, a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. The department is pleased that the NLT’s recent reading report shows children’s reading enjoyment increased in 2026 for the first time in five years.
An independent evaluation will be published in 2027 and will examine how the campaign has influenced reading behaviours, connected with audiences and shaped attitudes towards reading.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the National Year of Reading having engaged over 2.1 million children so far.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Reading for pleasure is hugely important and brings a wide range of benefits, from increased wellbeing, confidence and empathy to better vocabulary and aptitude for learning. That is why this government, in collaboration with our delivery partner, the National Literacy Trust (NLT), has declared 2026 the National Year of Reading, a UK-wide campaign to inspire a love of reading, combining a universal campaign with a targeted focus on priority groups who are least likely to read for pleasure.
The department is pleased that the campaign has attracted significant attention, momentum and engagement since its launch in January. The department’s ambition is that it will make a lasting change to the reading habits of the nation to address the decline in reading for pleasure and unlock one of the most powerful tools for equity and opportunity, a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. The department is pleased that the NLT’s recent reading report shows children’s reading enjoyment increased in 2026 for the first time in five years.
An independent evaluation will be published in 2027 and will examine how the campaign has influenced reading behaviours, connected with audiences and shaped attitudes towards reading.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on ensuring the adequate provision of palliative care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
This government is launching a new framework this autumn to fix unfair gaps in palliative care and end-of-life care.Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 prevent diagnostic overshadowing in cases where anxiety, trauma, distress or school-related deterioration are dismissed as part of autism, ADHD or SEND.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
In December 2025, the Government launched an Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism. This independent review will inform a new approach that reduces waiting times, improves the quality of care, and promotes prevention and early intervention. The independent review’s final report, due in the summer, will make recommendations on how the Government, the health system, and wider public services can respond to increasing demand for support more fairly and effectively so that people receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place.
The Government also announced on 15 May a new Mental Health Strategy for England, with the aim of transforming mental health care into a system that responds earlier, reduces waiting times for support, and supports people, including people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autistic people, to participate in education and work. It will be informed by the findings and recommendations from the Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism.
In the meantime, the Government is continuing to expand Mental Health Support Teams so that every school and college can access mental health support. These teams provide early intervention and work with education staff, parents, and carers to identify needs sooner and support children and young people before difficulties escalate. We are also improving the capability of the workforce to respond to children and young people with more complex needs, including those experiencing trauma, distress, and neurodivergence, so that they can receive the right support at the right time.
We are also committed to transforming outcomes for children, young people, and their families with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) through pivotal reforms. We want these reforms to support the treatment to prevention shift in our 10-Year Health Plan and its focus on early identification of needs, support, and intervention, enabling more children to access support and thrive in inclusive mainstream settings.
To support this ambition, over the next three years £1.6 billion will be invested to make the mainstream system more inclusive, building on the latest evidence and practice, alongside £1.8 billion being invested over three years for the new Experts at Hand offer, which will wrap education and health professionals around mainstream settings. By 2028, up to £15 million will have been invested to build the evidence base for, and then provide, National Inclusion Standards. These will set out, for the first time, what support that should be available in every mainstream setting. We will also refresh areas of need, update guidance on reasonable adjustments, and revise the SEND Code of Practice.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Bovine TB Control Strategy for England, published on 10 June 2026, what criteria her Department will use to determine whether wildlife control methods are humane; whether that standard will draw on the findings of the 2014 Independent Expert Panel on the humaneness of controlled shooting of badgers; and what independent body will monitor and publicly report on the humaneness of any future lethal control, including Test, Vaccinate and Remove.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The badger cull is ending, and no new licences can be issued under that policy, as this Government instead keeps the focus on cattle while also protecting wildlife.
The Government is currently considering the proposals set out in the recommended Bovine TB Control Strategy. As such, no decisions have yet been taken on such criteria or future arrangements for independent monitoring and reporting.
With respect to lethal control, the Strategy recommends developing a framework to inform decisions about lethal badger control, based on international consensus principles for ethical wildlife control.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Bovine TB Control Strategy for England, published on 10 June 2026, what weight her Department attaches to rates of cattle-to-cattle transmission compared to badger-to-cattle transmission of bovine TB when assessing the proportionality of lethal control of badgers; and what proportion of projected bovine TB control expenditure is allocated to (a) cattle-based and (b) wildlife-based measures over the next five years.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is currently considering the proposals set out in the recommended Bovine TB Control Strategy. As such, in the context of the recommendation to develop a framework to inform decisions about lethal badger control, no such assessment has yet been made on proportionality.
The Government does not hold a projected five-year breakdown of bovine TB control expenditure allocated between cattle-based and wildlife-based measures. Future funding decisions will be made through the normal Spending Review and departmental business planning processes.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the cost of backdated VAT refunds if HMRC’s appeal against the March 2026 tax tribunal ruling on public EV charging is unsuccessful.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
HMRC is not currently able to estimate the potential VAT repayments that may arise from the ongoing litigation concerning public EV charging. This is because the extent of any repayments will depend on precise findings and details yet to be set out in the court’s judgement.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were waiting more than (a) 18, (b) 26 and (c) 52 weeks for treatment by the Community Dental Service in England at the latest available date.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be particularly vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment and are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs).
The January 2025 Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) report on Community Dental Service (CDS) highlighted several known challenges in the operation and monitoring of CDS and offered recommendations for improvements. The majority of recommendations in the GIRFT report related to operational considerations for individual ICBs to address, which varies according to local arrangements, priorities, and needs.
NHS England and the Department have taken the recommendations on board and are working to improve the data reporting process to increase oversight of CDS activity, including current waiting lists and performance reporting. An amended waiting list data collection was implemented in August 2025 and will improve oversight of the current waiting lists and waiting times for adults and children.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Community Dental Service waiting times on attendance at hospital accident and emergency departments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be particularly vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment and are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs).
The January 2025 Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) report on Community Dental Service (CDS) highlighted several known challenges in the operation and monitoring of CDS and offered recommendations for improvements. The majority of recommendations in the GIRFT report related to operational considerations for individual ICBs to address, which varies according to local arrangements, priorities, and needs.
NHS England and the Department have taken the recommendations on board and are working to improve the data reporting process to increase oversight of CDS activity, including current waiting lists and performance reporting. An amended waiting list data collection was implemented in August 2025 and will improve oversight of the current waiting lists and waiting times for adults and children.