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, if he will make an estimate of the costs involved in maintaining the building and grounds of Bootham Park Hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Bootham Park Hospital site is a Grade I listed heritage asset and therefore requires significant ongoing management. The costs associated with maintaining the buildings and grounds have been £5.5 million since 2018, which covers maintenance, security, and insurance across the site, as well as the upkeep of areas that remain operational, including the chapel used by the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the work required to maintain safe public access through parts of the site. NHS Property Services continues to progress plans to sell the site, which would bring these ongoing holding costs to an end.
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, whether there is a mechanism in place for Integrated Care Boards to respond to correspondence from Members of Parliament.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are statutory bodies as established under the NHS Act 2006 amended by the Health and Care Act 2022. As such they must follow their own internal governance, accountability, and decision-making requirements. How ICBs follow these requirements when replying to correspondence is managed by the ICB.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) new and (b) existing claimants were waiting for a Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment in each month since January 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions prioritises assessments for new claims to minimise waiting times and ensure claimants receive the right benefit entitlement as soon as possible. We are working with suppliers to increase capacity for clearing the backlog of reassessment cases, including by accelerating the recruitment of assessors.
The number of new claimants waiting for a Universal Credit (UC) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) in each month since January 2025 can be found in the table below.
Month | Outstanding UC WCAs |
Jan-25 | 220,000 |
Feb-25 | 220,000 |
Mar-25 | 220,000 |
Apr-25 | 210,000 |
May-25 | 200,000 |
Jun-25 | 210,000 |
Jul-25 | 210,000 |
Aug-25 | 210,000 |
Sep-25 | 210,000 |
Oct-25 | 230,000 |
Nov-25 | 240,000 |
Dec-25 | 250,000 |
The number of existing claimants waiting for an UC WCA in each month since January 2025 can be found in the table below.
Month | Outstanding UC WCAs |
Jan-25 | 89,000 |
Feb-25 | 90,000 |
Mar-25 | 91,000 |
Apr-25 | 92,000 |
May-25 | 92,000 |
Jun-25 | 93,000 |
Jul-25 | 89,000 |
Aug-25 | 88,000 |
Sep-25 | 87,000 |
Oct-25 | 83,000 |
Nov-25 | 81,000 |
Dec-25 | 63,000 |
Please note:
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with Vice Chancellors on the impact of Government policy on university finances.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Higher education (HE) providers are independent from government and as such are responsible for managing their finances and ensuring their business models provide long-term sustainability.
However, this government is committed to helping put the HE sector on a secure financial footing so that it can face the challenges of the next decade. Our decision to raise tuition fees annually in line with inflation, alongside refocusing the Office for Students (OfS) on monitoring the sector’s financial health, demonstrates this commitment.
Although the OfS is responsible for monitoring the sector’s financial sustainability, the government has a strong interest in understanding the sector’s level of risk. My department continues to engage closely with the OfS, other government departments and sector representative groups, as well as individual providers, to better understand the changing financial landscape.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what was the number of redundancies announced in higher education over the past year.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for York Central to the answer of 11 March 2026 to Question 117322.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has undertaken a review of the tuition fee-based funding model for higher education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government set out its plans for tuition fees as part of the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper, published on 20 October 2025.
To provide long-term certainty over future funding for the sector so that it can focus on reform, we will increase tuition fee caps for all higher education (HE) providers in line with forecast inflation in 2026/27 and 2027/28 and then legislate when parliamentary time allows to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years.
Maximum fee limits for undergraduate courses in the 2026/27 and 2027/28 academic years will increase by forecast inflation of 2.71% (to £9,790) and 2.68% (to £10,050) respectively, based on the retail price index (exclusive of mortgage interest payments).
In future years, we will link inflationary fee uplifts to judgements on HE providers’ quality and restrict fee income where high quality cannot be demonstrated.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what public funding has been allocated to union-led workplace learning in each of the past five years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 March 2026 to Question UIN 117323.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will review the financial situation of Higher Education institutions.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Higher education (HE) providers are independent from government and as such are responsible for managing their finances and ensuring their business models provide long-term sustainability.
However, this government is committed to helping put the HE sector on a secure financial footing so that it can face the challenges of the next decade. Our decision to raise tuition fees annually in line with inflation, alongside refocusing the Office for Students (OfS) on monitoring the sector’s financial health, demonstrates this commitment.
Although the OfS is responsible for monitoring the sector’s financial sustainability, the government has a strong interest in understanding the sector’s level of risk. My department continues to engage closely with the OfS, other government departments and sector representative groups, as well as individual providers, to better understand the changing financial landscape.
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, whether the NHS Workforce Plan will include clinicians required for Palliative Medicine in (a) acute, (b) community and (c) hospice settings.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. This includes shifting care from hospitals to community settings. We are working through how the plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups.
The scope of the 10 Year Workforce Plan is the National Health Service workforce. However, we know that for this shift to be meaningful, multi-disciplinary working and effective integration will be vital for many services, including palliative 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, how is he assessing the performance of ICBs and their delivery on population health.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Oversight Framework provides a consistent and transparent approach to assessing National Health Service organisations. The framework will be reviewed in 2026/27 to incorporate work to implement the NHS operating model and to take account of the ambitions and priorities in the 10-Year Health Plan. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhs-oversight-framework/
NHS England has a legal duty under the National Health Service Act 2006, as amended by the Health Service and Care Act, to undertake an annual performance assessment of each integrated board. Further information is available at the following link:
The latest summary of assessments is available at the following link: