Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to ensure that (a) violent offenders and (b) people convicted of grievous bodily harm resulting in life-changing injuries are not inappropriately released early under existing early release schemes; and what review mechanisms are in place to assess whether the charge classification accurately reflects the severity of the offending behaviour in such cases.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This Government was left an unconscionable inheritance with the prison system days from collapse. To prevent the risk of gridlock across the Criminal Justice System, we had no choice but to take decisive actions to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.
We changed the release point for certain standard determinate sentences from 50% to 40% (‘SDS40’) and increased the maximum Home Detention Curfew period from 6 months to 12 months. Both of these policies have extensive exclusion criteria, including sexual offences irrespective of sentence length and certain serious violent offences.
Harm caused is one of the two core factors always taken into account when sentencing. The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for bringing the right charge in all serious cases and there are established mechanisms for appealing unduly lenient sentences.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the (a) availability and (b) timeliness of end-of-life palliative care support in Boston and Skegness constituency; and what steps he is taking to ensure that terminally ill patients fast-tracked due to a prognosis of fewer than 12 weeks to live receive appropriate physical and social care at home without having to wait until their final four weeks of life.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission, including Lincolnshire ICB, which covers the Boston and Skegness constituency. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations.
To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance requires ICBs to work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations.
Additionally, the Lincolnshire ICB area benefits from a single palliative point of access that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week: a single phone number, facilitated by specialist palliative nurses and the urgent and emergency care clinical assessment service, through which patients, families, carers and professionals can access care that is co-ordinated and delivered locally.
NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is a package of National Health Service-funded ongoing health and social care for adults with the highest levels of complex, intense or unpredictable needs that have arisen as a result of disability, accident or illness.
Lincolnshire ICB’s policy for fast-track CHC funding does not set out a timeframe for applications based on the number of weeks of prognosis, but it is based on the narrative within the National Framework for NHS CHC of “rapidly deteriorating and entering end phase of life”. The CHC team works seven days a week to ensure fast-track applications are processed in a timely manner.
There is a dedicated CHC End of Life Case Manager for Boston and Skegness, who ensures people’s packages of care are appropriate and meeting the needs of the individual throughout their time they are in receipt of fast-track funding. Lincolnshire ICB has a contract in place with a single provider for Boston and Skegness, which ensures packages of care are arranged and delivered in a timely manner.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of access to spinal services for patients in Boston and Skegness constituency; and what steps he is taking to ensure that residents can access (a) timely and (b) geographically appropriate spinal care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The local acute trust in Lincolnshire, United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH), does not have a spinal service. Emergency services take non-complex patients with potential spinal issues to the closest accident and emergency within Lincolnshire to be treated or stabilised, but if the patient is assessed at scene as having a spinal injury they will be transported directly to the Tertiary Centre at Nottingham University Hospital (NUH). NUH also provides a spinal consultant who supports ULTH on a weekly basis.
General practitioners in the Skegness and Boston area can refer patients to a local spinal assessment service which completes a full assessment of the patient’s condition with appropriate diagnostics. There are then two pathways for spinal services based on clinical need. Non-complex patients will be offered choice of local acute services and complex patients are offered a choice of the tertiary centres at NUH & Sheffield.
NHS England’s Midlands Regional Team has developed and implemented a network model of care for spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Specialist clinicians in SCI provide acute care, intervention and training including outreach to local hospitals for patients who need SCI rehabilitation whilst they are waiting for a bed at a specialist SCI centre. SCI rehabilitation for Lincolnshire patients is primarily delivered via the specialist SCI centre in Sheffield. For Lincolnshire, NHS England has recognised that there is a significant clinical gap in these patients being managed locally whilst waiting for a specialist SCI rehabilitation bed. NHS England has allocated funding as part of the Network Model of Care for a post to be based at Lincoln Country Hospital to provide specialist support for Lincolnshire residents. Currently, this post is vacant, but NHS England and the trust are working towards successful recruitment.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England supports the policy of excluding children from community health services on the basis of school type; and what assessment he has made of the merits of such a policy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no policy that excludes children from community health services on the basis of school type. The National Health Service is free at the point of use and provides care to anyone who need it based on clinical need.
NHS occupational therapy services are provided for all children with an education, health and care plan (EHCP). For those without an EHCP, some schools provide on-site NHS occupational therapy.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers following changes in the level of funding for mental health support; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of this change on rural communities.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra are continuing to fund the Farmer Welfare Grant. This funds charities to deliver projects which will support mental health and build resilience in local farming communities. In the Hon. Member’s county, the Lincolnshire Rural Support Network is in receipt of funding and actively delivering projects specifically tailored to engage and support young people living, entering and working within the farming industry. The project will focus on education, resilience and the provision of 1:1 support.
For 2025/26, total Government mental health spending is forecast to amount to £15.6 billion. This represents a significant uplift of £680 million in cash terms in spending on mental health compared to the previous financial year
In addition, integrated care boards, including those with rural areas, are forecast to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard over the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that local health services will invest a greater share of their budgets into frontline mental health services.
As part of our commitment to mental health, the Government will hire 8,500 new mental health support workers. This will give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health, reduce delays and provide faster treatment closer to people’s homes.
Rural communities, including farmers, will benefit from this increased spending.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of Regulation C9 of the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 that removes survivor benefits on (a) widows and (b) widowers who (i) remarry and (ii) cohabit.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
From 1 April 2015, the 1987 police pension scheme was amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers who have died as a result of an injury on duty to receive their survivor benefits for life regardless of remarriage, civil partnership or cohabitation.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Department is taking to (a) improve value for money, (b) prevent profiteering, (c) remove conflicts of interest in referral practices and (d) otherwise improve (i) oversight and (ii) regulation of private companies delivering NHS-funded eye care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All National Health Service patients must receive safe and high-quality care, whether being treated by private providers or directly by the NHS. While the independent sector has a role to play in tackling the waiting list backlog, we will not tolerate any overpriced or sub-par care. We will also not tolerate any distortion of patient choice, and the recently published Partnership Agreement between NHS England and the Independent Healthcare Providers Network commits to ending incentives that can lead to this, supporting equal access and genuine choice for all patients. We are now working together to deliver on this.
Improving value for money is a priority across all NHS pathways, not just in eyecare. This has been emphasised in various documents such as the Provider Selection Regime, the NHS Standard Contract and most importantly the Independent Sector Agreement, published in January 2025.
NHS-funded eye care is funded based on national prices and funded equitably across all providers with no opportunities to gain increased payment; prices are adjusted each year to reflect expected improvements in efficiency and are set to cover costs but not margins.
To prevent profiteering, providers are paid based on national prices, based in turn on the average cost of providing the service and adjusted to reflect the complexity of the procedure and the patient. This ensures that the provider is appropriately reimbursed, and they do not make excess profits by targeting the simplest cases.
NHS England expects all its providers to support patient choice and to act in accordance with the Law, with Good Practice and this is supported by the requirements of the NHS Standard Contract, the NHS Provider License, the General Ophthalmic Services contract and the Law itself. The NHS Standard Contract gives a useful overview of the Provider Selection Regime, which are the regulations the NHS must adhere to when commissioning health care services, including conflict of interest declarations.
Finally, private companies are commissioned and managed by integrated care boards under the terms of the NHS Standard Contract which applies the same standards of oversight and regulation as are applied to NHS providers.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many confirmed Avian Influenza outbreaks there have been in Boston and Skegness constituency, by site size; what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) availability and (b) location of Avian Influenza testing in that area; what the (i) volume and (ii) origin of imported poultry and hatching eggs entering local markets is; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that restrictions are (A) proportionate and (B) fairly applied to small-scale producers and vendors in Boston and Skegness constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
During the current outbreak there has been one outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the Boston and Skegness constituency in a commercial duck rearing enterprise near Skegness, East Lindsay, Lincolnshire and was confirmed on the 28 January 2025.
All diagnostic testing undertaken by HM Government for avian influenza is conducted at the avian influenza National Reference Laboratory (NRL) at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) Weybridge laboratory using United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) validated tests. Testing is in line with World Animal Health Organisation (WOAH) standards as set out for Avian Influenza in the WOAH Terrestrial Manual. Defra have published further information on Avian influenza and influenza of avian origin diagnostic testing, controls and reporting obligations on gov.uk.
Defra does not hold data on the volume and origin of imported poultry and hatching eggs entering local markets.
To ensure controls are proportionate to the risk bird keepers face, Defra’s approach to avian influenza considers the latest scientific and ornithological evidence and veterinary advice. Current policy reflects our experience of responding to past outbreaks of exotic animal disease and is in line with international standards of best practice for disease control.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, for what reason funding was allocated to the Advanced Research and Invention Agency to support research into solar radiation modification techniques.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As set out in ARIA's Framework Agreement, ARIA has unique operational freedoms, including over its research and project choice and its procedures. This independence allows ARIA to take bold steps to better understand the world we live in, and the Government supports ARIA exploring critical areas like this.
The Government is not in favour of using Solar Radiation Modification. ARIA is an independent research body, and they are conducting cautious, controlled research aimed at improving understanding of its risks and impacts. This will produce important information for decisions around the world.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Iranian nationals have been detected arriving in the United Kingdom via small boat crossings in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025 to date.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes statistics on detected small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on small boat arrivals by nationality and year is published in table Irr_02b of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK summary tables’, with the latest data up to the end of December 2024. Data up to the end of March 2025 will be published on 22 May 2025.