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 assessment she has made of the additional costs to breweries arising from alcohol labelling and packaging regulations; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of those costs on brewery closures in the next financial year.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has worked closely with industry, including the brewing and hospitality sectors, throughout development of Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR). In October 2024, the Government published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the pEPR scheme on packaging producers as a whole. This impact assessment did not split the assessment by sector.
Defra has not made any recent changes to alcohol labelling regulations within its remit.
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 he has made of the potential implications for his policies of reports that patients at Pilgrim Hospital outpatients department are being left for extended periods without access to beds due to lack of bed availability; and what steps he is taking to ensure timely access to inpatient care in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is clear that patients should expect and receive the highest standard of care and accepts that urgent and emergency care performance has been below the high standards that patients should expect in recent years. Providing care in corridors, and other inappropriate settings, is completely unacceptable.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out the steps we are taking to ensure at least 78% of patients in A&E departments are seen within four hours, to reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharge from an emergency department, and to reduce ambulance handover times to a maximum of 45 minutes.
NHS England has been working with trusts to put in place new reporting arrangements related to the use of temporary escalation spaces, to drive improvement. Subject to a review of data quality, this information will be published shortly, and we will consider how this data could be published on a more regular basis.
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, with reference to the report by Sands entitled Lost in the system, published in July 2025, what steps his Department is taking to ensure equitable access across England to specialist psychological support services for parents who experience pregnancy or baby loss.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Experiencing pregnancy or baby loss can be extremely difficult and traumatic. The Government is determined to make sure all bereaved parents, regardless of where they live, have access to specialist psychological support.
As of June 2025, Maternal Mental Health Services are now available in all areas of England. These services provide specialist psychological support for women with moderate/severe or complex mental health difficulties arising from birth trauma or baby loss.
All trusts in England are also signed up to the National Bereavement Care Pathway. This pathway is designed to improve the quality and consistency of bereavement care for parents and families experiencing pregnancy or baby loss.
We also recognise the importance of maternity bereavement services being available at all times. ‘7 days a week’ bereavement services are in the process of being set up in every area in England to support women and families who experience pregnancy loss or neonatal death.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will hold discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority on the steps it is taking to ensure that all consumers who were mis-sold car finance are fully compensated.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Supreme Court has now clarified the law in relation to commission practices in the motor finance sector. The government respects the Supreme Court’s judgment and is working closely with the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority to understand the impact for both firms and consumers.
The government notes the recent statement by the Financial Conduct Authority that it will be consulting on a consumer redress scheme in October. The FCA propose that the scheme covers discretionary commission arrangements - a practice banned in 2021 that allowed dealers to vary interest rates for higher commissions. The FCA will also consult on which non-discretionary commission agreements should be included.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason HMRC charge a fee to taxpayers who pay their tax liabilities using a debit or credit card; and whether she plans to remove this charge.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I can confirm that no fees are charged when payment is made using a personal debit card.
Fees only apply when using a corporate credit or corporate debit card, and these are in place to cover the processing costs charged by Visa/Mastercard, the Scheme Issuer and the Merchant Acquirer.
To avoid these charges, a range of alternative methods are available to customers including Direct Debit and all the bank transfer payment options.
Payments by personal credit cards are not accepted by HMRC as the associated processing costs for these cards are prohibitive.
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 his Department is taking to help ensure that the forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England includes targeted measures to improve the early diagnosis of (a) myeloma and (b) other blood cancers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancers such as myeloma, as well as other unstageable cancers, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, in order to improve outcomes.
To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancer earlier and treating it faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.
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 his Department is taking to ensure continuity of community equipment services following the insolvency and receivership of NRS Healthcare; and what plans are in place to minimise disruption to patients reliant on (a) wheelchairs, (b) mobility aids, (c) hospital beds and (d) other essential medical equipment to prevent impact on (i) hospital discharge and (ii) independent living.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise and share your concerns around ensuring the continuity of community equipment services following the insolvency of NRS Healthcare.
Community equipment services are vital. The Partners in Care and Health programme, funded by the Government, has been working closely with local authorities to support continued service provision following the insolvency of NRS Healthcare.
Local authorities have a statutory duty under various pieces of legislation, including the Care Act 2014 and the Children and Families Act 2014, to ensure the provision of disability aids and community equipment, to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area.
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, with reference to the report by Sands entitled Lost in the system: Saving babies’ lives, published on 10 July 2025, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that bereaved parents who have experienced pregnancy or baby loss have the same level of access to specialist psychological support in each postcode.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Experiencing pregnancy or baby loss can be extremely difficult and traumatic. We are determined to make sure that all bereaved parents, regardless of where they live, have access to specialist psychological support.
As of June 2025, Maternal Mental Health Services are now available in all areas of England. These services provide specialist psychological support for women with moderate/severe or complex mental health difficulties arising from birth trauma or baby loss.
All trusts in England are also signed up to the National Bereavement Care Pathway. This pathway is designed to improve the quality and consistency of bereavement care for parents and families experiencing pregnancy or baby loss.
We also recognise the importance of maternity bereavement services being available at all times. Seven day a week bereavement services are in the process of being set up in every area in England to support women and families who experience pregnancy loss or neonatal death.
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 his Department is taking to increase the number of consultants in (a) Lincolnshire NHS Trust and (b) other (i) rural and (ii) semi-rural areas; and if he will review (A) funding allocations and (B) workforce planning to ensure urgent cases are seen in a clinically appropriate timeframe.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service. They will be more empowered, more flexible, and more fulfilled. We will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.
Doctors are more likely to settle and practice in the areas they train. We will work with the university and college sector to ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities, including in rural and semi-rural areas such as Lincolnshire.
NHS England regularly keeps its funding allocations under review, and as set out in our recently published 10-Year Health Plan, we will break the old, short-term cycle of planning, and will ask all organisations to prepare robust and realistic five-year plans. Every organisation will be required to continue to refresh their plans over the medium term.
Decisions about recruitment in individual NHS trusts are a matter for those trusts, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was paid in (a) Universal Credit, (b) Disability Living Allowance and (c) Personal Independence Payment to people who were not British citizens in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.