Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 potential merits of requiring safeguarded 24/7 on-site helipads at a) Major Trauma Centres and b) specialist hospitals that receive emergency air ambulance patients.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the important role that hospital helipads play in supporting the transfer of critically ill patients and accessing specialist services. Responsibility for the provision and management of hospital helipads rests with local National Health Service organisations, working with relevant planning, aviation, and local authority bodies.
The Department continues to work with NHS England, the Civil Aviation Authority, and other partners to consider issues relating to hospital helipad access and resilience. While there are currently no plans to mandate safeguarded 24/7 on-site helipads through national requirements, the Government will keep this position under review in light of emerging evidence and operational requirements.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 those living with Stiff Person Syndrome.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, including stiff person syndrome, under the UK Rare Diseases Framework. We published the fifth annual England action plan in February 2026, where we report on the steps we have taken to advance the priorities of the framework.
NHS England has revised the national service specification for specialised neurology following extensive consultation. The service specification was published on 13 August 2025 and includes guidance on both specialised and core neurology services.
The published service specification for specialised neurology includes the provision of care and support, including diagnosis and management of rare movement disorders, which would include stiff person syndrome.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has plans to strengthen standards relating to sound insulation in residential properties.
Answered by Samantha Dixon
The Government is continually assessing the efficacy of Building Regulations to ensure that our new homes and buildings are safe and provide healthy living environments for their occupants. This includes Part E of the Building Regulations 2010 (Resistance to the Passage of Sound), which requires protection against sound or from other parts of a building, adjoining buildings and within a dwelling-house, and prevention of unreasonable reverberation in common internal parts of buildings with residential flats or rooms. The Building Safety Act 2022 requires the Building Safety Regulator to keep the safety and standard of buildings under review; Building Regulations can then be updated as needed.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made of the potential merits of reviewing temporary accommodation subsidies.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
The Government recognises the financial pressures facing local authorities, including the costs associated with temporary accommodation.
Housing Benefit subsidy arrangements for temporary accommodation are kept under review in the context of the Government’s wider housing objectives and the overall fiscal position.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help ensure that local authorities are sufficiently resourced to a) meet increases in temporary accommodation costs and b) fund their preventative duties as outlined in the National Plan to end Homelessness.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are providing £3.6 billion in funding for homelessness, prevention and rough sleeping services from 2026/27 to 2028/29. The largest element of this is the is the Homelessness Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant.
Using a bespoke formula that reflects local costs and demand, we have rolled funding for temporary accommodation into the local authorities’ Revenue Support Grant. This approach better supports local authorities to deliver on the priorities set out in the National Plan to End Homelessness by splitting out temporary accommodation costs and creating dedicated ringfenced funds for prevention.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a legislative framework for the provision of temporary accommodation to include minimum suitability standards.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government is committed to improving standards across all types of housing, including temporary accommodation, to ensure that it is safe, decent, and stable. Councils must already ensure that temporary accommodation is suitable for the needs of the household, when securing accommodation under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996, and should keep the suitability of accommodation under review. Housing authorities must also, as a minimum, ensure that all temporary accommodation is free of Category 1 hazards as identified by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).
These suitability and safety standards are set out in Chapter 17 of the Homelessness Code of Guidance, which is statutory guidance for local authorities, setting out what factors housing authorities need to take into account when determining the suitability of accommodation in line with legislation.
As we set out in our National Plan to End Homelessness, to increase protections against poor quality, this government has committed to introducing the reformed Decent Homes Standard (DHS) wherever possible and to consulting on introducing Awaab’s Law across temporary accommodation. We are also increasing the supply of good-quality temporary accommodation, both through the £950 million fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund, and through exploring options for partnerships with social impact and institutional investors, which will help local authorities make suitable local placements. We will also engage with councils experiencing the highest pressures and other stakeholders to develop new metrics to improve the monitoring and suitability of placements, and test proposed changes to guidance to target improvements to quality.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigates complaints from members of the public who are unhappy with how the council have handled their homelessness application or the temporary accommodation provided by the council, and can recommend that the council take steps to address any injustice suffered by the complainant or make recommendations for service improvement to prevent further failings in the future. Meanwhile, for social housing, the Regulator of Social Housing has operated as a standalone, operationally independent, arm’s-length body since 2018. It regulates to ensure that registered providers are financially viable, well-governed and deliver good quality homes and services to their tenants.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of an independent regulator for (a) temporary accommodation and (b) other social housing.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government is committed to improving standards across all types of housing, including temporary accommodation, to ensure that it is safe, decent, and stable. Councils must already ensure that temporary accommodation is suitable for the needs of the household, when securing accommodation under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996, and should keep the suitability of accommodation under review. Housing authorities must also, as a minimum, ensure that all temporary accommodation is free of Category 1 hazards as identified by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).
These suitability and safety standards are set out in Chapter 17 of the Homelessness Code of Guidance, which is statutory guidance for local authorities, setting out what factors housing authorities need to take into account when determining the suitability of accommodation in line with legislation.
As we set out in our National Plan to End Homelessness, to increase protections against poor quality, this government has committed to introducing the reformed Decent Homes Standard (DHS) wherever possible and to consulting on introducing Awaab’s Law across temporary accommodation. We are also increasing the supply of good-quality temporary accommodation, both through the £950 million fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund, and through exploring options for partnerships with social impact and institutional investors, which will help local authorities make suitable local placements. We will also engage with councils experiencing the highest pressures and other stakeholders to develop new metrics to improve the monitoring and suitability of placements, and test proposed changes to guidance to target improvements to quality.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigates complaints from members of the public who are unhappy with how the council have handled their homelessness application or the temporary accommodation provided by the council, and can recommend that the council take steps to address any injustice suffered by the complainant or make recommendations for service improvement to prevent further failings in the future. Meanwhile, for social housing, the Regulator of Social Housing has operated as a standalone, operationally independent, arm’s-length body since 2018. It regulates to ensure that registered providers are financially viable, well-governed and deliver good quality homes and services to their tenants.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to help improve conditions in temporary accommodation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government is committed to improving standards across all types of housing, including temporary accommodation, to ensure that it is safe, decent, and stable. Councils must already ensure that temporary accommodation is suitable for the needs of the household, when securing accommodation under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996, and should keep the suitability of accommodation under review. Housing authorities must also, as a minimum, ensure that all temporary accommodation is free of Category 1 hazards as identified by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS).
These suitability and safety standards are set out in Chapter 17 of the Homelessness Code of Guidance, which is statutory guidance for local authorities, setting out what factors housing authorities need to take into account when determining the suitability of accommodation in line with legislation.
As we set out in our National Plan to End Homelessness, to increase protections against poor quality, this government has committed to introducing the reformed Decent Homes Standard (DHS) wherever possible and to consulting on introducing Awaab’s Law across temporary accommodation. We are also increasing the supply of good-quality temporary accommodation, both through the £950 million fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund, and through exploring options for partnerships with social impact and institutional investors, which will help local authorities make suitable local placements. We will also engage with councils experiencing the highest pressures and other stakeholders to develop new metrics to improve the monitoring and suitability of placements, and test proposed changes to guidance to target improvements to quality.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigates complaints from members of the public who are unhappy with how the council have handled their homelessness application or the temporary accommodation provided by the council, and can recommend that the council take steps to address any injustice suffered by the complainant or make recommendations for service improvement to prevent further failings in the future. Meanwhile, for social housing, the Regulator of Social Housing has operated as a standalone, operationally independent, arm’s-length body since 2018. It regulates to ensure that registered providers are financially viable, well-governed and deliver good quality homes and services to their tenants.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 potential impact of the recent increase in Overseas Registration Examination (ORE) Part 2 fees on the ability of dentists to sit the exam.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The Government recognises the challenges faced by overseas qualified dentists seeking to sit the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE), particularly in relation to waiting times.
The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dental professionals in the United Kingdom and therefore is responsible for determining the standards that professionals wishing to practise in the UK must meet in order to be registered.
The GDC has recently put in place a new delivery contract which will significantly increase capacity across both parts of the ORE. This represents an unprecedented expansion in exam throughput, with capacity for Part 1 and Part 2 sittings expected to increase to 2,400 and 1,500 places per year respectively. Overall, the expansion is projected to deliver a more than fivefold increase in the number of overseas-qualified dentists able to complete the ORE and join the register by 2028. This significant increase in capacity will enable greater throughput of the examination and is therefore expected to reduce waiting times for ORE candidates over the coming years. In addition, the GDC is developing a new candidate portal, including a revised booking system, as part of the new contract. This is due to be in place for exams scheduled in 2027.
As an independent regulator, it is for the GDC to determine the appropriate fee level to effectively run the ORE examination. The GDC has indicated that the fee increase is necessary to support greatly expanded capacity under the new contract, including specialist facilities, examiners, quality assurance, and VAT on delivery costs.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England provided an alternative route for overseas qualified dentists, the License in Dental Surgery. In March 2026, the Government announced grant funding to support an expansion of this examination route, which is expected to increase final exam places tenfold by 2028, from approximately 180 to a projected 1,800.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 ensure that fertility patients under the South West London ICB can access three rounds of fertility care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.
On 31 March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its updated fertility guideline, which recommends that women aged under 40 years old who meet the clinical eligibility criteria should be offered up to three full cycles of in vitro fertilisation.
We expect all ICBs to consider and reflect the updated NICE fertility guideline in their commissioning decisions, and we are working with NHS England to support greater consistency in provision.
The Government published the Women's Health Strategy on 15 April which commits to ensuring that every woman can easily access fertility services and we are currently working to assess current provision of NHS-commissioned fertility services as a baseline to inform supporting material for every ICB to implement the new NICE guidelines in full.