Rupa Huq

The Government is committed to the rollout of fast, reliable broadband to all parts of the UK. As of February 2024, over 1 million premises had been upgraded to gigabit-capable broadband through government-funded programmes. In total, 36 Project Gigabit contracts have now been signed, to connect over 1 million more homes and businesses, with more contracts to be awarded in the coming months.

The Department is supporting the National Health Service in taking steps to improve diagnosis times for pancreatic cancer across England, including for the Ealing Central and Acton constituency. The Government is committed to meeting all three NHS cancer waiting time standards across England within the next five years. Meeting these will ensure no patient waits longer than they should for diagnosis or treatment.

We know that pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. NHS England is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who have symptoms, such as unexplained weight-loss and fatigue, that do not align to a single tumour type, and pancreatic cancer is one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways. NHS England is also providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those patients at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer, as well as increasing general practice direct access to diagnostic tests.

In March 2024, NHS England published guidance for providers and systems to implement a timed Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary cancer pathway with the aim to ensure patients receive a diagnosis or that cancer is ruled out within 28 days of urgent referral. The pathway aims to improve delays in diagnosis, with less time between referral and receiving the outcome of diagnostic tests.

The National Health Service has been facing chronic workforce shortages for years, and bringing in the staff and investment the NHS needs will take time. We are determined to fix our NHS, and restore it to a service we are proud of. We are committed to training the staff we need to get patients seen on time.

The Government will make sure the NHS has the staff it needs, to be there for all of us when we need it, and will get staff to the places where patients and the NHS needs them, not just benefiting Ealing and Acton, but the whole of the NHS in England.

Local employers are best placed to understand the diverse needs of their communities and subsequently manage their own recruitment to ensure they have the right number of staff, with the right skill mix, to provide the safe and effective care that their patients need.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning specialist myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), services that meet the needs of their population, subject to local prioritisation and funding. The process of commissioning services should take into account best practice guidance, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on ME/CFS diagnosis and management, published in October 2021.

The Department funds research into ME/CFS through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR, together with the Medical Research Council, is funding the world’s largest genome-wide association study of ME/CFS. This £3.2 million study, termed DecodeME, will analyse samples from 25,000 people with ME/CFS to search for genetic differences that may indicate underlying causes or an increased risk of developing the condition. A decision on the next steps for ME/CFS at the national level will be taken in the coming weeks.

In 2020, NHS England set out its commitment to reducing its environmental impact, including by increasing the reuse and recycling of medical equipment. This commitment is then applied locally, taking into account local priorities, through local Green Plans.

NHS England also collaborates with NHS Supply Chain to increase availability of reusable products and supports local NHS organisations through the publication of guidance and resources to help with implementing changes.

The Department is also currently considering further opportunities for more efficient and sustainable use of medical technology. We look forward to updating the House at the earliest opportunity.

I made clear in a statement on 27 October my support for the findings of the preliminary report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights election monitoring mission. I also outlined the need for irregularities to be investigated thoroughly and independently. The Georgian authorities must reverse their declining commitment to democratic values and we will work with our international partners to encourage Georgia to return to a Euro-Atlantic path.

The Interim Government in Bangladesh has the UK Government's support as it works to restore peace and order and ensure accountability following recent protests. We are aware of reports of human rights violations by the Rapid Action Battalion. We have expressed support for a full and independent UN-led investigation into recent events. Sanctions are one tool in our foreign policy toolkit. Our sanctions policy will be guided by the situation on the ground. We do not speculate on who may be designated in the future.

Section 8 of the Public Order Act 2023.

This section came into force on 3 May 2023.

In addition, the previous Government committed to carrying out post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023 two years after it received Royal Assent rather than the usual three to five years, in line with the recommendation made by the Home Affairs Select Committee.

The Government intend to act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. These include measures that will make it easier for leaseholders to exercise their right to take over the management of their properties; enable the introduction of a new valuation scheme that leaseholders must follow to calculate how much they should pay to enfranchise, which includes the removal of the requirement for leaseholders to pay marriage value; and deliver reforms to drive up the transparency of service charges to make them more easily challengeable if leaseholders consider them to be unreasonable. We will set out details in due course about the extensive programme of secondary legislation needed to bring the Act into force. An impact assessment for the Act, including on the removal of marriage value, was published in December 2023 and received a green rating from the independent Regulatory Policy Committee.

Over the course of this Parliament, the Government will further reform the leasehold system. We will enact remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to enfranchisement and the Right to Manage, tackle unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, reinvigorate commonhold through a comprehensive new legal framework, and ban the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default tenure. The Government has made clear it intends to publish draft legislation on leasehold and commonhold reform in this session so that it may be subject to broad consultation and additional parliamentary scrutiny. We will announce further details in due course.

This Government recognises the need to provide greater choice, quality and security of housing for older people.

No decision has yet been taken with regard to the publication date for this report.