Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to enable all day booking at GP surgeries.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The 2025/26 GP Contract has been updated to give patients the right to access help electronically, including requesting appointments, throughout the duration of core practice hours.

All practices in England are required to offer online and video consultation tools, secure electronic communication methods, and online facilities to provide and update personal information.

Practices are required to offer patients an appropriate response on the day they contact the practice, or the next day if they contact the practice in the afternoon, according to the urgency of their clinical needs and other circumstances. An appropriate response could, for example, involve inviting the patient to an appointment, providing appropriate advice or care by another method, signposting to the patient to appropriate services, or communicating with the patient to request more information.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2025 to Question 46303 on Visas: Ukraine, what steps Ukrainian people who will have been living here for four and a half years by the end of the extension need to take to ensure that they will be granted permission to remain here indefinitely where appropriate.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

We keep the Ukraine schemes under continuous review in line with the ongoing conflict and the Ukrainian government’s desire for the future return of its citizens to Ukraine. This is why the Ukraine Schemes are temporary and do not lead to settlement in the UK. Similarly, time spent in the UK with permission granted under the Ukraine Schemes cannot be relied upon towards the continuous qualifying period for the purposes of a Long Residence application.

There are other routes available for those who wish to settle in the UK permanently, if they meet the requirements, such as work routes and family routes. These routes are published on GOV.UK at: Work in the UK - GOV.UK and Family in the UK - GOV.UK.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he plans to allow pensioners not in receipt of benefits to access ECO4 scheme funding for solar panels.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Pensioners not in receipt of benefits may be able to access the Flexible Eligibility element of the ECO4 scheme (ECO Flex) which allows those with a gross combined household income of up to £31,000 to seek support. ECO Flex also has additional routes which are not based on income for households, but where a member has been diagnosed with a specific long-term health condition which could be impacted by living in a cold home. There are currently no plans to make further changes to eligibility under the ECO4 scheme.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ensure people using mobility scooters (class 2) have the right to ride on all buses.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department is committed to delivering a transport network which puts passengers and their needs at its heart. We want to see disabled passengers able to make the journeys they want and need, and we recognise the importance of mobility scooters in supporting them to do so easily, confidently and with dignity.

When it comes to using them on public transport, however, not all mobility scooters are suitable for carriage in every situation. Currently, buses and coaches used on local services must incorporate a wheelchair space and a ramp or lift suitable for a standard “reference wheelchair”. While we encourage individual operators to also allow passengers with mobility scooters to board, it is important that they do so only where it would be safe for the mobility scooter user and other passengers alike, and any such allowance remains at the operators’ discretion.

The Department has collaborated with the Confederation of Passenger Transport to create the Mobility Scooter Code of Practice, aiming to provide a consistent approach for assessing which mobility scooters should be accepted, and for training their users to board and alight safely. Many operators have signed up for the scheme, allowing mobility scooter users who hold a relevant permit to be confident that they can travel with their mobility aid on any service provided by a signatory operator.

We currently have no plans to mandate the acceptance of mobility scooters on all bus services.

Found: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat, Edinburgh West) (added 28 Oct 2024) 17 of 19 (89.5%) Samantha Niblett

Found: Catherine Fookes (Labour; Monmouthshire) Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat; Edinburgh West) Samantha Niblett

Found: _NC14 Alex Sobel Samantha Niblett Pete Wishart John Whitby Patrick Hurley REPORT STAGE Wednesday

Found: _NC14 Alex Sobel Samantha Niblett Pete Wishart John Whitby Patrick Hurley .

Found: Not called_NC14 Alex Sobel Samantha Niblett Pete Wishart John Whitby Patrick Hurley REPORT STAGE

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