Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made in meeting the 18-week referral-to-treatment standard in Washington and Gateshead South constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Washington and Gateshead South constituency is served by the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB). Performance against the 18-week Referral to Treatment standard for this ICB has improved from 68.9% to 70.5% since the Government came to office, and the waiting list has dropped by 11,854.
The Elective Reform Plan, which was published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and modernisation efforts needed to reach the 92% standard by March 2029, which improve patient care in the Washington and Gateshead South constituency and across England. We have set a national ambition that by March 2026, 65% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period. We are making progress in several areas including demand management, validation of waiting lists, diagnostics reform, including straight to test pathways, and clinically-led pathway reform in priority specialties.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many public sector workers have received an above-inflation pay rise in Washington and Gateshead South constituency since 5 July 2024.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We value all our public sector workers, and pay awards reflect the important work that our nurses, teachers, doctors, prison officers and soldiers do to keep the country running.
The overwhelming majority of awards announced in 2025/26, including for all of the above workforces, announced are above the OBR’s forecast for CPI inflation over the 2025/26 pay year.
Whilst I cannot confirm the number of public sector workers in the Washington and Gateshead South constituency in receipt of those pay awards, all those workers set out above will benefit from the above inflation pay uplift.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of measures to reduce child poverty on children in Washington and Gateshead South constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Estimates of the total impact on low income poverty levels, and the number of children gaining, from the main changes included in the strategy for the United Kingdom as a whole are available here: Child Poverty Strategy: Impact on low income poverty levels and children gaining in the UK: December 2025 - GOV.UK. Across the United Kingdom, the measures set out in the strategy are expected to reduce the number of children in poverty by 550,000 in the final year of this Parliament, compared to our estimates without these measures.
Estimates for the number of children and households that are expected to gain from the removal of two-child limit policy at constituency level are available here: Poverty impacts of social security changes at Budget 2025 - GOV.UK. The number of children who are expected to gain from the removal of the two-child limit policy in the Washington and Gateshead South constituency is 2,620.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Gateshead South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure adequate policing in Washington and Gateshead South constituency.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s Safer Streets Mission sets a clear expectation for policing to deliver safer communities and improved public confidence. An effective, well-supported police service is central to achieving this.
For 2025-26, a total of up to £422.2 million will be available for Northumbria Police through the police funding settlement, an overall increase of up to £28.8 million when compared to the 2024-25 settlement.
This includes:
It is for Chief Constables and directly elected PCCs, and Mayors with PCC functions, to make operational decisions based on their local knowledge and experience. This includes how best to allocate and deploy the resources at their disposal to provide an effective service to local communities.