Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has conducted any regional modelling of dental workforce planning in (a) Norfolk and (b) the East of England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England data shows that as of December 2024, 2,810 general dentists were working in the East of England, including 1,108 National Health Service full time equivalent (FTE) general dentists. The vacancy rate for NHS dentists was 17%. On the same date, 365 general dentists were working in Norfolk and Waveney, including 149 NHS FTE general dentists. The vacancy rate for NHS dentists was 18%.
We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service. Staff will be more empowered, more flexible and more fulfilled. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when patients need it.
Integrated care boards are also recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of NHS tie-in periods for newly qualified dentists on access to NHS dental service.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It costs £200,000 of taxpayer’s money to train a dentist. We believe it is right and fair to taxpayers to expect graduate dentists to invest their skills and expertise in the National Health Service for at least some amount of time.
As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will make it a requirement for newly qualified dentists to practice in the NHS for a minimum period. That will mean more NHS dentists, more NHS appointments and better oral health. We intend this minimum period to be at least three years.
We will be working closely with the sector on the detail of the tie-in scheme and will consult on the detail and design of the model in due course.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that dental patients in Norfolk will be included in NHS tie-in periods for newly qualified dentists.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It costs £200,000 of taxpayer’s money to train a dentist. We believe it is right and fair to taxpayers to expect graduate dentists to invest their skills and expertise in the National Health Service for at least some amount of time.
As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will make it a requirement for newly qualified dentists to practice in the NHS for a minimum period. That will mean more NHS dentists, more NHS appointments and better oral health. We intend this minimum period to be at least three years.
We will be working closely with the sector on the detail of the tie-in scheme and will consult on the detail and design of the model in due course.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many payments under the dental recruitment incentive scheme have been allocated to North Norfolk constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 merits of ringfencing funding for cycle paramedic services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's press release entitled We’re recruiting Asylum Decision Makers across the UK, published on 28 April 2025, how many asylum decisionmakers have been hired since 28 April.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is maintaining sufficient resource in place to clear the Asylum backlog.
The number of full time equivalent (FTE) asylum caseworkers employed per month until June 2025 is published in the ASY_05(M) tab of the published migration transparency statistics, located here: Immigration and protection data: Q2 2025 (Migration transparency data - GOV.UK)
At the end of June 2025 there were 2,057 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Asylum Caseworking Staff.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has considered developing an invasive American signal crayfish eradication strategy in (a) England and (b) Norfolk.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
American signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) are listed as Species of Special Concern and actions such as their commercial use, release into the environment and transport are banned under the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019.
Signal crayfish are also subject to management measures aimed at containing and controlling their populations where possible. This means that in England this species is more closely regulated through a system of Exclusion and Containment zones to prevent further spread.
Crayfish trapping in the ‘exclusion zones’ is only allowed for conservation, scientific, or fisheries management purposes, and no commercial use of any kind is permitted.
Trapping of signal crayfish is allowed in the containment zones (where an authorisation has been granted), but sale of live Signal crayfish is not permitted. Crayfish must be dispatched at the place of capture or taken to a licensed processing facility. Facilities are not licensed to obtain or receive crayfish taken from exclusion zones. To reduce the threat of this species being spread further, there is a total ban on the movement of live crayfish outside of licenced activity.
More information about the public consultation which led to this policy can be found here.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of visual field testing for driving license holders diagnosed with glaucoma in (a) North Norfolk constituency, (b) Norfolk and (c) England.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s (DVLA) vision testing supplier, Specsavers, currently has 360 stores across England that provide visual field testing for DVLA purposes. In Norfolk six stores offer this service with the closest stores to North Norfolk constituency in Norwich or Wisbech.
Specsavers is contractually required to ensure that an optometrist is available within a 25-mile radius of a customer applying for a licence. Where this is not possible Specsavers engages with local independent stores to provide the necessary services (typically this has only been in the Highlands of Scotland)
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to her Answer of 21 July 2025 Question 68537 on Emergencies: Sirens, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that communities in (a) coastal areas and (b) that have limited or no phone signal receive those alerts.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
The Emergency Alert system is a UK Government capability that allows time critical life saving information to be broadcast to phones within a certain area.
This was introduced in April 2023, and has now been used five times. Emergency Alerts are instantaneous and the Government can send alerts directly to all compatible mobile phones within a geo-targeted area. A list of compatible mobile phones can be found on https://www.gov.uk/alerts/how-alerts-work. A second national test of the Emergency Alerts system will take place on Sunday 7 September around 3pm in the afternoon.
This is just one of many capabilities available to first responders in order to warn and inform the public of a risk to life. Broadcast media including local radio and online news websites disseminate important information, and specifically for adverse weather, warning methods include flood alerts via the Flood Warning Service, Met Office weather warnings and knocking door-to-door when safe.
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of HMRC confidentiality rules on the ability of the Child Maintenance Service to (a) suspend and (b) revise liability, where possible fraudulent child benefit claims are under investigation by HMRC.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
To qualify for maintenance payments a child must meet the Child Maintenance Service's criteria. They must be:
They must also be habitually resident in the UK and usually living in the same household as the receiving parent. Child maintenance defines a child the same way as Child Benefit does to offer consistency across rules. Child benefit is not used as a blunt tool in determining who may be considered a receiving parent and the CMS can consider multiple different forms of evidence when determining who is the primary carer.
If a paying parent believes that the Child Maintenance (CM) liability should cease because a qualifying child (QC) no longer meets the statutory definition of a qualifying young person but checks with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) disagree, the CM caseworker can ask the receiving parent to provide;
1. verbal confirmation of the QCs status if they agree that the paying parent’s statement is correct, or
2. where they disagree with the paying parent, a letter from the school or college confirming the QCs status, or
3. written confirmation from an employer that the QC has started work.
Where the paying parent believes that Child Benefit is claimed fraudulently, the paying parent will be signposted to report the fraud to HMRC at Gov.UK.
Child Maintenance Service make automated monthly requests to HMRC asking for all children aged 16 to 19 who are included in its caseload, to establish whether Child Benefit is still in payment.
The CMS has a Financial Investigations Unit (FIU), that can investigate complex cases. This is a specialist team which can investigate the accuracy of information the CMS is given by either parent.