Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 improve access to NHS dentistry in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population. For the South Shropshire constituency, this is the NHS Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin ICB.
The Government is committed to ensuring people can access urgent dental care when they need it. Over the past year, ICBs have been commissioning additional urgent dental appointments and there is now an urgent care safety net available in all areas of the country. 1.8 million additional courses of NHS dental treatment have been delivered in the seven months between April 2024 to October 2025 compared to the corresponding months prior to the general election.
We are committed to delivering fundamental reform of the dental contract before the end of this Parliament. As a first step, on 16 December, we published the Government’s response to the public consultation on quality and payment reforms to the NHS dental contract. The changes will be introduced from April 2026. These reforms will put patients with greatest need first, incentivising urgent care and complex treatments. More information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help support hairdressing businesses.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The hair and beauty sector play an important role in supporting jobs, high streets and local economies. We’ve introduced permanently lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties and have provided £4.3bn to shield ratepayers from bill increases.
We continue to back employers who take on apprentices, by providing £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged 16-19; employers are not required to pay National Insurance Contributions for all apprentices aged up to age 25 (when the employee’s wage is below £50,270 a year). Additionally, the government pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care, when their employer has fewer than 50 employees.
I will continue to engage closely with the sector, including through the Personal Care Roundtables, to ensure the industry’s long-term growth. This includes working with hair and beauty businesses as we bring forward a new High Streets Strategy later this year.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase reading for fun in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Year of Reading is a UK-wide campaign to address long-term declines in reading enjoyment through engaging new audiences, reshaping public attitudes and building the systems needed to embed lasting, meaningful change, during 2026 and beyond. It includes a major physical and online marketing campaign, as well as exciting events, webinars, resources, and activities in communities, libraries, schools and early years settings throughout the year.
We are raising awareness of the National Year of Reading through a range of methods, such as via departmental communication channels, the National Year of Reading mailing list and social media, communications from the National Literacy Trust, and promotion via the English Hubs network.
The Reading Agency are also providing public libraries with resources, toolkits and print and digital materials to activate the National Year of Reading. Schools and Early Years settings in South Shropshire and across the UK can access a range of engaging online webinars, resources and activities throughout the year. More information can be found at: https://goallin.org.uk/get-involved/schools/.
This government is also providing £5 million of funding for secondary schools to purchase books to encourage reading for pleasure, as well as committing over £10 million in funding to guarantee a library for every primary school by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to reduce barriers to cross-border travel without physical checks for thoroughbred horses.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As announced at the UK-EU Leaders Summit on May 19 2025, the UK and EU have agreed to work towards a common Sanitary and Phytosanitary Zone to reduce delays and paperwork at the border. Negotiations with the EU on the SPS agreement are underway. While those discussions are ongoing, we cannot provide a running commentary.
Compliance with the existing Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) controls for equines entering the UK from the EU must continue until further notice, because the UK’s biosecurity and public health must continue to be protected.
Please note that there are no plans to remove the border checks that currently apply to equines entering the UK from the Rest of the World (ROW). These checks remain a vital part of our commitment to safeguarding animal health and maintaining biosecurity.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support farmers impacted by flooding in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is funding Environmental Land Management schemes, which include measures to support farmers with managing flood risks or investing in natural flood management.
The Environment Agency is working in partnership with Shropshire Council, the Severn Rivers Trust and Shropshire Wildlife Trust to deliver natural flood management projects in South Shropshire. Working closely with farmers and landowners, these projects will reduce the impacts of flooding across sub-catchments of the River Teme, benefitting both land and communities.
One such project is the River Corve project, which is now well established. Further projects are progressing in the Ledwyche Brook, Brimfield Brook, and River Onny areas.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 improve mental health in rural areas.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there may be mental health benefits associated with living in rural areas, such as through increased access to green space, living in rural areas may also present risks to mental health. For example, some people living in rural areas may have reduced access to services or experience loneliness and isolation. Latest data show that 22.6% of people have a common mental health condition in England and regional disparities are evident, as 20.6% of people in the North West had a common mental health condition compared to 24.6% in the North East and 16.3% in the South East.
The Farmer Welfare Grant supports projects improving the mental health and wellbeing of farming people in England. The projects aim to support farmers and their families by offering essential services such as online resources, workshops, training, networking, and one-to-one help.
We are making it easier than ever to access mental health support through the NHS App and expanding access to NHS Talking Therapies. This will benefit people living in rural areas who may be far from a physical service provider. We’re expanding Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges to reach full national coverage by 2029. This means all pupils will have access to mental health support in England. We are also opening new 24/7 Mental Health Centres around the country, backed by £473 million of capital funding for local systems.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase levels of deportation of foreign national offenders.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.
Between this Government coming to power and January 2026, over 8700 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been returned either voluntarily or by enforced means. This is a 32% increase on the number of FNOs returned in the same period 19 months prior. Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.
To further support the returns of those with no right to remain in the UK the Government is committed to reforming the appeals process by creating a new appeals body with professionally trained adjudicators. We will also strengthen the certification regime to deny appeal rights for clearly unmeritorious claims. Furthermore, the number of countries that foreign national offenders can be deported to before they can lodge an appeal from abroad has also been increased.
We are also working to reform Human Rights claims. In these areas we will rebalance the public interest test for Article 8 claims and work with our international partners to reform the application of the ECHR’s prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment.