Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending free milk eligibility to the end of the academic year in which a child turns five.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Nursery Milk Scheme is a statutory scheme which allows early years childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five years old who attend a setting for two or more hours per day. Schools can claim reimbursement from the scheme in respect of their pupils aged under five years old.

There are no plans to extend eligibility for the Nursery Milk Scheme to cover children until the end of the academic year, during which they reach their fifth birthday. Separate legislation allows pupils from lower-income families, and who are eligible for free school meals, to continue to receive free milk at school after the age of five years old.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions of the potential impact of Long Covid on levels of (a) employment and (b) long-term sickness.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government understands the scale of the issue at hand, particularly the impact of long COVID on employment and the economy.

We are committed to ensuring that those with long COVID have timely access to a diagnosis and appropriate treatment and services, as well as workplace support.

Across the National Health Service in England, there are services supporting people with post-COVID syndrome, also known as long COVID. These services offer physical, cognitive, and psychological assessment, and, where appropriate, refer patients onto existing services for treatment and rehabilitation. People with long COVID symptoms should see their general practitioner, who will be able to refer them to services depending on their clinical needs.

The role of the health and care system in improving population health and in preventing health issues from becoming work issues is crucial to achieving the 80% employment rate and reducing the disability employment gap.

We have a range of initiatives that integrate health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, and WorkWell, as well as support through the Department for Work and Pensions from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.

The NHS 10-Year Health Plan builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising that good work is good for health. The plan also states our intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what her Department's policy is for vessels identified within UK territorial waters as sailing under a false flag.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The United Kingdom recognises the importance of all vessels complying with international maritime law and we are concerned by the rise of ships without nationality. We are determined to continue to uphold international maritime law and to challenge abusive flag practices.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to National Highways press release on 15 December entitled Fix being rolled out after variable speed camera anomaly, whether money has been set aside to compensate affected drivers for a) any lost interest and b) any increase to their insurance premiums.

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

Data has been provided to the police forces to enable them to start contacting those drivers who were impacted by this anomaly and allow the process of redress to begin. While we expect the number of drivers impacted by this issue to be very small, all those notified by the police will receive details on how to contact National Highways, who will consider the details of each claim on a case by case basis.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department has provided for Wexham Park Hospital since July 2024.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Wexham Park Hospital is managed by the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (NFT), which received funding from several national capital programmes in 2024/25, including £1.1 million as part of our Critical Infrastructure Risk funding to address backlog maintenance at Wrexham Park Hospital.

In the current year 2025/26, the Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) will receive £10.1 million from our £750 million Estates Safety Fund to address critical infrastructure and safety risks at Wexham Park Hospital and Frimley Park Hospital.

The Frimley ICB has also been provisionally allocated £27.3 million from the Constitutional Standards Recovery Fund to support performance across secondary and emergency care, and £1.2 million from the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund for improvements in the primary care estate in 2025/26.

Alongside funding for national capital programmes, the Frimley ICB and providers have been allocated £43.9 million in operational capital funding, including primary care business-as-usual capital, for 2025/26, to be prioritised according to local needs. For the 2026/27 to 2029/30 period, the Frimley Health NFT have been allocated £142.9 million in operational capital funding.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to National Highways press release entitled Fix being rolled out after variable speed camera anomaly, published on 15 December, whether she has any plans to (a) contact insurance companies of or (b) provide assistance in any other way to affected drivers to help obtain a reassessment of their current premiums.

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

Data has been provided to the police forces to enable them to start contacting those drivers who were impacted by this anomaly and allow the process of redress to begin. While we expect the number of drivers impacted by this issue to be very small, all those notified by the police will receive details on how to contact National Highways, who will consider the details of each claim on a case-by-case basis.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who is the Chief Risk Officer for national security risks relating to the work of their Department.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Department does not have a formally designated Chief Risk Officer for national security risks. As with other Lead Government Departments, each Defra-owned risk in the National Risk Register (NRR) has a designated Risk Owner who is responsible for that risk area in the Department. These risks are discussed internally by the Executive Committee. The Secretary of State and accounting officers are ultimately responsible for all risks Defra owns.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2025 to Question 99506 on Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), whether the upcoming PFAS Plan will commit to the Health & Safety Executive's (HSE’s) suggestions, following on from the RMOA and the HSE UK REACH Work Programme 2024-25, to restrict PFAS in wide dispersive uses and PFAS in consumer products.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government’s approach to PFAS includes consideration of appropriate regulatory interventions as well as other actions, and more details will be provided in the PFAS Plan when it is published.

We recognise that PFAS is used in a wide range of contexts, including wide dispersive uses and in consumer products. Current work includes a 6 month HSE consultation on whether to restrict the wide dispersive use of PFAS in fire-fighting foams, as one of the largest sources of direct releases of PFAS to the environment.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has any plans to restrict UK insurance companies providing cover to vessels which ship Russian oil.

Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The UK already restricts UK firms from insuring Russian oil. The UK implements the G7+ Oil Price Cap (OPC) which prohibits G7+ companies from shipping, insuring or otherwise servicing Russian oil sold above a set price to put downward pressure on Russian revenues. The UK lowered the OPC for Russian seaborne crude in July: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-tightens-oil-price-cap-in-blow-to-putins-war-machine

Additionally, the UK has sanctioned 520 vessels so far for carrying Russian oil. These sanctions include the prohibition of insurance provision to these vessels.

The UK and our partners continue to consider strengthening sanctions on Russian energy exports, should Russia refuse to engage meaningfully in peace negotiations, building on the existing OPC and sanctions on all Russian oil majors.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure a sufficient supply of epidural kits across the NHS.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are no supply issues regarding epidural insertion kits, but there are supply issues impacting some of the usual medicines used to provide pain relief via epidural infusion. However, a range of licensed and unlicensed bags, including unlicensed imports, remain available, and the situation is being closely monitored.

To ensure a system-wide co-ordinated approach on using these products and safe implementation, a National Patient Safety Alert was issued on 2 December 2025 with clear and comprehensive management guidance. The Department and NHS England have also worked with professional stakeholders to provide clinical advice for clinicians at hospital level to minimise potential disruption and maintain safe patient care, which is avaiable at the following link:

https://www.rcoa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2025-12/Epidural%20infusions%20vFinal_0.pdf