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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data his Department holds on whether any areas of Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency exceeded the nitrogen dioxide annual mean limit in 2023.

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

No exceedances of the annual mean limit value for nitrogen dioxide were reported in 2023 in the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency from data held by the Department.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied children were granted refugee family reunion visas in the year ending 30 June 2025.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office publishes data on refugee family reunion in the 'Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release'. Data on refugee family reunion visa grants, by age group, is published in table Fam_D01 of the 'family reunion visa grants detailed datasets'. The latest data relate to June 2025.

In the year ending June 2025 11,641 children under the age of 18 were granted a family reunion visa - this figure includes both accompanied and unaccompanied children.

We do not publish data for the number of unaccompanied children who have been granted family reunion visas. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will allocate funding to ensure that every patient at the Royal Preston Hospital who requires radiotherapy treatment is able to access it.

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

Decisions about funding for radiotherapy treatment are taken at a local National Health Service level, rather than by the Department, and there are no plans to change this.

All cancer patients have access to radiotherapy treatment. Decisions about cancer treatment are typically made by clinicians and multidisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allocate additional funding to radiotherapy treatment in the North West of England.

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

Decisions about funding for radiotherapy treatment are taken at a local National Health Service level, rather than by the Department, and there are no plans to change this.

All cancer patients have access to radiotherapy treatment. Decisions about cancer treatment are typically made by clinicians and multidisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals.

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 impact of delays to rebuilding of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary on people in Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency.

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

The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome

As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome/new-hospital-programme-equality-impact-assessment

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to acquire further funding for the rebuilding of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

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

The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome

As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome/new-hospital-programme-equality-impact-assessment

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward proposals to rebuild the Royal Lancaster Hospital from 2035-38; and what steps he is taking to prevent further delays to this.

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

The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome

As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome/new-hospital-programme-equality-impact-assessment

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department’s budget is for funding the Royal Preston Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary in 2026-27.

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

The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome

As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome/new-hospital-programme-equality-impact-assessment

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his plan is to allocate funding for the rebuilding of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

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

The New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation was published on 20 January 2025 and sets out a credible, deliverable plan for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme (NHP). This plan will be delivered through five-year waves of investment and is backed by up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Further information on the plan for implementation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome

As wave 3 schemes, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and the Royal Preston Hospital have been paused. No further funding will be available from the NHP until pre-construction activity begins from 2030. The NHP is committed to ensuring both schemes are fully resourced when this time comes. The standard process for confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

An equality impact assessment was carried out for the review into the NHP and included assessing the extent to which service users might be impacted by these delivery proposals, with specific reference to the impact that these might have on relevant protected characteristics. This was laid in the House Library and published on 20 January 2025, and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome/new-hospital-programme-equality-impact-assessment

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help reduce NHS waiting times in Cumbria.

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

Tackling the waiting-list is a top priority for the Government. We have exceeded our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments. More than double that number, 5.2 million more appointments, have now been delivered in England.

On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan, which sets out a whole system approach to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029. This includes a focus on:

• empowering patients by giving them more choice and control, and by establishing the standards they can expect from National Health Service planned care;
• reforming delivery by working more productively, consistently, and in many cases differently, to deliver more elective care. This includes a commitment to rolling out additional diagnostic tests and scans through a network of community diagnostic centres (CDCs); and
• aligning funding, performance oversight, and delivery standards, with clear responsibilities and incentives for reform.

Cumbria is covered by two integrated care boards (ICBs). As of August 2025, 18-week referral to treatment performance for the NHS Lancashire And South Cumbria ICB was 60.7%, and was 70.2% for the NHS North East And North Cumbria ICB. As of October 2025, there are now two CDCs in Cumbria, the Workington CDC and the Crossland Day Hospital. These community diagnostic centres will support access to earlier diagnostic tests, benefiting millions of patients.

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 reduce ward work in portacabins at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

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

National Health Service trusts make decisions locally on their use of temporary facilities, in line with delivering clinical services.

Any temporary facility must meet the same Health Building Notice and Health Technical Memorandum safety, environmental, fire, clinical, and other standards as a permanent healthcare building.

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 adequacy of the state of repair of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

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

As part of the management of their estate, National Health Service trusts regularly assess the physical condition of their estate. NHS England’s annual Estates Returns Information Collection collects data from trusts on the quality of their estate annually, including the projected cost of bringing all the buildings on each NHS site into acceptable condition, recorded as backlog maintenance. The latest published data on backlog maintenance, for 2024/25, is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/estates-returns-information-collection/summary-page-and-dataset-for-eric-2024-25

Hospitals in the New Hospital Programme, including the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, continue to receive support for maintenance and repairs. In addition to operational capital, the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has been provided with £3.3 million from the 2025/26 Estates Safety Fund for works at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

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 (a) international approaches to national cancer plans and (b) previous UK cancer plans, in the context of his planned national cancer plan.

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

As part of development for the National Cancer Plan, the Department has engaged with international counterparts to consider their approaches to national cancer strategies. This includes engagement with Denmark to discuss the lessons learned from their cancer plans.

The Department has also considered previous UK cancer plans and submissions to the previous 10 Year Cancer Plan and Major Conditions Strategy call for evidence to inform the development of the upcoming National Cancer Plan.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on (a) the potential cost-effectiveness of expanding access to radiotherapy treatment and (b) other funding relating to radiotherapy cancer treatments.

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

There have not been any recent discussions relating to the cost-effectiveness and funding of radiotherapy. However, the Government remains committed to supporting the use of radiotherapy as a crucial cancer treatment. We have already invested £70 million in replacing outdated radiotherapy machines across the National Health Service with new, cutting-edge technology that will speed up treatment for thousands of patients.

Additionally, the Government will also continue to support the NHS to deliver a wide range of cancer treatment services, as we work towards our aim of diagnosing and treating cancer more quickly.

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 estimate of the number of cancer patients who will require radiotherapy as part of their treatment in each year to 2035.

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

The number of patients diagnosed with and receiving treatment for cancer is increasing. We expect that these numbers will continue to rise, and consequently that more patients will require radiotherapy as part of their treatment.

The most recently available data shows that between 2021/22 and 2022/23 the number of attendances of patients attending hospital to receive radiotherapy treatment increased from 1,532,846 to 1,635,373, an increase of 6.7%.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of patients who no longer meeting the criteria to reside in hospital in (a) the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, (b) Westmorland General Hospital and (c) Furness General Hospital.

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

The Department does not hold hospital level data. However, as per the trust level data for the University Hospital Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which includes the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, Westmorland General Hospital, and Furness General Hospital, in the month of September 2025, the latest month for which data is available, there were on average 145 adult patients, occupying 20.9% of the adult acute beds, each day who had no criteria to reside but who were not discharged by the end of the day. This was 6.1% higher than the average for England, of 14.8%, for September 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to deliver 50 new neighbourhood health centres by the end of this Parliament; and whether any will be built in Cumbria.

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

The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future, and we recognise that delivering high quality NHS healthcare requires the right infrastructure in the right places.

That is why over the course of our 10-Year Health Plan, we aim to establish a Neighbourhood Health Centre in every community, transforming healthcare access by bringing historically hospital-based services into communities and addressing wider determinants of health through services like debt advice, employment support, and obesity management programmes.

Nationwide coverage will take time, but we are starting in the areas of greatest need where healthy life expectancy is lowest, including rural towns and communities with higher deprivation levels, using public capital to update and refurbish existing, under-used buildings.

We recently announced the places that will form wave 1 of the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP), after a rigorous assessment of applications against the core criteria. The first wave of the NNHIP covers 43 sites across England, from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in the south-west to Sunderland in the north-east, ensuring that communities nationwide benefit from this new model of care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to train more GPs in Cumbria.

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

The Government has committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) and has increased the number of available GP training places by an additional 250 from September 2025. This brings the total number of GP training places to 4,250 per year.

As of 31 August 2025, there were 89.8 full-time equivalent GPs in training grades working in practices in Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness.

We will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, to treat patients on time again.

The 2018 to 2020 medical school expansion created new medical schools in regions where doctors were hard to recruit and where inequalities were high, and focussed on where there were medical specialty shortages, which includes GPs and psychiatry.

Current and future expansions to post-graduate training, including foundation training and GP specialty training, have been planned on the basis of relative need, balanced with the ability of locations to support trainees.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has to improve accessibility at Staveley railway station.

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

This government is committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognises the social and economic benefits this brings to communities. Since 2006, the Access for All (AfA) programme has delivered step free access at more than 270 stations across Britain.

In 2022, the previous government sought nominations from train operators and transport authorities for potential upgrades through the AfA programme. Staveley station was not nominated.

The hon member may wish to engage with Northern Trains and the local transport authority to make that case that Staveley station is a priority in any future rounds of funding.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to reduce train delays on the West Coast Mainline.

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

Improving rail performance is one of this Government’s strategic priorities for transport. We are determined to deliver more punctual and reliable services as well as better value for money for the taxpayer.

In response to our challenge to improve performance, the rail industry has set out a Performance Restoration Framework, with five clear areas of focus to recover performance to acceptable levels, including timetable resilience, staffing and how to keep trains moving during disruptive events.

Avanti West Coast (AWC) is beginning to see consistent and steady performance improvements on the network. However, there is still more to do with punctuality behind the industry average and Network Rail infrastructure reliability continuing to be a leading cause of passenger disruption on the West Coast Mainline.

The Rail Minister is in regular contact with the AWC Managing Director and Network Rail, to challenge poor performance and demand immediate action to deliver urgent improvements.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will take steps with her Scottish counterpart to help prevent issues on the railways in Scotland that cause northbound trains on the West Coast Mainline to terminate at Preston rather than continuing up to Carlisle.

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

The Secretary of State is aware of difficulties passengers face during disruption in the North-West of England with limited options to keep services moving on the West Coast Mainline north of Preston.

The Rail Minister has strongly pressed Network Rail and Avanti West Coast, requesting that they urgently work together to come up with solutions for passengers during disruption.

Network Rail is undertaking an upgrade programme on the West Coast Main Line north of Crewe to improve the performance and reliability of the railway. This section of the route was last upgraded in the 1970s and suffers from performance issues today.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to include the Lakes Line Passing Loop in the next Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline announcement.

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

On 8 July, the Secretary of State announced the road and rail schemes which have been prioritised over the next four years following the Spending Review. The Lakes Line scheme has not been progressed at this time. We remain committed to working with Westmorland & Furness Council, should the business case be further developed locally.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has taken recent steps to implement a passing loop on the Lakes Line.

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

On 8 July, the Secretary of State announced the road and rail schemes which have been prioritised over the next four years following the Spending Review. The Lakes Line scheme has not been progressed at this time. We remain committed to working with Westmorland & Furness Council, should the business case be further developed locally.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people who are on NHS waiting lists for radiotherapy in South Cumbria.

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

We do not routinely publish data on current waiting list levels broken down to the level of specific treatment types, and so we cannot provide an estimate of the number of people who are on National Health Service waiting lists for radiotherapy in South Cumbria.

However, the Government is aware that patients in all parts of the country, including South Cumbria, can be waiting too long for their treatment. That is why the Government is taking decisive action to get the NHS diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster.

We have invested £70 million in replacing outdated radiotherapy machines across the NHS with cutting-edge technology that will speed up treatment for thousands of patients. These new machines are being rolled out across the country.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77309 on Cancer, when the Cancer Operational Taskforce was established; what its remit is; who the members of the Taskforce are; and who it reports to.

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

The Department does not hold the information requested as the Cancer Operational Taskforce is a local initiative.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the National Health Service will improve care for cancer patients in all parts of England. Having consulted with key stakeholders and patient groups, the plan will be published early in the new year.

Future of BBC Radio 4 Longwave

Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme

Protections for animals and people

Fossil fuel company profits

Right to object to data being used in online direct marketing

Contribution of legal immigrants