Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department has on the average waiting time for young people to receive a first appointment for child and adolescent mental health services in (a) South Cumbria, (b) Lancashire and (c) North Cumbria in the last six months.

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

The following table shows the mean and median average waiting times between referral and first contact for children and young people aged under 18 years old, in the nearest equivalent local authority areas, for April to September 2024:

Source: Mental Health Services Dataset, NHS England.

This is based on referrals that have a contact and does not include those that are still waiting.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will provide additional funding for Westmorland and Furness Council to maintain cycleways.

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

The Government takes the condition of local highway assets, including roads and cycleways, very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local highway network. As a local highway authority, Westmorland and Furness Council is responsible for the condition of all parts of its local highway network, including cycleways and footways.

In the current financial year, the Department has provided over £20.7 million of highway maintenance funding to Westmorland and Furness Council to enable it to maintain all parts of its local highway network. Highways maintenance funding allocations for 2025/26 will be announced shortly. Active travel capital funding allocations for local authorities in 2024/25, will also be announced in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what tailored support she plans to provide to refugees to access (a) training and (b) employment after the closure of the Refugee Employment Programme in June 2025.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The Refugee Employability Programme (REP) was designed as a time-bound programme. It will come to a natural end in June 2025 in line with the contract delivery timelines.

All refugees will continue to have access to mainstream services to support their transition into work, including employment support from DWP work coaches.

Newly granted refugees are also able to access support through Migrant Help, which includes advice on how to access the labour market.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent discussions he has had with international partners on the future of the JET fusion project.

Answered by Kerry McCarthy - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

JET has been at the forefront of fusion research and innovation, and its final experiments produced a world record in energy output. However, JET is now 40 years old. An evaluation undertaken by EUROfusion in 2016 concluded that upgrades to JET did not provide value for money and it was decided to plan for the end of scientific operations. JET decommissioning will generate valuable knowledge for future fusion endeavours, alongside UK investment in new facilities. We are not aware of any instances where the decommissioning of JET has been raised by the EU Commission in discussion with UK ministers.

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 the closure of ward 6 at Westmorland General Hospital on (a) social care provision and (b) hospital bed availability throughout the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

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

Responsibility for decisions about the delivery, funding, and implementation of services ultimately rests with the National Health Service commissioner, and it is important that integrated care systems operate with a high degree of autonomy in making decisions in the interests of their populations.

The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has reviewed how beds are configured across their three main hospitals, the Furness General Hospital, the Westmorland General Hospital, and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. This review has shown that there are opportunities to improve how beds are used within these hospitals, which would lead to:

• improved patient care and outcomes;
• improved staff and patient experience;
• streamlined clinical pathways which will allow them to ensure their patients receive the right care, at the right time, in the right unit, and reduce inpatient length of stay;
• clinical colleagues being able to spend more time with patients by reducing the need to visit various wards to see patients who should all be in the same place; and
• increased resilience over the winter period.

All the services will continue to be offered, but from different areas in the same hospital, or more appropriate settings within the community. Adult social care services within Westmorland and Furness Council have confirmed that they are currently able to offer support to appropriate patients.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the level of funding available to farmers in the next two years.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In the Budget announced last month, the Government committed £5 billion to the farming budget over two years, including more money than ever for sustainable food production: £1.8 billion for environmental land management schemes in 2025/26. This enables us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.

We’re also optimising our farming schemes, so they work efficiently for all farmers, food security and the environment, especially for those that are too often ignored such as small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on the timeline for announcing the phase-out of direct payments under the Basic Payment Scheme.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

There is no change to the timeline for phasing out delinked payments. We plan to pay delinked payments each year from 2024 to 2027.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that farmers can engage in environmentally sustainable farming projects during winter 2024-25.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Environmental Land Management schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery all continuing. There are now over 60,000 live agreements across these schemes, supported by £5 billion in the agricultural budget over the next two years in the recent budget. This budget is funding farmers in these schemes deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience through winter 2024/25 and beyond.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farmers with managing flooding in winter 2024-25.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Farming Recovery Fund was set up to support farmers affected by unprecedented extreme wet weather last winter (October 2023 to March 2024). Through these one-off recovery payments, £57.5 million has now been paid to over 12,700 farm businesses to help them recover from the impacts of the exceptional flooding and wet weather over the duration of this period.

The Government inherited flood assets in their worst condition on record following years of underinvestment by the previous government – 92% of the Environment Agency’s 38,000 assets are currently at required condition.

To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, we will invest £2.4 billion over 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience, by building, maintaining, and repairing flood defences. The Government also announced £50 million of investment into internal drainage boards, supporting farmers and rural communities from the impacts of flooding.

The new Flood Resilience Taskforce provides oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season.

Interstitial Lung Disease

Life and achievements of Bob Williams

Sharon Scrivens

Jim Grant Inspirational Achievement Award

Government response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on communication of changes to women’s State Pension age

Renewal of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme

Domestic Abuse Offences

Found: The environment spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, published a statement that criticised

Found: ” _18 Tim Farron Charlie Maynard ★.

Found: The environment spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, published a statement that criticised