Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the mandate is for the British Business Bank's direct investment programme in scale-up companies.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The British Business Bank’s mandate for making direct equity investments in scale-up companies is set out in the Statement of Strategic Priorities issued to the Bank by the Secretary of State and the Chancellor. This was published on 21 October 2025.
At the 2025 Spending Review, the BBB was entrusted with an additional £4 billion of capital with the goal of accelerating investment into the Industrial Strategy priority sectors.
The strategic mandate requires the Bank to “help anchor strategically significant companies in the UK, including through use of the bank’s direct investment capabilities to target priority sectors and technologies.”
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding is available to local authorities to improve street lighting in residential areas where safety guidance is not met; and what criteria are used to allocate that funding.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. Authorities do not have a duty to light their networks but, where lighting has been provided, the authority has a duty to maintain it.
The Government encourages local authorities to consider best practice when making decisions about lighting on their networks and to work closely with emergency services and other key partners when considering the street lighting needs of local communities. Advice is available in the UK Roads Leadership Group’s Code of Practice for Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which references British Standards for road lighting.
The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment for local highways maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This funding is provided to local authorities to maintain all parts of the highway network, including lighting columns, bridges, cycleways and footways. In addition to increasing the available funding, the Department has confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, providing greater funding certainty to local authorities. This will help them to plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance.
The Department allocates funding to local highway authorities based on a formula, which takes account of road lengths in each authority area, as well as the number of bridges and lighting columns.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether local authorities are (a) encouraged and (b) required to upgrade street lighting to meet British Standards.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. Authorities do not have a duty to light their networks but, where lighting has been provided, the authority has a duty to maintain it.
The Government encourages local authorities to consider best practice when making decisions about lighting on their networks and to work closely with emergency services and other key partners when considering the street lighting needs of local communities. Advice is available in the UK Roads Leadership Group’s Code of Practice for Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which references British Standards for road lighting.
The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment for local highways maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This funding is provided to local authorities to maintain all parts of the highway network, including lighting columns, bridges, cycleways and footways. In addition to increasing the available funding, the Department has confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, providing greater funding certainty to local authorities. This will help them to plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance.
The Department allocates funding to local highway authorities based on a formula, which takes account of road lengths in each authority area, as well as the number of bridges and lighting columns.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance her Department provides to local authorities on minimum lighting levels required on residential roads.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The management of street lighting in England is the responsibility of local highway authorities, who have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the public highways in their charge, including street lighting. Authorities do not have a duty to light their networks but, where lighting has been provided, the authority has a duty to maintain it.
The Government encourages local authorities to consider best practice when making decisions about lighting on their networks and to work closely with emergency services and other key partners when considering the street lighting needs of local communities. Advice is available in the UK Roads Leadership Group’s Code of Practice for Well Managed Highway Infrastructure, which references British Standards for road lighting.
The Government has confirmed a record £7.3 billion investment for local highways maintenance over the next four years, bringing annual funding to over £2 billion annually by 2029/30. This funding is provided to local authorities to maintain all parts of the highway network, including lighting columns, bridges, cycleways and footways. In addition to increasing the available funding, the Department has confirmed funding allocations for the next four years, providing greater funding certainty to local authorities. This will help them to plan ahead and move away from expensive, short-term repairs and to instead invest in proactive and preventative maintenance.
The Department allocates funding to local highway authorities based on a formula, which takes account of road lengths in each authority area, as well as the number of bridges and lighting columns.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 provide support or funding to NHS Trusts with paediatric waiting times exceeding 26 weeks.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s ambition is to restore performance against the NHS Constitutional standard, which requires 92% of patients to start consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks.
All waiting lists are subject to clinical prioritisation at a local level. The National Health Service triages patients waiting for elective care, including surgeries, ensuring the order in which patients are seen reflects clinical judgement on need as well as taking into account overall wait time.
The Spending Review 2025 has prioritised health, with record investment in the health and social care system, including investment in elective services. Through the Spending Review, the Government announced that NHS day to day spending will increase by £29 billion in real terms by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24.
The Department recognises the impact of long waits on children and young people and is committed to reducing paediatric waiting times.
Through the Elective Recovery Plan, we have invested in additional capacity, including surgical hubs, community diagnostic centres, and increased use of the independent sector to support challenged trusts.
Targeted support is provided via Getting It Right First Time and specialty-specific improvement programmes, including paediatric ear, nose, and throat, and ophthalmology. National planning guidance sets expectations for systems to prioritise clinically urgent cases and those at risk of deterioration.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children have waited more than (a) 26 and (b) 40 weeks for an initial paediatric referral triage in the most recent 12-month period for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold data on how many children have waited more than 26 and 40 weeks for an initial paediatric referral triage in the most recent 12-month period.
Published referral to treatment data covers the period on waiting time from referral to first definitive treatment.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 enabling children waiting over 26 weeks for a paediatric appointment to be seen by alternative NHS-commissioned providers.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients in England have a right to request their local integrated care board (ICB) find an alternative provider when they have been waiting, or expect to wait, over 18 weeks to begin treatment for consultant-led care.
ICBs are required to take all reasonable steps to ensure the patient is offered an appointment with a clinically appropriate alternative provider with whom an ICB or NHS England has an NHS Standard Contract for the relevant service, who can start their treatment more quickly. Further information is available on the NHS Choice Framework at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework/
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to Integrated Care Boards on clinically prioritising children whose symptoms are deteriorating while awaiting paediatric referral allocation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that patient outcomes will be at the heart of building a National Health Service that is fit for the future.
National planning guidance sets expectations for systems to prioritise clinically urgent cases and those at risk of deterioration. The NHS triages patients waiting for elective care at a local level, ensuring the order in which patients are seen reflects clinical judgement on need as well as taking into account overall wait time.
We have committed to ensuring that integrated care boards and providers have interventions in place to reduce disparities for groups who face additional waiting list challenges, and primary and secondary care clinicians are to improve e-RS functionality, a national digital platform for referring patients into elective care, by including data to enable better prioritisation of children and young people.
The clinically led Getting It Right First Time children and young people programme continue to work with providers to ensure they are implementing best practice to improve children’s outcomes and waiting times across all medical and surgical specialities.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for paediatric referrals in (a) East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, (b) Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB and (c) England; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce paediatric referral backlogs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The median average waiting time for paediatric referrals for those that are currently on the referral to treatment waiting list is:
- 8.7 weeks for the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust;
- 8.7 weeks for the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB); and
- 9.9 weeks for England.
Our Elective Reform Plan (ERP), published in January 2025, sets out how the National Health Service will reform elective care services and meet the 18-week referral to treatment standard for all patients, including children and young people, by March 2029. As a first step to achieving this, we exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments in our first year of Government, delivering 5.2 million more appointments.
We have made it easier to monitor elective waiting times for children and young people by publishing new demographic data as part of monthly inequalities statistical releases. This is a big step forward in improving the transparency of waiting times and will provide accountability for children’s elective waiting lists.
The ERP outlined several commitments specifically in relation to children and young people including that ICBs and providers should ensure interventions are in place to reduce disparities for groups who face additional waiting list challenges, and that primary and secondary care clinicians are encouraged to improve digital referral functionality by including data that enables better prioritisation.
In addition, the clinically led Getting It Right First Time Children and Young people programme continues to work with providers to ensure they are implementing best practice to improve children’s outcomes and waiting times across all medical and surgical specialities.
Lastly, dedicated paediatric surgery days are being introduced across England, using existing NHS estate in day surgery or hub settings, to boost surgical activity for children and young people. We are also making the most of surgical hubs to deliver better outcomes for children, through promoting greater paediatric ear, nose, and throat access. Surgical hubs will play a key role in delivering this increased activity and ensuring timely access to planned care.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with Ofcom on its classification system for AI chatbots; and whether her Department plans to review the classification of chatbot services as search services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Last year, Ofcom published a letter that set out that if an AI service searches the live internet to return its results it will be regulated under the Act as a search service.
The Secretary of State has confirmed in Parliament that the government will further consider the role of chatbots and how they interact with the Online Safety Act, and has urged Ofcom to use its existing powers to ensure they are safe for children.
Where evidence demonstrates that further action is necessary to protect children and the wider public, we will not hesitate to act.