Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 impact of new online consultation requirements on patient access to GP care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
General practices (GPs) are independent businesses contracted by the National Health Service to deliver essential services, and as part of these contracts they are required to provide modern telephony systems, online consultation tools, and ensure that receptions are open during core hours. In the 2025 contract negotiations with the General Practitioners Committee England, an agreement was reached to ensure online consultation systems are available throughout core hours. These changes are designed to improve access to GPs, end the 8:00am scramble, and ensure parity across all access options.
In January 2026, there has been an increase of 4.1 million online consultation submissions compared to January 2025. Office for National Statistics data from January 2026 shows that 76.8% of patients found it “easy” to contact their GP, up from 60.9% in July 2024. In the year to January 2026, including COVID-19 vaccinations, an additional six million appointments were delivered compared with the previous 12 months.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment their Department has made of trends in the level of discrimination faced by (a) Sikhs and (b) Jews as ethnic groups in the provision of their Department's services.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics.
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. In October 2025, the ONS launched its ‘Harmonisation Ethnicity consultation’ on user needs for additional response options in a future ethnicity standard.
All forms of racial and religious discrimination are completely unacceptable, including that directed at Sikhs and Jewish people. The Government continues to work closely with the police and community partners to combat these forms of hatred, wherever and however it manifests.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 timely access to general practice appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to improving timely access to general practice appointments. Last year, we delivered 6.8 million more appointments in general practices. Since October 2024, we have invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) to support the recruitment of over 2,000 general practitioners (GPs), exceeding our initial target of 1,000. For the 2026/27 GP Contract, we’re investing an additional £485 million into GPs, removing restrictions to allow primary care networks to hire more GPs via ARRS, and introducing a practice-level reimbursement scheme which will be available to practices to hire additional GPs, or fund additional sessions with existing GPs to improve access in GPs which aims to strengthen capacity, access, and improve patient satisfaction.
NHS England published the Medium‑Term Planning Framework in October, setting a new requirement for all urgent appointments to be delivered on the same day, ensuring that patients needing urgent care are prioritised. Building on this, the 2026/27 GP Contract makes it explicit that any requests identified as clinically urgent, as determined by the GPs, must be dealt with on the same day
Patient satisfaction is already rising after a decade of decline. Office for National Statistics data from January 2026 shows that 76.8% of patients reported it was “easy” to contact their GP, up from 60.9% in July 2024.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department was invited by the Office for National Statistics to provide evidence or input into its review of the ethnicity harmonised standard.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport was invited by the Office for National Statistics, via the Government Statistical Service harmonisation champions network, to respond to a consultation regarding possible changes to the standard for ethnicity categories.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many extradition requests have been a) received and b) accepted, from Category 2 Type B countries since 5th July 2024.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Between 5th July 2024 until today’s date UK Central Authority (UKCA) in the Home Office received 64 extradition requests from Category 2 Type B countries.
We have understood your request in relation to having been ‘accepted’ as how many cases have been certified under s70 of the Extradition Act 2003 (the ‘Act’). Of the 64 requests received, 56 have been certified to date. Once a request has been certified it is sent to the courts, after which the request is subjected to a largely judicial process.
Please note that all figures are from local management information and have not been quality assured to the level of published National Statistics. As such they should be treated as provisional and therefore subject to change.
Asked by: Jeremy Corbyn (Independent - Islington North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including the ethnic group classification of Latino in the next national census.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Rt Hon. gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 26th February is attached.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of levels of teacher workload on their mental health.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department monitors the relationship between workload and wellbeing through the ‘Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders’ study. Wave 4 shows improved wellbeing across all Office for National Statistics-validated personal wellbeing measures in 2025.
In comparison with previous waves, average life satisfaction, happiness and feelings of life being worthwhile all increased, while average anxiety decreased. Teachers and leaders also reported working fewer hours on average since 2022. Teacher and leader wellbeing measures, however, remain lower when compared with the wider population in England.
Measures to help reduce workload and work-related stress, such as the Improve Workload and Wellbeing service, are accessible at: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/. We also support teachers to use technology, including artificial intelligence, to streamline tasks and reduce unnecessary workload.
Over 4,300 settings have signed up to the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which sets out commitments from the department, Ofsted, schools and colleges to promote wellbeing. The department also signposts to Education Support’s free 24-hour helpline, and funds a mental health lead resource hub which includes tools to help address sources of stress, accessible at: https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
We are tackling the wider pressures on teachers and leaders. The Child Poverty Strategy, the introduction of our strategy for 'Giving every child the best start in life', reform to children’s social care, and the expansion of access to specialist mental health professionals will enhance teachers’ day-to-day experience and strengthen their ability to deliver.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures have been introduced to help reduce levels of workload-related stress for teachers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department monitors the relationship between workload and wellbeing through the ‘Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders’ study. Wave 4 shows improved wellbeing across all Office for National Statistics-validated personal wellbeing measures in 2025.
In comparison with previous waves, average life satisfaction, happiness and feelings of life being worthwhile all increased, while average anxiety decreased. Teachers and leaders also reported working fewer hours on average since 2022. Teacher and leader wellbeing measures, however, remain lower when compared with the wider population in England.
Measures to help reduce workload and work-related stress, such as the Improve Workload and Wellbeing service, are accessible at: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/. We also support teachers to use technology, including artificial intelligence, to streamline tasks and reduce unnecessary workload.
Over 4,300 settings have signed up to the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which sets out commitments from the department, Ofsted, schools and colleges to promote wellbeing. The department also signposts to Education Support’s free 24-hour helpline, and funds a mental health lead resource hub which includes tools to help address sources of stress, accessible at: https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
We are tackling the wider pressures on teachers and leaders. The Child Poverty Strategy, the introduction of our strategy for 'Giving every child the best start in life', reform to children’s social care, and the expansion of access to specialist mental health professionals will enhance teachers’ day-to-day experience and strengthen their ability to deliver.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to (a) expand and (b) refine the categories of sexual offences used in police recorded crime data for monitoring (i) the nature of offences committed and (ii) trends in sexual offences data in England and Wales.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The police recorded crime collection is primarily an offence-based series in which crimes are recorded by the police in England and Wales based on the criminal offence that has been committed.
To respond to user needs, sub-categories have been created such as providing a breakdown of the age and sex of victims of rape, and qualifiers to indicate if the crime was related to child sexual abuse or exploitation or was committed online. These provide more insight on the nature of such offences and the Home Office continually reviews the presentation of its official statistics to ensure they meet user needs.
In the recently published VAWG Strategy the government committed to improving the quality and availability of data which will include data collected by the police on sexual offences.
Data on sexual offences recorded by the police in England and Wales are published by the Office for National Statistics and trends from 2002/03 can be found in table A5a here:
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 (a) the prevalence of respiratory disease and (b) the number of emergency hospital admissions for respiratory conditions in the Tiverton and Minehead constituency compared with national averages; and what steps he is taking to help ensure respiratory health is prioritised nationally, including through the introduction of a Modern Service Framework for respiratory care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will consider long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks (MSFs), including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future MSFs will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. After the initial wave of MSFs is complete, the National Quality Board will determine the conditions to prioritise for new MSFs as part of its work programme.
Data is available for emergency finished admission episodes where there was a primary diagnosis of 'respiratory conditions’. Data for Tiverton and Minehead is shown in the table.
Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector | ||
Westminster Parliamentary Constituency of Residence (Office for National Statistics) | 2024/25 (August 2024 to March 2025) | 2025/26 (April 2025 to November 2025, provisional) |
Tiverton and Minehead | 995 | 790 |
England | 608,449 | 423,588 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS England |
| |
Available data on trends in respiratory conditions can be found on the Department of Health and Social Care Fingertips website. Data is not available by parliamentary constituency, but is available at regional, county, unitary authority and integrated care board level. Information for Somerset is available at the following link:
The Government has committed to delivering three big shifts that our National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to improving respiratory health in all parts of the country.
Through our community diagnostic centres (CDCs), we are building capacity for respiratory testing and enabling people to get diagnosed closer to home. 101 CDCs across the country now offer out-of-hours services, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around busy working lives. This is alongside action being taken to expand capacity and improve the quality of pulmonary rehabilitation services to support patients living with respiratory conditions.