Written questions by Strathern.

What steps is he taking to include stand-alone batteries in the Warm Homes: Local Grant scheme.

Awaiting answer.

What steps is he taking to (a) make the pharmacy contract more sustainable and (b) reform the price concession mechanism.

On 25 February, the Department began the 2026/27 Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework consultation with Community Pharmacy England, to consider any proposed changes to the reimbursement and remuneration of pharmacy contractors in 2026/27. The outcome of the consultation will be published in due course.The Department reviewed the price concession process as part of the 2022/23 and 2023/24 Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework Funding. This review resulted in the implementation of several improvements including:no discount deducted on products granted a concessionary price;the introduction of a ‘roll-over mechanism’ so concessionary prices granted after a certain date can be rolled over into the following month; andthe introduction of a ‘retrospective top-up payment for concessionary prices’, which provides an additional payment to contractors when the medicine margin survey indicates that despite a concessionary price, there was a significant under payment.

Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help reduce the average waiting time for a decision from the Housing Ombudsman Service.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 118414 on 10 March 2026.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the reliability of train services in the East of England.

The December 2025 timetable changes for the East Coast Main Line have increased capacity on the network and improved connectivity. The Rail Minister has met with the Managing Directors of train operators and their Network Rail counterparts in the East of England, to ensure continued focus on delivering good performance.

What steps his Department is taking to support the uptake of the Play Well toolkit, as laid out in Action 8 for Children and Young People with Cancer, in the National Cancer Plan 2026.

The National Cancer Plan, published on the 4 February 2026, sets out several commitments and ambitions on children and young people’s cancer, to be delivered within the next ten years.This includes commitments to improve the experience of staying in hospital for young cancer patients. The National Health Service and Starlight's Play Well toolkit will help services deliver high-quality play provision for children, while youth support coordinators will help teenagers and young adults with education, emotional support, and fertility concernsDecisions on funding services are for local commissioners and this toolkit supports those decision makers to establish services that are high quality and effective. NHS England continues to promote the use of the toolkit and the importance of child focussed care within services.

What steps he has taken to develop a national diagnostic and treatment pathway for craniocervical instability.

Craniocervical instability (CCI) is a complex condition managed through existing specialised neurology and spinal pathways. There is currently no single national diagnostic or treatment pathway for CCI and no plan to change that at this time. Instead, care is provided through existing specialised neurology and spinal pathways in centres with the appropriate clinical expertise.NHS England continues to review emerging clinical evidence through its established specialised commissioning processes. We will continue to monitor developments in this area and work with NHS England to ensure that patients can access the most appropriate care based on the best-available evidence.

If he will make a comparative assessment of the outcomes for children in the critical 1,001 days in (a) areas with Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies and (b) areas without Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies.

Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health, and life chances. Prioritising quality support during the critical 1,001 days offers a real opportunity to improve outcomes, reduce health disparities, and deliver on our ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children.From April 2026, Best Start Family Hubs will expand to every single local authority, backed by over £500 million to reach up to half a million more children. This funding will enable integration of health services in Best Start Family Hubs across all local authorities and is fundamental to improving outcomes for babies, children, and their families and for delivering on neighbourhood health.The Department has commissioned an independent evaluation to help us understand the effectiveness and impact of Start for Life, now Healthy Babies, services. The final report, expected in 2026, will identify comparison groups where appropriate and will be integral to making evidence-based decisions for improving outcomes for babies and children.

What assessment she has made of the implications for her Department’s policies of national implementation models of online parenting support in Australia.

The department recognises the importance of parenting support as being critical to a child’s development and aims to help more parents support their child’s communication, language, literacy, social and emotional skills. Parents have the biggest influence on their child’s early learning and many benefit from well-timed support and advice.Best Start Family Hubs provide both a building that is a welcoming place for families, and a network of services, including virtual and digital support. Help for families will be delivered through open-access parenting programmes via blended delivery of physical, virtual and outreach activities. It will include the Best Start Parent Hub website that brings together trusted advice and guidance parents need in one place, links families to their local Best Start Family Hub, and allows parents to check their eligibility for childcare support. The department is considering how best to implement digital parenting support as part of the national Best Start in Life offer.

With reference to the Chief Medical Officer’s publication entitled Annual report 2025: infections, published on 4 December 2025, if he will set out how the proposed regional infection groups will deliver consistent antimicrobial stewardship standards and infection management across local systems to support optimal patient care and to minimise the future risk of drug-resistant infections.

The United Kingdom’s 2024 to 2029 National Action Plan (NAP) to confront antimicrobial resistance (AMR) sets out a range of commitments and targets to mitigate the AMR risk, including to reduce antibiotic use in humans. Aligned to the NAP, NHS England is taking a range of steps to embed antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) within professional responsibilities across the National Health Service workforce.This includes establishing professional accountability and leadership through regional AMS networks, embedding AMS into continuous professional development training programmes, and providing digital decision-support tools and national reporting on antibiotic prescribing targets.As set out in the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2025, the formation of regional infection groups (RIGs) was recently proposed by the NHS England Infectious Disease Clinical Reference Group to embed AMS at a local level. NHS England is committed to introducing RIGs, which would collaborate with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to deliver local, data-driven AMS interventions that span community and secondary care settings.It is envisaged that RIGs would be comprised of senior leaders across NHS Regional Teams, UKHSA, Regional Pathology Networks, Infection, Prevention and Control teams, and NHS Emergency Preparedness, Resilience & Response, organised according to regions or integrated care board (ICB) clusters. RIG initiatives would be shaped and informed by local, regional or ICB cluster priorities.Through these measures, AMS is embedded in education, clinical practice, and regional governance, ensuring responsible prescribing, and safeguarding the effectiveness of antimicrobials for the future.

With reference to the Chief Medical Officer’s publication entitled Annual report 2025: infections, published on 4 December 2025, what steps he is taking to embed antimicrobial stewardship as a professional responsibility across the NHS workforce to prevent the over-prescription of antibiotics and other antimicrobials.

The United Kingdom’s 2024 to 2029 National Action Plan (NAP) to confront antimicrobial resistance (AMR) sets out a range of commitments and targets to mitigate the AMR risk, including to reduce antibiotic use in humans. Aligned to the NAP, NHS England is taking a range of steps to embed antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) within professional responsibilities across the National Health Service workforce.This includes establishing professional accountability and leadership through regional AMS networks, embedding AMS into continuous professional development training programmes, and providing digital decision-support tools and national reporting on antibiotic prescribing targets.As set out in the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2025, the formation of regional infection groups (RIGs) was recently proposed by the NHS England Infectious Disease Clinical Reference Group to embed AMS at a local level. NHS England is committed to introducing RIGs, which would collaborate with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to deliver local, data-driven AMS interventions that span community and secondary care settings.It is envisaged that RIGs would be comprised of senior leaders across NHS Regional Teams, UKHSA, Regional Pathology Networks, Infection, Prevention and Control teams, and NHS Emergency Preparedness, Resilience & Response, organised according to regions or integrated care board (ICB) clusters. RIG initiatives would be shaped and informed by local, regional or ICB cluster priorities.Through these measures, AMS is embedded in education, clinical practice, and regional governance, ensuring responsible prescribing, and safeguarding the effectiveness of antimicrobials for the future.

What steps his Department is taking to address the shortage of the drug pancrelipase for pancreatic exocrine insufficiency patients.

There are ongoing supply issues with pancrelipase, also known by the brand name Creon, capsules, used by patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis and certain cancers including pancreatic and neuroendocrine cancer. The Department is continuing to work with the suppliers of Creon and other licensed alternatives to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term. Through these discussions supply quantities have improved this year, and we are in regular communication with suppliers on expected volumes for 2026.The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market. We have widely disseminated comprehensive guidance to healthcare professionals, including National Health Service trusts, general practices, and pharmacies, about these supply issues, which provide advice on how to manage patients whilst there is disruption to supply. The Department will continue to work closely with the suppliers to resolve the issues as soon as possible, to ensure patients have continuous access to medicines.

What steps she will take to support children’s media and digital literacy education before 2028.

Media literacy is covered in the current citizenship, relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), and digital literacy is covered in the computing curriculum.In July the government published updated RSHE statutory guidance containing new content related to artificial intelligence (AI), online safety and pornography, which will be mandatory from September 2026. The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report was published on 5 November 2025 and includes recommendations for reform to the curriculum, which the government has accepted. Vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy will be embedded into the revised curriculum from 2028. To support schools with teaching in the meantime, Oak National Academy, an independent arm’s length body, provides adaptable, optional and free curriculum support for schools, including resources for computing and secondary citizenship, which can be found here: https://www.thenational.academy/. The ’Educate Against Hate’ website hosts a series of online media literacy resources to support teachers and school leaders to build resilience to extremist narratives online in children and young people. The website is available at: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/.The National Centre for Computing Education provides teachers with continuing professional development and resources to support the teaching of computing topics, including digital literacy and AI.

What steps he is taking to help increase the availability of hydrocortisone for people with adrenal insufficiency.

The Department is aware of supply issues affecting hydrocortisone sodium phosphate 100 milligram /1 millilitre solution for injection and has been in contact with the supplier of the alternative, hydrocortisone sodium succinate 100 milligram powder which remains available for patients.We have issued comprehensive management guidance to healthcare professionals on how to manage patients while supply is disrupted. The guidance highlighted the differences between the two hydrocortisone injections. It also included resources for patients and healthcare professionals on how to administer the alternative hydrocortisone injection. Any patient who is worried about their condition should speak to their clinician in the first instance.

What steps he is taking to improve NHS staff (a) training and (b) understanding of tracheobronchomalacia.

Tracheobronchomalacia is an uncommon condition that may present with unexplained breathlessness, cough and 'difficult' asthma with wheeze.NHS England has developed free e-learning modules for healthcare professionals focused on respiratory diseases, including early diagnosis and spirometry, chronic breathlessness, and asthma.

What discussions he has had with NHS England on ensuring that NHS speech and language therapy services use evidence-based intervention dosages for children with moderate to severe speech sound disorders.

All National Health Services, including speech and language therapy, should operate in accordance with the best available evidence-based practices. Where sufficient evidence exists, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes formal guidance. Frontline services, including those delivering speech and language therapy, are expected to adhere to NICE guidance wherever it is available and applicable. A relevant NICE quality statement can be found at the following link: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs128/chapter/quality-statement-2-speech-and-language#quality-statement-2-speech-and-language In 2020, Public Health England published the Best Start in Speech, Language and Communication guidance to support local commissioners and service leads in meeting the needs of children in the early years, which can be found in the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/best-start-in-speech-language-and-communication

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that all brain tumour patients are routinely informed of opportunities to take part in (a) research and (b) clinical trials.

The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with brain tumours have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.The Department is ensuring that patients, including those with brain tumours, are informed about research opportunities relevant to them through 'Be Part of Research', a free service provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) that allows people in the UK to search for research studies and register their interest.In addition, the Department funds research and research infrastructure across England through the NIHR which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research, including on brain tumours.The Government is also supporting the Rare Cancers Private Members Bill. The Bill will make it easier for clinical trials on brain cancer to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers.

What steps his Department is taking to increase the supply of Hyoscine hydrobromide 1.5mg patches.

The Department is aware that hyoscine hydrobromide (Scopoderm) 1.5 milligram patches are currently out of stock with a resupply date yet to be confirmed. We are continuing to work closely with the sole supplier of this product and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to resolve this issue as soon as possible.The Department issued comprehensive management guidance to the National Health Service, including all general practices and community pharmacists, on 21 September 2023. This management guidance includes information on a variety of alternative licensed medicines, and should these not be suitable or appropriate, clinicians can consider prescribing unlicensed hyoscine hydrobromide (Scopoderm) 1.5 milligram patches.

Whether his Department has considered locating anaphylaxis kits in (a) schools, (b) supermarkets and (c) other public places.

Since October 2017, the Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2017 have allowed all schools to buy adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs) without a prescription, for emergency use on children who are at risk of anaphylaxis but whose own device is not available or not working. The Department has published non-statutory guidance to accompany this legislative change, which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/using-emergency-adrenaline-auto-injectors-in-schoolsThis guidance advises schools on the recognition and management of an allergic reaction and anaphylaxis, and outlines when and how an AAI should be administered for pupils. The guidance makes clear that any AAIs held by a school should be considered a spare device and not a replacement for a pupil’s own AAIs. It also states that children at risk of anaphylaxis should have their own prescribed AAIs at school for use in an emergency, and that they should always carry two devices.There are many implications that would need to be given careful consideration if anaphylaxis kits were to be located in supermarkets and other public places. For example, we would need to consider the impacts on supplies of AAIs for patients to whom they are prescribed. There are currently only two suppliers of AAIs and, whilst there is close monitoring of continuity of supply at current levels, a significant increase in demand for AAIs would require close collaboration with suppliers.There are other technical and practical challenges. It is not uncommon for AAIs to reach the market with around 15 months or less to expiry, and so establishments holding spare AAIs would need to conduct regular checks on their expiry dates and replace them quite frequently.The susceptibility of adrenaline to deterioration at high temperature, and of the delivery mechanism to be impaired at very low temperature, make a temperature-controlled environment necessary. AAIs could, therefore, not be placed in direct sunlight or in an outside environment susceptible to freezing.AAIs are marketed with different adrenaline doses and needle lengths. Individual prescriptions take into account age and body weight.The administration of AAIs is not intuitive for an untrained individual. There are different brands of AAIs and they are not considered generic equivalents of each other. There are device-specific characteristics, including needle length, dose and propulsion, that affect the delivery of adrenaline into the circulation. Certain brands have different instructions for use, according to the device mechanism. Each has a different mode of operation and requires specific training in use.There is also concern for the security of AAIs in public places against malicious tampering and theft with criminal intent.

What discussions he has had on increasing access to Palforzia treatment.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) assesses the clinical and cost effectiveness of new medicines on behalf of the National Health Service in England. Palforzia is an oral immunotherapy treatment for peanut allergy. In February 2022, NICE recommended Palforzia for NHS use as a possible treatment for peanut allergy in children and young people aged between four and 17 years old. Once a medicine has been recommended for use in the NHS by NICE, the relevant NHS commissioners have 90 days within which to implement the NICE recommendation, after which they have a legal responsibility to make the treatment available to NHS patients. Additionally, any qualified prescriber can prescribe any medicine recommended by NICE, such as Palforzia. It is each integrated care board’s responsibility to commission services that will allow this medicine to be offered to their patients safely and effectively.

What steps her Department is taking to account for the consequences of coercive control in divorce court (a) proceedings and (b) decisions.

It is a top priority for this Government to tackle violence against women and girls, including economic abuse and coercive control. The Law Commission’s 2024 scoping report on financial remedies on divorce considered the issue of domestic abuse, including economic abuse and coercive control, in relation to financial proceedings on divorce and the decisions made by the courts. The Government is carefully considering the report’s findings and will provide a response in due course.