Written questions by Snowden.

What guidance the Health Security Agency has issued on the potential impact of 6G masts on health.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) provides advice on any potential health risks and protection from exposure to the radio waves from telecommunications systems, including those planned to provide 6G services. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electric-and-magnetic-fields-health-effects-of-exposureThe frequencies anticipated to be used by 6G systems will be well within the scope of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection guidelines.The UKHSA continues to review the developments applicable to radio technologies, including 6G, and will update its advice as necessary.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of increased use of e-cigarettes on young people in Fylde constituency.

The health advice is clear, that while vapes are less harmful than smoking and can be an effective quit aid for smokers, children and non-smokers should never vape. The main established health risk associated with vaping is from nicotine, which can cause addiction. Children and young people are particularly susceptible to the addictive nature of nicotine as their lungs and brains are still developing.This is why the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will ban vapes and nicotine products from being deliberately promoted and advertised to children to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine. The bill, currently going through Parliament, includes a range of measures to tackle youth vaping, which will benefit the young people of Fylde. In addition, the disposable vapes ban came into effect on 1 June, making the sale and supply of single use vapes illegal. This ban protects the environment and removes products from the market that particularly appeal to children.We are also committed to funding research in this area to inform policy across the United Kingdom. Earlier this year, we announced a £62 million research project into adolescent health, funded by UK Research and Innovation, that will investigate the long-term health effects of vaping on young people’s health and wellbeing. We have also commissioned, via the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the most comprehensive analysis of youth vaping studies ever conducted in this area, which is due to be published later this year.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Supreme Court judgement in the case of For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers of 16 April 2025 on the provision of NHS services in (a) England and (b) Fylde.

The Supreme Court’s ruling about the meaning of ‘sex’ in the For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers case has provided much needed confidence and clarity to service providers. We expect all public service bodies to act on the clarity that the ruling provides We are considering the impact of the ruling. While the implementation of the ruling may generate operational challenges or have financial implications, it is not beyond the ability of the National Health Service to find a path that resolves these issues in a way that ensures the safety and dignity of all patients. We will support the NHS in England in doing so.

Pursuant the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 54075 on Care Homes: Fylde, when he expects the Fair Pay Agreement for the adult social care sector to be implemented; and whether this timeline will apply to care providers in Fylde constituency.

We want to get the process of establishing the Fair Pay Agreement framework right, in order to ensure meaningful reform for the social care sector. As set out in the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Government is committed to engaging with those who draw upon, work in, and provide care and support, as well as local authorities, unions, and others from across the sector, on the design and implementation of a Fair Pay Agreement process. We aim to begin the public consultation in England after the bill receives Royal Assent later this year. Secondary legislation and the establishing of the adult social care negotiating body for England will follow. It will then negotiate the first Fair Pay Agreement in England. The Government is committed to establishing the Fair Pay Agreement process and seeing the first Fair Pay Agreement take effect for adult social care workers in England within this Parliament.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 54075 on Care Homes: Fylde, what steps he is taking to improve recruitment and retention of care home staff in (a) Fylde and (b) other (i) rural and (ii) coastal areas.

English local authorities have responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to meet social care needs, and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care (ASC).The Government recognises the scale of reforms needed to make the ASC sector attractive, to support sustainable workforce growth, and to improve the recruitment and retention of the domestic workforce. This is why we are introducing the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to the ASC sector so that care professionals are recognised and rewarded for the important work that they do.We are also supporting the professionalisation of the ASC workforce, including through the expansion of the Care Workforce Pathway to a further four roles, including registered manager and deputy manager roles. The pathway sets out how people can develop a long-term career in adult social care, with the right support and training to help attract people to join, and remain in, the sectorWe are also continuing to fund the Adult Social Care Learning Development Support Scheme to help people build their skills and careers in care. The scheme is backed by up to £12 million this financial year and includes qualifications that support skills development in the quality of care more broadly, as well as opportunities to develop leadership and management skills.The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) will provide over £1 billion for ASC to local authorities over 2025/26. The MSIF is designed to support increased ASC capacity and improve market sustainability. One of the three target areas local authorities can spend their allocation on is increasing ASC workforce recruitment and retention.

What recent steps he has taken to help reduce waiting times for cancer (a) screening and (b) testing in Fylde constituency.

The Government understands that more needs to be done to reduce waiting times for cancer patients, including those in Fylde constituency. To achieve this, we have delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week during our first year in Government, as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.We will support the National Health Service to transform diagnostic services by spending £1.65 billion on additional capacity, including new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners, to support the delivery of over 30,000 more procedures and 1.25 million diagnostic tests, as they come online.In March 2025, performance across Lancashire and South Cumbria, which includes the Fylde constituency, for diagnosing patients within the 28-day standard was 80% against the 75% standard.NHS England North West is currently the responsible commissioner for the three cancer screening programmes, namely breast, bowel and cervical, for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board footprint, which includes the Fylde constituency.For bowel screening, additional funding has been provided to the Lancashire programme to increase capacity and to support the local population to access colonoscopy, as required.For breast screening, a full review of all screening sites has been carried out across the region to ensure that they meet the needs of the local population, and the provider programme team meets regularly with system partners to maximise uptake.NHS England North West has also provided funding for an Improving Uptake Officer post. This role involves working directly with general practices and local community groups to improve uptake, as well as contacting individuals who have not attended their appointment to offer them a new appointment.For cervical screening, insight work was carried out in 2023 across the North West to understand the reasons why individuals were not coming forward for their cervical screening and to gain views from residents on what would support more people to take up their cervical screening. Using findings from this work, a number of pilot projects are currently being implemented to understand the impact on improving uptake. These include online booking of appointments, training for cervical sample takers to improve patient experience, community champions, and alternative venues for screening.

Pursuant the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 54075 on Care Homes: Fylde, how many care homes have been subject to regulatory action by the Care Quality Commission under Regulation 18 in the last three years in Fylde constituency .

In the last three years, the Care Quality Commission has issued Action Plan requests, previously called Requirement Notices, for breach of Regulation 18 on three care homes: Rathmore Care Home; Villarose Rest Home; and Windmill Lodge.There are currently no regulatory actions against Regulation 18 (Staffing) for care homes in the Fylde parliamentary constituency.

Whether he has made an estimate of the prevalence of long covid in children and young people in (a) England and (b) Lancashire.

The most recent data from the Winter COVID-19 Infection Study, a joint study carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the UK Health Security Agency, shows that, for the period 6 February 2024 to 7 March 2024, an estimated two million people, or 3.3% of the population, in private households in England and Scotland, self-reported experiencing long COVID symptoms more than four weeks after a COVID-19 infection. The following table shows a breakdown of this figure by age group:Age groupEstimateThree to 17 years old111,81618 to 34 years old406,53835 to 44 years old294,09945 to 54 years old397,80255 to 64 years old389,97765 to 74 years old271,37475 years old and over113,467 While no estimate has been made specifically for Lancashire, the same dataset from the ONS estimated 270,939 people of all ages self-reporting experiencing long COVID symptoms in the North West of England region in that same time period.

Whether he has made an estimate of the prevalence of long covid in adults in (a) England and (b) Lancashire.

The most recent data from the Winter COVID-19 Infection Study, a joint study carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the UK Health Security Agency, shows that, for the period 6 February 2024 to 7 March 2024, an estimated two million people, or 3.3% of the population, in private households in England and Scotland, self-reported experiencing long COVID symptoms more than four weeks after a COVID-19 infection. The following table shows a breakdown of this figure by age group:Age groupEstimateThree to 17 years old111,81618 to 34 years old406,53835 to 44 years old294,09945 to 54 years old397,80255 to 64 years old389,97765 to 74 years old271,37475 years old and over113,467 While no estimate has been made specifically for Lancashire, the same dataset from the ONS estimated 270,939 people of all ages self-reporting experiencing long COVID symptoms in the North West of England region in that same time period.

What recent assessment he has made of the affordability of weekly care home fees in (a) Fylde and (b) Lancashire.

Fee rates are set by providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have powers to set or recommend the level of fees that care homes charge. However, all businesses are required to comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by ensuring that they use fair and clear terms in their standard agreements with customers.As well as self-funders sourcing their own care, local authorities also agree fees with care home providers for local authority funded placements. According to Market Sustainability Fund data, in 2023/24, Lancashire paid an average care home fee rate of £707 without nursing, and £738 with nursing. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/market-sustainability-and-improvement-fund-2024-to-2025-care-provider-fees/market-sustainability-and-improvement-fund-msif-provider-fee-reporting-2024-to-2025#main-pointsWe have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The Commission will deliver recommendations for the transformation of adult social care including how to best create a fair and affordable adult social care system.

What steps his Department is taking to help reduce the cost of care home placements in (a) Fylde and (b) Lancashire.

Fee rates are set by providers of adult social care, the majority of which are in the independent sector. The Department does not have powers to set or recommend the level of fees that care homes charge. However, all businesses are required to comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 by ensuring that they use fair and clear terms in their standard agreements with customers.As well as self-funders sourcing their own care, local authorities also agree fees with care home providers for local authority funded placements. According to Market Sustainability Fund data, in 2023/24, Lancashire paid an average care home fee rate of £707 without nursing, and £738 with nursing. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/market-sustainability-and-improvement-fund-2024-to-2025-care-provider-fees/market-sustainability-and-improvement-fund-msif-provider-fee-reporting-2024-to-2025#main-pointsWe have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The Commission will deliver recommendations for the transformation of adult social care including how to best create a fair and affordable adult social care system.

Pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2025 to Question 51549 on Exercise: Older People, what steps he is taking to advertise the NHS 10 walking app.

Paid for media plans are agreed annually with My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Office. Plans for the rest of the year are not yet agreed. Through the Department’s Campaign Resource Centre, promotional NHS Active 10 materials are made available year-round to support health professionals, local authorities, educators, and community organisations in promoting physical activity initiatives. The app, as well as a portfolio of digital behaviour change tools managed by the Department, are promoted through the NHS Better Health website and the associated digital prevention pathways.

Pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2025 to Question 51549 on Exercise: Older People, what the cost to public purse was of producing the NHS 10 walking app.

The NHS Active 10 app was initially launched in February 2017 by Public Health England, in collaboration with the University of Sheffield. Initial development costs totalled £700,807.

Pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2025 to Question 51549 on Exercise: Older People, what metrics her Department is using to measure the success of the NHS 10 walking app.

The UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMOs) physical activity guidelines recommend that adults accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week, such as brisk walking. The NHS Active 10 app records brisk walking minutes, supporting users to incorporate more moderate-intensity activity into their daily lives. The app rewards users for every 10-minute segment of moderate-intensity activity completed, providing motivation to increase and sustain higher activity levels over time. Metrics collected to monitor the impact of the app include downloads, daily and monthly active users, and summary data of active minutes. The app has been downloaded over 1.7 million times and supports over 95,000 monthly active users to get more active. A time series analysis conducted in 2024, pending publication, indicates that the average app user increases their daily brisk walking by nine minutes, immediately following download of the NHS Active 10 app.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42350 on General Practitioners: Employers' Contributions, how much and what proportion of the £22.6 billion will be allocated to (a) frontline health services, (b) primary care and (c) other services.

The £22.6 billion funding increase announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget provided an above inflation increase for all health spending, with an average growth of 3.4% across 2024/25 and 2025/26.The funding is not ringfenced and becomes part of the overall Department’s budget. It is therefore not possible to easily track how it has been deployed in a way that is distinct to how the overall budget is allocated. In primary care, we’ve made recent announcements to uplift the general practice and community pharmacy contracts, and on front line services we’ve provided an additional £1.8 billion in 2024/25 for elective care, which then rolls forward into 2025/26, which has helped the National Health Service to deliver two million additional operations, scans, and appointments in our first year of the Government.The £22.6 billion does not include the additional funding that HM Treasury is providing to departments for employer National Insurance contributions.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure consistent enforcement of food hygiene certification standards by local authorities in England.

To support food law enforcement consistency, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) publishes a Food Law Code of Practice. This provides statutory guidance to local authorities on how to meet their legal obligations as regulators of food law.The FSA operates the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme in partnership with local authorities. The scheme protects public health by publishing a clear rating to indicate how compliant a business is with food hygiene law.To be an effective incentive, the scheme must be operated consistently. The FSA expects all local authorities to operate the scheme in line with its guidance. The FSA monitors local authority compliance and will intervene when evidence suggests a lack of consistency. The FSA coordinates regular consistency training in which all local authorities are expected to participate.

Pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2025 to Question 51548 on Primary Care: Lancashire, if he will define the term most at need in relation to those targeted by the integrated dental access programme.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England.The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42350 on General Practitioners: Employers' Contributions, what steps he is taking to improve patient access to GPs in (a) Fylde, (b) Lancashire and (c) England.

The Government is determined to work with the National Health Service to fix the front door of our health service and to ensure that everyone can access general practice (GP) appointments nationally, including in Lancashire and Fylde. That’s why in October 2024, we invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support the recruitment of 1,700 newly qualified GPs across England, helping to increase appointment availability and improve care for thousands of patients We delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of NHS resources. Additionally, the new £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund will upgrade more than a thousand GP surgeries across England, helping to improve productivity.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42350 on General Practitioners: Employers' Contributions, what steps he plans to take to monitor the effectiveness of the £889 million increase in funding for the GP Contract; and what criteria he plans to use to measure the effectiveness of of the GP contract for (a) patient care and (b) GP satisfaction.

The changes to the contract will improve services for patients and make progress towards the Government’s Health Mission, supporting the three key shifts the Government wants to achieve, from analogue to digital, from sickness to prevention, and from hospital to community care. Patient satisfaction with general practice (GP) services is measured through the annual GP Patient Survey (GPPS), and the Office for National Statistics’ monthly Health Insight Survey (HIS). The most recent HIS results show that 73.3% of respondents describe their experience with their GP as good, up from 67.4% when the survey was launched in August 2024. In the 2024 GPPS, 73.9% of patients reported a good overall experience with their practice. GP satisfaction is measured by the GP Worklife Survey, led by the University of Manchester. The results of the twelfth edition of the survey have not yet been published.

Pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2025 to Question 51548 on Primary Care: Lancashire, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of GPs in Fylde constituency.

We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, including in Fylde, which will increase capacity and take the pressure off those currently working in the systemThe Government committed to recruiting over 1,000 recently qualified GPs through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) over 2024/25, as part of an initiative to secure the future pipeline of GPs, with over 1,000 doctors otherwise likely to graduate into unemployment in 2024/25. Data on the number of recently qualified GPs for which primary care networks are claiming reimbursement via the ARRS shows that since 1 October 2024, over 1,700 GPs were recruited through the scheme.We are investing an additional £889 million through the GP Contract to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade.