Written questions by Maguire.

Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of public waterways polluted by sewage on (a) young children and (b) families.

The level of sewage in our waterways is unacceptable, that is why this Government has taken practical steps to mitigate this. The Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 24 February. The Act will require water companies to publish real-time data related to spills from all emergency overflows. This builds on the pre-existing duty for water companies to publish data related to spills from all storm overflows within an hour of the spill beginning. Enhanced monitoring will create an unprecedented level of transparency, enabling the public and regulators to see where and how often storm overflows are spilling, hold water companies to account, and more accurately quantify the impacts of storm overflows. The Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan represents an important forward programme to guide future investment in the sector. This Plan sets clear and specific targets for water companies, regulators and the government, to work towards the long-term ambition of eliminating the harm from storm overflows. Water companies are investing a record £11 billion over the next five years to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows across England and Wales, targeted at those affecting the most sensitive sites for ecological and human health.

What steps she is taking to help tackle hate crime in rural areas.

This Government is determined to tackle all forms of hate crime, wherever in the country it occurs, and whoever is responsible for committing it.There is no excuse for violence or abuse driven by hatred and discrimination, and we support the police in taking strong action against those crimes.We currently fund an online reporting portal to ensure victims do not have to visit a police station to report any hate crime they experience, and we also fund a National Hub which provides expert advice to police forces across the country on what they can do to tackle the increasing levels of online hate crime.

How many NHS (a) nurses and (b) doctors are expected to (i) leave and (ii) retire in the next year.

The Department does not hold estimates of the number of nurses and doctors expected to leave the National Health Service or retire in the next year.The Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, to ensure we retain more of our skilled and dedicated staff. NHS England is leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts. This ensures trusts have access to proven retention strategies, data-driven monitoring, and can foster a more stable, engaged, productive, and supported workforce.

What steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment pathways and (c) levels of clinical awareness of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome in the NHS.

It is the responsibility of local integrated care boards to work with clinicians, service users, and patient groups to develop services and care pathways that are convenient and that meet the needs of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published a clinical knowledge summary on the clinical management of blackouts and syncope, that provides advice for clinicians in the United Kingdom on best practice in the assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. This was last updated in November 2023, and is available at the following link:https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/General practitioners (GPs) are asked to investigate symptoms to ensure that it is not misdiagnosed. Following referral, patients are treated within National Health Service cardiology and neurology services. Where more specialist advice is required, a referral will be made to an appropriate clinician.To improve awareness of PoTS amongst healthcare professionals, and specifically GPs, the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its Syncope toolkit, which is available at the following link:https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500

How many (a) nurse and (b) doctor vacancies there are in the NHS.

NHS England publishes a compendium of NHS Vacancy Statistics each quarter. The information currently provides four measures of the level of vacancies in the National Health Service, one of which includes the number of medical and registered nursing vacancies reported by NHS trusts to NHS England, which is the most commonly used measure.Detailed information on the definition of collected data and the available timeseries, along with the measure’s strengths and weaknesses, can be found at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-surveyData for the period to March 2025 was published on 29 May 2025.Due to the complex nature of how NHS vacancy data is defined and collected, all data sources should be treated with a degree of caution.

How many new NHS (a) nurses and (b) doctors will complete training in the next 12 months.

The Department estimates a range of between 19,000 and 22,500 nurses trained in England joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council register for the first time in the year to March 2026, based on the 23,240 acceptances to English nursing courses in the 2022 cycle, published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, as part of its undergraduate end of cycle data resources for 2024. These nurses may go on to work in the National Health Service, but also in other settings including social care or for non-NHS providers including some carrying out NHS work.The numbers of joiners to the General Medical Council (GMC) register who are graduates of education courses in England has been increasing as medical school intakes have been expanded. We estimate between 8,000 and 8,500 doctors will join the GMC register having qualified from English universities during 2025.

If her Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of reduced bus service (a) frequency and (b) routes on people travelling to healthcare appointments in (i) North Cornwall and (ii) other rural areas.

The government knows that a modern public transport network is vital to keeping communities connected, and ensuring people can get to education and work, including healthcare workers. The government believes that local transport authorities, working with bus operators, are best placed to determine and design local bus networks in their area. The government introduced the Bus Services (No.2) Bill on 17 December 2024 to put the power over local bus services back into the hands of local leaders and is intended to ensure bus services reflect the needs of communities that rely on them. In addition, the government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country, of which Cornwall Council has been allocated £10.59 million. Local authorities can use this funding to introduce improvements to bus services and infrastructure to best meet the needs of passengers in their local area.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to increase the provision of youth clubs in (a) North Cornwall constituency and (b) rural areas.

This Government fully recognises the importance of youth services to help young people live safe and healthy lives, and we remain committed to giving all young people the chance to reach their full potential regardless of where they grow up. In Cornwall, over £1.2 million was invested under the Youth Investment Fund, with Yes KBSK dance group in Bodmin receiving a £400,000 grant to provide them with a permanent home called "the Space". The group offers sessions in the performing arts and other youth work, focusing on helping disadvantaged families. Our engagement for the National Youth Survey has proactively involved young people from rural areas, as well as other demographics. In order to reach young people in all areas of the country, we developed a communications campaign and worked with a variety of stakeholders who support young people to disseminate information. We developed a toolkit for organisations to run their own consultation workshops with young people to feed in their views. In addition to this, we have run a wide-ranging survey, workshops, focus groups and ‘hacks’ to give young people the opportunity to develop solutions.

If his Department will make an assessment of the potential barriers to access to Primary Healthcare in rural areas.

We acknowledge the urgent challenge of ensuring that rural areas have the resources needed to continue serving their patients. To address this, we are increasing capacity in general practices by recruiting more general practitioners (GPs), ensuring the necessary workforce is in place to provide integrated, patient-centred services.We have invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme which has enabled the recruitment of over 1,500 recently qualified GPs across England since October 2024. This will increase the number of available appointments, secure the future pipeline of GPs, and alleviate the pressure on those currently working in the system.We have also delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of National Health Service resources. The new 2025/26 GP Contract includes key reforms to improve access to GPs, including making sure patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.

What steps she is taking to monitor the impact of the cyber attack on the Legal Aid Agency on legal aid applicants; and steps he is taking to compensate any lost incurred by legal aid applicants following the cyber attack.

To ensure the best chance of reaching as many potentially impacted individuals as possible the Ministry of Justice published a notice as swiftly as possible at 08:15 on 19 May on GOV.UKThe statement provides information about the cyber attack and directs concerned members of the public to the National Cyber Security Centre’s webpage, which contains information on how to protect yourself from the impact of a data breach.The cyber-attack is subject to an ongoing investigation, and we are working closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre. Appropriate actions have been taken to mitigate the impact of the attack, including taking digital services offline. Contingency measures have been put in place to ensure those most in need of legal support and advice can continue to access the help they need during this time. This is an evolving situation, and we continue to update legal providers and users as it develops. To ensure that legal aid providers have the latest position with respect to legal aid applications and billing contingencies, and that affected parties can access the latest developments on the incident, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has created a dedicated space with contingencies and useful resources on GOV.UK.This data breach is the result of heinous criminal activity but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of the long years of neglect and mismanagement of the justice system under the last Conservative Government. Upon taking office, I was shocked to see how fragile our legal aid systems were. They knew about the vulnerabilities of the Legal Aid Agency digital systems, but did not act. By contrast, since taking office, this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber attacks in future.

What steps her Department is taking to inform applicants for Legal Aid that their personal data was compromised in the cyber attack on the Legal Aid Agency on 23 April 2025.

To ensure the best chance of reaching as many potentially impacted individuals as possible the Ministry of Justice published a notice as swiftly as possible at 08:15 on 19 May on GOV.UKThe statement provides information about the cyber attack and directs concerned members of the public to the National Cyber Security Centre’s webpage, which contains information on how to protect yourself from the impact of a data breach.The cyber-attack is subject to an ongoing investigation, and we are working closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre. Appropriate actions have been taken to mitigate the impact of the attack, including taking digital services offline. Contingency measures have been put in place to ensure those most in need of legal support and advice can continue to access the help they need during this time. This is an evolving situation, and we continue to update legal providers and users as it develops. To ensure that legal aid providers have the latest position with respect to legal aid applications and billing contingencies, and that affected parties can access the latest developments on the incident, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has created a dedicated space with contingencies and useful resources on GOV.UK.This data breach is the result of heinous criminal activity but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of the long years of neglect and mismanagement of the justice system under the last Conservative Government. Upon taking office, I was shocked to see how fragile our legal aid systems were. They knew about the vulnerabilities of the Legal Aid Agency digital systems, but did not act. By contrast, since taking office, this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber attacks in future.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislation to force water companies to become public benefit corporations.

The Independent Water Commission, led by Sir Jon Cunliffe, will recommend reforms to reset the water sector regulatory system and is expected to form the largest review of the industry since privatisation. It is considering a wide range of areas, including different water company ownership models, as set out in the Commission’s Call for Evidence. The Commission is expected to publish its recommendations later in the summer.

Communities and Local Government, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure that (a) schools, (b) hospitals, (c) sewage capacity and (d) other key infrastructure are in place before housing development works are started.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 26106 on 5 February 2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment of the potential impact of the Extended Producer Responsibility fees for (a) glass and (b) plastic packaging on small producers of premium products.

In October 2024, the Government published an updated assessment of the impact of introducing the pEPR scheme on packaging producers as a whole. This impact assessment did not split the assessment by sector. The Government recognises the importance of protecting small producers from direct cost obligations. This is why the regulations include a de-minimis threshold of £2 million turnover and 50 tonnes which exempts approximately 70% of the producers supplying packaging in the UK from paying scheme fees.

If his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of GP surgeries running above capacity on the delivery of health services.

The 2023 GP Patient Survey showed that of the patients who could not get an appointment at their general practice, over one in 10 went to accident and emergency, which has worse outcomes for patients and is more expensive for the taxpayer. To address this, we are seeking to increase capacity and appointment availability in general practice, improving access for patients. For example, we have recruited over 1,500 newly qualified general practitioners through an £82 million investment in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve water quality at beaches in North Cornwall constituency.

The Environment Agency (EA) has recruited two new Water Industry Regulation teams who are increasing regulation of water company sites in Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, undertaking more compliance checks (including unannounced inspections), translating storm overflow monitoring data into regulatory intelligence, and increasing enforcement actions for pollution incidents under the Enforcement and Sanctions policy. Inspection locations are prioritised according to environmental sensitivity, such as sites impacting bathing waters, and where EDM data is showing spills are higher than they should be. The EA increased inspections in 2024-25 and will more than double these in 2025-2026. This includes water company assets in North Cornwall constituency. It will also attend more incidents. The EA has numerous charges relating to sewage discharges onto Cornish beaches waiting to come to court. Th EA’s duty is to hold those suspected of harming the environment to account so it will proceed with legal action. The EA has also increased the number of farm inspections they are able to deliver. In Devon and Cornwall, dedicated farm inspection officers are currently inspecting farms and undertaking enforcement action in the highest priority catchments, including the Camel.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems on marine vessels on the environment.

The UK is committed to reducing the impact of shipping on the environment. In April, we cosponsored a proposal at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to create a new Emission Control Area. This will reduce pollutants across all UK waters. The use of exhaust gas cleaning systems is regulated by the IMO, where the UK has an evidence led approach to their use as a compliance mechanism. We will be assessing the impact of discharges from open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems in UK waters as part of our ongoing consideration of the environmental impacts of shipping.

What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on banning the discharge of wash water from open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems.

The UK is committed to reducing the impact of shipping on the environment. In April, we cosponsored a proposal at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to create a new Emission Control Area. This will reduce pollutants across all UK waters. The use of exhaust gas cleaning systems is regulated by the IMO, where the UK has an evidence led approach to their use as a compliance mechanism. We will be assessing the impact of discharges from open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems in UK waters as part of our ongoing consideration of the environmental impacts of shipping.

If she will ban the discharge of wash water from open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems within UK territorial waters.

The UK is committed to reducing the impact of shipping on the environment. In April, we cosponsored a proposal at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to create a new Emission Control Area. This will reduce pollutants across all UK waters. The use of exhaust gas cleaning systems is regulated by the IMO, where the UK has an evidence led approach to their use as a compliance mechanism. We will be assessing the impact of discharges from open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems in UK waters as part of our ongoing consideration of the environmental impacts of shipping.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential environmental merits of including Miscanthus as an incentivised crop under SFI 2026.

The publication cited has been superseded by the following: Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme: expanded offer for 2024 - GOV.UKCountryside Stewardship Higher Tier: get ready to apply - GOV.UK The moorland offer is designed to help deliver our environmental objectives on moorland whilst supporting sustainable food production. Fundamental to sustainable grazing levels on moorland is the level of grazing pressure on that habitat over time. If this is right, then the grazing by preferential livestock (cattle and ponies) gives additional environmental outcomes. The cattle and pony grazing supplemental actions in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and in Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier are designed to support this and provide tiered payments which reward their level of delivery. They are only eligible with the livestock grazing on moorland actions (UPL1-3) to ensure the benefits of grazing with preferential livestock are not lost. These actions specify a grazing livestock density that cannot be exceeded. Supplemental actions supporting native breeds as risk on moorland aim to maintain or increase the number of rare native breed grazing livestock. These supplemental actions are only eligible with a base action. In SFI, applicants can choose to undertake a base action which does not limit grazing levels, for example Shepherding livestock on moorland actions (UPL7-UPL10).