Written questions by Davies.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of communication systems between GP surgeries and pharmacies.

The Government recognises the importance of effective communication between general practice (GP) surgeries and pharmacies, to ensure safe and coordinated patient care. Over recent years, several digital initiatives have been introduced to reduce the reliance on fax and paper, and to enhance this communication, including NHSmail, the Electronic Prescription Service, and the Summary Care Record. These systems allow pharmacists to access patient information and support prescription processing.GP Connect is a national service introduced in 2018, and further strengthened in the 2025/26 GP Contract, that allows authorised health and social care workers in a variety of care settings to access their patients' GP records. The aim of GP Connect is to support better, more joined-up clinical care by opening up information and data held within GP IT systems, so that registered community pharmacists can view and update records. This initiative supports the Pharmacy First service, which empowers pharmacists to offer a full consultation and provide treatment for seven common health conditions.The Community Pharmacy Information Standard informed the plan to recover access to primary care published in May 2023. This set out a range of actions to improve communication between GP surgeries and community pharmacies, harnessing digital technology to streamline referrals, increase access to clinical information to support patient care and update the patient record in an efficient and timely way. The Government remains committed to strengthening primary care integration and to fixing the front door of the National Health Service.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve the UK's biosecurity resilience against (a) invasive species, (b) plant diseases, (c) animal diseases and (d) other emerging threats; and what steps he is taking to help mitigate the potential impact of climate change on agricultural ecological systems.

Our biosecurity is paramount – it underpins safe food; protects human, animal and plant health; and supports a prospering economy and trade. We have in place robust measures to maintain and improve our ability to understand, detect, prevent, respond and recover from outbreaks, both those that affect animals and those that affect plants. The government has announced it will set up a new National Biosecurity Centre, which will strengthen the UK's defences against animal diseases that threaten farming, food security, trade and public health. As the Chancellor announced in the Autumn 2024 budget, there is £208 million in funding over 2024-2026 to transform the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) animal health facility at Weybridge. Defra is playing its part in responding to the recommendations of Module 1 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. We have been reviewing our plans and processes within the department which will be tested through the upcoming national pandemic response exercise.

Pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2024 to Question 7546 on Children: Hygiene, what discussions she has had with (a) school leaders and (b) local authorities on the impact of uniform hygiene on children; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of publishing practical guidance for schools on this matter.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.A new Ministerial Taskforce, led by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has begun work on a child poverty strategy.This taskforce will harness all available levers to drive forward short-term and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty, with a child poverty strategy published later this spring. Additional information regarding this strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy-html.It is important that all children can attend school in a clean, affordable uniform. School leaders are well placed to manage uniform standards, including hygiene.

What steps she is taking as part of the Curriculum and Assessment Review to consider the use of audiobooks in schools.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review will support the innovation and professionalism of teachers, enabling them to adapt how they teach the curriculum to their students’ lives.The Review Group will publish an interim report in early spring setting out its interim findings and confirming the key areas for further work, and publish its final report with recommendations this autumn.The department respects the autonomy of teachers in terms of what resources they choose to use or recommend to their individual pupils, based on individual need in their own educational context and circumstances.

What steps she is taking to help improve (a) literacy and (b) access to books in schools.

High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.In recognition of this, the department has implemented a range of measures to support reading for pleasure. The English Hubs programme supports the teaching of phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure, with a further £23 million committed for the 2024/25 academic year to support this work. Furthermore, the government’s reading framework provides guidance on improving the teaching of reading, to ensure that every child is not only able to read proficiently but also develops a genuine love of reading.On 5 February, the government announced a £2 million investment to drive high and rising standards in reading and writing. Building on the success of phonics, teachers will receive additional training to help children progress from the early stages of phonics in reception and year 1 through to reading fluently by the time they leave primary school. This will be delivered through the English Hubs programme. In secondary school, teachers will be offered new training and resources this year to help them support readers at all levels, and next year the department will commission further training that will be focused specifically on struggling readers in secondary school who are at risk of falling behind. The department will also publish a writing framework in the summer, which will be a first step to support schools in delivering high quality writing provision across England.The government has also established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, in line with the government’s ambition for a curriculum that delivers excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics.Headteachers have autonomy to decide how best to spend the core schools funding that the department allocates. This school funding can be used to fund books, librarians, school libraries and book corners. In Autumn Budget 2024 an additional £2.3 billion was announced for schools for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 2024/25, bringing the total core schools budget to almost £63.9 billion in 2025/26. Public libraries complement school libraries in giving pupils access to a range of books and other kinds of texts, both in and out of school.

What funding his Department has provided to (a) support and (b) promote opportunities for domestic hydropower.

The Smart Export Guarantee came into force on 1 January 2020 and requires major electricity suppliers to offer a tariff to buy electricity exported by small low-carbon generators, including small hydro.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of prostate cancer screenings.

Screening for prostate cancer is currently not recommended by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). This is because of the inaccuracy of the current best test, called the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). A PSA-based screening programme could harm some men, as many would be diagnosed with a cancer that would not have caused them problems during their life.  This would lead to additional tests and treatments which can also have harmful side effects, for example sexual dysfunction and incontinence.The UK NSC regularly reviews its recommendations. The evidence review for prostate cancer screening is underway and will conclude at the end of 2025.

What steps he is taking to tackle shortages of ADHD medication.

The Department has been working hard with industry and NHS England to help resolve supply issues with some attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medicines, which are affecting the United Kingdom and other countries around the world. As a result of intensive work, some issues have been resolved and all strengths of lisdexamfetamine, atomoxetine capsules, and guanfacine prolonged-release tablets are now available.We are continuing to work to resolve supply issues, where they remain, for methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets. We are engaging with all suppliers of methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets to assess the challenges faced and their actions to address them. We are also directing suppliers to secure additional stocks, expedite deliveries where possible, and review plans to further build capacity to support continued growth in demand for the short and long-term. We expect supply to improve in the UK throughout the rest of 2024. However, we anticipate supply to be limited for some strengths, and we continue to work with all suppliers to ensure the remaining issues are resolved as soon as possible. To improve supply chain resiliency, we are also working with prospective new suppliers of methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets to expand the UK supplier base.We are supporting an ADHD taskforce that NHS England is establishing to examine ADHD service provision. The taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education, and justice, to help provide a joined-up approach in response to concerns around rising demand. In collaboration with NHS England’s national ADHD data improvement plan, we plan to combine modelling for future growth forecasts, which will be shared with industry to improve demand forecasting for ADHD medicines.To minimise the impact of the shortages on patients, the Department has worked with specialist clinicians, including those within the NHS, to develop management advice for NHS clinicians to consider prescribing available alternative brands of methylphenidate prolonged release tablets or available alternative ADHD medicines. We would expect ADHD service providers and specialists to follow our guidance, which includes offering rapid response to primary care teams seeking urgent advice or opinions for the management of patients, including those known to be at a higher risk of adverse impact because of these shortages.To aid ADHD service providers and prescribers further we have widely disseminated our communications and continually update a list of currently available and unavailable ADHD products on the Specialist Pharmacy Service website, helping ensure that those involved in the prescribing and dispensing of ADHD medications can make informed decisions with patients.

What steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for the return of medically suspended driving licences.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) aims to make a licensing decision within 90 working days in 90% of cases where a medical condition(s) must be investigated before a licence can be issued. During this financial year the average time to make a licensing decision in such cases is 44 working days.The DVLA’s online services are the quickest way to apply for a driving licence and drivers with diabetes, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, visual impairments, sleep conditions, or heart conditions can apply online. However, the DVLA is very often reliant on receiving information from third parties, including doctors, other healthcare professionals or the applicant themselves, before a decision can be made on whether to issue a driving licence. To help with this, the DVLA has introduced a simplified licence renewal process for drivers with glaucoma and some mental health conditions. This has significantly reduced the need for the DVLA to seek further information from medical professionals and enabled more licensing decisions to be made based on the information provided by the driver. The DVLA will consider including more medical conditions in this simplified process, as well as adding more medical conditions to its online channels.

Whether Sipavibart can be provided through the NHS to immunosuppressed people.

Decisions on the routine availability of licensed medicines for National Health Service patients in England are made on the basis of recommendations by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NICE plays an important role in ensuring that medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources before they are routinely funded. The NHS is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of final guidance.NICE aims wherever possible to issue recommendations on new medicines close to the point of licensing and started its appraisal of the medicine sipavibart for preventing COVID-19 ahead of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s decision. NICE’s appraisal process is however currently suspended as the manufacturer, AstraZeneca, has been unable to provide an evidence submission as planned. NICE is currently awaiting notification from AstraZeneca on when it can make a submission and will update stakeholders in due course.