Written questions by Collins.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Oyster card scheme to stations in the Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

Transport for London (TfL) and Operators can consider and propose Oyster expansion where a positive business case can be demonstrated. No such proposals have been put forward to the Department. However, we are expanding ticketing innovations such as Pay As You Go (PAYG) to more stations and this month we launched PAYG with contactless at Berkhamsted station to join Harpenden station which got contactless PAYG in 2019.

Whether she plans to take steps to provide compensation for self-invested personal pension holders affected by Hartley Pensions entering administration.

As a self-invested personal pension (SIPPs) provider, Hartley Pensions is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA is working with the administrators of Hartley Pensions to ensure that any customers affected by the situation achieve the best possible outcome. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has also agreed to compensate customers by funding the costs of the Joint Administrators’ exit strategy for Hartley SIPP customers.

Whether he plans to include policies on supporting people with dementia in the 10-year health plan for the NHS.

We have committed to develop a 10 Year Plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future. We will carefully be considering policies, including those that impact people with dementia, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, as we develop the plan. In February, I hosted a roundtable discussion where partners considered how dementia, ageing well, and digital inclusion could be reflected in the 10 Year Plan. I would also encourage people to take part in our public engagement exercise, which is helping us to fully understand what in the NHS is not working as well as it should, and what the potential solutions are. Further information is available at the following link: https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/

Whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to ensure that energy meter reading technology is being upgraded in line with the latest technological developments.

The accuracy of energy meters is of benefit to both energy providers and consumers and is a requirement of the Electricity and Gas Act legislation covering energy meters. To ensure the UK is taking account of the latest technological innovations the Government participates on relevant international committees that develop internationally recognised standards for ensuring consumption via energy meters is recorded accurately. Following those standards helps industry ensure they are also meeting their legal requirements.

What steps she is taking to help support children with special educational needs in the Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision receive the right support to succeed in their education and as they move into adult life.The department wants to drive a consistent and inclusive approach to supporting children and young people with SEND through early identification, effective support, high quality teaching and effective allocation of resources. The department is also working closely with experts on reforms who will play a key role in convening and engaging with the sector, including leaders, practitioners, children and families as we consider the next steps for the future of SEND reform.The department is providing support and challenge to the Hertfordshire local area partnership. In July 2023, Ofsted’s inspection of local arrangements in Hertfordshire for children with SEND, which was published on 10 November 2023, concluded that there were widespread and/or systemic failings, leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND, which the local area partnership must address urgently.Since then, the department has been using a SEND expert adviser to monitor progress against Hertfordshire’s priority action plan and improvement plan. In January 2025, the department sent the local area partnership a letter following a stocktake into their progress. This letter outlines that improvements are being made at pace, including on governance arrangements and quality assurance. However, there are still areas for the local area to address, for example on the impact and sustainability of improvements. The letter can be accessed here: https://sendnews.hertfordshire.gov.uk/31-january-2025#stocktake.The partnership has also established a SEND Improvement Board, which is independently chaired by Dame Christine Lenehan, to oversee progress and provide appropriate challenge.

Whether his Department plans to train carers in using musical techniques to support people living with dementia.

We are committed to a professional, well supported social care workforce. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, providers must provide enough suitably qualified, competent, skilled, and experienced staff to meet the needs of the people using the service. Staff must receive the support, training, professional development, supervision, and appraisals that are necessary for them to carry out their role.The Department currently funds research on the use of musical techniques for people living with dementia via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. This includes a major study investigating how music therapy can reduce patient distress and physical assaults on National Health Service inpatient wards for people with dementia. The study is called MELODIC and will create a programme of music therapy which will be piloted in two NHS mental health wards at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

Whether his Department has had discussions with NHS England on the potential merits of promoting the return and reissue of reusable NHS medical equipment.

The Department published the Design for Life Roadmap in October 2024, which sets out the Government's ambition to transition away from all avoidable single-use medical technology products by 2045. One of the key mechanisms for doing this, as outlined in the roadmap, is maximising reuse in the National Health Service. The roadmap includes a suite of 30 actions to deliver the 2045 vision, which NHS England were closely involved in creating. We are now working together to deliver these actions, including through joint working groups.

Innovation and Technology, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of AI zones on local infrastructure.

The AI Opportunities Action Plan outlines how the UK can build the cutting-edge compute infrastructure needed to lead in AI development and deployment, securing long-term economic growth and staying at the forefront of AI innovation.AI Growth Zones will encourage the development of advanced AI data centres in areas of the country with plentiful power, such as post-industrial towns and areas with significant renewable energy capacity.The investment in AI-enabled data centres will have a spillover effect in local communities, providing jobs, improving local infrastructure, rejuvenating areas, and driving the UK’s ambition to become a global hub for AI talent and investment.The Growth Zones will help secure the UK’s position as a global leader in AI innovation and will deliver substantial regional and national benefits.

What steps she is taking to ensure private train operating companies are held to account for their performance during the transition to rail nationalisation; and what steps she will take to ensure that performance standards are enforced.

The Secretary of State for Transport will not tolerate poor performance and will continue to hold all operators to account through a range of measures, including during the transition of services to a public sector operator. All operators will continue to go through an annual planning process with the Department to agree plans for changes to service specifications, performance improvements and other deliverables. If an operator’s poor performance means that contractual conditions for early termination are met, Ministers will not hesitate to take decisive action.

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an estimate of how many and what proportion of (a) children, (b) adults and (c) pensioners in digital poverty in each year since 2018.

There is no single accepted definition of digital poverty, but we know that digital exclusion impacts people broadly across demographics with some, including older people, at higher risk.According to Ofcom in 2024, 6% of UK adults did not have internet access at home. For those aged 75+, the figure is 29%. 34% of households with school-aged children did not have an appropriate device for accessing online schoolwork.This Government is determined to remedy this by closing the digital divide and ensuring everyone has the access, skills, support and confidence to participate in our modern digital society, whatever their circumstances.

How many people have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer through the non-specific symptoms pathway.

We will get the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, including blood cancer. NHS Planning Guidance, issued on 30 January 2025, set stretching targets for cancer. By March 2026, approximately 100,000 more people every year will be told whether they have cancer or not within 28 days, and 17,000 more people will begin treatment within two months of a referral.Meeting these targets for cancer will ensure that no patient waits longer than they should for diagnosis or treatment, and we have started by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support faster diagnosis and access to treatment.Making improvements across different cancer types is critical to reducing disparities in cancer survival. Early cancer diagnosis is also a specific priority within the NHS’s wider Core20Plus5 approach to reducing healthcare inequalities.We do not currently have access to information on how many people have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer through the non-specific symptoms pathway.

What steps his Department is taking to tackle regional variations in early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

We will get the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, including blood cancer. NHS Planning Guidance, issued on 30 January 2025, set stretching targets for cancer. By March 2026, approximately 100,000 more people every year will be told whether they have cancer or not within 28 days, and 17,000 more people will begin treatment within two months of a referral.Meeting these targets for cancer will ensure that no patient waits longer than they should for diagnosis or treatment, and we have started by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support faster diagnosis and access to treatment.Making improvements across different cancer types is critical to reducing disparities in cancer survival. Early cancer diagnosis is also a specific priority within the NHS’s wider Core20Plus5 approach to reducing healthcare inequalities.We do not currently have access to information on how many people have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer through the non-specific symptoms pathway.

Innovation and Technology, how much funding the Government has allocated to media literacy initiatives since 4 July 2024; and what recent assessment he has made of the impact of those initiatives on media literacy.

The government is committed to empowering internet users with the skills to engage critically with online content and make informed decisions.Since 2022, nearly £3 million in funding has been provided for media literacy projects. This includes £0.5 million in 2024 to scale up two programmes to provide media literacy support to teachers, children aged 11-16, and professionals working with families. That funding covers the 2024/25 financial year.Robust evaluation and monitoring are key requirements of the grant schemes. Both organisations must evaluate the impact of their programmes over the past year by March 2025.

Media and Sport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of the sale of local authority leisure facilities on public access to sports and recreation services.

The Government recognises that leisure facilities are important to communities up and down the country. High quality, inclusive facilities help people get active. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to high quality facilities and opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.The ongoing responsibility for public leisure facilities lies at Local Authority level. Local Authorities work in partnership with operators who manage leisure services. The Government and Sport England continue to work closely with Local Authorities to monitor pressures in the sector.Sport England’s Moving Communities service provides insight which informs local authorities in making strategic decisions about the most effective investments to benefit local communities.

Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the progress of Project Gigabit; how many premises have been connected; and what the status of the outstanding procurements is.

As of the end of March 2024, over one million premises had been upgraded to gigabit-capable broadband through government-funded programmes. Additionally, more than £2 billion of contracts have been signed to provide gigabit-capable coverage to over a million more premises.All planned Project Gigabit contracts for England and Wales have been signed. In the last few months alone, the first premises have been given coverage as part of these contracts in areas including North Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and South Wiltshire. Build is under way in many other parts of the country too.The Scottish Government has four procurements in progress and details of a contract covering the Borders and East Lothian area are expected to be announced shortly. Remaining areas of Scotland will be included within a procurement which is currently under way with Openreach, managed by the UK Government. A single procurement is also in progress in Northern Ireland, managed by the Department for Economy.

What steps he is taking to improve the accessibility of dental care during the maternity exemption period.

We are aware of the challenges faced in accessing a dentist and we want to make sure that everyone who needs a National Health Service dentist can get one, including pregnant women and new mothers. 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 areas that need them most. The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to Integrated Care Boards across England. For Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency, this is the Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB.

What assessment he has made of levels of workforce requirements needed for AI adoption and innovation in (a) radiology and (b) clinical oncology.

As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, we are reviewing how the National Health Service should focus its resources to ensure it maximises the impact of data and technology. This includes how we can make life easier and more productive for those who work in the NHS, and how we can use data more effectively to plan, manage, and deliver services. Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an important role in achieving this long-term ambition by building and delivering AI capabilities which will allow clinicians to focus more on direct patient care, and will allow staff to spend more time on high value, high impact tasks.The Government recognises that a cancer-specific approach is needed to meet the challenges in cancer care, and to improve outcomes for people living with cancer. Following publication of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a new National Cancer Plan, which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients.The Department, with NHS England, has convened an expert group to identify advanced technology that can be used most effectively in the NHS, building on the findings of the Topol Review. Alongside this work, the Department and NHS England will continue to work with professions to embrace technological innovations, such as AI.

Whether his Department plans to ensure that NHS trusts have access to similar AI technologies by having approved models in line with the provision of medical equipment.

The Department is working to accelerate the safe, ethical, and effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) across the whole healthcare system. The Department has already provided £113 million, through the NHS AI Health and Care Awards, to 86 AI technologies, which have been used in 40% of National Health Service acute trusts in England, and hundreds of Primary Care Networks across the United Kingdom. This funding has helped to generate the evidence needed to deploy effective AI tools across the NHS.The NHS operates within a comprehensive regulatory framework for AI, underpinned by rigorous standards established by bodies including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Health Research Authority, and the Care Quality Commission. These agencies ensure that any AI technologies that are made available to the NHS are safe, effective, and ethical to use.Additionally, the NICE, sponsored by the Department, conducts Early Value Assessments (EVA) which evaluate new health technologies for NHS use, considering clinical effectiveness and value for money. EVAs aim to give the NHS recommendations and highlight the accessibility of AI technologies, including which innovations work, offer good value for money, and meet system need.For trusts procuring technology there is a standardised procurement route available through specialised procurement frameworks. These frameworks offer NHS trusts access to a list of suppliers who have met a set of standards to be invited to join the framework.

Whether his Department plans to allocate funding for (a) secure data environments for data validation and (b) other infrastructure required for AI implementation in the NHS.

Secure access to data to accelerate research and development is an important lever in delivering the Government’s health and growth missions. Access to National Health Service data across England has been supported by investments in digital infrastructure between 2022 and 2025 by the Data for Research and Development programme’s implementation of Secure Data Environment (SDEs) at a national and regional level. The programme’s investment into SDEs supports the full spectrum of data-driven research, including artificial intelligence (AI) development. The budget for the programme for 2025/6 is currently being finalised alongside other priority NHS transformation programmes. Funding plans beyond 2026 will be agreed as part of the Spending Review. Improved digital and data infrastructure, such as Electronic Patient Records, are essential foundations for digital transformation, such as AI. The NHS has one of the largest and most comprehensive longitudinal patient datasets in the world, making it an attractive location for the development and testing of AI. The centralisation of the healthcare system streamlines data accessibility, integration, and standardisation, all of which benefit the development and deployment of AI. Part of our work will be to create the right environment for the United Kingdom to safely deploy AI at scale, and to attract AI researchers and companies that both develop for, and sell to, UK health and care.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of AI integration in health on productivity in (a) radiology and (b) oncology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have huge potential in improving productivity across the National Health Service by supporting clinicians with faster and more accurate diagnosis, enhancing clinical decision-making about treatment plans, and reducing the administrative burden faced by healthcare staff. The Department and NHS England are developing guidance for the responsible use of these tools and how they can be rolled out to make the day-to-day operations of the NHS more productive. To further support staff productivity in radiology and oncology, the Department is focusing the £21 million AI Diagnostic Fund on the integration of AI technologies in key, high-demand areas such as radiology, particularly for chest X-Rays and chest computed tomography scans, to enable faster diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in over half of acute trusts in England. The Department is also working closely with regulators to assess the impact of AI integration on healthcare staff productivity and identify new measures for providing assurance, with the launch of AI Airlock. A Medicines and Healthcare products Regulation Agency-led initiative, supported by the Department, designed to create a controlled testing environment where developers can rigorously validate AI tools in real-world clinical settings before full-scale deployment, ensuring they meet NHS standards for safety, efficacy, value for money, and integration into existing healthcare workflows, including productivity. This initiative provides valuable feedback for developers to refine their products to ensure assessments are carried out on the impact to staff before eventually being deployed into the NHS.In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), sponsored by the Department, evaluates new health technologies for NHS use, considering clinical effectiveness, value for money, and impacts on staff. As part of this, the NICE conducts Early Value Assessments (EVA) for developers, reviewing their AI tools before they are deployed. For the NHS, EVAs aim to give the NHS a clear signal about which innovations work, offer good value for money, and meet system need, including productivity gains for staff.The NHS also partnered with the Royal College of Radiologists to deliver the first Global AI Conference on 3 and 4 February 2025. AI projects across radiology, oncology, and other clinical specialties were discussed at the conference, including how AI could support radiologists and oncologists to be more productive and offer a high standard of treatment to the public. The 10-Year Health Plan is committed to reviewing how the NHS should focus its resources to ensure it maximises the impact of data and technology, including how we can make life easier and more productive for those who work in the NHS. AI will play an important role to achieve this long-term ambition by building and delivering AI capabilities, which will allow clinicians, such as radiologists and oncologists, to focus more on direct patient care and staff to spend more time on high value, high impact tasks.