Written questions by George.

What plans her Department has to review the adequacy of banking infrastructure in rural areas as part of its 10-year Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy.

The government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to rural and coastal communities and is committed to championing sufficient access for both business and personal customers. This is why the government is working with industry to roll out 350 banking hubs by the end of the Parliament. While decisions on branch provision are commercial decisions for banks themselves, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) guidance requires firms to conduct a robust impact analysis. Firms must show they have considered customer needs and identified potential reasonable alternatives. The FCA also expects engagement with stakeholders at least 12 weeks before closure and firms must ensure that any replacement services, such as banking hubs, are in place before a branch closes. These measures aim to ensure closures are implemented fairly and transparently. The FCA also has responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. As part of this responsibility, the FCA must also seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities in relation to personal current accounts, and requires LINK, as the cash coordination body, to make a cash access assessment when a branch or ATM closes. In circumstances where LINK considers that a community requires additional cash services, the financial services sector will provide a suitable shared solution, such as an ATM, cash deposit service, or shared banking hub, for cash users in that community. Alternative options for personal and business customers to access banking include the online and mobile banking, telephone banking and the Post Office. The Post Office Banking Framework allows personal and business customers to withdraw and deposit cash, check their balance, pay bills and cash cheques at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK. The Post Office is required by the Department for Business & Trade to ensure that 95% of the total rural population across the UK is within 3 miles of their nearest Post Office. The government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy sets out a 10-year plan to ensure the UK remains a leading global financial centre, supporting innovation, investment, and consumer access. While the strategy focuses on growth and competitiveness across the sector, we recognise the importance of access to banking services in rural communities. HM Treasury continues to work closely with the financial services industry, regulators, and stakeholders to monitor provision and explore solutions, such as shared banking hubs and digital infrastructure, to maintain access to essential services.

What progress she has made on implementing the provisions in Schedule 8 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 on access to cash; and what discussions she has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the effectiveness of its powers to enforce those provisions.

The Government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those in vulnerable groups, and is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 granted the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) the responsibility and powers to seek to ensure the reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. The FCA introduced regulatory rules to protect access to cash in September 2024. Its rules ensure cash continues to be a viable method of payment for the millions of people who depend on it by providing reasonable access to cash withdrawal and deposit facilities for individuals and businesses, including free services for personal accounts. The FCA is required by law to keep its rules under review and has been closely monitoring the impact and effectiveness of their regime during its first year. It will commence a formal evaluation of its regime in due course. The Government meets regularly with the FCA to discuss a range of topics.

What plans the Government has to promote (a) community banking models and (b) cooperative financial institutions to improve access to banking services in underserved areas.

The Government recognises the importance of diversity in the UK financial services sector, including community banking and co-operative models such as credit unions. These institutions provide valuable options for local communities, including underserved areas, by offering savings products and affordable credit.To support this, the Government is pursuing plans to reform the credit union common bond, making it easier for credit unions to grow and serve more members. We have also asked the FCA and PRA to publish a report on the mutuals landscape by the end of 2025 to inform future policy development.In addition, some building societies are exploring innovative ways to deliver banking services alongside their branch networks, such as through multi-bank kiosks with deposit ATMs. The Government welcomes these industry-led initiatives that improve access to banking services for customers.

What discussions she has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the adequacy of its guidance on ensuring access to banking services for rural and coastal communities, in the context of (a) branch and (b) ATM closures.

The government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to rural and coastal communities and is committed to championing sufficient access for both business and personal customers. This is why the government is working with industry to roll out 350 banking hubs by the end of the Parliament. While decisions on branch provision are commercial decisions for banks themselves, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) guidance requires firms to conduct a robust impact analysis. Firms must show they have considered customer needs and identified potential reasonable alternatives. The FCA also expects engagement with stakeholders at least 12 weeks before closure and firms must ensure that any replacement services, such as banking hubs, are in place before a branch closes. These measures aim to ensure closures are implemented fairly and transparently. The FCA also has responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. As part of this responsibility, the FCA must also seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities in relation to personal current accounts, and requires LINK, as the cash coordination body, to make a cash access assessment when a branch or ATM closes. In circumstances where LINK considers that a community requires additional cash services, the financial services sector will provide a suitable shared solution, such as an ATM, cash deposit service, or shared banking hub, for cash users in that community. Alternative options for personal and business customers to access banking include the online and mobile banking, telephone banking and the Post Office. The Post Office Banking Framework allows personal and business customers to withdraw and deposit cash, check their balance, pay bills and cash cheques at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK. The Post Office is required by the Department for Business & Trade to ensure that 95% of the total rural population across the UK is within 3 miles of their nearest Post Office. The government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy sets out a 10-year plan to ensure the UK remains a leading global financial centre, supporting innovation, investment, and consumer access. While the strategy focuses on growth and competitiveness across the sector, we recognise the importance of access to banking services in rural communities. HM Treasury continues to work closely with the financial services industry, regulators, and stakeholders to monitor provision and explore solutions, such as shared banking hubs and digital infrastructure, to maintain access to essential services.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises have access to affordable banking services in rural areas.

The government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to rural and coastal communities and is committed to championing sufficient access for both business and personal customers. This is why the government is working with industry to roll out 350 banking hubs by the end of the Parliament. While decisions on branch provision are commercial decisions for banks themselves, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) guidance requires firms to conduct a robust impact analysis. Firms must show they have considered customer needs and identified potential reasonable alternatives. The FCA also expects engagement with stakeholders at least 12 weeks before closure and firms must ensure that any replacement services, such as banking hubs, are in place before a branch closes. These measures aim to ensure closures are implemented fairly and transparently. The FCA also has responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. As part of this responsibility, the FCA must also seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities in relation to personal current accounts, and requires LINK, as the cash coordination body, to make a cash access assessment when a branch or ATM closes. In circumstances where LINK considers that a community requires additional cash services, the financial services sector will provide a suitable shared solution, such as an ATM, cash deposit service, or shared banking hub, for cash users in that community. Alternative options for personal and business customers to access banking include the online and mobile banking, telephone banking and the Post Office. The Post Office Banking Framework allows personal and business customers to withdraw and deposit cash, check their balance, pay bills and cash cheques at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK. The Post Office is required by the Department for Business & Trade to ensure that 95% of the total rural population across the UK is within 3 miles of their nearest Post Office. The government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy sets out a 10-year plan to ensure the UK remains a leading global financial centre, supporting innovation, investment, and consumer access. While the strategy focuses on growth and competitiveness across the sector, we recognise the importance of access to banking services in rural communities. HM Treasury continues to work closely with the financial services industry, regulators, and stakeholders to monitor provision and explore solutions, such as shared banking hubs and digital infrastructure, to maintain access to essential services.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with counterparts in (a) Austria, (b) Sweden, (c) Switzerland, (d) Norway, (e) Germany, and (f) New Zealand on their (i) banning and (ii) phasing out of farrowing crates for pigs; and what assessment she has made of the outcomes of those bans on (A) sow welfare, (B) piglet mortality, (C) farming sector viability, (D) farm-level adaptation, and (E) regulatory enforcement.

We have regular engagement with counterparts in other countries on farmed animal welfare issues, including on cages and other close confinement systems.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of a ban on farrowing crates on pig production capacity.

We remain firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards. The use of farrowing crates for pigs is an issue which we are currently considering very carefully, including impacts on the pig industry.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of imported pork produced using farrowing crates on the competitiveness of UK farmers that do not use farrowing crates.

The Government supports both a competitive farming sector and the need to maintain high animal welfare standards in the UK. No such assessment has been undertaken. No data is held on the production method of imported pork.

Whether his Department plans to (a) (i) develop and (ii) adopt a list of hazardous medicinal products and (b) require safety data sheets for finished medicines; and if he will take steps with the Health and Safety Executive to make such a list publicly available to NHS employers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has no current plans to develop or adopt a list of hazardous medicinal products. The GB Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Chemicals Regulations 2009 (GB CLP) is disapplied to medicinal products in their finished state as outlined in Article 1(5)(a) of GB CLP. Furthermore, the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Regulations 2006 include an exemption from the need to provide a safety data sheet (SDS) for substances and mixtures intended for medicinal products. This occurs to avoid duplication when other more specific legislation exists to regulate those uses. Medicinal products for human and veterinary use, which are within the scope of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 or the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013, are partially exempt from REACH for this reason. The responsibility for the REACH legislation lies with the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

What steps he is taking to promote the use of (a) biological safety cabinets, (b) closed-system drug-transfer devices and (c) other engineering controls during (i) preparation and (ii) administration of hazardous medicinal products; and whether he plans to provide funding for NHS trusts to implement those controls.

Where hazardous medicinal products (HMPs) are substances hazardous to health subject to The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as amended) (COSHH) employers, including NHS Trusts, are required to comply with the requirements of these regulations. The regulations require employers who prepare and administer substances hazardous to health to undertake a risk assessment, the purpose of which is to make valid decisions about the measures needed to prevent, or where this is not reasonably practicable, adequately control the exposure of their employees to substances hazardous to health. If it is not reasonably practicable for an employer to prevent exposure, the regulations require that the exposure of employees is adequately controlled and through the risk assessment process that the employer considers and identifies the control measures that should be implemented. Priority should be given to those controls that contain or minimise the release of contaminants and the spread of hazardous substances into the workplace. The Approved Code of Practice and guidance to the COSHH regulations provides employers with detailed information and guidance on the requirements of the regulations. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has also produced specific guidance on it’s website on the Safe handling of cytotoxic drugs in the workplace, which are one particular type of HMP.

If he will review the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 to ensure that hazardous medicinal products with reprotoxic effects are controlled to the same standard as (a) carcinogens and (b) mutagens.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has no current plans to amend The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) (as amended). These regulations place duties on all employers to assess the risk and ensure that the exposure of their employees to substances hazardous to health is either prevented or, where this is not reasonably practicable, adequately controlled. This includes any hazardous substances within hazardous medicinal products. COSHH requires employers to carry out their risk assessments to establish the hazards arising from work activities, including the products and processes being used, and for the employer to put measures in place to control those risks. The risk assessment must take into account the properties of the hazardous substance and how and when they can give rise to risks to health. If exposure cannot be prevented, employers must implement an effective programme of management procedures and put in place and maintain suitable and sufficient control measures to mitigate against the risks to health posed by any such exposure.

What estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) nurses and (b) other healthcare professionals exposed to hazardous medicinal products.

The Department has not made an estimate of the number of (a) nurses and (b) other healthcare professionals exposed to hazardous medicinal products.Any incidents involving staff exposure to hazardous medical products are reported and handled through local National Health Service body reporting procedures. Risk assessments should be undertaken routinely and mitigations put in place to minimise any environmental exposure to health care professionals (and others) relating to “hazardous medicinal products”.

What research his Department has commissioned on (a) reproductive health incomes and (b) other long-term health effects of occupational exposure to hazardous medicinal products among nursing staff; and what assessment he has made of the costs to the NHS of sickness absence related to such exposure.

The Government has not commissioned any research on the reproductive health outcomes or long-term health effects of the occupational exposure of nursing staff to hazardous medicinal products. No assessment has been made of the cost to the National Health Service of sickness absence related to this.Sickness absence is managed at an organisational level across the NHS. NHS organisations have their own policies and procedures in place to manage and reduce sickness absence, including any reasonable adjustments to allow people to return to work and/or prevent future absence. It is important that employers across the NHS take a preventative and proactive approach to supporting their staff and keeping them healthy.

If he will make an assessment of the adequacy of support for low income workers.

This Government is committed to supporting low income workers to boost their earnings and progress in work.DWP offers work coach support in Jobcentres and a variety of contracted employment programmes to help people into work.As part of our plans to Get Britain Working, we will create a new Jobs and Careers Service to give everyone access to employment support, not just those on benefits.

What steps he is taking to help ensure that workforce planning maintains the full complement of (a) staffing and (b) skills needed to deliver the highly specialised sarcoma services commissioned by NHS England commissions across all fifteen Specialist Sarcoma Centres in England.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, including for the delivery of cancer services. The plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it, including for patients with sarcoma. We are working through how the plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups.Cancer Alliances are a valuable part of how we transform and improve cancer services across the country. The way that alliances work with primary care, trusts, and integrated care boards (ICBs) across their geography, as well as charity and other partners, gives them a unique perspective on the workforce. ICBs and trusts have primary responsibility for the workforce, but alliances can bring together expertise from across these different ICBs and trusts to deliver new training where there are specific skill gaps, championing the introduction of new roles, or transforming the way people or pathways work to improve productivity.

Whether his Department plans to maintain an NHS England commissioned specialist sarcoma service for people in Cornwall under the Peninsula Soft Tissue Sarcoma Service at the Royal Cornwall Treliske Hospital in Truro.

The Peninsula Soft Tissue Sarcoma Service continues to provide cancer care to patients suspected of having or having been diagnosed with sarcoma at sites across Devon and Cornwall, including in the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro (RCHT). However, RCHT has notified NHS England that it is unable to continue to provide the commissioned service in its entirety due to consultant workforce issues that it has been unable to resolve.NHS England recognises the concerns of sarcoma patients locally, and discussions are ongoing to agree a sustainable future service model. Further information will be shared in due course.

What steps NHS England plans to take to maintain access to the Peninsula Soft Tissue Sarcoma Service in Cornwall.

The Peninsula Soft Tissue Sarcoma Service continues to provide cancer care to patients suspected of having or having been diagnosed with sarcoma at sites across Devon and Cornwall, including in the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro (RCHT). However, RCHT has notified NHS England that it is unable to continue to provide the commissioned service in its entirety due to consultant workforce issues that it has been unable to resolve.NHS England recognises the concerns of sarcoma patients locally, and discussions are ongoing to agree a sustainable future service model. Further information will be shared in due course.

Communities and Local Government, if he will review election regulations.

This government is committed to strengthening our democracy and upholding the integrity of our elections. Between October 2024 and April 2025, the government worked in partnership with the electoral sector to carry out a strategic review of electoral registration and conduct, focused on improving resilience, reducing risk in the delivery of elections, and supporting voters. The outcomes of the Review were set out in the Government’s Strategy for Modern and Secure Elections, published in July 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help raise awareness in local communities on the concept of community-led housing delivery via community land trusts.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 74018 on 16 September 2025.

Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help ensure that (a) incoming and (b) existing Mayors of combined authorities are set targets for community-led housing in local growth plans.

Local Growth Plans provide a long-term strategic framework for growth in their regions, and all mayors will be required to produce and publish one. The plans articulate a ten-year vision for growth, identifying shared priorities to be taken forward with the UK Government. As locally led plans, MSAs may identify priorities in relation to housing where relevant in their Local Growth Plans. In addition, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill enables mayors of combined authorities to specify an amount of housing (of any kind) in their spatial development strategies, where they consider it to be of strategic importance to the strategy area.