Written questions by Maguire.

What plans her Department has to introduce legislation on driving licence requirements for motorcycle and moped delivery riders; and what timetable she envisages for bringing forward such legislation.

On 7 January 2026 we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all. This includes a consultation on proposed reforms to the training, testing and licensing for motorcycles and mopeds. Further steps will be announced after the consultation closes on 31 March 2026.

If she will implement a mechanism for people to report delays and overcrowding on Great British Railway trains.

Great British Railways will have a duty to promote high standards of performance, and will be relentless in delivering for passengers, freight customers and taxpayers across the country. If passengers encounter any issues, they will be able to raise these with GBR in the first instance. The Passenger Watchdog will ensure all passengers have access to a fair and independent alternative dispute resolution service (the Rail Ombudsman) to resolve disputes with operators where passengers have been let down.For the first time, we have made station-specific performance information available to passengers. This shows reliability and punctuality at each station, rather than aggregated averages by operator or region. Providing this transparency allows the public to hold us to account and will help rebuild trust as we tackle the root causes of delays and cancellations.

What discussions he has had with Capita on its performance in delivering civil servant pensions.

The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. The issues and delays facing a number of civil servants and pension scheme members in receiving their pension quotes are unacceptable. I want to reassure you that this Government has taken firm action to help put things right as soon as possible. We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery. For priority cases, we have deployed additional resources and improved communication with affected colleagues, so that staff, both former and serving, receive the quality of service and support they deserve. Existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been enhanced and strengthened to deliver improved performance and higher penalties for failure, including financial penalties. These have already applied in respect to Capita's performance with recent issues and delays in administering the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Capita prioritised the most urgent cases and by the end of February, all death in service cases were either settled or progressed to the final stage or awaiting a member response. The same position was reached for ill health retirement applications by mid-March. Capita has made lump sum payments to 8,979 members, the majority of whom have retired but are not yet receiving their pension, and are on track to bring these members into regular pension payments by the end of April. To provide immediate financial support to those who may need it, arrangements are in place for interest-free bridging loans typically up to £5,000 or £10,000 in exceptional cases to most recent retirees facing payment delays. This is alongside interim lump sum payments being made to provide immediate funds to retiring members. The pension scheme continues to make monthly pension payments to approximately 730,000 existing pensioner members on time.The latest position of the Civil Service Pension Recovery Plan Update is available at this weblink: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-pension-recovery-plan-updates

What steps his Department is taking to ensure retired civil servants receive pensions via Capita.

The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. The issues and delays facing a number of civil servants and pension scheme members in receiving their pension quotes are unacceptable. I want to reassure you that this Government has taken firm action to help put things right as soon as possible. We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery. For priority cases, we have deployed additional resources and improved communication with affected colleagues, so that staff, both former and serving, receive the quality of service and support they deserve. Existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been enhanced and strengthened to deliver improved performance and higher penalties for failure, including financial penalties. These have already applied in respect to Capita's performance with recent issues and delays in administering the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Capita prioritised the most urgent cases and by the end of February, all death in service cases were either settled or progressed to the final stage or awaiting a member response. The same position was reached for ill health retirement applications by mid-March. Capita has made lump sum payments to 8,979 members, the majority of whom have retired but are not yet receiving their pension, and are on track to bring these members into regular pension payments by the end of April. To provide immediate financial support to those who may need it, arrangements are in place for interest-free bridging loans typically up to £5,000 or £10,000 in exceptional cases to most recent retirees facing payment delays. This is alongside interim lump sum payments being made to provide immediate funds to retiring members. The pension scheme continues to make monthly pension payments to approximately 730,000 existing pensioner members on time.The latest position of the Civil Service Pension Recovery Plan Update is available at this weblink: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-pension-recovery-plan-updates

How many urgent dental appointments were delivered in each month from January 2024 to January 2025.

The following table shows the number of National Health Service urgent treatments delivered each year between 2020/21 and 2024/25:Financial yearNumber of urgent dental treatments delivered2024/253,658,2732023/243,674,7102022/233,785,9522021/223,819,2262020/213,646,868Source: NHS Business Services Authority, Dental statistics - England 2024/25, avaiable at the following link: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202425 Comparable monthly data on the number of urgent dental appointments delivered is not published. We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most. The Surrey Heartlands ICB, which includes the Epsom and Ewell constituency, has been asked to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.Data on delivery of urgent dental care, including additional delivery, will be published annually as part of the NHS Dental Statistics England Official Statistics series. These statistics are released each August and are the primary source of data on the delivery of NHS dental care.

With reference to his Department's press release of 21 February 2025 entitled Dental patients to benefit from 700,000 extra urgent appointments, how many of the additional urgent care appointments were purchased in 2025 by integrated care board.

The following table shows the number of National Health Service urgent treatments delivered each year between 2020/21 and 2024/25:Financial yearNumber of urgent dental treatments delivered2024/253,658,2732023/243,674,7102022/233,785,9522021/223,819,2262020/213,646,868Source: NHS Business Services Authority, Dental statistics - England 2024/25, avaiable at the following link: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202425 Comparable monthly data on the number of urgent dental appointments delivered is not published. We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most. The Surrey Heartlands ICB, which includes the Epsom and Ewell constituency, has been asked to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.Data on delivery of urgent dental care, including additional delivery, will be published annually as part of the NHS Dental Statistics England Official Statistics series. These statistics are released each August and are the primary source of data on the delivery of NHS dental care.

How many urgent dental appointments were delivered each year from 2020 up to and including 2025.

The following table shows the number of National Health Service urgent treatments delivered each year between 2020/21 and 2024/25:Financial yearNumber of urgent dental treatments delivered2024/253,658,2732023/243,674,7102022/233,785,9522021/223,819,2262020/213,646,868Source: NHS Business Services Authority, Dental statistics - England 2024/25, available at the following link: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202425 Comparable monthly data on the number of urgent dental appointments delivered is not published. We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most. The Surrey Heartlands ICB, which includes the Epsom and Ewell constituency, has been asked to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.Data on delivery of urgent dental care, including additional delivery, will be published annually as part of the NHS Dental Statistics England Official Statistics series. These statistics are released each August and are the primary source of data on the delivery of NHS dental care.

What steps his Department is taking to encourage the use of digitalised the Learning Disability Health Passport across ICBs.

NHS England published guidance in June 2024 on health and care passports, which are designed to provide health and social care professionals with essential information about people with a learning disability and other disabled people to ensure appropriate care and treatment. Further information is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/health-and-care-passports/The guidance makes clear that the passport can be in a physical or digital form, or a combination of formats, and that embedding the passport should take account of local population needs, local digital strategies, and reasonable adjustments.The National Health Service is working towards a digitally enabled health and social care system to allow information to flow between IT systems, care providers, and settings. However, there remains a significant digital inclusion gap for people with a disability, so digital approaches must remain inclusive and avoid excluding those experiencing digital poverty.Local systems are therefore encouraged to make both paper and digital versions of the passport available, and to explore ways to convert paper-based passports into digital formats to support interoperability. This aligns with the principles set out in NHS England’s guidance.

Communities and Local Government, if he will meet the Gardens Trust to discuss plans to remove the organisation as a statutory consultee.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 103649 on 14 January 2026.

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure people with learning disabilities receive screenings for cervical cancer.

The Government is committed to its ambition to change the National Health Service so that it diagnoses earlier and treats faster. The NHS Cervical Screening Programme plays a vital role in this. Across the NHS, local systems and partnerships are working together to find ways to make cervical screening more accessible for people with a learning disability.Following the launch of the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard, NHS England is considering the role this digital flag has in further personalisation in the programme.Reasonable adjustments can include:a longer or double appointment;information in other languages or formats, or an interpreter;a chaperone in the room; and/oran appointment with a trusted doctor or nurse who the individual already has a good relationship with.Additionally, in early 2026, the NHS Cervical Screening Programme will be offering a self-testing kit to under-screened women, starting with those who are the most overdue for screening. This will help tackle deeply entrenched barriers that keep some away from screening.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of removing the Gardens Trust as a statutory consultee on local planning authorities.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 103649 on 14 January 2026.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of removing the Gardens Trust's status as a statutory consultee on protecting registered parks and gardens.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 103649 on 14 January 2026.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of State Pension age changes on 1950s-born women living in Epsom and Ewell constituency.

All women born since 6 April 1950 have been affected by changes to State Pension age. Estimates can be made with ONS 2022 Census Data of how many women born in the 1950s were resident in each constituency in that year.

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people with learning disabilities do not remain in hospital beds when there is no medical need for them to do so.

Our 10-Year Health Plan sets out to tackle health inequalities and offer people more holistic, on-going support in the community. It is important that people are discharged promptly from hospital with the right support, both for their outcomes, and to free up beds for other patients.The Department is working to ensure that patients, including people with a learning disability, can leave hospital promptly by strengthening access to appropriate community-based services. Local systems, supported through the £9 billion Better Care Fund, are required to plan jointly for integrated health and social care that supports individuals to live independently. This includes commissioning supported living arrangements, residential care where needed, and tailored packages of domiciliary care. For 2025/26, National Health Service trusts have been asked to focus on eliminating discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by issues within acute hospitals, and to work with local authorities on eliminate the longest delays, starting with those of over 21 days. NHS Operational Planning Guidance also sets an objective to deliver a minimum 10% reduction in the use of mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people in 2025/26. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework maintains this focus, with an ambition for a 10% year-on-year reduction up to 2028/29.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of reinstating the annual health check target of 75% for people with learning disabilities.

The Department and NHS England have not undertaken a specific assessment of reinstating the 75% annual health check target for people with a learning disability. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, wrote to general practitioners (GPs) in October 2025 emphasising the importance of the learning disability register and providing high quality annual health checks. These checks are the first line of defence for people with a learning disability, many of whom live with additional health needs, including long-term conditions. Strong support from GPs to maintain learning disability annual health checks has enabled more people than ever before to receive a health check and health action plan, an increase of more than 20% since 2020. As of March 2025, 81.5% of eligible people on the GP learning disability register received an annual health check, surpassing the previous 75% National Health Service target.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of non-explicit sexual content and promotional material for adult services on social media platforms; and what steps she is taking to help reduce associated risks, particularly for children and young people.

Under the Online Safety Act, services likely to be accessed by children are required to use highly effective age assurance to prevent children encountering pornography. Ofcom acknowledge in their guidance that suggestive content of a kind that might be expected to feature in an advertisement, may not be pornographic, but still may be inappropriate for children of certain age groups and require protections for them.The Advertising Standards Authority requires the content of adverts to be socially responsible, to ensure vulnerable people, including children and young people, are protected. The UK Non-Broadcast Advertising Code specifies that adverts for age-restricted products are not targeted at children.

When the Off-Road Machinery Decarbonisation Strategy will be published.

The Department is working closely with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the development of the Off-Road Machinery Decarbonisation Strategy. Further details of which, including publication timeline, will be shared in due course.

Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 102833 on 12 January 2026.

What steps his Department is taking to regulate health advice on AI overviews on internet browsers.

NHS England and the Department are taking steps to ensure that health related information is easily available and well-structured to support safe and reliable answers by artificial intelligence (AI), including AI overviews in internet browsers. The NHS.UK website and information provided through the NHS App on different health conditions is clinically assured and we are working with different technology providers to encourage the use of verified and trusted health information to train their AI models to provide content to citizens.Where AI tools meet the definition of a medical device, they fall under the regulation of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). General‑purpose AI systems that do not qualify as medical devices, such as AI‑generated summaries within search engines, may fall within the scope of the Online Safety Act. Services covered by the act must protect users from illegal and harmful content, including misleading health information. The Government has asked Ofcom to use its existing powers to safeguard users and will consider further action if needed.

How many and what proportion of people admitted to hospital in (a) England and (b) Surrey were aged between (i) 30- 39 and (ii) 40 and 49, (iii) 50 and 59 in the past year.

NHS England does not publish hospital admissions broken down by age. Instead, it publishes numbers of ‘Finished Consultant Episodes’ (FCEs) which means a completed hospital treatment session under a consultant. This data is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity/2024-25NHS England publishes data by financial year, meaning the most recent available dataset relates to 2024/25. The following table shows the number and proportion of FCEs by age for patients aged 30 to 39 years old, 40 to 49 years old, and 50 to 59 years old in England in 2024/25:AgeFCEsPercentage of total FCEs30 to 392,224,5319.9%40 to 491,823,6608.1%50 to 592,609,20711.6% The information is collected at integrated care board (ICB) level, not by county. In addition, the following table shows the number and proportion of FCEs by age for patients aged 30 to 39 years old, 40 to 49 years old, and 50 to 59 years old in the NHS Frimley ICB and the NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB, both of which are within Surrey, in 2024/25: NHS Frimley ICBNHS Surrey Heartlands ICBAgeFCEsPercentage of total FCEsFCEsPercentage of total FCEs30 to 3924,03010.3%39,66510.0%40 to 4919,5858.4%32,7158.3%50 to 5926,76511.5%44,30511.2%