Written questions by Farron.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that funding for radiotherapy cancer treatments addresses regional inequalities in access to (a) advanced radiotherapy techniques and (b) radiotherapy satellite centres; and if he will include an assessment the potential implications for his policies of such inequalities in the NHS 10 year plan.

NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met. These responsibilities include considering adequate healthcare provision, care, and wider support for local populations, including in remote and rural areas. This includes radiotherapy treatment. The Government will work to ensure that the best standard of healthcare is available no matter where people live.Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus of the 10-Year Health Plan, to ensure the National Health Service is there for anyone who needs it whenever they need it. We have established 11 working groups to take forward policy development that will feed into the plan. This includes working groups focused on how care should be designed and delivered to improve healthcare equity, alongside ensuring that access to healthcare services is effective and responsive.

How many radiotherapy machines are (a) over the 10-year recommended age and (b) at risk of being out of date by the end of 2025; and how many of such machines he plans to replaced with funding announced in paragraph 2.71 of the Autumn Budget 2024.

The Government will continue to support the provision of radiotherapy machines, however, since April 2022 the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines has been with local systems. NHS England will allocate funding to trusts to purchase new radiotherapy machines, and trusts may purchase different types of machines. Therefore, it is not yet known how many machines will be purchased.The number of radiotherapy machines in use which are over the 10-year recommended age is not published by NHS England.

If his Department will make an assessment of the adequacy of radiotherapy infrastructure.

There are currently no plans to make an assessment of radiotherapy infrastructure.

What percentage of cancer patients have access to radiotherapy as their primary treatment; and what assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for his policies of barriers to increasing that percentage.

Radiotherapy is available to all patients. Clinicians will help patients to determine the best treatment option for their cancer. No assessment has been made of the potential implications, as all patients have access to radiotherapy treatment on the National Health Service.

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the public switched telephone network switch-off on rural communities in Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency.

The Government is determined to ensure that any and all risks incurred during the industry-led migration from the analogue landline network to voice over internet protocol are mitigated. On 18 November 2024, the Department published guidance for communica...

Whether her Department conducted a lessons learned review of the EU settlement scheme digital status service.

The Home Office conducted an end-programme lessons learnt review on the roll out of the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), of which the digital status service is part. We published two private beta reports setting out key findings of the test phases of the EUSS...

Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the value of government subsidies to farmers in 2024.

The Government has committed to support farmers through a budget of £5 billion over the next two years, including £2.6 billion in 2024/25.

If he will make it his policy to retrieve the subsidy payments made to the Drax power station.

Ofgem’s recent investigation did not find any evidence to suggest that Drax had been issued with subsidies incorrectly. Whilst Drax complied with sustainability standards, it had failed to report data accurately. This is a serious matter and Government ex...

Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps to ensure that there is no enforced switch off of the public switched telephone network before he has made an assessment of the impact of this change on rural comm

The Government is determined to ensure that any and all risks incurred during the industry-led migration from the analogue landline network to voice over internet protocol are mitigated. On 18 November 2024, the Department published guidance for communica...

Innovation and Technology, if he will make it his policy to ensure the adequacy of mobile connectivity in Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency before the switch-off of the public switched telephone network.

Opinions vary as to what constitutes ‘good’ mobile connectivity and I have raised my concerns about the reporting of connectivity with Ofcom, but according to Ofcom’s Connected Nations report (published on 5 December 2024), 4G indoor premises coverage is ...

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the number of properties in Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency without good mobile connectivity.

Opinions vary as to what constitutes ‘good’ mobile connectivity and I have raised my concerns about the reporting of connectivity with Ofcom, but according to Ofcom’s Connected Nations report (published on 5 December 2024), 4G indoor premises coverage is ...

What steps he is taking to help recruit social care workers in Cumbria.

We are launching a national recruitment campaign in February to encourage suitable candidates to apply for immediate vacancies by highlighting the varied and rewarding work available. We have also introduced legislation to deliver the first Fair Pay Agree...

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to provide top-up payments to farmers to compensate for the loss of direct payments.

The Government announced the reductions it intends to apply to delinked payments for 2025. The Government is accelerating the end of the era of payouts to large and wealthy landowners simply for owning land. The fastest reductions in subsidies will be to ...

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that farmers can engage in environmentally sustainable farming projects during winter 2024-25.

Environmental Land Management schemes remain at the centre of our offer for farmers, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery all continuing. There are now over 60,000 live agreements across these ...

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farmers with managing flooding in winter 2024-25.

The Farming Recovery Fund was set up to support farmers affected by unprecedented extreme wet weather last winter (October 2023 to March 2024). Through these one-off recovery payments, £57.5 million has now been paid to over 12,700 farm businesses to help...

If she will provide additional funding for Westmorland and Furness Council to maintain cycleways.

The Government takes the condition of local highway assets, including roads and cycleways, very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local highway network. As a local highway authority, Westmorland and Furness Council is responsible ...

What recent discussions he has had with international partners on the future of the JET fusion project.

JET has been at the forefront of fusion research and innovation, and its final experiments produced a world record in energy output. However, JET is now 40 years old. An evaluation undertaken by EUROfusion in 2016 concluded that upgrades to JET did not pr...

What tailored support she plans to provide to refugees to access (a) training and (b) employment after the closure of the Refugee Employment Programme in June 2025.

The Refugee Employability Programme (REP) was designed as a time-bound programme. It will come to a natural end in June 2025 in line with the contract delivery timelines.All refugees will continue to have access to mainstream services to support their tra...

How many people in Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency received radiotherapy treatment at the Rosemere Cancer Centre Royal Preston Hospital in each month in each of the last four years.

The Department does not hold information regarding how many patients from a particular constituency are treated in a specific hospital. Data regarding radiotherapy treatment is published monthly by NHS England.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Employment Rights Bill on the prevention of exploitation of migrant workers by employers that threaten to cancel visas.

The Employment Rights Bill will provide a new baseline of security for all workers, including those working on a visa. These protections include day one protection from unfair dismissal, increasing protection from harassment, strengthening Statutory Sick ...