On 31 December 2023, there were 18 pharmacies in St Helens North constituency. Between 31 March 2019 and 31 December 2023, no pharmacies closed in St Helens North, and no new pharmacies opened. This year, there has been one closure in February 2024, as a result consolidation. Consolidation is a merger of two pharmacy businesses, and does not create a gap in the provision of pharmaceutical services.

Access to pharmaceutical services remains good, with 95% of the population of St Helens North living within a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy. This exceeds the national average of 80%. Residents of St Helens North can also access services from distance selling pharmacies that operate nationally.

It is the role of local authorities in England to undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas, every three years, to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. Integrated care boards (ICBs) have regard to those assessments when commissioning services, and where a pharmacy closure impacts the access to services, a new contractor can apply to open a pharmacy in the area.

The Government is committed to supporting people of all incomes and at all stages of life to save, and to making the aspiration of home ownership a reality for as many households as possible.

The Lifetime ISA is intended to support younger people saving for their first home or for later life by offering a generous government bonus of 25% on up to £4,000 of savings each year. These funds, including the government bonus, can be used to purchase a first home up to the value of £450,000.

The Government remains of the view that the property price cap is set at an appropriate level to support most first-time buyers across the UK while targeting households that may find it most difficult to get onto the property ladder. The withdrawal charge is needed to protect the LISA’s status as a long-term savings product. Reducing this and would encourage the use of LISAs in ways for which they were not intended.

The Government does not undertake an assessment of the effectiveness of the LISA by region, however the Government regularly publishes annual savings statistics, which includes information on the LISA. (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2022)

The Government will continue to keep all aspects of savings tax policy under review and considers all representations made carefully, with any changes made as part of the Budget process.

Data on the number of supported asylum seekers residing in St Helens (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The information requested is not held centrally.

The department’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, backed by £200 million per year to 2025, provides heathy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families over the holidays. Local authorities have flexibility in how the programme can be delivered to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) or additional needs who are in receipt of free school meals, ensuring it is tailored to meet the needs of those children and their families.

HAF is a voluntary programme for eligible children, and families can therefore choose whether their children attend. It is pleasing that the programme reached so many children last summer.

This year, the department has allocated £751,570 to the St Helens local authority, building on the £743,290 that was allocated to them for 2022/23.

We are unable to disclose publicly the specific location of any of our asylum accommodation in order to maintain the privacy and security of those accommodated and of staff who support destitute asylum seekers.

Local councils are responsible for keeping their public land clear of litter and refuse. The role of Government is to enable and support local action.

Our Litter Strategy for England sets out how we are, among other things, supporting local councils. Progress reports are available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/litter-strategy-for-england-progress-reports.

Our new Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan sets out how we are going further by supporting councils to take tougher action against those who litter. This includes significantly raising the upper limit on fixed penalty notices from £150 to £500, and introducing measures to help councils and others carry out more enforcement activity.

In the Spring Budget 2023, my right hon. Friend, Chancellor of the Exchequer announced transformative reforms to childcare.

By 2027/28, the government expects to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping families with pre-school children with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England. Full details are accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-unveils-a-budget-for-growth.

Our reforms include:

• Providing over £4.1 billion by 2027/28 to fund 30 hours of free childcare for children over the age of nine months.
• Investing £204 million from this September, rising to £288 million next year, to uplift the rates for existing entitlements.
• Increasing the supply of wraparound care through £289 million start-up funding.
• Attracting more people to childminding through an up to £7.2 million start-up grant fund.
• Giving providers more flexibility by changing staff to child ratios to 1:5 for two-year-olds in England.
• Launching a consultation on further measures to support reform of the childcare market.

This is a massive expansion in the offer and will take some time to implement and rollout. We want to ensure that taxpayers’ money is used efficiently, and that the new offer is delivered in the best way.

The department is working closely with the sector on the implementation of these reforms, to identify what needs to be in place to support this significant expansion in childcare provision. We will set out further details in due course.

​The department’s Childcare Choices communications campaign aims to ensure parents, including families in St Helens, know about the government-funded support they are eligible for. ​The government has doubled the entitlement for working parents of three and four-year-olds to 30 hours and introduced 15 free hours a week for disadvantaged two-year-olds. In addition, working parents on Universal Credit may be eligible for help with up to 85% of their childcare costs every month. More information is available at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.

Details on the full range of support available to parents can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs.

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) provides a discount on the wholesale element of gas and electricity bills to ensure that all eligible small businesses that receive their energy from licensed suppliers, are protected from high energy costs over the winter period. The EBRS discount is applied directly to the energy bills of eligible businesses by their energy providers. Therefore the Government does not currently have a breakdown of support received by location.

The National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), part of NHS Digital, collects data on all cancers diagnosed in England.

There were 9 diagnoses of cervical cancer in St Helens in 2020, the most recent complete diagnosis year available for analysis, and 71 diagnoses in the Merseyside region.

This information is not held centrally in the format requested.

This information is not collected in the format requested.

This information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The latest available data by region, including the North West region containing St Helens, published here (in Table 1A (v)), shows that in July 2022 the end to end (from registration to DWP decision) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) journey time in the North West was 18 weeks, down from 27 weeks in August 2021.

We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through PIP in a timely manner, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service, including using a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments, increasing case manager and assessment provider health professional resource, and prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding the continuity of existing awards to ensure they do not go out of payment.

The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support. Data are published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published on 25 August 2022.

The next quarterly figures are due to be released in November 2022. The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of these statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers accommodated in a specific type of accommodation. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on offences involving knives / sharp instruments or firearms at the Police Force Area level only.

Information for Merseyside police can be found in the Home Office Open Data Tables, available here: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)