What steps her Department is taking to improve bus services in York Outer constituency.

It is vital that local bus services work for local communities, and that is at the heart of the Government’s bus reforms. I encourage the local operators to consider the feedback that my hon. Friend has mentioned, recognising the role that bus services play in supporting people to meet their families and friends and make important visits, such as to the crematorium.

Last week, I held a survey of my constituents on bus services. I got a great response, but one response stayed with me. My constituent said that the No. 11 bus—the only route to the crematorium—does not run on Sundays, meaning that they cannot visit loved ones on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, the days that hurt most. Reading that put a real lump in my throat. No one should be stopped from remembering those they have lost because of a bus not running, so I have written to the operator, but will the Minister join me in arguing that this is the sort of practical, kind change we need to make across the country?

We are taking ambitious steps to improve local bus services, including in York and North Yorkshire. These have included the allocation of £12.6 million of funding in 2025-26 through the local authority bus grant. I was pleased that my hon. Friend could join me, alongside the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, to discuss their participation in our bus franchising pilots.

The Department has been working hard with industry and NHS England to help resolve supply issues with some attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medicines, which are affecting the United Kingdom and other countries around the world. As a result of intensive work, some issues have been resolved and all strengths of lisdexamfetamine, atomoxetine capsules and guanfacine prolonged-release tablets are now available.

We continue to work to resolve remaining supply issues for methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets. We are engaging with all suppliers of methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets to assess the challenges faced and their actions to address them. We are also directing all current suppliers to secure additional stocks, expedite deliveries where possible, and review plans to further build capacity to support continued growth in demand for the short and long-term. To further improve supply and resiliency, we are also working with prospective new suppliers of methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets to expand the UK supplier base.

However, we anticipate that supply for certain strengths of methylphenidate will remain limited until March 2025. We are actively working with all suppliers to resolve the remaining issues as quickly as possible.

To minimise the impact of the shortages on patients, the Department has worked with specialist clinicians, including those within the National Health Service, to develop management advice for NHS clinicians to consider prescribing available alternative brands of methylphenidate prolonged release tablets generically or available alternative ADHD medicines. To support ADHD patients throughout the NHS, we would expect all ADHD service providers and specialists to follow our guidance. To aid healthcare professionals further we have widely disseminated our communications and continually update a list of currently available and unavailable ADHD products on the Specialist Pharmacy Service website, helping ensure that those involved in the prescribing and dispensing of ADHD medications can make informed decisions with patients.

We are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has established to look at ADHD service provision bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD including timely access to services and support.

The Department monitors and manages medicine supply at a national level so that stocks remain available to meet regional and local demand. Information on stock levels within individual pharmacies is not held centrally.

I am very sorry that I cannot meet at this time but I hope the information I have provided in this answer helps to address the issues raised and assures the hon. Member of the Department’s focused work in this area.

To improve awareness of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) amongst healthcare professionals, and specifically general practitioners (GPs), the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its Syncope toolkit, which is available at the following link:

https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500

In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has produced a clinical knowledge summary on blackouts and syncope, last updated in November 2023, which outlines how clinicians should assess and diagnosis PoTS.  It is available at the following link:

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/

GPs are asked to investigate symptoms to ensure that it is not misdiagnosed. Following referral, patients are treated within National Health Service cardiology and neurology services. Where more specialist advice is required, a referral will be made to an appropriate clinician.

Services for children with PoTS are locally commissioned and, as such, it is the responsibility integrated care boards (ICBs), including Humber and North Yorkshire ICB, which serves the York Outer constituency, to ensure that they commission services meet the needs of their local population.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including support services for autistic people, in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The NICE guideline, Autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management, aims to improve access and engagement with interventions and services, and the experience of care, for autistic adults.

On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to improve outcomes in all-age autism assessment pathways. This guidance will help ICBs and the National Health Service to improve outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance sets out what support should be available before an assessment, and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism based on the available evidence. This includes setting out specific considerations for developing post-diagnostic support.

The Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (HNY ICB) is in the process of setting up a pilot with the York West Outer Primary Care Network, as one of the lowest recorded diagnosis rates, to trial a primary care diagnosis pathway to improve dementia diagnosis rates.

This would mean that a general practitioner with special interest in dementia, together with already commissioned Dementia Coordinators and with support from nurses in the memory assessment service in the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, can work through a caseload of individuals on the current waiting list for assessment, and provide a more timely diagnosis without the need for specialist secondary care intervention. The intention is that this will help reduce the current waiting times for assessment in the core specialist service, and increase the diagnosis rates in those practices.

In addition to this, the HNY ICB is working with City of York Council and a number of local voluntary, community and social enterprise partners to offer a more comprehensive and collaborative approach to pre and post diagnostic support for people living with dementia and their carers, through a Dementia Community Support Model.

The department published management information data on the expansion to early childcare entitlements on 17 October 2024. This includes the number of eligibility codes issued to parents of children aged nine months to two years old for the autumn term 2024, as of 13 October. Data shows that at a local authority level, there were 1,348 new codes issued in York. This data is not available at constituency level.

This Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and will use every tool to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.

We will dramatically improve the police and wider criminal justice response, including a relentless pursuit of dangerous perpetrators and sustained support for victims.

We will tackle the root causes of these crimes, including supporting our education system to teach children about respectful and healthy relationships and consent.

The Government is investing £540 million over 30 years in the York and North Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s local economic priorities, including business support. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is also providing support to York businesses.

For small businesses across the country, we will deliver on commitments to boost exports, improve access to finance, stamp out late payment practices and open up competition for public procurement contracts. The department also provides extensive support through Help to Grow Management, the Business Support Service and network of Growth Hubs.

Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.

​We will put thousands of new neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities, and provide residents with a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong.

​We will also crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets by introducing tougher powers via a Crime and Policing Bill, including a new Respect Order to tackle repeat offending.

I will happily consider whether a future visit to a housing development in York Outer constituency to discuss affordable housing will be possible.

Good local bus services are an essential part of prosperous and sustainable communities, Since the de-regulation of buses in England, passenger numbers have declined, and the government is committed to delivering better bus services and growing passenger numbers.

As announced in the King’s Speech, the government will introduce the Better Buses Bill to put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, to ensure networks can meet the needs to the communities who rely on them and encourage passengers back onto buses right across England. The Department will work closely with local leaders and bus operators to deliver on these ambitions.

The latest statistics on police workforce and crime, covering the period to 31 March 2024, were published on 24 July 2024. These statistics can be accessed at the following links:

Police workforce statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales

Crime statistics: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice

The Home Office does not hold this information at Parliamentary Constituency level and is unable to assess the impact of the number of community police officers in York Outer constituency on levels of crime. Police and Crime Commissioners are responsible for holding their Chief Constable to account for policing in their area.

The Government is committed to strengthening neighbourhood policing as part of its Safer Streets mission. That is why we are introducing a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, providing a more visible police presence in town centres, recruiting thousands of additional neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and Special Constables, and giving every community a named local officer.

The department uses the schools national funding formula (NFF) to distribute core funding for 5 to 16 year old pupils in mainstream state-funded schools in England. The NFF distributes funding based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics.

The department cannot provide comparable funding for the York Outer constituency back to 2010, due to the changes in the funding system since that time. The earliest we can provide data from is the 2020/21 financial year. This data is provided in the table below. The scope of the per-pupil funding before this is not directly comparable. In particular, funding for the central services provided by local authorities was split out from the schools block funding in 2018/19, and instead funded separately through the central school services block from that year onwards.

Constituency per-pupil funding is calculated based on the notional schools NFF allocations for all mainstream schools in the constituency. The allocations that schools within a constituency actually receive are determined by the local funding formula in their area.

All of the figures provided include premises funding but exclude growth funding. The figures do not include the additional grant funding that schools in the York Outer constituency have received to support pay and pensions increases in 2024/25, or the recently announced Core Schools Budget Grant funding.

The figure for 2024/25 is based on the new constituency boundaries as of July 2024.

The new Government are fully committed to the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes.

Government will restore stability and confidence amongst farmers and will optimise schemes and grants in an orderly way, ensuring they produce the right outcomes for all farmers, food security and nature’s recovery in a just and equitable way.

The best way to do this effectively is to listen to farmers and others with a stake in our food system, countryside and nature. The Government is doing this as well as assessing data and information about what’s working and what isn’t before setting out detailed plans.

Government will also go further by introducing a new deal for farmers to boost Britian’s food security, restore nature and support rural economic growth. We will protect farmers from being undercut in trade deals, make the supply chain work more fairly, protect farmers from shock rises in bills by switching on GB Energy and use the Government’s purchasing power to back British produce.

As of 10 July 2024, there were eight open dentistry practices in the York Outer constituency, none of which were showing as currently accepting new adult or child patients. This data is sourced from the Find a Dentist website, and is matched to constituencies based on the postcode data shown on the website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, is very keen to meet with stakeholders in the coming months. If you contact her office directly to request a meeting, they will gladly consider and respond to your request.

The Government is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses. The most recent analysis undertaken by the FCA on cash access coverage across the UK found that in Q2 2023, over 99% of people in urban areas are within 1 mile of a cash access point offering withdrawals, and over 98% of people in rural areas are within 3 miles of a cash access point offering withdrawals. Further details of this analysis, including a breakdown of cash access coverage by Local Authority District is available on the FCA website: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/data/access-cash-coverage-uk-2023-q2

The Financial Conduct Authority is the regulator responsible for access to cash further to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, with powers to seek to ensure the reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities for individuals and businesses, including free withdrawal services for individuals. The FCA has recently published its final rules setting out its regulatory approach to protecting access to cash. These can be found on the FCA's website: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/policy/ps24-8.pdf

The Government also recognises the importance of banking to communities and high streets. The Government has therefore committed to work closely with banks to roll out at least 350 banking hubs, which provide individuals and businesses up and down the country with critical cash and banking services.