Personal Independence Payment (PIP) services are delivered on a national basis, with performance managed across the whole service rather than by constituency. As such, we are unable to provide waiting time data specific to Hitchin.

We are improving service responsiveness through targeted recruitment across Disability Services. The recent onboarding of over 200 additional caseworkers is increasing capacity to support both decision‑making and telephony demand. This is reducing backlogs and contributing to improved average call waiting times, ensuring customers receive quicker decisions and more timely access to support.

We have also made sustained progress in reducing customer journey times, with average end‑to‑end clearance times falling from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 17 weeks as of June 2026.

In addition, we have deployed further resource to complaints and correspondence handling, prioritised the clearance of outstanding volumes, and strengthened performance management to improve timeliness. The Department’s service standard is to respond to complaints requiring formal investigation within 15 working days. While higher volumes and increasingly complex cases have affected response times in recent months, action is underway to address these pressures and drive further improvements in timeliness and efficiency.

Thanks to my hon. Friend’s steadfast support, major works are under way: renewing electrification, installing axle counters and improving drainage to prevent flooding. Those upgrades will boost Thameslink’s reliability, including for services to his constituency. I can also tell him that driver numbers have risen by 50 since July 2024. We will continue to press Govia Thameslink Railway to strengthen performance and cut cancellations.

Rail users at Hitchin and Arlesey stations in my constituency have to put up with services that simply are not reliable enough. I am glad that, after pushing the operator, Ministers and officials, we have been able to drive up driver recruitment and secure crucial investment to upgrade the back-up signalling capacity that has caused a lot of disruption over the past 12 months. With the operator coming back into public ownership later this year, what further steps can we take to finally give my constituents the rail service they deserve?

Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of Defra’s five core priorities. That is why we have established a Flood Resilience Taskforce to improve coordination of the national and local flood response and strengthen preparedness ahead of the winter flood season.

Over 1,000 properties across the country have reported flooding to date following heavy rainfall in late September, with over 22,000 protected by flood defences. The Government sympathises with those impacted by recent flooding in the Hitchin constituency, and other areas across the country. As flooding minister, I visited affected communities impacted by flooding and also met with multiple agencies including the Environment Agency working to respond to the event.

These agencies have now shifted their focus to supporting communities to recover from recent flooding. Lead Local Flood Authorities will also begin investigating what happened during the event and identifying potential actions which could be taken by relevant partner agencies to reduce the risk and impact of flooding in future.

We are carefully considering the best approach to the Access for All programme. This Government is committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognises the social and economic benefits this brings to communities.

The Government knows that patients are finding it harder than ever to access general practice (GP) appointments. Patients can’t get through the front door of the National Health Service, so they aren’t getting the timely care they need.

We have pledged to guarantee a face-to-face appointment for all those who want one. We will make sure the future of the NHS is sustainable by training thousands more GPs, ensuring increased capacity to deliver this commitment, and securing a future pipeline of GPs.

People with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they deserve, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure that mental health is given the same attention and focus as physical health, so that people can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it. We will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on hospitals. By cutting mental health waiting lists and intervening earlier with more timely mental health support, we can get this country, including in the Hitchin constituency, back to health.

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all local people. In performing that duty, a local authority must have regard to the need to ensure that it is aware of current and likely future demand for such services and to consider how providers might meet that demand.

The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF), includes grant conditions which require each local authority to submit an adult social care capacity plan. These were submitted to the department in June 2024. The member’s local authority, Hertfordshire, submitted their 2024/25 capacity plan which is currently undergoing processing and quality assurance.

The Government intends to fix the front door to the National Health Service, and increase the proportion of funding for primary care. We understand that this will require both investment and reform. We will also make sure the future of general practice (GP) is sustainable by training thousands more GPs across the country, to take the pressure off those currently working within the system, ensure increased capacity across the NHS, and to secure a future pipeline of GPs. Additionally, NHS England has made a number of recruitment and retention schemes available to GPs.

The Government will bring back the family doctor, incentivising continuity of care so patients can see the same doctor at each appointment, which is key in reducing duplication of work, so patients with ongoing or complex conditions get the best care possible.

We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country as well as take pressure off those currently working in the system and NHS England has made a number of recruitment and retention schemes available to GPs.

Getting a National Health Service dentist is increasingly difficult. The Government will tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most.

Hitchin constituency runs across two integrated care boards (ICBs), Hertfordshire & West Essex and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes. Hertfordshire & West Essex ICB advises that recruitment initiatives include working with Primary Care Network training teams and supporting the training and development of GPs coming into practice. The Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB provides a range of initiatives to support with the recruitment and retention of GPs for its practices. These include a flexible staffing platform, Lantum, which aids retention of GPs by providing flexible roles, and support with workforce planning.

Cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government, and we have a mandate for our first step in achieving this, by providing an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, which includes greater clinical availability during evenings and weekends.

Dedicated and protected surgical hubs can help reduce waiting times by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries, as recommended by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, transforming the way the National Health Service provides elective care. There is one surgical hub within the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, the Lister Hospital Treatment Centre Elective Surgical Hub. This ring-fenced hub opened in July 2005 and consists of five theatres focusing on multiple specialties, including trauma and orthopaedics, spinal, ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat, gynaecology, urology, and general surgery. Patients from the Hitchin constituency can be referred to this surgical hub for elective surgeries.

The information requested regarding (a) car ownership, (b) bus usage (c) light rail usage, (d) train usage and (e) active travel usage in Hitchin constituency is not available. Information for the Hertfordshire local authority is given below, where available. Alternative data for the former Hitchin and Harpenden Constituency is also offered where relevant.

Car ownership

According to the Department’s vehicle statistics, there were 56,667 licensed cars as at end March 2024 in the former Hitchin and Harpenden Constituency.

Bus usage

According to the Department’s annual bus statistics, in the year ending March 2023 there were 20.8 million local bus journeys taken in Hertfordshire.

Train usage

According to Office of Rail and Road statistics, in the year ending March 2023 there were 17.8 million passenger rail journeys within East of England that started or ended in Bedfordshire or Hertfordshire. There were also 52.6 million journeys that started or ended in Bedfordshire or Hertfordshire that ended or started from regions other than the East of England.

Active travel usage

According to the Department’s annual walking and cycling statistics, between November 2021 and November 2022, 78.2% of adults walked or cycled at least once per week in North Hertfordshire (Non-Metropolitan District) and 73.8% of adults walked or cycled at least once per week in Hertfordshire (County).

This Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously, and is committed to maintaining and renewing our road network as a priority; on which Ministers will say more in future.

Maintenance of the local highway network within Hertfordshire, including the constituency of Hitchin, is the responsibility of Hertfordshire County Council. For 2024/25, Hertfordshire County Council has been allocated over £ 25 million to help it maintain its local highway network.

Future funding beyond 2024/25 is a matter for the next Spending Review.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) priority is to reduce car practical driving test waiting times, whilst upholding road safety standards. To increase the number of available test slots, it is conducting tests outside of regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from driving examiners.

To increase the number of car driving test slots, the DVSA deployed eligible managers and administrative staff back on the front line to do driving tests from the beginning of October 2023 until the end of March 2024, which created over 145,000 additional test slots. Driving examiners from areas with lower waiting times continue to travel and test in those centres with longer waiting times. This is in addition to the DVSA recruiting additional examiners across the country into areas where waiting times are highest.

The DVSA is unable to calculate the waiting time between booking and taking a driving test.

The table below shows the June 2024 average waiting time, number of booked car practical driving tests, and available tests as of 22 July 2024 at the test centres that serve the constituency of Hitchin:

Govia Thameslink Railway is introducing additional peak only services between King’s Cross and Hitchin in December 2024. There is also a wider plan to increase peak time capacity on the route to King’s Cross, which would benefit services out of Hitchin, however this is dependent on the future wider East Coast Mainline timetable recast.

Alongside this, Hitchin will benefit from the East Coast Digital Programme, a £1.8 billion investment in infrastructure, which will introduce digital signalling, improving punctuality and reliability of services, with the potential to further improve service frequencies, dependent on demand and business case.

Delivering high quality affordable childcare is a priority for this government. As an initial step, the department is progressing work to deliver new places in 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools. This will help increase the number of places available to parents, whilst also driving high and rising standards and better opportunities for every child.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing, including supporting them through the childcare delivery support contract where appropriate.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges patients face when trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments, and to recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

The local integrated care boards (ICBs) for Hitchen are also taking actions to support access to dental services. In May 2024, the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB introduced a Dental Access Pilot which all patients can access via the NHS111 service. This pilot involves a small cohort of dental contractors working across four areas, providing additional dental sessions on evenings, weekends, and bank holidays.

The Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB has been running a pilot scheme since December 2023 which provides additional urgent appointments during the day and in the evenings, as well as over weekends, to patients who are referred via NHS111.

The Hitchin constituency sits within the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board where, in May 2024, 649,000 general practice appointments were delivered. Of those, 29,000 appointments, or 4.1%, were delivered 28 days after booking, 0.7% less than the national average.

In the 12 months up to May 2024, more than 156,000 appointments, which are not usually booked in advance, were delivered more than 28 days after they were booked. There are a number of factors which can influence the timing of appointments, and it is not possible to estimate the time between the patient’s first attempt to contact their surgery and an appointment.

The information requested is not available on a constituency basis, or for the desired age band for each of the last five years.

he information requested is not available on a constituency basis, or for the desired age band.