The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to develop the fourth National Adaptation Programme which will set out the Government’s strategy to adapt to the impacts of the changing climate. Ongoing action includes the Adverse Weather and Health Plan that provides guidance to reduce the health impacts of heat, £6.75 billion committed over nine years to address the most critical National Health Service infrastructure risks, including to cooling and ventilation, and requiring all New Hospital Programme projects compliant with hospital 2.0 from 2025 and new build neighbourhood health centres to include climate resilience in their design from the outset.

The department takes the impact of extreme weather seriously and has published a climate risk assessment covering flooding and overheating here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/impact-of-uk-climate-change-risk-on-the-delivery-of-education/summary-of-findings-in-relation-to-3-climate-risks-overheating-flooding-and-water-scarcity.

We have published guidance to support education settings during hot weather, drawing on guidance from the UK Health Security Agency, here: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/hot-weather-and-heatwaves-guidance-for-schools-and-other-education-settings/.

We are improving infrastructure and strengthening resilience across the education estate through our Education Estates Strategy here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-estates-strategy. This includes a new £710 million Renewal and Retrofit Programme to improve condition and climate resilience, investment of almost £3 billion per year by 2034/35 in capital maintenance to improve the condition of the school and college estate, and investment of almost £20 billion through to 2034/35 in the School Rebuilding Programme, delivering climate‑resilient buildings at over 750 schools.

We are also developing our objectives as part of the fourth National Adaptation Programme due in 2028.

The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will replace and transform the existing student finance system for higher education (HE) at Levels 4 to 6. When launched, it will support individuals to learn, upskill and retrain across their working lives.

The LLE will continue to fund individuals entering HE through traditional degrees and integrated master’s programmes. Learners studying chiropractic integrated master’s degrees will therefore continue to be able to access tuition fee support.

The subjects eligible for the Priority Additional Entitlement are aligned to the government’s Industrial Strategy priority sectors, informed by Skills England’s analysis of skills shortages as well as employer needs.

In Autumn 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care identified a policy lead for Creative Health. They are now working with partners including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England, and the National Centre for Creative Health to understand and develop the evidence base and consider the policy implications. For this reason, no assessment has been made of the potential merits of establishing a national framework for action for creative health.

The Government is committed to taking a preventive approach to improve health and address health inequalities. We are determined to improve people’s physical and mental health to support them to live longer and healthier lives, and we recognise the role that social prescribing can play in this.

The 10 Year Workforce Plan will put the National Health Service workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, including the shift to prevention which is central to our vision for neighbourhood health.

The plan will set out a sustainable approach to workforce planning, one which is responsive and agile to changes in how we deliver care and prevent ill-health, supporting the workforce and growing it where needed to deliver better prevention, better care, and better outcomes.

There is no specific VAT relief that applies to soil improvers.

VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption, and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. VAT is the UK’s third largest tax, forecast to raise £180 billion in 2025/26.

Tax breaks reduce the revenue available for vital public services and must represent value for money for the taxpayer. Exceptions to the standard rate have always been limited and balanced against affordability considerations. 

Section 106 agreements are legal agreements. Local planning authorities may take enforcement action in respect of any breach of the obligations contained within them. Enforcement is at the discretion of the local planning authority and it is therefore for them to determine whether enforcement action is appropriate in each case.

Enforcement action may include applying to the court for an injunction through section 106(5) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. This would allow the local planning authority to prevent the construction or occupation of further dwellings until certain infrastructure defined in the section 106 agreement has been delivered. Alternatively, the local planning authority may enter the land to complete the works and then seek to recover the costs.

The Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will replace and transform the existing student finance system for higher education at Levels 4 to 6. When launched, it will support individuals to learn, upskill and retrain across their working lives.

Those wishing to study Level 7 courses, will continue to be funded in the same way as they are now and there will continue to be a tailored loans package for Level 7.

The Postgraduate Master’s Loans administered by Student Finance England currently provides up to £13,206 for courses starting after 1 August 2026 to help fund tuition fees and living costs.

In August 2025, the Government announced its plans to introduce legal restrictions which will ensure that the highest risk cosmetic procedures are brought into Care Quality Commission regulation and can only be performed by specified regulated healthcare professionals. In addition, the Government also committed to legislating to introduce a licensing scheme in England for lower risk procedures through powers granted through the Health and Care Act 2022. Under this scheme, which will be operated by local authorities, practitioners will be required to obtain a licence to perform specified cosmetic procedures, and the premises from which they operate will also need to be licensed.

The Government has prioritised work on restrictions on the performance of the highest risk procedures and has been working with a group of expert stakeholders in recent months to develop detailed proposals on which procedures should be subject to the restrictions, and which regulated healthcare professionals should be permitted to perform them. This will include the liquid Brazilian butt lift and other high-risk cosmetic procedures which have the potential to cause serious harm if improperly performed.

We are preparing a consultation on the draft legislation which would bring these proposals into effect.

NHS England is considering the most appropriate approach to supporting access to digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia. Any future commercial activity will be undertaken in line with applicable procurement legislation and associated transparency obligations.

NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression offer low-intensity therapy which may include interventions around sleep hygiene. Individuals who are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression can be referred by their general practitioner, or can self-refer, to NHS Talking Therapies. People can also access helpful resources on sleep problems on the Every Mind Matters website at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-health-issues/sleep/

The Government expects waiting times to reduce over time as reforms take effect. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, this will be supported by expanding the workforce, improving productivity, investing in digitally enabled therapies, and introducing new models of care in the community, including community mental health centres that bring together services to improve access and reduce delays.

The Department is working with NHS England to improve the measurement and consistency of waiting time data across mental health services, including through the development of measures that will consistently capture when a patient has received meaningful help and started treatment across different areas.

This work will support future decisions on the role of waiting time standards as part of wider service reform. We cannot comment on the specific policy detail in the final Mental Health Strategy at this time, as it will be informed by the Call for the Evidence, the Prevalence Review final report, and any relevant wider evidence.

The Government recognises the role of community energy in delivering net zero and is working with Ofgem to address regulatory barriers, including routes to market. Through delivering on commitments in the Local Power Plan, we are working with Great British Energy to explore measures to make it easier for community energy groups to participate in local energy markets.

The department, Ofgem and wider energy industry has also been working to make changes to industry rules to support the local trade of energy. This includes work on rule P441, standardising the classification of local energy sites to provide a regulatory footing that will clarify the rules of setting them up. Further updates and outcomes from this work will be provided in due course.

We are committed to raising the healthiest generation ever. The School Food Standards are being updated because they are over a decade old and no longer fully reflect the latest scientific advice on children’s diets. In summary, the changes we propose to make are related to increasing fibre, reducing sugar and further restricting foods higher in fat, sugar and salt, in line with the latest nutritional advice set by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition.

As part of ensuring the standards reflect the latest evidence in practice, our proposals have been developed through close consultation with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and were also informed by an advisory group and key stakeholders in the food, catering, nutrition, and health sectors. The public consultation now provides a further opportunity to assess the proposals.

Since we published the Clean Power Action Plan in December 2024, we are reforming the electricity market through our REMA decision on national pricing, delivered the most successful renewables auction in history with AR7 adding a record-breaking 8.4 gigawatts of offshore wind, and published our Solar Roadmap and Clean Flexibility Roadmap to scale deployment across the system.

We have also passed the Planning and Infrastructure Act, updated National Policy Statements, and reformed the grid queue to free up connections for the projects we need by 2030.

Thanks to actions taken by this Government, we have the highest number of fully qualified general practitioners (GPs) since 2015, and steps are being taken to grow the GP workforce further. The national leaver rate was 7.8% in the period covering March 2025 to March 2026.

The table below shows the proportion of fully qualified GPs who have left each integrated care board, and the total change in full-time equivalent (FTE) fully qualified GPs employed by practices from March 2025 to March 2026.

Notes:

1. data does not include estimates for practices that did not provide fully valid staff records;
2. data does not include GPs employed in primary care networks;
3. data does not include GPs who moved from one ICB to another during the reporting period;
4. the headcount percentage of GPs leaving is calculated based on the period in which the GP last appeared. It indicates the percentage of the cohort workforce that left the cohort prior to the next data extract; and
5. leavers are GPs whose identifying information was present in the relevant dataset at the beginning but not at the end of the specified time period.

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to swimming facilities, including lidos, which are great spaces for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy, and play an important role within communities. I was pleased to respond to the recent Westminster Hall debate on this issue.

In June last year, we committed £400 million to transform sports facilities, including public leisure, over the next four years. We are working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, before setting out further plans on how future funding will be allocated.

The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains. Food security is a core national priority. Resilience is strengthened by strong domestic production - producing 65% of the food we eat, and diverse import sources through stable trade routes. The Government is supporting the food sector by investing £11.8bn this Parliament to support sustainable farming and domestic food production.

During the local government reorganisation process, councils are expected to continue to operate on a business-as-usual basis. Assets and liabilities remain locally managed by councils until reorganisation is complete. Decisions about the disposal or transfer of assets, including to community or voluntary groups, are matters for individual local authorities to determine.

The Government has issued explanatory guidance to councils undergoing local government reorganisation on financial and asset‑related decision making and has been clear that councils should take a responsible approach to such decisions and avoid actions that could jeopardise the financial sustainability of successor authorities.

The Cabinet Office manages its departmental records in accordance with the provisions of the Public Records Act 1958. Section 3 of the Act sets out the provisions for selecting and preserving public records.

The government does not routinely comment on petitions.