Written Statements

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Written Statements

Tuesday 27 October 2026

Cost of Living

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Written Statements

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (John Healey)]

Millions of families and working people across the country will benefit from five everyday fixes, which will support people who rely on their cars for work, extend help to new parents and fix an unfair cliff edge that can penalise unpaid carers for earning more. These changes will help with the cost of food, fuel and family life, providing breathing space for households. The Government are announcing changes to:

Go further to support employees and self-employed people who use their own vehicle for work by increasing tax free mileage rates. Approved mileage allowance payments allow employers to reimburse employees tax-free for business mileage in their own private vehicles, and the same rates are used by self-employed drivers to claim tax relief through simplified motoring expenses and payments made within the approved rates can be disregarded for class 1 national insurance purposes. In May the Government increased the tax-free mileage rate for the first 10,000 business miles for the first time in 15 years, from 45p to 55p per mile for 2026-27. The Government are today announcing that we will make that increase permanent and, to support those who drive the furthest for work, we are also increasing the rate above 10,000 miles from 25p to 35p per mile. Around 3 million people are expected to benefit, with someone driving 6,000 business miles receiving up to £120 a year in additional tax savings, and someone driving 15,000 business miles receiving up to £300 in additional tax savings.

Extend parental pay to eligible self-employed fathers, partners and adopters in Great Britain from April 2029. Those who are recently employed or unemployed, or with a broken or irregular pattern of employment will also benefit, provided that they have sufficient work and earnings history. This new parental allowance is expected to benefit over 150,000 parents each year. Detailed eligibility criteria will be confirmed in due course.

End the cliff edge within carer’s allowance, which sees carers lose £86.45 per week for a 1p increase in earnings above the weekly limit. Instead, earnings above the weekly earnings limit will be subject to a 100% taper, where support is reduced by only £1 for each £1 increase in earnings. This means carers are no longer left financially worse off for working additional hours or receiving a pay rise. The taper will begin within 2030-31 once the Department for Work and Pensions has developed a new IT system to implement the taper.

Suspend import tariffs on over 100 food products, fertilisers and kerosene heating oil to help reduce costs for households and businesses. Lower tariffs on food products are expected to deliver consumer savings worth around £120 million to £185 million per year. The Government are also extending existing business suspensions that are due to expire in 2026 and 2027, enabling domestic businesses across many sectors to continue to benefit from lower import costs. A new application window will be open from 11 November to 3 February, giving businesses the opportunity to submit views on further extensions and apply for new tariff suspensions.

Roll out hundreds more post office drop boxes, bringing the total to 1,000, making it easier and more convenient for people to send and return parcels without having to queue at a post office counter, helping to take some of the hassle out of everyday errands in the run-up to Christmas. This comes alongside upgrades to 600 post office branches by the end of the financial year, improving services for customers across the country.

[HCWS421]

Energy Infrastructure Planning: Keadby Next Generation Power Station Project

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Martin McCluskey)]

This statement concerns an application for development consent made under the Planning Act 2008 by Keadby Next Generation Ltd for the construction, operation and maintenance, and decommissioning of a high-efficiency electricity generating station with a net capacity of up to 910 MW. The proposed power station would be capable of being sourced by both hydrogen and natural gas. The proposed development lies within England and is within the administrative boundary of North Lincolnshire council.

Under section 107(1) of the Planning Act 2008, the Secretary of State must make a decision on an application within three months of the receipt of the examining authority’s report unless exercising the power under section 107(3) of the Act to set a new deadline. Where a new deadline is set, the Secretary of State must make a statement to Parliament to announce it.

The statutory deadline for the decision on the Keadby Next Generation power station project was 6 November 2026.

I have decided to allow an extension and to set a new deadline of 16 December 2026. This is to allow time to assess new information that was not provided for consideration during the examination period and to give all interested parties the opportunity to review and comment on such information. While it is not my preference to extend, I am clear that applications for consent for energy projects submitted under the Planning Act 2008 must meet the necessary standards.

The decision to set the new deadline for this application is without prejudice to the decision on whether to grant or refuse development consent.

[HCWS423]

Antisemitism and Other Forms of Racism in the NHS: Review

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

When Lord Mann’s review of antisemitism and other forms of racism in the NHS was published in June this year, the Department of Health and Social Care committed to provide an initial update to Parliament in October on the progress made against his recommendations, followed by a detailed report within 12 months of publication. Today’s update to the House discharges the first of those commitments.

As we said in June, there is no place for antisemitism or any other form of racism in the NHS. The NHS was built on the premise of universal access to healthcare regardless of background, and it is therefore wholly unacceptable that anyone using that service, or any member of the dedicated workforce that provides it, should face discrimination, intimidation or abuse based on their race, religion, or ethnicity. The Government therefore welcomed Lord Mann’s important review, we accepted every one of his recommendations for DHSC and NHS England, and today we reiterate our commitment to implement each of those recommendations, and report on the progress already made in key areas.

In respect of Lord Mann’s recommendations in the area of openness, accountability and the restoration of confidence, a suite of NHS staff standards was published in July, including a standard setting out minimum expectations for employers to take sustained and meaningful action to prevent and root out racism in the NHS. The NHS leadership and management framework was also published in July 2026, setting consistent expectations on behaviours across all levels of NHS management.

In respect of Lord Mann’s recommendations on definitions, reporting and investigation of racist incidents, NHS England is delivering training for HR colleagues leading investigations into allegations of racism, and working to open up access to training to regulated health and care staff working outside of NHS settings. In addition, a large number of NHS trusts have now adopted both the IHRA definition of antisemitism and the Government definition of anti-Muslim hostility, but we recognise that significant progress is still required to see those definitions comprehensively adopted across the NHS as a whole.

In respect of Lord Mann’s recommendations on wider governance, regulation and oversight, the Professional Standards Authority is progressing work to develop new guidance for regulators on good practice in equality, diversity, and inclusion. The PSA will convene fitness to practise leaders from across the regulators on 24 November to examine current approaches, identify any opportunities for greater consistency and inform further guidance and/or shared action. The PSA is also co-ordinating updates from regulators and will formally report progress to the Health and Social Care Committee in December. NHS Employers has worked closely with regulators and NHS organisations to understand how existing materials and support relating to regulatory referrals are used, and where visibility of existing guidance can be improved. They will take forward further work to deliver on these findings by March 2027. The Secretary of State will also be holding a roundtable with the UK health systems and professional regulators in the coming weeks to discuss their ongoing work to tackle racism.

In respect of Lord Mann’s recommendations on protection and support for staff, NHS England will publish national safe working practices guidance and a violence prevention and reduction reporting framework in early 2027, supported by a national campaign to raise awareness of violence against NHS staff, promoting a culture of prevention and support across the NHS. On Lord Mann’s specific concern about the maintenance of a Jewish staff network within the DHSC and NHS England following the creation of the new Department, existing groups are being brought together bi-monthly as part of engagement activity on the transformation programme, and we are clear that those networking arrangements will continue after the merger.

In respect of Lord Mann’s recommendations on education, training and development, a new NHS training module on equality, diversity and human rights is being finalised for delivery across the NHS over the coming months. The training includes content on antisemitism and anti-Muslim hostility, alongside guidance on challenging prejudice and discrimination. NHS senior leaders will be invited to take part in further anti-racism training by the end of March 2027, developed by the NHS race and health observatory. In addition to the £1 million of Government funding provided for antisemitism training for university and student union staff, the Medical Schools Council has undertaken specific antisemitism awareness training and is drafting anti-racism guidance for the medical schools. Lord Mann will be meeting with the heads of the medical schools in December to discuss their progress in this area.

In respect of Lord Mann’s specific recommendations concerning the Care Quality Commission, the CQC has now strengthened its assessment of equality, diversity and inclusion through alignment with NHS workforce standards, the continued use of specialist EDI advisors, and enhanced learning for regulatory staff on anti-racism, antisemitism and the handling of racist incidents. It is also working with fellow health and care regulators to improve information sharing, support implementation of the joint regulators’ principles on advancing workforce race equity, and to promote consistent approaches to addressing discrimination and racist incidents across the sector.

There are other recommendations from Lord Mann’s report that we said in June would require further work prior to implementation, and that work remains in progress.

In particular, a supplier has now been appointed to lead the public consultation and engagement on the unified information standard on protected characteristics, and a public consultation is due to commence in early 2027 seeking views on equality monitoring, including on Lord Mann’s recommendation to include Jewish and Sikh as ethnicities in NHS data collection. Work is also ongoing to consider how to provide clearer guidance regarding the issues raised by Lord Mann on staff uniforms. New national guidance will be published in due course, and all trusts will be asked to review their current policies. In the interim, we have clarified guidance on the use of the NHS identity in “personal” social media accounts. Finally, a public consultation will be launched in the coming months, seeking stakeholder views on potential reforms to the General Medical Council’s regulatory framework, arising from Lord Mann’s recommendations regarding their decision-making and appeals processes.

In these and other areas, there is still a need for extensive further work to implement all of Lord Mann’s recommendations in full, and to produce the transformation in attitudes and action in respect of antisemitism and other forms of racism that his review was designed to achieve. That work remains a high priority both for the Government and for the NHS, and a comprehensive report on our progress against those objectives and recommendations will be provided to the House in June 2027.

[HCWS424]

Henry Nowak Independent Review

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Shabana Mahmood)]

On 3 December 2025, Henry Nowak’s life was cut short in a horrific and senseless act of violence. My thoughts remain with his family and friends, and all those whom this dreadful incident has affected.

In response to the wide-ranging issues arising from this case, I have appointed the right hon. Alex Chalk KC to undertake an independent review of the circumstances surrounding Henry’s murder and the Nowak family’s subsequent experience of the criminal justice system.

The Henry Nowak independent review terms of reference are attached and have been published on gov.uk, which can be found here:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2026-10-27/HCWS422/

[HCWS422]