Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that sarcoma patients in Cornwall, currently facing journeys of hundreds of miles for medical treatment, receive the appropriate medical and therapeutic support within that region.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has published a national service specification, covering both bone and soft tissue sarcomas. The specification requires close working between sarcoma services and other National Health Service partners, co-ordinated by Sarcoma Advisory Groups, to improve care pathways.

Work is underway across both bone and soft tissue sarcoma provision to ensure that cancer care providers meet national service standards and improve care to patients across the country, including Cornwall.

Although patients will sometimes need to travel to specialist centres to access treatment, the National Cancer Plan will seek to make cancer care easier, more local, and more responsive. Rather than requiring endless trips to hospitals, cancer care will happen as locally as it can. This means digitally by default, in a patient’s home if possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, in a hospital if necessary. Bringing cancer care into the Neighbourhood Health Service is an important part of the National Cancer Plan for England, enabling cancer patients to be treated and cared for closer to home.

The National Cancer Plan will aim to improve how the physical and psychosocial needs of people with cancer can be met, with a focus on personalised care to improve quality of life. It will address how the experience of care can be improved for those diagnosed, treated, and living with and beyond cancer.

The Government welcomes the recent publication of Sarcoma UK’s Sarcoma State of the Nation report as it highlights the importance of early diagnosis, care co-ordination across complex pathways, research into new treatments, and survivorship. Our forthcoming National Cancer Plan will set out how we will improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer, including sarcoma.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review (1) the application of compound interest, (2) the length of repayment periods, and (3) the overall operation of the student loans system.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government keeps the student finance system under continuous review to ensure that it delivers good value for both students and taxpayers. We set out our plan for higher education (HE) reform through the Post-16 education and skills white paper, published on 29 September.

We are determined that the HE funding system should deliver for our economy, for universities and for students and the government is committed to supporting the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that people living with HIV in residential social care do not face stigma and discrimination because of their HIV or any associated status, such as being a member of the LGBT+ community.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Everyone has the right to safe, high-quality care, which protects people's health, wellbeing, and human rights, and which enables them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. Any form of abuse or neglect is unacceptable, and we are committed to ensuring that we have an effective safeguarding system where risk of harm is identified, acted upon effectively, and ultimately prevented.

Providers are required by law to protect people from abuse and discrimination, including homophobic and transphobic abuse, and the Care Quality Commission will take appropriate enforcement action where they have failed in their duties.

The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to ensure all health and social care staff have the right knowledge on HIV and can tackle stigma and discrimination. This will be achieved at a local, sub-regional, and regional level by embedding HIV education into workforce development programmes, safeguarding training, and induction processes.