Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking with (a) UK Research and Innovation and (b) the National Institute for Health and Care Research to prioritise further research into early diagnosis of (i) pancreatic cancer and (ii) other less survivable cancers.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Government responsibility for funding cancer research is shared between UK Research and Innovation, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and including the Medical Research Council, and the NIHR. Research funders work closely to drive the maximum collective research impact on policy, practice, and individual lives.
NIHR investments are pivotal to informing efforts to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and outcomes. An example of this is the NIHR investing £2.4 million into the miONCO-Dx trial, which seeks to develop a blood test designed to detect 12 different cancers, that could transform how cancer is diagnosed in the National Health Service.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including all cancers. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on all cancers to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the NHS will improve diagnosis and outcomes for cancer patients in England.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant the Answer of 11 September 2025 to Question 74808 on Universities: Research, if HM Treasury will carry out further analysis of productivity and economic growth gains.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Treasury regularly analyses the economic impacts of policy, including research funding for universities. For example, recent spending review decisions were underpinned by a range of evidence and analysis provided by government departments and external stakeholders.Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the use of the Transparent Approach to Costing methodology by the higher education sector.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The data collected using the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) methodology is an important part of the evidence base, which the department uses to understand the financial sustainability of the higher education sector and the teaching of UK students who are publicly funded.
The TRAC sector analysis, published annually by the Office for Students, was most recently used to support the strategic case for uplifting tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year. This was set out in the regulatory impact assessment, published in January 2025 and accessible at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2025/40/pdfs/ukia_20250040_en.pdf.
The department continues to consider the interaction between TRAC and policy decisions in our policy development.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the number of higher education institutions that are forecast to have a deficit in the 2024-25 financial year on the economy.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of higher education (HE) in England, monitors the financial health of providers to ensure it has an up-to-date understanding of the sustainability of the sector. Its latest report, published in May 2025, highlighted a decline in financial performance across the sector in 2023/24, with 44% of institutions forecasting a deficit in 2024/25. HE providers are independent from government and as such must continue to make the necessary and appropriate financial decisions to ensure their long-term sustainability.
The department is committed to creating a secure future for our universities so that they can deliver for students, taxpayers, workers and the economy. To put the sector on a firmer financial footing, Professor Edward Peck has been appointed as substantive chair of the OfS to continue its focus on financial sustainability and increasing opportunities in HE. We also took the difficult decision to increase tuition fee limits by 3.1% in the 2025/26 academic year, in line with inflation.
We will continue to work closely with the OfS and other relevant parties to understand the sector’s changing financial landscape.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a flat 20% tax on defined contribution pension funds collected by pension providers at the point of death.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of a person’s estate for inheritance tax purposes from 6 April 2027. This removes distortions resulting from changes that have been made to pensions tax policy over the last decade, which have led to pensions being openly used and marketed as a tax planning vehicle to transfer wealth, rather than as a way to fund retirement. These reforms also remove inconsistencies in the inheritance tax treatment of different types of pensions.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing independent modern slavery advocates for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government recognises the role of Independent Modern Slavery Advocates (IMSAs) in empowering victims of exploitation. IMSAs can play an important role in helping victims understand their rights and navigate complex systems.
Under the Home Office funded Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), adult victims are provided with a dedicated support worker who also offers tailored assistance across social, legal, psychological and health domains. The support will continue under the new Support for Victims of Modern Slavery (SVMS) contract, when the MSVCC ends in 2027.
In developing the SVMS contract, we have engaged extensively with frontline practitioners and individuals with lived experience. We assessed the merits of different support models, to inform enhancements to the training, partnership working, and access to specialist resources for support workers, ensuring that they are well equipped to meet the complex and evolving needs of victims and to support a smooth transition from contracted support to wider services.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the net financial impact of international students to the economy.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
International students make a very significant contribution to the UK economy. Departmental statistics on education-related exports, published in June, estimated that international students contributed £21.06 billion to the UK economy in 2022 through their tuition fees and living expenditure.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of university-based (a) research and (b) development activities on levels of UK (i) productivity and (ii) economic growth.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Evidence shows that every £1 of public R&D investment leverages around £2 of business R&D investment [1] and generates approximately £7 of net economic benefits in the long term [2].
Universities play a central role in the UK’s R&D ecosystem, receiving around half of the Government’s R&D funding [3]. Their impact is wide-ranging, from advancing scientific knowledge to commercialising innovation. For example, university spin-outs and start-ups – just one channel through which universities contribute to the economy - attracted £20.6 billion in investment between 2014 and 2022 [4].
[1] The relationship between public and private R&D funding | Oxford Economics
[2] ‘Evidence on the balance and effectiveness of research and innovation spending’, written evidence submitted by UK Research and Innovation to the Science and Technology Select Committee, published November 2018
[3] UK gross domestic expenditure on research and development
[4] Intellectual property, start-ups and spin-outs | HESA
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the decision to restrict TechExpert scholarships to domestic PhD students on the UK’s international competitiveness in Artificial Intelligence innovation.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to strengthening the UK’s position as a global leader in AI. While TechExpert scholarships focus on domestic talent, we continue to attract top international talent through initiatives such as the AI Global Fellowships and the Spärck AI scholarships. These programmes ensure the UK retains world-class expertise, supports frontier research, and sustains its competitive edge in AI innovation. This balance to championing our domestic pipeline while attracting some of the world's best AI minds to the UK is key to maximising our AI ambitions.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the time taken for the consideration of Administrative Reviews of immigration casework.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The allocation of resources across competing demands within the immigration system requires that prioritisation decisions are made, but the Home Office continues to work hard to meet the timescales set out in public guidance for the processing of AR applications.