Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of, a) pupils recorded as young carers and, b) pupils not recorded as young carers were eligible for Free School Meals in the January school census returns for 2023 to 2025.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department holds data on young carers and pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM), which is published in the ‘Schools, pupils and characteristics’ publication. The most recent version was published in June 2025 and the next is scheduled for summer 2026.
Below is a table showing the proportion of pupils who are identified as young carers and known to be eligible for FSM, and the proportion of pupils who are not identified as young carers but are known to be eligible for FSM.
Year | Proportion of young carers known to be eligible for free schools meals (%) | Proportion of pupils not recorded as a young carer but known to be eligible for free school meals (%) |
2024/25 | 56.90 | 25.50 |
2023/24 | 56.80 | 24.40 |
2022/23 | 56.40 | 23.70 |
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on developing a national implementation plan for the roll-out of Fracture Liaison Services.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fracture Liaison Services are commissioned by integrated care boards, which are well-placed to make decisions according to local need.
Our 10-Year Health Plan committed to rolling out Fracture Liaison Services across every part of the country by 2030.
Officials continue to work closely with NHS England to explore a range of options to provide better quality and access to these important preventative services.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
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 to address regional disparities in access to early diagnosis services for osteoporosis.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 1 March, the Government announced funding for 20 new bone density, or DEXA, scanners across England, supported by £2.4 million of investment. Tens of thousands of patients will benefit from faster access to bone scans as a result. It will help ensure that people with bone conditions, such as osteoporosis, get diagnosed earlier.
Fracture Liaison Services are commissioned by integrated care boards, which are well-placed to make decisions according to local need. Our 10-Year Health Plan committed to rolling out Fracture Liaison Services across every part of the country by 2030. Officials continue to work closely with NHS England to explore a range of options to provide better quality and access to these important preventative services.
We are also working to deliver the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Musculoskeletal (MSK) Community Delivery Programme. GIRFT teams are working with health system leaders to further reduce MSK community waiting lists, including for patients with osteoporosis, and to improve data and metrics and referral pathways to wider support services.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research has published a clinical knowledge summary on osteoporosis and the prevention of fragility fractures, which is designed to support healthcare professionals in the early diagnosis of osteoporosis, and which is available at the following link:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/osteoporosis-prevention-of-fragility-fractures/
The Royal College of General Practitioners has an e-learning module for general practitioners on the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis, which was developed in collaboration with the Royal Osteoporosis Society, and which is available at the following link:
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/info.php?id=233
The e-learning module supports the early diagnosis of osteoporosis by highlighting which groups are at higher risk of osteoporosis and fragility fractures. The module also discusses the monitoring of patients at risk of fragility fractures.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration his Department has given to the potential merits of introducing financial support, including vouchers, for people with Coeliac disease who are unable to access gluten-free prescriptions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Prescribing decisions are made by the responsible clinician, who is accountable for ensuring that prescribing is clinically appropriate and consistent with national and local guidance. NHS England’s guidance on prescribing gluten-free (GF) foods sets out a national framework for primary care, and integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning arrangements in their areas and for supporting general practices to prescribe in line with that framework, taking account of local population needs.
The national position in England remains that gluten free bread and mixes can be prescribed on the National Health Service for eligible people diagnosed with Coeliac disease. However, ICBs can restrict or end the prescribing of GF food. There are no plans to change the current arrangements or to introduce additional financial support, such as vouchers, for GF food.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that GP practices comply with guidance on prescribing gluten-free foods for patients diagnosed with Coeliac disease.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Prescribing decisions are made by the responsible clinician, who is accountable for ensuring that prescribing is clinically appropriate and consistent with national and local guidance. NHS England’s guidance on prescribing gluten-free (GF) foods sets out a national framework for primary care, and integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning arrangements in their areas and for supporting general practices to prescribe in line with that framework, taking account of local population needs.
The national position in England remains that gluten free bread and mixes can be prescribed on the National Health Service for eligible people diagnosed with Coeliac disease. However, ICBs can restrict or end the prescribing of GF food. There are no plans to change the current arrangements or to introduce additional financial support, such as vouchers, for GF food.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the annual average cost of a gluten-free diet for individuals with Coeliac disease compared with a standard diet.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Gluten‑free staple foods are available on prescription in line with the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Prescription of Category 1 Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2004, which support access to essential items such as gluten‑free bread and mixes for patients with diagnosed coeliac disease.
Broader retail price comparisons fall outside the scope of the Department, as food pricing is determined by commercial suppliers and retailers. For this reason, the Department has made no recent estimate of the annual average cost of a gluten‑free diet compared with a standard diet for individuals with coeliac disease.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason Client Level Data on unpaid carers, collected by local authorities, has not yet been published this year; what steps are being taken to publish this information; and when he expects Client Level Data on unpaid carers to be published.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Client Level Data was mandated from 2023 and is a data collection that draws directly from local authorities’ own administrative records.
The first time that Client Level Data was used to inform the adult social care activity report was in October 2025. This report did not publish statistics on support to unpaid carers because the relevant data was incomplete.
Many local authorities delegate unpaid carer support and assessments to external organisations and hence were unable to provide the data from their administrative records. The Department is working with local authorities and stakeholders to improve their recording of data on unpaid carers. We intend to resume publication of the data on unpaid carers as soon as data quality is assessed to be satisfactory.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many unpaid carers received a Carer’s Allowance overpayment in the last 12 months, according to the latest available data his Department holds.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We cannot provide statistics on Carer’s Allowance overpayments where the carer is not in employment/earning, due to the sample sizes being too small. Our latest published statistics on Carer’s Allowance overpayments can be found using the link below. Table 12 provides the proportion of the caseload that has a Carers Allowance overpayment:
Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is planning to take to inform each children's hospice of its share of NHS funding; and what his planned timetable is for this.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children and young people’s hospices and integrated care boards will be informed of their children and young people’s hospice grant allocations for 2026/27 imminently. Communication regarding future allocations, for 2027/28 and 2028/29, will be sent once the 2026/27 process is complete.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of planned levels of funding for the BBC World Service on women and minority groups in countries with limited press freedom.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Grant-in-Aid funding for the next three years for the BBC World Service will be decided through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office allocations process. We will not speculate in the interim on the impact of those allocations.