Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much ringfenced funding will be provided to children’s hospices in each year from 2026-7 to 2029-30.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.

We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.

We cannot yet confirm what the funding for 2026/27 and beyond will be, or how it will be administered.

The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.

Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections, published on 17 July 2025, what progress has been made on testing (a) digitally enabled and (b) convenient approaches to electoral registration.

Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The government is actively exploring a range of approaches to improve electoral registration, including making it easier for people to register to vote. User research is undertaken throughout the policy and digital service development process.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing the Government's Strategy and Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The existing Strategy and Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission does not reflect this Government’s priorities and will not remain in place.

On 17 July, we published our strategy for modern and secure elections which included proposals to give significant new powers and responsibilities to the Electoral Commission to strengthen the enforcement of political finance rules. In light of these new responsibilities, we intend to designate a new Strategy and Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission to reflect this Government’s priorities for elections and the Commission’s increased roles and responsibilities.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of linking salary requirements to NHS pay scales on overseas social workers with skilled worker visas employed by local authorities.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We use Office for National Statistics (ONS) data to set salary requirements for occupations, except where a national pay scale exists. In the case of social workers, the NHS Agenda for Change is the only available national scale, as Local Authority rates vary. Using Agenda for Change means the salary requirements are lower than they would be if we used ONS data.

On 2 July we asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to advise on future salary requirements for Skilled Worker visas. We look forward to receiving their recommendations in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many social workers are working in the UK on a (a) skilled workers visa and (b) health and care visa.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office publishes data on sponsored work visas by occupation in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release. Data on grants of visas are published in table ‘Occ_D02’ of the ‘sponsored work visas by occupation and industry dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Data is from January 2021 up to the end of June 2025.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason she decided to use NHS pay bands instead of local authority pay bands when determining income requirements for overseas social workers applying for a skilled workers visa.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We use Office for National Statistics (ONS) data to set salary requirements for occupations, except where a national pay scale exists. In the case of social workers, the NHS Agenda for Change is the only available national scale, as Local Authority rates vary. Using Agenda for Change means the salary requirements are lower than they would be if we used ONS data.

On 2 July we asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to advise on future salary requirements for Skilled Worker visas. We look forward to receiving their recommendations in due course.

Drug deaths (No. 2)

Equitable national prostate cancer screening

Found: Current membership Cat Smith (Labour; Lancaster and Wyre) (Chair) James Asser (Labour; West Ham and Beckton

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Cat Smith (Chair); James Asser; David Baines; Bambos Charalambous