Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on creating a National Care Service.

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

The Government is launching an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.

Chaired by Baroness Casey of Blackstock, the Commission will start a national conversation about what people expect from adult social care, setting us on the road to fundamental reform that will build a social care system fit for the future.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending regulations on blue badges to include a provision for people who run (a) taxis and (b) other transport vehicles that are designed to provide facilities for people with disabilities.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Blue Badge scheme provides a range of parking concessions for people with a long-term disability, who travel either as passengers or drivers, that affects their capacity to access the goods and services they need to use.

The regulations governing the Blue Badge scheme define a disabled person's badge as: “a badge issued by a local authority for display on any motor vehicle driven by a disabled person or used for the carriage of a disabled person or of several disabled persons.”

The concessions can be used by taxis and any other vehicles with the badge on display, to drop off and collect a Blue Badge holder. The Department has no plans to amend the current eligibility criteria.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on the number and proportion of overseas voters who did not receive a ballot in time to vote at the general election in 2024; and whether her Department plans to take steps to increase the proportion of overseas voters who receive a ballot in time.

Answered by Rushanara Ali - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Department does not hold information on the number of overseas voters that did not receive a ballot in time to vote at the general election in 2024.

As set out in our response to the Electoral Commission’s evaluation of the 2024 general election, published last month (Electoral Commission’s reports on the 2024 elections: government response - GOV.UK), the Government recognises the Commission’s findings with regards to the difficulties faced by British citizens living overseas when trying to participate in UK elections.

As part of our review of electoral registration and conduct, the government, in partnership with electoral practitioners and the Electoral Commission, is examining several aspects of the system for overseas electors, with a view to identifying practical solutions to some of the challenges faced.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the permanent cost of pay rises for primary school teachers implemented in September 2024 has been factored into school budgets beyond April 2025.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The overall core schools budget is increasing by £3.2 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core schools budget will total over £64.8 billion compared to almost £61.6 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This includes the £2.3 billion announced at the Autumn Budget 2024 and over £930 million being provided to support schools and high needs settings with the increases to employer National Insurance contributions from April 2025.

The funding announced at the Autumn Budget 2024 includes funding to cover the remaining costs of the 2024 teachers’ pay award in the 2025/26 financial year.

For mainstream schools, all of this funding has been rolled into the schools national funding formula in 2025/26, ensuring that it forms an ongoing part of schools’ core budgets.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the timing of the start of the school budget year in April and the academic year in September on schools' ability to budget effectively for staffing needs when pupil numbers increase in September.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

Schools are generally funded on the basis of their pupil numbers in the previous October census, therefore meaning the funding that schools receive for the 2025/26 funding year will be based on pupil numbers as of October 2024. This practice means that the department can publish allocations with enough time to give schools certainty over funding levels and to aid in their planning. It also gives schools time to adjust to any declines in pupil numbers, before these have an impact on their funding.

However, the department understands that this can cause problems where schools are experiencing significant growth in pupil numbers. The department also allocates ‘growth funding’ to local authorities. This can be used by local authorities to support both maintained schools and academies in managing a significant growth in pupil numbers, in advance of this increase being reflected in schools’ core funding allocations.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish her Department's impact assessments of changes to (a) Agricultural Property Relief and (b) Business Property Relief.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992.

The reforms are expected to result in up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, in 2026-27 paying more inheritance tax. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data.

The Government has also set out that around 1,500 estates across the UK only claiming business property relief are expected to be affected in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these expected to only hold shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. The remaining 500 estates will include business assets from sectors across the economy that are eligible for business property relief. These reforms mean that around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those only relating to holding shares designated as “not listed”) will not pay any more inheritance tax in 2026-27.

The tax base consists of all estates subject to inheritance tax that are projected to claim agricultural property relief or business property relief across the scorecard period. The tax base is estimated using HMRC administrative data, and is grown over the forecast in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast for inheritance tax receipts. More detail on the Government’s estimates, including why these projections should be viewed as a maximum, are also available in a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee in November 2024, which is available at committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.

The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief are forecast to raise a combined £520 million in 2029-30. The independent OBR certified this costing at Autumn Budget 2024 and it does not expect the reforms to have a significant macroeconomic impact. The OBR published information in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 30 October 2024 and this is available at https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/. The OBR recently published more detail in January 2025 on the costings at https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/IHT-APR-and-BPR-supplementary-release-Jan-2025.pdf.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department will publish the modelling used to set changes to (a) Agricultural Property Relief and (b) Business Property Relief.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992.

The reforms are expected to result in up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, in 2026-27 paying more inheritance tax. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data.

The Government has also set out that around 1,500 estates across the UK only claiming business property relief are expected to be affected in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these expected to only hold shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. The remaining 500 estates will include business assets from sectors across the economy that are eligible for business property relief. These reforms mean that around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those only relating to holding shares designated as “not listed”) will not pay any more inheritance tax in 2026-27.

The tax base consists of all estates subject to inheritance tax that are projected to claim agricultural property relief or business property relief across the scorecard period. The tax base is estimated using HMRC administrative data, and is grown over the forecast in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast for inheritance tax receipts. More detail on the Government’s estimates, including why these projections should be viewed as a maximum, are also available in a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee in November 2024, which is available at committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.

The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief are forecast to raise a combined £520 million in 2029-30. The independent OBR certified this costing at Autumn Budget 2024 and it does not expect the reforms to have a significant macroeconomic impact. The OBR published information in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 30 October 2024 and this is available at https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/. The OBR recently published more detail in January 2025 on the costings at https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/IHT-APR-and-BPR-supplementary-release-Jan-2025.pdf.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish a response to the report by the National Farmers Union entitled An impact analysis of APR reforms on commercial family farms, published on 25 November 2024.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government believes its reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992.

The reforms are expected to result in up to 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those also claiming business property relief, in 2026-27 paying more inheritance tax. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, will not pay any more tax as a result of the changes in 2026-27, based on the latest available data.

The Government has also set out that around 1,500 estates across the UK only claiming business property relief are expected to be affected in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these expected to only hold shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. The remaining 500 estates will include business assets from sectors across the economy that are eligible for business property relief. These reforms mean that around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those only relating to holding shares designated as “not listed”) will not pay any more inheritance tax in 2026-27.

The tax base consists of all estates subject to inheritance tax that are projected to claim agricultural property relief or business property relief across the scorecard period. The tax base is estimated using HMRC administrative data, and is grown over the forecast in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast for inheritance tax receipts. More detail on the Government’s estimates, including why these projections should be viewed as a maximum, are also available in a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee in November 2024, which is available at committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.

The reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief are forecast to raise a combined £520 million in 2029-30. The independent OBR certified this costing at Autumn Budget 2024 and it does not expect the reforms to have a significant macroeconomic impact. The OBR published information in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 30 October 2024 and this is available at https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2024/. The OBR recently published more detail in January 2025 on the costings at https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/IHT-APR-and-BPR-supplementary-release-Jan-2025.pdf.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Environmental Development Plans proposed in Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will be informed by site level assessments where required.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Environmental Delivery Plans will only be put in place where Natural England and the Secretary of State are confident that conservation measures will be sufficient to outweigh the impact of development.

The plans will be evidence based and subject to consultation before coming to the Secretary of State for consideration.

Where an Environmental Delivery Plan is in place and a developer utilises it, the developer would no longer be required to undertake their own assessments, or deliver project-specific interventions, for issues addressed by the Environmental Delivery Plan.

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 part three of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, whether environmental delivery plans will be applied in a modular way, with species considered on a case-by-case basis.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Environmental Delivery Plans will only be put in place where Natural England and the Secretary of State are confident that conservation measures will be sufficient to outweigh the negative impact of development.

Where this is not the case, existing environmental obligations, including those arising under the Habitats Regulations, will remain in place.

We are working with Natural England to explore which species might benefit from strategic approaches.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Environmental Development Plans proposed in Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will be required to follow the mitigation hierarchy.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Environmental Development Plans will provide the flexibility to diverge from project-by-project mitigation and a restrictive application of the mitigation hierarchy.

However, this will only be where Natural England consider that this would deliver better outcomes for nature over the course of the delivery plan.

An Environmental Development Plan can only be put in place where Natural England and the Secretary of State are satisfied that the delivery of conservation measures will outweigh the negative effects of development.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the findings of the report by the National Farmers Union entitled APR and BPR reform alternative, published on 19 February 2025, on changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given to UIN 32918.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children were admitted into NHS care for more than seven days in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England collects data on patient discharge episodes, including for children. Discharge data does not represent the number of individual children with a hospital stay, as a child may have more than one discharge from hospital within the reporting period.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, 67,421 discharge episodes were recorded where the patient was in hospital for more than seven days and was aged between zero and 17 years old when admitted into National Health Service care.

The following table shows a count of finished discharge episodes where the patient was aged between zero and 17 years old, including both total discharges and episodes where the patient was in hospital for more than seven days, each discharge month for 2023/24, for activity in English NHS hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector:

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS England.

Notes:

1. a discharge episode is the last episode during a hospital stay, or spell, where the patient is discharged from the hospital or transferred to another hospital. Discharges do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one discharge from hospital within the period;
2. the patient age is recorded at the point of admission, and this is used to determine the most appropriate setting for the patient. For the purposes of this data, we have only included discharges where the patient was aged zero to 17 years old at the point of admission;
3. total discharges are a count of the total number of finished discharge episodes;
4. discharge month episodes have been counted against the month in which the discharge occurred. It is possible that a patient may have been admitted in a month prior to their discharge; and
5. for the financial year 2023/24, the data in the HES is held by the financial year in which the episode ends. This is to ensure that all clinical and administrative data relevant to the episode is available at the time of collection.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a report on the potential impact of outsourcing on collection and delivery of blood products on the NHS and hospices.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England. NHSBT’s Logistics Department plays a key role in planning for, collecting, and delivering life saving and life changing donated blood products to hospitals across England. It does not deliver to hospices directly.

Last year over 150,000 deliveries were made to hospitals around England, with over 2,000 of those being emergencies. Of the total blood units supplied, NHSBT’s Logistics Transport delivered approximately 64%, and third parties delivered approximately 27%. Hospitals can collect their own blood unit order, making use of their own internal transport, couriers, or blood bike charity groups, and this equates to approximately 9% of total blood units supplied. Utilising couriers for ad hoc delivery is financially and environmentally advantageous, as NHSBT only pays for the delivery costs rather than the empty return journey of the vehicle, which may then be used for other purposes by the courier.

The current performance of courier delivery is audited through NHSBT’s Governance and compliance, and a key factor for measuring the effective running of the contract is that the courier partner collects blood products for delivery on time. The performance level that NHSBT sets is 98.5% on time collection, and this performance is currently exceeded. There are currently no plans to extend the use of third-party couriers for the delivery of blood products or to publish further information in this area.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of outsourcing on collection and delivery of blood products to hospitals.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England. NHSBT’s Logistics Department plays a key role in planning for, collecting, and delivering life saving and life changing donated blood products to hospitals across England. It does not deliver to hospices directly.

Last year over 150,000 deliveries were made to hospitals around England, with over 2,000 of those being emergencies. Of the total blood units supplied, NHSBT’s Logistics Transport delivered approximately 64%, and third parties delivered approximately 27%. Hospitals can collect their own blood unit order, making use of their own internal transport, couriers, or blood bike charity groups, and this equates to approximately 9% of total blood units supplied. Utilising couriers for ad hoc delivery is financially and environmentally advantageous, as NHSBT only pays for the delivery costs rather than the empty return journey of the vehicle, which may then be used for other purposes by the courier.

The current performance of courier delivery is audited through NHSBT’s Governance and compliance, and a key factor for measuring the effective running of the contract is that the courier partner collects blood products for delivery on time. The performance level that NHSBT sets is 98.5% on time collection, and this performance is currently exceeded. There are currently no plans to extend the use of third-party couriers for the delivery of blood products or to publish further information in this area.

Climate and Nature Bill

Travel-related restrictions and haemoglobin tests for blood donations

Securing habitat for endangered swifts and other cavity nesting birds

Pesticides in public spaces

UN Special Rapporteur's report on atrocity crimes in Iran

Found: Catherine Atkinson; Ellie Chowns; Bill Esterson; Barry Gardiner; Sarah Gibson; Alison Griffiths; Chris Hinchliff

Found: ; Julia Buckley; Ellie Chowns; Barry Gardiner; Anna Gelderd; Sarah Gibson; Alison Griffiths; Chris Hinchliff

Found: ; Julia Buckley; Ellie Chowns; Barry Gardiner; Anna Gelderd; Sarah Gibson; Alison Griffiths; Chris Hinchliff

Found: Biomass carbon accounting • Chris Hinchliff MP (Q61): The IPCC guidelines do not automatically consider

Found: Perkins (Chair); Barry Gardiner; Anna Gelderd; Sarah Gibson; Allison Griffiths; Pippa Heylings; Chris Hinchliff

Found: _16 Chris Hinchliff .

Found: Berry Zarah Sultana Jon Trickett Clive Lewis Kim Johnson Iqbal Mohamed John McDonnell Chris Hinchliff

Found: _17 Chris Hinchliff ★.

Found: _1 Chris Hinchliff Terry Jermy .

Found: ” _3 Chris Hinchliff .

Found: New Amendments: 2 and 3, NC1 to NC3 _1 Chris Hinchliff .

Found: New Amendment: 1 _1 Chris Hinchliff ★.

Found: Imran Hussain Dr Simon Opher Mary Kelly Foy Nadia Whittome Adrian Ramsay Kate Osborne Chris Hinchliff

The Environmental Audit Committee is undertaking an inquiry on airport expansion and climate and nature targets. In this inquiry the Committee is seeking to:

Submit Evidence (by 26 May 2025)

Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a large, complex group of about 14,000 synthetic chemicals used in a wide variety of everyday products. For example, PFAS are used to keep food from sticking to packaging or cookware, make clothes and carpets resistant to stains, and create firefighting foam that is more effective.