Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential for a role for the voluntary sector in helping support the Probation Service during the period after release.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

We recognise the valuable role played by the thousands of voluntary sector organisations that work in partnership with prisons and the Probation Service to provide vital support to people serving their sentences in prison and on returning to the community.

We welcome the Independent Sentencing Review’s recommendations on how we can better harness the value the Third Sector can add to probation work, building even stronger partnerships to enable better targeting of resources and improve outcomes for offenders.

The Ministry of Justice and H M Prison and Probation Service are continuing to work with voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to define the role that they can play in the Probation Service of the future.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the participation of the voluntary sector to assist with the probation service.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

We recognise the valuable role played by the thousands of voluntary sector organisations that work in partnership with prisons and the Probation Service to provide vital support to people serving their sentences in prison and on returning to the community.

We welcome the Independent Sentencing Review’s recommendations on how we can better harness the value the Third Sector can add to probation work, building even stronger partnerships to enable better targeting of resources and improve outcomes for offenders.

The Ministry of Justice and H M Prison and Probation Service are continuing to work with voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to define the role that they can play in the Probation Service of the future.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department centrally holds data on workforce capacity for allied health professions supporting prevention and community healthcare services in England by profession.

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

The Department does not centrally hold data on workforce capacity for allied health professions supporting prevention and community healthcare services in England by profession.

NHS England published monthly data drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, the Human Resources system for the National Health Service, on the number of staff employed in the NHS in England, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

This information can be used to identify the number of individual allied health professionals employed but is not able to robustly identify the specific service or setting in which staff are delivering care.

The Government is committed to training the staff we need to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed services set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether workforce modelling for community healthcare services separately identifies individual allied health professions, including dietitians.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) plan, commission, and oversee the provision of local National Health Services, including community health services, to meet their population’s needs.

The Government is committed to training the staff we need to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed services set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.

We know people are waiting too long for community health services. That is why, for the first time, we have set a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits in NHS England’s Medium-Term Planning Framework.

By 2028/29 at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, bringing community health services in line with targets for elective care.

In 2025, we published, for the first time, an overview of the core community health services, Standardising Community Health Services, that ICBs should consider when planning for their local populations to support improved commissioning and delivery of community health services, a vital part of Neighbourhood Health. Further guidance was published in February 2026, providing more detailed descriptions of the core components of community health services for ICBs.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the regulatory framework governing the non-domestic energy market; and whether he plans to extend the powers of Ofgem to provide additional protections for SMEs.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government and Ofgem continuously monitor the non-domestic energy market to ensure that good outcomes are being delivered for all consumers.

Recently, the Secretary of State and Ofgem’s Interim CEO wrote to non-domestic suppliers and Third-Party Intermediaries (TPIs) to set out their expectations on how consumers should be supported during the current energy price volatility.

The Government and Ofgem have collaborated to deliver a range of interventions in response to the findings of Ofgem’s non-domestic market review and the Government plans to directly regulate TPIs, by appointing Ofgem as regulator when parliamentary time allows. This will protect non-domestic consumers from exploitative and harmful practices employed by some TPIs.

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 improve patient access to new and emerging treatments for Phenylketonuria, including those available in other countries.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government recognises how important it is that patients with rare diseases can benefit from access to effective new medicines. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. NICE aims wherever possible to issue guidance on new medicines close to the time of licensing and the NHS is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.

NICE has published guidance recommending sapropterin (brand name Kuvan) for phenylketonuria (PKU) on the NHS as a possible treatment for people with this condition who meet the access criteria, are aged under 22 years old or who are pregnant.

NICE is also in the very early stages of developing technology appraisal guidance on sepiapterin for treating hyperphenylalaninaemia in phenylketonuria in people of any age. The evaluation is currently expected to begin in 2027.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of rising standing charges on (a) independent pubs and (b) other low-consumption hospitality venues; and what steps he is taking to ensure that fixed network costs do not disproportionately affect small businesses with seasonal and variable energy use.

Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government recognises that standing charges can be a significant concern for some businesses, including those in the hospitality sector. Network charges are designed to be cost-reflective, meaning they reflect the costs imposed on the network by different users.

Ofgem is conducting a holistic review of how energy system costs, including network costs, should be paid for in the future, as part of its Cost Allocation and Recovery Review (CARR). The most recent update as to progress with this review can be found here: Energy system cost allocation and recovery review - Ofgem - Citizen Space.

Alongside this, Ofgem’s work on the non-domestic market has highlighted the need to improve pricing transparency, and the Government has acted to strengthen protections for business consumers—such as measures to improve how businesses are supported in the market, including through action on third‑party intermediaries—so businesses can better understand what they are being charged and access better value contracts.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of enabling small businesses to renegotiate and exit fixed-term commercial energy contracts agreed during periods of peak wholesale prices.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government’s primary focus is on ensuring energy is affordable for all businesses, and that they are provided better protection from being locked into unfair and expensive energy contracts.

That’s why the Government plans to directly regulate Third-Party Intermediaries (TPIs), by appointing Ofgem as the regulator when parliamentary time allows. A regulated TPI market will drive pro-consumer competition between energy brokers and deliver better outcomes for energy consumers, particularly charities and small businesses.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy and consistency of access to prescribed low-protein foods and specialist nutritional products for people with Phenylketonuria (PKU); and whether he plans to review current prescribing guidance.

Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

No assessment has been made of the adequacy and consistency of access to prescribed low protein foods and specialist nutritional products for people with phenylketonuria (PKU).

In England, specialist nutritional products such as low protein foods are available to all eligible patients on prescription and are listed in Part XV of the Drug Tariff. The provision of these products on prescription ensures that patients with PKU have direct and reliable access to the foods needed for managing their condition.

The Department is not planning to review prescribing guidance for these products.

100th anniversary of the birth of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Ruth Cadbury (Chair); Steff Aquarone; Dr Scott Arthur; Mrs Elsie Blundell

Found: Aquarone (Liberal Democrat; North Norfolk) Dr Scott Arthur (Labour; Edinburgh South West) Mrs Elsie Blundell

Found: Aquarone (Liberal Democrat; North Norfolk) Dr Scott Arthur (Labour; Edinburgh South West) Mrs Elsie Blundell

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Ruth Cadbury (Chair); Steff Aquarone; Dr Scott Arthur; Mrs Elsie Blundell

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Ruth Cadbury (Chair); Steff Aquarone; Dr Scott Arthur; Mrs Elsie Blundell

Found: Aquarone (Liberal Democrat; North Norfolk) Dr Scott Arthur (Labour; Edinburgh South West) Mrs Elsie Blundell

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Ruth Cadbury (Chair); Steff Aquarone; Dr Scott Arthur; Mrs Elsie Blundell