Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students' Allowance funding on disabled students' future employment prospects.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding.
The department’s review of non-specialist spelling and grammar software found that the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs was available to students in free to access software. We do not expect that this change will affect students’ retention rates or employment prospects.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has she made of the potential merits of making the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund permanent.
Answered by Janet Daby
I refer my hon. Friend, the member for Liverpool West Derby, to my written statement of 22 April 2025, which is available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-04-22/hcws589.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing monitoring compliance with School Food Standards.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Liverpool West Derby to the answer of 9 May 2025 to Question 48872.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April to Question 20692 on food labelling, what his timescale is for a decision on (a) next steps and (b) responding to the consultation.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
A public consultation on fairer food labelling was undertaken last year by the previous Government.
We are now carefully considering all responses to the consultation before deciding on next steps. We recognise that this is an important matter and will respond to this consultation as soon as we are able to.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to extend the Nursery Milk Scheme entitlement to the end of the academic year in which a child turns five.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursery Milk Scheme is a statutory scheme which allows early years childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five who attend a setting for two or more hours per day. Schools can claim reimbursement from the scheme in respect of their pupils aged under five years old.
There are no plans to extend eligibility for the Nursery Milk Scheme to cover children until the end of the academic year, during which they reach their fifth birthday. Separate legislation allows pupils from lower-income families, and who are eligible for free school meals, to continue to receive free milk at school after the age of five years old.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of NHS hospital trusts unable to deliver comprehensive eyecare services to (a) adults and (b) children.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning secondary eye care services to meet local population need. Appropriate levels of staffing are decided by local system workforce planning.
We recognise the challenges facing secondary eye care services. NHS England has been testing how IT connectivity can improve the triage and referral of patients between primary and secondary care, and how to allow more patients to be managed in the community, increasing secondary eye care capacity.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of patients to have undergone NHS cataract surgery in private clinics in each of the last six years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of patients who have undergone National Health Service cataract surgery in private clinics in each of the last six years:
Year | Independent provider total | Difference | ||
Admissions | Patients | Admissions | Patients | |
2017/18 | 75,096 | 57,676 | - | - |
2018/19 | 101,609 | 77,652 | 26,513 | 19,976 |
2019/20 | 132,980 | 100,815 | 31,371 | 23,163 |
2020/21 | 99,185 | 77,982 | 33,795 | 22,833 |
2021/22 | 230,717 | 175,985 | 131,532 | 98,003 |
2022/23 | 373,252 | 276,175 | 142,535 | 100,190 |
2023/24 | 457,714 | 327,121 | 84,462 | 50,946 |
2024/25 | 377,265 | 267,011 | 80,449 | 60,110 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS England.
Note: the data for 2024/25 is provisional as counts produced from provisional data are likely to be lower than those generated for the same period in the final data set.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will launch a consultation on the (a) production, (b) import and (c) sales of eggs from caged hens.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
We remain firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and want to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards.
The use of cages for laying hens is an issue which we are currently considering very carefully.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
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 quality of lenses used by private providers of NHS cataract surgery.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the quality of lenses used by private providers of National Health Service cataract surgery.
The safety of all patients, whether they are treated in the NHS or the independent sector, is a top priority for the Government. All providers of healthcare are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality, below which care should never fall.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of patients who have received NHS cataract surgery in private clinics and have then been re-admitted post-surgery to NHS providers in each of the last six years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A table showing the number and proportion of patients who received National Health Service cataract surgery in private clinics, who were then re-admitted post-surgery to NHS providers in each of the last six years, is attached.