Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of (a) the effect of no national oversight relating to the quality of vision rehabilitation services for patients in England and (b) the experiences of those with sight loss when it comes to being able to use those services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have the duty to shape their care market and to commission a range of high-quality, sustainable, and person-centred care and support services to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes encouraging a wide range of service provision to ensure that people, including those with sight loss, have a choice of appropriate services and equipment that maximises independence.
Although the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is not currently required to assess vision rehabilitation services, as regulated activities under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, sensory services, including vision rehabilitation, do form part of the CQC’s overall assessment of local authorities’ delivery of adult social care.
CQC assessments identify local authorities’ strengths and areas for development, in their delivery of their duties under part 1 of the Care Act. This facilitates the sharing of good practice and helps us to target support where it is most needed. The CQC will report on sensory services when there is something important to highlight, for example, something being done well, innovative practice, or an area for improvement.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of recent trends in the number of patients receiving timely access to vision rehabilitation services in line with industry best practice.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is now assessing how local authorities are meeting the full range of their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. These assessments identify local authorities’ strengths and areas for development, facilitating the sharing of good practice, and helping us to target support where it is most needed. This means that sensory services, including vision rehabilitation, form part of the CQC’s overall assessment of local authorities’ delivery of adult social care. In that context, the CQC will report on sensory services when there is something important to highlight, for example, something being done well, innovative practice, or an area for improvement.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
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 secure a sustainable future for the vision rehabilitation workforce.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are progressing towards a National Care Service, and this includes expanding career opportunities through the Care Workforce Pathway, and investing £12 million in learning, development, and new qualifications. The Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate and the Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care equip staff with the knowledge on how to adapt communication methods and make reasonable adjustments for individuals with vision impairments.
The qualifications cover sensory loss, communication needs, and the use of assistive technologies, where appropriate. The Care Workforce Pathway reinforces these principles across role categories, particularly within the Enhanced Care Worker role, which includes developing skills needed to support people with sensory impairments.
The Learning and Development Support Scheme enables eligible employers to access funding for these qualifications, including those mentioned above, as well as over 200 other training courses and qualifications.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help ease restrictive licensing practices in relation to software by large cloud providers to ensure that there is fair and open competition in the sector.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting a competitive and innovative digital economy. This is why we prioritised the commencement and implementation of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (the CMA) new powers in digital markets. The CMA is independent of Government, and any decisions on which markets it next investigates is for their Board.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help accelerate the process to designate cloud services with Digital Market Unit's Strategic Market Status to prevent anti-competitive practices in the sector.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA) has completed three Strategic Market Status investigations this year. The CMA is independent of the Government and decisions on which markets to investigate are for its Board. The CMA has published guidance on its website on how it will prioritise Strategic Market Status designations.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the level of systemic risk from reliance on two dominant cloud providers following recent outages.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
I refer the honourable member to the answer given on 24 November to UIN 92927. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) continues to monitor systemic risks to UK critical national infrastructure from reliance on cloud providers, including resilience measures and contingency planning following recent service outages.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to increase interoperability and competitiveness in the domestic cloud market following recent widespread outages caused by dominant providers in the industry.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In July 2025, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its final report on the UK cloud market. The key recommendation was for the CMA Board to prioritise commencing investigations under the digital markets regime and to consider designating the two largest providers —Microsoft and AWS — with strategic market status in relation to cloud services. The CMA is independent of Government and any decisions on initiating strategic market status investigations are for the CMA Board.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to the economy of recent outages of large-scale cloud providers.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
I refer the member to the answer given to UIN 92928 on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of introducing VAT to to medicines provided free under Early Access Medicines Scheme programmes on pharmaceutical companies.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the honourable member to the answer that I gave to PQ UIN: 87051.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her (a) Department and (b) HMRC have conducted on the potential impact on clinical trial numbers from the introduction of VAT to medicines provided free under Early Access Medicines Scheme programmes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
VAT is the UK’s second largest tax, forecast to raise £180 billion in 2025/26. Taxation is a vital source of revenue which helps to fund public services.
Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS) allows patients access to free medicines for life threatening conditions before receiving full NHS approval.
Under UK VAT law, some transactions where no money changes hands are treated as if a supply has been made – these are called deemed supplies. This is to keep the system fair. Whether VAT applies to medicines or treatments provided for free under the EAMS will depend on the precise facts of the case. In certain circumstances the giving of goods away for free can be outside the scope of VAT. Where the supply is within the scope of VAT a relief may apply, meaning the supply can be made VAT free.