Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to provide support to families whose relatives have died abroad in suspicious circumstances.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that hospice contracts reflect (a) the cost of the services they provide and (b) the needs of their local populations.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. NHS England has developed a palliative care and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative care and end of life care needs of their local population.

Whilst the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on the demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.

The Government and the NHS will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

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

Additionally, 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 in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26.  I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next Spending Review period, from 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see approximately £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs and on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26.  This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 October 2025 to Question 80707 on Hospitals: Special Educational Needs, if he will publish a breakdown by region of the over three million people who have completed the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Under the Health and Care Act 2022, all Care Quality Commission registered providers are required to ensure that their staff receive specific training on learning disability and autism, appropriate to their role. The Government is rolling out its preferred package, the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training (Oliver’s Training) on Learning Disability and Autism, to the health and adult social care workforce.

Oliver’s Training is delivered in two tiers, depending on the level most appropriate for staff. Tier 1 is for general awareness and Tier 2 is a more detailed understanding of learning disability and autism. Each tier is comprised of an e-learning module and either a one-hour webinar, which is Tier 1, or a full-day in-person session, which is Tier 2, delivered alongside people with a learning disability and autistic people.

Information about uptake of Oliver’s Training is collected locally by employers. Over three million people have completed the e-learning package, the first part of the training, which is the same for both tiers. More than 2,700 people have been trained to deliver the second, interactive part of the training nationwide.

Small Business Saturday and support for SME apprenticeships

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Simon Hoare (Chair); Markus Campbell-Savours; Sam Carling; Lauren Edwards

Found: Members present: Simon Hoare (Chair); Markus Campbell-Savours; Charlotte Cane; Sam Carling; Lauren Edwards