Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment includes participation from people with (a) current experience of claiming disability benefits and (b) high support or communication needs.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Timms Review is being co-produced by disabled people, the organisations that represent them and other experts. The steering group is committed to ensuring that the Review is informed by a broad range of voices and experiences and to making engagement as accessible as possible.
The steering group has agreed to use a mix of approaches combining lived experience, expert insight, existing research, new quantitative data, workshops, and deliberative events across the UK to gather evidence. The steering group will share more details on these as the review progresses.
The Review has so far launched a Call for Evidence to gather input from individuals and organisations, with a full suite of accessible versions, including British Sign Language, Braille, Easy Read, Large Print, Audio, and Welsh versions.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what consideration his Department gave to the design of payment arrangements for participants in the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment to support participation by people in receipt of benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Timms Review is being co-produced by disabled people, the organisations that represent them and other experts. The steering group is committed to ensuring that the Review is informed by a broad range of voices and experiences and to making engagement as accessible as possible.
The steering group has agreed to use a mix of approaches combining lived experience, expert insight, existing research, new quantitative data, workshops, and deliberative events across the UK to gather evidence. The steering group will share more details on these as the review progresses.
The Review has so far launched a Call for Evidence to gather input from individuals and organisations, with a full suite of accessible versions, including British Sign Language, Braille, Easy Read, Large Print, Audio, and Welsh versions.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what reasonable adjustments his Department has put in place to support participants in the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment to share their views and experiences.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Timms Review is being co-produced by disabled people, the organisations that represent them and other experts. The steering group is committed to ensuring that the Review is informed by a broad range of voices and experiences and to making engagement as accessible as possible.
The steering group has agreed to use a mix of approaches combining lived experience, expert insight, existing research, new quantitative data, workshops, and deliberative events across the UK to gather evidence. The steering group will share more details on these as the review progresses.
The Review has so far launched a Call for Evidence to gather input from individuals and organisations, with a full suite of accessible versions, including British Sign Language, Braille, Easy Read, Large Print, Audio, and Welsh versions.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to improve the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in (a) identifying non-compliance and (b) taking enforcement action to tackle non-compliance.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 3 March 2026 to question number UIN: 114271
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average national unit cost to the NHS is for an MRI scan used in prostate cancer detection using (a) multiparametric and (b) biparametric MRI.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The average cost to the National Health Service for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans using biparametric and multiparametric MRIs is set out in the 2025/26 National Payment Scheme, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2025-26-nhs-payment-scheme/.
Biparametric MRI scans are categorised under ‘non contrast’, whilst multiparametric MRI scans are categorised ‘with contrast’. The following table shows the price of different MRI scans:
Test type | Test name and description | Price |
MRI | MRI non contrast 1 area (Adult) | £129 |
MRI non contrast 1 area (Paediatric age 6 to18) | £217 | |
MRI non contrast 2 area | £155 | |
MRI non contrast more than 3 area | £222 | |
MRI with contrast 1 area (Adult) | £188 | |
MRI with contrast 1 area (Paediatric age 6 to 18) | £329 |
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to promote inclusive Physical Education in the rollout of the revised national curriculum.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the importance of school sport in promoting all pupils’ wellbeing and educational outcomes. In support of this, we have provided a grant of up to £300,000 a year to a consortium led by the Youth Sport Trust to deliver Inclusion 2028 with the aim to provide advice, guidance and training to upskill teachers and the school workforce to deliver high quality, inclusive PE. The grant supports the Inclusive Education Hub, an online platform of resources to help schools make PE and sport more inclusive.
In November 2025, the government published its response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review. The department is working closely with specialists in the education sector to make changes to the national curriculum for PE and will ensure they continue to increase and improve opportunities for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities to be physically active. There will be public consultation on the updated curriculum Programmes of Study, to seek views on the content before they are finalised.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
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 the potential implications for its policies of research published on 3rd November 2025 by Langley S et al in the European Urology Oncology Journal; and if he will ensure that this is considered as part of the UK National Screening Committee’s review.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The article Targeted Prostate Health Checks, a Novel Screening System to Identify Men at Risk of Prostate Cancer: Real-world Evidence from More than 18 000 Prostate-specific Antigen Tests was published after the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) completed its formal modelling report as part of its evidence review into prostate cancer screening. The UK NSC Secretariat has read the report and discussed it with the Chair of the committee in relation to the prostate cancer screening recommendation.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending VAT energy-saving materials relief to promote the uptake of heat batteries in homes in Beckenham and Penge constituency.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
This Government is committed to improving the quality and sustainability of our housing stock, through improvements such as low carbon heating, insulation, solar panels, and batteries. This will be vital to making the UK more energy resilient and meeting our 2050 Net Zero commitment.
Installations of qualifying energy-saving materials (ESMs) in residential accommodation and buildings used solely for a charitable purpose benefit from a temporary VAT zero rate until March 2027, after which they will revert to the reduced rate of VAT at five per cent.
The Government assesses whether to add ESMs to this relief by evaluating them against the following principles: the primary purpose of the technology must be to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions; and relieving the technology of VAT must be cost effective and align with broader VAT principles.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to reduce digital exclusion in Beckenham and Penge constituency.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We know that digital exclusion is a complex issue, and that a reported 6% of residents in the Outer London - South area do not use the internet. That is why we launched the Digital Inclusion Action Plan which sets out the first five actions we are taking over the next year to boost digital inclusion in every corner of the UK, including in Beckenham and Penge.
They will be targeted at local initiatives for boosting digital skills and confidence, widening access to devices and connectivity, and getting support to people in their own communities so everyone can reap the benefits of technology. One of these actions was to launch the £9.5mn Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund to support and expand local community initiatives to get people online, which we did in August.
Asked by: Liam Conlon (Labour - Beckenham and Penge)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to phase out the use of animals in scientific research.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Labour Manifesto commits to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, which is a long-term goal. The Government invests £10m annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to accelerate the development and adoption of 3Rs approaches. A significant amount of research funding in the UK also goes to underpinning technologies that have the potential to deliver the 3Rs, driving forward innovation.
The government will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods later this year.