Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the introduction of VAT on independent school fees on the ability on non-affluent families to afford private school education.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
HM Treasury published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) on applying VAT to independent school fees. This is a comprehensive assessment of the VAT policy, including impacts on individuals and families and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/applying-vat-to-private-school-fees#who-is-likely-to-be-affected.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when Ministers in her Department last met representatives of the independent school sector to discuss issues facing that sector.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The last meeting was held on 22 July 2025.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 25 June 2025 to Question 60209 on Carers, on how many occasions there has been a cross-Government meeting since July 2024.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Unpaid carers play a vital role and can access support from adult and children’s social care and the National Health Service, as well as through benefits, employers, schools, colleges, and universities. However, we know that too often systems are disjointed, difficult to navigate, and don’t appropriately identify and communicate with carers.
The Government is determined to work together to provide carers of all ages with the recognition and support they deserve.
Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education have convened twice this year to discuss support for unpaid carers and consider opportunities to provide further recognition and support. These are early meetings of a group exploring further ways in which carers can be supported, and as such it does not have a statutory remit.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 25 June 2025 to Question 60209 on Carers, what the outcomes were of the cross-Government meeting.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Unpaid carers play a vital role and can access support from adult and children’s social care and the National Health Service, as well as through benefits, employers, schools, colleges, and universities. However, we know that too often systems are disjointed, difficult to navigate, and don’t appropriately identify and communicate with carers.
The Government is determined to work together to provide carers of all ages with the recognition and support they deserve.
Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education have convened twice this year to discuss support for unpaid carers and consider opportunities to provide further recognition and support. These are early meetings of a group exploring further ways in which carers can be supported, and as such it does not have a statutory remit.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 25 June 2025 to Question 60209 on Carers, who attends the cross-Government meetings.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Unpaid carers play a vital role and can access support from adult and children’s social care and the National Health Service, as well as through benefits, employers, schools, colleges, and universities. However, we know that too often systems are disjointed, difficult to navigate, and don’t appropriately identify and communicate with carers.
The Government is determined to work together to provide carers of all ages with the recognition and support they deserve.
Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education have convened twice this year to discuss support for unpaid carers and consider opportunities to provide further recognition and support. These are early meetings of a group exploring further ways in which carers can be supported, and as such it does not have a statutory remit.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 25 June 2025 to Question 60209 on Carers, whether the cross-Government meeting has a statutory remit.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Unpaid carers play a vital role and can access support from adult and children’s social care and the National Health Service, as well as through benefits, employers, schools, colleges, and universities. However, we know that too often systems are disjointed, difficult to navigate, and don’t appropriately identify and communicate with carers.
The Government is determined to work together to provide carers of all ages with the recognition and support they deserve.
Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education have convened twice this year to discuss support for unpaid carers and consider opportunities to provide further recognition and support. These are early meetings of a group exploring further ways in which carers can be supported, and as such it does not have a statutory remit.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of his policies on the ability of farmers to diversify their income streams to support their farming business.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Agricultural permitted development rights were amended in April 2024 to expand the range of uses agricultural buildings and land within their curtilage can be used for under a ‘flexible commercial use’, incentivising development by providing certainty and removing the time and money needed to submit a planning application. As the Secretary of State announced earlier this year, we will ensure these permitted development rights work for farms to support all farmers to innovate and diversify their businesses. In June, we held three roundtables with agriculture stakeholders to discuss planning issues in depth. Government is consulting on national policies for decision making later this year to make the planning policy framework clearer and more accessible.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report from Together for Short Lives entitled Overstretched and underfunded: The state of children’s hospice funding in 2025, if he will review the disparity in per person funding from integrated care boards for (a) children and (b) young people in hospice care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want a society where every child receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations.
The Together for Short Lives report, Overstretched and underfunded: The state of children’s hospice funding in 2025, highlights variation in the ‘per person’ funding of charitable children’s hospices but does not take into account funding spent via National Health Services, which also supports children with palliative care and end of life care needs. In England, while the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by NHS staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including children’s hospices, also play in providing support to children, and their loved ones, at the end of life.
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 of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We will confirm funding for 2026/27 in line with usual processes and timelines for Government finances.
I have tasked officials to look 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.
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 the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 14 July 2025 to Question 64429 on Hospices: Children, what his planned timetable is for confirming funding arrangements for children's hospices for 2026/27.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want a society where every child receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations.
The Together for Short Lives report, Overstretched and underfunded: The state of children’s hospice funding in 2025, highlights variation in the ‘per person’ funding of charitable children’s hospices but does not take into account funding spent via National Health Services, which also supports children with palliative care and end of life care needs. In England, while the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by NHS staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including children’s hospices, also play in providing support to children, and their loved ones, at the end of life.
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 of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We will confirm funding for 2026/27 in line with usual processes and timelines for Government finances.
I have tasked officials to look 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.
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 the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will adopt the recommendations of the report by Together for Short Lives entitled Overstretched and underfunded: The state of children’s hospice funding in 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want a society where every child receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations.
The Together for Short Lives report, Overstretched and underfunded: The state of children’s hospice funding in 2025, highlights variation in the ‘per person’ funding of charitable children’s hospices but does not take into account funding spent via National Health Services, which also supports children with palliative care and end of life care needs. In England, while the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by NHS staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including children’s hospices, also play in providing support to children, and their loved ones, at the end of life.
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 of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We will confirm funding for 2026/27 in line with usual processes and timelines for Government finances.
I have tasked officials to look 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.
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 the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.