Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps she is taking to help ensure (a) unrestricted humanitarian access across the country and (b) the protection of humanitarian and aid workers in Sudan.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the statement on Sudan made to the House by the Foreign Secretary on 18 November 2025, and to the most recent Urgent Question debate on 15 December 2025, where these issues were addressed at length.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 help bring about a ceasefire in Sudan.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the statement on Sudan made to the House by the Foreign Secretary on 18 November 2025, and to the most recent Urgent Question debate on 15 December 2025, where these issues were addressed at length.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to introduce legislation in 2026 to ban the sale and supply of peat for horticultural use.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government plans to legislate for a ban on the sale of peat and peat containing products when parliamentary time allows. This commitment is embedded within our Carbon Budget planning and, most recently, reflected in the latest iteration of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP).
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what additional support HM Revenue and Customs can provide to visually impaired people using the Self Assessment system.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC’s online services are designed to work with screen readers and other assistive technologies. Guidance and help text are built into the online tax return and customers can access support through webchat or textphone if they need it.
HMRC also offers a range of support to help visually impaired customers complete their Self Assessment. Customers can request their correspondence and tax return information in Braille, large print or audio formats. These requests are handled by HMRC’s dedicated Visually Impaired Media Unit (VIMU), which ensures that future communications are automatically produced in the customer’s preferred format. In 2024/5, VIMU provided over 59,500 customers with correspondence in an alternative format.
HMRC also has an Extra Support Team that provides tailored assistance for people who need additional help, including those with visual impairments. This team can arrange phone or video appointments and guide customers through the Self Assessment process.
Anyone who needs extra help can contact the Self Assessment helpline or find information on GOV.UK. The service has grown, with the Extra Support team expanding by around 28% in 2024-25. During that time, it supported more than 150,000 customers in vulnerable circumstances.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will implement the recommendations of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s 2025 report entitled Women’s state pension age: our findings for the Department for Work and Pensions’ communication of changes.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced in his oral statement on 11 November 2025, we have decided to retake the decision made last December as it relates to the communications on state pension age.
The work is underway, and we will update the House on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to take steps to provide compensation to women impacted by changes to the state pension age.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced in his oral statement on 11 November 2025, we have decided to retake the decision made last December as it relates to the communications on state pension age.
The work is underway, and we will update the House on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS neurologists and geriatricians have specialist training to treat Parkinson’s disease.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold specific data on the number of specialist Parkinson’s nurses employed in the National Health Service in England. These roles are commissioned locally by NHS trusts and integrated care boards as part of neurology and movement disorder services.
While the Department does not hold data specifically on the number of Parkinson’s specialist staff in England, we do hold data on the number of doctors working in the wider specialities of neurology and geriatric medicine. As of August 2025, there were 2,010 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology and 6,284 in geriatric medicine in NHS trusts and other organisations in England. This includes 1,025 FTE consultant neurologists and 1,687 FTE consultant geriatricians.
NHS England has published a service specification for specialised adult neurology services, which includes Parkinson’s disease as part of its scope. This specification sets out requirements for multidisciplinary care, including access to Parkinson’s disease nurse specialists, consultant neurologists, and allied health professionals.
NHS England is also implementing initiatives such as the Neurology Transformation Programme and the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology, which aim to improve access to specialist care, reduce variation, and develop integrated models of service delivery for conditions including Parkinson’s disease. These programmes align with the National Institute for Care Excellence guidance on Parkinson’s disease, reference code NG71, which recommends that people with Parkinson’s have regular access to specialist staff with expertise in the condition.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the current number of specialist Parkinson’s disease nurses employed within the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold specific data on the number of specialist Parkinson’s nurses employed in the National Health Service in England. These roles are commissioned locally by NHS trusts and integrated care boards as part of neurology and movement disorder services.
While the Department does not hold data specifically on the number of Parkinson’s specialist staff in England, we do hold data on the number of doctors working in the wider specialities of neurology and geriatric medicine. As of August 2025, there were 2,010 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology and 6,284 in geriatric medicine in NHS trusts and other organisations in England. This includes 1,025 FTE consultant neurologists and 1,687 FTE consultant geriatricians.
NHS England has published a service specification for specialised adult neurology services, which includes Parkinson’s disease as part of its scope. This specification sets out requirements for multidisciplinary care, including access to Parkinson’s disease nurse specialists, consultant neurologists, and allied health professionals.
NHS England is also implementing initiatives such as the Neurology Transformation Programme and the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology, which aim to improve access to specialist care, reduce variation, and develop integrated models of service delivery for conditions including Parkinson’s disease. These programmes align with the National Institute for Care Excellence guidance on Parkinson’s disease, reference code NG71, which recommends that people with Parkinson’s have regular access to specialist staff with expertise in the condition.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 reduce variations in the approaches of commissioners in meeting local population need for palliative and end of life care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Through our MSF, we will closely monitor the shift towards strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access to, and quality of, palliative and end of life care services at local and regional levels.
This is further made clear in the recently published Strategic Commissioning Framework and Medium Term Planning Guidance, which make clear the expectations that integrated care boards should understand current and projected total service utilisation and costs for those at the end of life, creating an overall plan to more effectively meet these needs through neighbourhood health.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 reduce regional inequalities in (a) access to and (b) quality of palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Through our MSF, we will closely monitor the shift towards strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access to, and quality of, palliative and end of life care services at local and regional levels.
This is further made clear in the recently published Strategic Commissioning Framework and Medium Term Planning Guidance, which make clear the expectations that integrated care boards should understand current and projected total service utilisation and costs for those at the end of life, creating an overall plan to more effectively meet these needs through neighbourhood health.