Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the National Institute for Health and Social Care on providing guidance on the adoption of selective internal radiation therapy for patients with neuroendocrine tumours .

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has had no such discussions. In May 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published interventional procedures guidance that recommends that selective internal radiation therapy can be used as an option for neuroendocrine tumours that have metastasised to the liver, with standard arrangements in place for clinical governance, consent, and audit. The NICE’s interventional procedures make recommendations based on an assessment of safety and efficacy, but do not consider whether the procedure represents a clinically and cost-effective use of National Health Service resources. NHS commissioners are responsible for decisions on whether procedures recommended in the NICE’s interventional procedures guidance should be routinely offered to NHS patients.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to (a) Personal Independence Payment, (b) Universal Credit and (c) Carers’ Allowance on (i) adult social service capacity and (ii) housing demand.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP is working across Government, including with DHSC and MHCLG, to consider the impact of the reforms to the welfare system.

We will also consider the impacts on benefits for unpaid carers as part of our wider consideration of responses to the consultation as we develop our detailed proposals for change.

Through the Green Paper we are consulting on the support needed for those who may lose any entitlements as a result of receiving PIP daily living and what this support could look like.

We will also work closely with the DHSC and others on how the health and eligible care needs of those who would lose entitlement to PIP could be met outside the benefits system.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the University of Exeter report entitled Planetary Solvency, published on 16 January 2025; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing guidance on how pension funds can gain more realistic assessments of climate risk.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Trustees of pension schemes in scope of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) are required to undertake scenario analysis to assess the resilience of their investment strategy against climate-related risks and opportunities. Trustees must have regard to the DWP’s statutory guidance when complying with these requirements. The Pensions Regulator has also issued guidance to trustees, which references free online resources such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) climate risk map. This resource can help trustees form an initial view of the types of risks and opportunities that might be relevant and help guide their discussions with advisers.

Climate scenario analysis tools and the information and data behind them are evolving rapidly, so trustees should keep developments under review. It is sensible for trustees to update their scenario analysis if modelling techniques and capabilities change.

The government will continue to work in collaboration with regulators and welcomes progress within the industry to ensure that climate risk models support effective decision-making under the existing legislative requirements.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that newly appointed pension fund trustees are aware of the responsibility to consider climate risks in investments.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

There are a range of governance and reporting requirements that trustees, including new trustees, must meet. For trustees in scope, this includes disclosing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies in the Statement of Investment Principles (SIP) and explaining how and the extent to which those policies have been followed over the scheme year. Guidance is available from the Pensions Regulator (TPR) to help trustees understand these requirements and the 2024 Market Oversight Review provides further insight into TPR’s expectations around ESG duties.

The Occupational Pension Schemes (Climate Change Governance and Reporting) Regulations 2021 place requirements on trustees in our largest occupational pension schemes to demonstrate how they are managing climate-related risks and opportunities in an annual Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report. TPR’s Guidance includes a step-by-step example to help trustees develop their understanding of the requirements and upskill newer trustees. In a 2024 review of TCFD reports, TPR reported confidence in trustees maintaining up-to-date knowledge and understanding of climate risk.

As set out in their Climate Adaptation Report (2025), TPR is proactively focused on raising trustee awareness of climate-related systemic risks. TPR also continues to support new trustees through specific guidance and the Trustee toolkit, a free online learning programme that helps trustees gain the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding needed to fulfil their role.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the level of turnover of Local Government Pension Scheme trustees on an understanding of the duty to consider climate-related risk.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Administering authorities are already required to consider factors that are financially material to the performance of their investments, including environmental considerations such as climate risks.

The government has consulted on proposals to ensure that those involved in decision making in administering authorities have the appropriate level of knowledge and understanding for their roles.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that fiduciary duty explicitly places a duty on pension fund trustees to consider system risks.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Trustees have a range of duties set out in governing provisions of the scheme, common law and relevant statutory provisions. These include duties to make investment decisions in the best interests of members of the pension scheme. The Law Commission concluded in 2014, that there was no impediment to trustees taking account of Environmental, Social and Governance factors, where they are or may be financially material, and that trustees should take into account financially material factors. The Financial Markets Law Committee’s (FMLC) report in 2024 revisited the Law Commission’s findings and argued that there is a strong case for trustees to consider climate change and other environmental factors as ‘financial factors’ in investment decision-making. The government welcomes the opinion the FMLC reached.

The Law Commission’s 2014 report also stated that trustees may take such factors, which are not strictly and directly financial, into account. This should be to the extent that they would not involve a risk of significant financial detriment to the trust’s funds and where they have good reason to think scheme members would support the decision. The FMLC’s report concludes that financial factors are broad and many factors that may appear at first to be ‘non-financial’ are in fact ‘financial’. Findings from both reports reflect the permissive nature of trustee fiduciary duty, and why the government is not currently considering any change to the law.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of using proposed biennial governance reviews of administering authorities to ensure that trustees regularly review science-based forecasts of climate risks.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Administering authorities are already required to consider factors that are financially material to the performance of their investments, including environmental considerations such as climate risks.

The government has consulted on proposals to ensure that those involved in decision making in administering authorities have the appropriate level of knowledge and understanding for their roles.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential implications for her policies of (a) the report by the Law Commission entitled Fiduciary Duties of Investment Intermediaries, published on 30 June 2014, and (b) its evaluation that there is no impediment to pension trustees taking account of environmental factors where (i) they are and (ii) may be financially material.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Trustees have a range of duties set out in governing provisions of the scheme, common law and relevant statutory provisions. These include duties to make investment decisions in the best interests of members of the pension scheme. The Law Commission concluded in 2014, that there was no impediment to trustees taking account of Environmental, Social and Governance factors, where they are or may be financially material, and that trustees should take into account financially material factors. The Financial Markets Law Committee’s (FMLC) report in 2024 revisited the Law Commission’s findings and argued that there is a strong case for trustees to consider climate change and other environmental factors as ‘financial factors’ in investment decision-making. The government welcomes the opinion the FMLC reached.

The Law Commission’s 2014 report also stated that trustees may take such factors, which are not strictly and directly financial, into account. This should be to the extent that they would not involve a risk of significant financial detriment to the trust’s funds and where they have good reason to think scheme members would support the decision. The FMLC’s report concludes that financial factors are broad and many factors that may appear at first to be ‘non-financial’ are in fact ‘financial’. Findings from both reports reflect the permissive nature of trustee fiduciary duty, and why the government is not currently considering any change to the law.

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 all eligible recipients are registered for their NHS Healthy Start entitlement.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Those eligible for Healthy Start must apply to the NHSBSA to receive Healthy Start payments.

All applicants, where they meet the eligibility criteria, must accept the terms and conditions of the Healthy Start prepaid card at the point of application. As the prepaid card is a financial product and cannot be issued without the applicant accepting these terms, the NHSBSA is not able to automatically provide eligible families with a prepaid card.

We remain open to all viable routes to improve uptake to ensure that as many eligible people as possible are accessing the scheme, to support their children with a healthy start in life.

In March 2025 Healthy Start supported over 359,000 people.

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 8 April 2025 to Question 43451 on Neuroendocrine Cancer: Radiotherapy, what recent discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards on the commissioning of selective internal radiation therapy.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England commissions selective internal radiation therapy for chemotherapy refractory / intolerant metastatic colorectal cancer in adults in accordance with criteria which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Selective-internal-radiation-therapy-for-chemotherapy-refractory-intolerant-metastatic-colorectal-cancer.pdf

The National Cancer Plan, coming later in 2025, will set out plans to improve the experience and outcomes for people at every stage of the cancer pathway. It will include how to improve communication and coordination for patients, so that they feel informed, empowered, and in control of their care.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timeline is for the implementation of recorded assessments as standard for Personal Independence Payments.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We announced our intention to record assessments as standard in the Pathways to Work Green Paper as a valuable tool to improve people’s trust in the health assessment process. We are developing our plans to implement this measure and will set out further details in a White Paper later this year.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the Universal Credit system to automatically register eligible households for (a) free school meals and (b) the NHS Healthy Start scheme.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No such assessment has been made. The Universal Credit system permits Department of Health and Social Care to check a citizen’s entitlement to Healthy Start vouchers, and Department for Education to check eligibility for Free School Meals.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that (a) charities, (b) asylum seekers and (c) refugees are included in the development of her Department's (i) policy and (ii) procedures.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration and asylum system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and other stakeholders.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the proportion of substantive asylum interview appointments that were cancelled due to an inability to secure a translator in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)

The number of substantive interviews completed per month is published in tab ASY_05(M) of the Immigration and Protection dataset: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-and-protection-data-q4-2024.

The requested information on cancelled appointments could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on (a) medical student finance and (b) the adequacy of total financial support during NHS Bursary funded years of study.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department works closely with the Department for Education on a wide range of matters to ensure the education system is supporting healthcare students, including student funding.

For the 2025-26 academic year, the Government will increase the NHS Bursary tuition fee contributions, maintenance grants and all allowances by 3.1%. This is the second consecutive academic year that this Government has increased support through the NHS Bursary. For the 2025-26 academic year, the Government has also announced that maximum loans for living costs from Student Finance England (SFE), including reduced rate non-means tested loans for students in NHS Bursary years, will increase by 3.1%.

The Government reviews the funding arrangements for medical students annually. This includes the NHS Bursary scheme and SFE support.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of transitioning from Student Finance England support to the NHS bursary on the finances of medical students in their final years of study.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department works closely with the Department for Education on a wide range of matters to ensure the education system is supporting healthcare students, including student funding.

For the 2025-26 academic year, the Government will increase the NHS Bursary tuition fee contributions, maintenance grants and all allowances by 3.1%. This is the second consecutive academic year that this Government has increased support through the NHS Bursary. For the 2025-26 academic year, the Government has also announced that maximum loans for living costs from Student Finance England (SFE), including reduced rate non-means tested loans for students in NHS Bursary years, will increase by 3.1%.

The Government reviews the funding arrangements for medical students annually. This includes the NHS Bursary scheme and SFE support.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the effectiveness of the NHS bursary scheme.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department works closely with the Department for Education on a wide range of matters to ensure the education system is supporting healthcare students, including student funding.

For the 2025-26 academic year, the Government will increase the NHS Bursary tuition fee contributions, maintenance grants and all allowances by 3.1%. This is the second consecutive academic year that this Government has increased support through the NHS Bursary. For the 2025-26 academic year, the Government has also announced that maximum loans for living costs from Student Finance England (SFE), including reduced rate non-means tested loans for students in NHS Bursary years, will increase by 3.1%.

The Government reviews the funding arrangements for medical students annually. This includes the NHS Bursary scheme and SFE support.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published in March 2025, what role the (a) voluntary and (b) community sector will have in implementing those reforms.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We strongly value the input of disabled people and people with health conditions, in addition to representative organisations that support them, and that is why we have brought forward this Green Paper and the consultation.

The consultation welcomes the views of voluntary organisations, and we hope many will respond before the consultation closes on the 30 June 2025. Our programme of accessible public events will further facilitate input, including in-person and online, and will help us hear from disabled people and representative organisations directly.

We are also exploring other ways to facilitate the involvement of stakeholders in our reforms. In addition to the consultation, we will establish ‘collaboration committees’ that bring groups of people together for specific policy development areas and our wider review of the PIP assessment will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience.

As we develop proposals further, we will consider how to best to involve voluntary and community organisations in the planning and implementation of reforms, including in our employment support package.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of Employment and Support Allowance claimants who have not moved to Universal Credit after the deadline day set out in their migration notice in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, (b) the North East and (c) England.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Monthly statistics for the number of People and Households sent a Migration Notice for Move to Universal Credit in Great Britain by geography including by Westminster Parliamentary Constituency and by legacy benefit type are published quarterly on Stat-Xplore - Log in

People invited to Move to Universal Credit statistics are currently available from July 2022 to December 2024 in the People invited to Move to Universal Credit dataset. Households invited to Move to Universal Credit statistics are also available in the Households invited to Move to Universal Credit dataset.

In addition there are a number of ready-made tables by various breakdowns available in the Move to Universal Credit tables.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access Introduction to the Stat-Xplore User Guide on how to extract the information required. There is also a Universal Credit Official Statistics: Stat-Xplore user guide - GOV.UK

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department uses artificial intelligence to transcribe asylum interviews.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)

No.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of enabling medical students to receive their student loan provision at the same rate as previous years alongside the NHS Bursary in their final years of study.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department works closely with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a wide range of matters to ensure the education system is supporting healthcare students, including student funding.

The government needs to ensure that the student funding system is financially sustainable, and funding arrangements are reviewed each year. We will continue to engage with DHSC to consider the financial support that medical students receive.

Students attending the fifth and sixth years of undergraduate medical courses and years 2 to 4 of graduate entry medical courses qualify for NHS bursaries. The government has announced an increase to all NHS bursary maintenance grants and allowances for the 2025/26 academic year by forecast inflation, 3.1%, based on the Retail Price Index Excluding Mortgage Interest (RPIX) inflation index.

Medical students qualifying for NHS bursary support also qualify for non-means tested loans for living costs from the department. The government has announced that maximum loans for living costs for the 2025/26 academic year, including reduced rate non-means tested loans for students undertaking NHS bursary years, will also increase by 3.1%.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions her Department has had with the Department for Health and Social Care on (a) medical student finance and (b) the adequacy of total financial support during NHS Bursary funded years of study.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department works closely with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a wide range of matters to ensure the education system is supporting healthcare students, including student funding.

The government needs to ensure that the student funding system is financially sustainable, and funding arrangements are reviewed each year. We will continue to engage with DHSC to consider the financial support that medical students receive.

Students attending the fifth and sixth years of undergraduate medical courses and years 2 to 4 of graduate entry medical courses qualify for NHS bursaries. The government has announced an increase to all NHS bursary maintenance grants and allowances for the 2025/26 academic year by forecast inflation, 3.1%, based on the Retail Price Index Excluding Mortgage Interest (RPIX) inflation index.

Medical students qualifying for NHS bursary support also qualify for non-means tested loans for living costs from the department. The government has announced that maximum loans for living costs for the 2025/26 academic year, including reduced rate non-means tested loans for students undertaking NHS bursary years, will also increase by 3.1%.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of encouraging local authorities to adopt the HAF Plus model of delivering the Holiday Activities and Food programme for 13-16 year olds.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The holiday activities and food (HAF) programme supports disadvantaged children and their families during the school holidays, offering enriching activities and healthy food to support their health, development and wellbeing. The department was very pleased to be able to make available more than £200 million for the HAF programme in 2025/26. Delivery across England has already taken place at Easter, with the summer and Christmas holidays to come.

HAF Plus has been adopted by several local authorities as a model for older children, following successful pilots. Through the department’s annual guidance to local authorities who coordinate the programme across England, we encourage flexibility to offer suitable models to older children, with careful consideration given to a different model of food and activity provision. We also strongly encourage consideration of the role that older children can have in supporting, designing and leading sessions for their peers or for younger children, in order to help them to socialise and develop leadership skills, which can be crucial for those in year 9 to 11.

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 with Cabinet colleagues to improve the inclusivity of public services for autistic people.

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

From 1 July 2022, service providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are required to ensure their staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role, as set out in the Health and Care Act 2022. To support this, we are rolling out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism. Over two million people have now completed the e-learning module, which is the first part of the training.

The Government has also committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity, including autism, in the workplace. An independent panel made of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity, including autism, has been launched to advise the Government on fostering more inclusive workplaces. This will build on the recommendations outlined in the Buckland Review of Autism Employment, which related solely to autism.

The Department of Health and Social Care is also working closely with the Department for Education on reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system to improve inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs. We are also supporting earlier intervention for children with SEND through the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme. PINS brings together integrated care boards, local authorities, and schools, working in partnership with parents and carers to support schools to better meet the needs of neurodivergent children and their families.

Imprisonment of Lucy Connolly

Future of the UK baking industry

Negotiating rights for police officers

Blockade of aid to Gaza

Ensuring stability for Ukrainian refugees in the UK

Armenian genocide

Better Jobs, Better Services campaign

70th anniversary of First Comber Presbyterian Church Girls Brigade

Future of children’s palliative care

The death of His Holiness Pope Francis

Close season for hare shooting

Death of Pope Francis

Immigration application fees for young adults and children

Great British Beef Week 2025

Viewpark and Bellshill Community Alcohol Partnership

Travel-related restrictions and haemoglobin tests for blood donations

Foster Care Fortnight

Life of Pope Francis

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Bob Blackman (Chair); Jess Brown-Fuller; Jonathan Davies; Mary Glindon

Found: Richard Burgon Ben Lake Liz Saville Roberts Neil Duncan-Jordan Steve Witherden Chris Hinchliff Mary Glindon

Found: Manuela Perteghella Liz Saville Roberts Carla Denyer Zarah Sultana Ms Diane Abbott Ian Byrne Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Mary Kelly Foy Carla Lockhart Paula Barker Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Alex Easton Ms Diane Abbott Mary Kelly Foy Sarah Champion Iqbal Mohamed Kirsteen Sullivan Mary Glindon

Found: Not called_NC4 Mary Glindon .

This inquiry will look into the health and wellbeing services available to those working in Parliament - exploring how existing services can be better communicated and supported, and identifying where some health and wellbeing needs are still not being met.