Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has an estimate of the earliest possible date Jascayd (nerandomilast) could be available to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients.

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

Nerandomilast does not currently have a United Kingdom marketing authorisation for use in the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. It is currently being evaluated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) which makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS.

Subject to licensing, NICE currently expects to publish final guidance on nerandomilast in September 2026.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has considered the implications of the UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal for the potential approval of Jascayd (nerandomilast).

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

No specific consideration of the implications of the United Kingdom and United States’ Economic Prosperity Deal for the approval of Jascayd (nernadomilast) has been made. The changes that we are making to the way in which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates medicines are expected to increase the number of medicines that NICE is able to recommend for National Health Service use. NICE will continue to develop its recommendations on whether individual medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS independently on the basis of the available evidence and through extensive engagement with interested parties.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has undertaken work to identify which additional public services could be delivered face to face through the Post Office network; and whether he has discussed the potential expansion of such services with other departments.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

As set out in the Government’s Green Paper, the role of Post Office is changing, fuelled by significant changes in Post Office’s markets. Government will continue facilitating discussions around the future of cash and banking services, as demonstrated by the recent joint discussions held between the Post Office and the banking sector. The Department for Business and Trade will also work across government to explore opportunities to improve and enhance the delivery of in-person government services, and we have established a cross-government working group for this purpose. However, Post Office’s services are ultimately a commercial matter for the organisation and its partners.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has considered the potential merits of the Post Office network hosting community banking representatives to provide in-person access to more complex banking services.

Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

As set out in the Government’s Green Paper, the role of Post Office is changing, fuelled by significant changes in Post Office’s markets. Government will continue facilitating discussions around the future of cash and banking services, as demonstrated by the recent joint discussions held between the Post Office and the banking sector. The Department for Business and Trade will also work across government to explore opportunities to improve and enhance the delivery of in-person government services, and we have established a cross-government working group for this purpose. However, Post Office’s services are ultimately a commercial matter for the organisation and its partners.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the eligibility criteria for the Graduate Guarantee scheme for newly qualified nurses and midwives in England was determined.

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

The Graduate Guarantee is a workforce measure aimed at improving the access and transition into employment for newly qualified nurses and midwives in England.

It is aimed at ensuring that the 2025 cohort has opportunities to apply for roles across the health and care sector, ensuring that students who qualified in September 2025 and January 2026 will directly benefit. There is no national eligibility criterion, reflecting that employment decisions sit locally with National Health Service trusts and that individuals may choose when to apply following qualification.

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 merits of extending the Graduate Guarantee scheme for newly qualified nurses and midwives in England to include graduates who qualified prior to 2024.

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

No assessment has been made. There are no plans to extend the Graduate Guarantee to include graduates who qualified prior to 2024.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of outstanding Plan 2 student loan debt in the year the first loans become eligible to be written off; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of that debt on Government finances.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The oldest Plan 2 loans will become eligible for cancellation in 2046. For the England-domiciled 2012/13 cohort, the first to receive Plan 2 loans, we forecast a total of £17,036 million in loan balances (including interest) will be cancelled at the end of their 30-year repayment periods.

These cancellations are accounted for at the point of loan outlay. The future cancelled debt is reflected in both the national accounts and the department’s accounts in the year the loan is issued and is then updated annually. It will not result in further losses when the loans reach the end of their 30-year write-off period.

The treatment of student loans in the national accounts is in line the methodology published by the Office for National Statistics and can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/methodologies/studentloansinthepublicsectorfinancesamethodologicalguide.

Found: Labour; Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) Kenneth Stevenson (Labour; Airdrie and Shotts) Michael Wheeler

Found: Labour; Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) Kenneth Stevenson (Labour; Airdrie and Shotts) Michael Wheeler