Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) review and (b) update the guidance entitled Children and young people’s continuing care national framework, published on 22 January 2016.

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

The National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care, published by the then Department of Health, now the Department of Health and Social Care, in January 2016 is intended to support good practice locally, providing guidance for integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities on the process for assessing, deciding, and agreeing packages of care for children and young people.

There are currently no plans to review or update the Children and Young People's Continuing Care National Framework.

ICBs are responsible for the provision and commissioning of services to meet the needs of their local populations. NHS England supports ICBs to implement the National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care, and it has now started to collect Children and Young People’s Continuing Care activity data as part of the All-age Continuing Care Patient Level Dataset which launched on 1 April 2025, and which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-sets/all-age-continuing-care-data-set/about-the-all-age-continuing-care-data-set

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the impact of 53 week rent-years on rent payment schedules for Universal Credit claimants; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that payments adequately match claimants’ renting costs.

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

Universal Credit always converts weekly amounts to monthly sums using 52 weeks. The legitimacy of this approach was confirmed by the High Court having been tested via a judicial review.

Every five or six years, weekly tenants may have a rent charging year containing 53 charging days. This will not apply in all cases and some claimants will not have a 53-week charging year during the life of their benefit claim.

Most people in work are paid monthly, as is Universal Credit, and they budget for their outgoings on a monthly basis. Weekly rental liabilities do not map directly onto a monthly cycle and this creates budgeting complexities for tenants. They will be required to make only four payments of rent in some months but five payments in others even though their monthly income remains constant. This problem exists in all rent charging years for those with a weekly liability, not just those with 53 Mondays.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to review workforce speciality training allocations in the NHS; and if he will take steps to increase the number of (a) training posts and (b) permanent positions for newly qualified doctors in (i) General Practice, (ii) sexual health, (iii) haematology specialties and (iv) other positions.

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

As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan, published on 3 July, we will work across the Government to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the National Health Service for a significant period for specialty training. The Plan also sets out that over the next three years we will create 1,000 new specialty training posts with a focus on specialties where there is greatest need.

In acknowledgement of doctors’ concerns about jobs and access to training places, the Government made an offer to the British Medical Association’s Resident Doctors Committee to double the previously announced increase in specialty training places in the 10-Year Health Plan to 2,000, bringing 1,000 of these forward to next year, create an alternative training pathway, and take steps to prioritise UK medical graduates and doctors with significant NHS experience for specialty posts. The new specialty training posts will focus on specialties where there is greatest need. On top of this commitment, NHS England has already made changes to the specialty training application process this year to reduce competition and support UK graduates.

The Government has committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) and has increased the number of available GP training places by an additional 250 from September 2025. This brings the total number of GP training places to 4,250 per year.

As self-employed contractors to the NHS, it is for GPs to determine how they run their operations, including staffing arrangements.

We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in GPs to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP Contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole.

Since October 2024, we have funded primary care networks with an additional £160 million to recruit recently qualified GPs through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. Over 2,500 individual GPs have now been recruited, preventing them graduating into unemployment. This was a measure to respond to feedback from the profession and to help solve an immediate issue of GP unemployment.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of mandatory folic acid fortification on people with MTHFR gene variants.

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

The Government’s policy to mandate the fortification of non-wholemeal wheat flour with folic acid is aimed at reducing the incidence of neural tube defects (NTDs) in pregnancy. This policy is based on robust assessment of the evidence by the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and has included two public consultations.

The SACN’s assessment included consideration of individuals with a specific MTHFR gene variant that reduces their ability to process folate from their diet resulting in lower levels of folate in their blood. The two public consultations invited feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, which included individuals concerned about MTHFR gene variants.

An increased intake of folic acid will raise blood folate levels, which reduces the risk of an NTD-affected pregnancy. Therefore, mandatory folic acid fortification is likely to be beneficial to individuals with the specific MTHFR gene variant.

The Government is exploring options to evaluate the policy, which will assess health impacts across different population groups.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandating restaurants in England to display their food hygiene rating.

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

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme is operated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in partnership with local authorities across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Evidence from Wales and Northern Ireland demonstrates that mandatory display has improved transparency, which encourages businesses to achieve better levels of compliance with hygiene requirements.

Introducing a statutory scheme in England with mandatory display of ratings at premises and online, would require primary legislation and the securing of a suitable legislative vehicle and parliamentary time. Ministers will consider the options in due course supported by the FSA.

In the meantime, the FSA is continuing to work with its local authority partners to deliver an excellent Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.

Buying community energy locally

Found: (Labour; Aldershot) Lincoln Jopp (Conservative; Spelthorne) Emma Lewell (Labour; South Shields) Mike Martin

Found: Champion; Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi; Baroness Fall; Lord Hutton of Furness; Baroness Kidron; Mike Martin

Found: Champion; Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi; Baroness Fall; Lord Hutton of Furness; Baroness Kidron; Mike Martin