Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on improving support for carers via the carer allowance system.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)

We have accepted or partially accepted 38 of the 40 recommendations in Liz Sayce’s independent review of Carer’s Allowance overpayments. We are working on plans to improve and modernise Carer’s Allowance (CA), making it easier for unpaid carers to combine their caring responsibilities with paid work where they can, and rewarding them more for doing so.

The department also provides support to unpaid carers through income-related benefits, which can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities. Universal Credit and Pension Credit pay an extra £2,500 a year to 1.1 million unpaid carers through the carer element and carer addition respectively.

We have also increased the weekly Carer's Allowance earnings limit to match 16 hours work at National Living Wage levels. This change from April 2025 resulted in the largest ever increase in the limit to £196 net earnings a week and the highest percentage increase since 2001. In April 2026 the earnings limit increased to £204 per week. This means more than 60,000 additional people will be able to receive Carer's Allowance between 2025/26 and 2029/30 as result. This change will mean that those working 16 hours and receiving the NLW will be sure that they can receive CA that week.

The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 gave employees a right to time off to care for someone who is disabled or has a long-term health condition for the first time and the Plan to Make Work Pay review announced in November 2025  presents an opportunity to consider our approach to employment rights for unpaid carers, particularly leave entitlements, giving due consideration to balancing costs and benefits to both businesses and the exchequer.

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 support the hospice sector.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to use the Healthy Food Standard to help ensure that supermarkets provide a range of affordable, healthy products in smaller convenience stores.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson

Healthier food targets and reporting is intended to improve the healthiness of food sales. We will consult soon on the design of the measures, a key aspect of which is to allow businesses flexibility to improve the healthiness of their sales in ways that best reflect their product portfolio and business model. For example, changing store layout, price points, or the reformulation of products. The consultation will also invite views on the size of the business in scope.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to improve the level of consultant staffing in pathology departments to meed the target of 98% of histopathology tests to be reported within 10 days by March 2029, as specified in the National Cancer Plan.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson

The Department is taking action to ensure sufficient provision of the histopathology workforce. As of April 2026, there were over 1,400 full-time equivalent consultants working in histopathology in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. This is almost 50, or 3.5%, more than in April 2025.

NHS England is expanding histopathology training places and has increased trainee numbers since 2020. Additional actions that have been taken include long-term investment in training, greater flexibility and access to education programmes, training grants, retaining senior expertise through the retire and return for teaching programme, and expanding teaching and training fellowships to support workforce growth.

Alongside workforce expansion, NHS England is increasing productivity through the adoption of digital pathology, service automation, and demand optimisation. These measures, together with consistent standards, modernised assessments to support trainee progression, and retention initiatives, will help ensure the workforce can meet growing demand and support delivery of the National Cancer Plan's ambition for 98% of histopathology tests to be reported within 10 days by March 2029.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.

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