Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what assessment they have made of the potential implications for their policies of the Statement of the House of Bishops on Living in Love and Faith, published in January 2026.
Answered by Marsha De Cordova
As one of the Church of England’s National Church Institutions (NCIs), the Archbishops’ Council, in consultation with the other NCIs, manages the Living in Love and Faith programme. The Archbishops’ Council, as part of its standard operations, maintains a risk register for the programme, and relevant NCIs monitor the risks and opportunities arising from this and other matters. This register is kept under regular review.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration his department has made of the potential merits of providing parity in pay and conditions between primary care nursing staff and their Agenda for Change colleagues in the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring the general practice nursing workforce is sustainable, supported and valued for the work they do.
The Government looks to the independent pay review bodies for a pay recommendation for National Health Service staff, including both contractor and salaried general practitioners (GPs). They consider a range of evidence from organisations including the Government, the NHS and trade unions to reach their recommendations.
The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with the previous year, we accepted the DDRB’s pay recommendation. We provided an increase to core funding for practices to allow this 4% pay uplift, on top of the provisional 2.8% uplift already provided, to be passed on to salaried and contractor GPs. The additional funding also allows for pay uplifts for other salaried general practice staff, including nurses. We expect GP contractors to implement pay rises to other practice staff in line with the uplift in funding they have received.
As self-employed contractors to the NHS, it is up to general practices how they distribute pay and benefits to general practice nurses and other staff. General practice contractual arrangements do not place any specific obligations on practices regarding general practice nurse terms and conditions.
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, representing 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 overall.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to recognise the principles of (a) legitimate expectation, (b) adequate notice and (c) procedural fairness in its response to women born in the 1950s affected by delayed notification of state pension age changes.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Secretary of State announced in his oral statement of 11 November 2025 that we will retake the decision made in December 2024 as it relates to the communications on State Pension age. Retaking the decision should not be taken as an indication that Government will necessarily decide that it should award financial redress.
The process to retake the decision is underway and it is important that we give this full and proper consideration. We will update Parliament on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached and on 2 December 2025 we committed to re-take the decision within three months.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the UK’s compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in relation to women born in the 1950s affected by changes to the state pension age.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK is fully compliant with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, including in relation to women born in the 1950s affected by changes to the State Pension age.