Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government’s commission on adult social care will consider reform to the means test of the Disabled Facilities Grant.

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

In England, we continue to fund the locally administered Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), which helps eligible older and disabled people on low incomes to adapt their homes.

We have provided an additional £172 million across this and the last financial year to uplift the DFG, which could provide around 15,600 home adaptations to give older and disabled people more independence in their homes. This brings the total funding for the DFG to £711 million across 2024/25 and 2025/26.

We continue to keep all aspects of the DFG under consideration. Recently, we carried out a review of the upper limit for the DFG and are currently considering the findings.

We have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The Terms of Reference for the commission are sufficiently broad to enable Baroness Casey to independently consider how to build a social care system fit for the future, including aspects of the DFG if she sees fit.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56079 on Agriculture: Land Use, what proportion of the 50% of land with solar panels that is still being used for agricultural production is being used for livestock grazing.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The statistics are based on results from the annual Defra June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. The specific survey category was “Area of solar panels on land also used for grazing or agricultural production” but no breakdowns of the type of production were collected and are therefore not available.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2025 to Question 56079 on Agriculture: Land Use, what the breakdown in the type of agricultural production on the 50% of land with solar panels which is used for agricultural production is.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The statistics are based on results from the annual Defra June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. The specific survey category was “Area of solar panels on land also used for grazing or agricultural production” but no breakdowns of the type of production were collected and are therefore not available.

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 merits of developing a proxy measure for early diagnosis in blood cancer, in the absence of staging information.

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

The Department continues to support the National Health Service to diagnose and treat cancer as early and fast as possible. There have been improvements in the prognosis of blood cancer patients, with patients now living twice as long. However, we recognise that because of the damaged NHS this Government inherited, patients with cancers with non-specific symptoms such as blood cancer, are waiting too long for diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

There are no current plans to introduce a specific proxy staging measure or a corresponding national target to support the earlier diagnosis of blood cancers. However, the Department will continue to engage with blood cancer charities and key stakeholders to determine how to support the best outcomes for blood cancer patients.

At this time no current assessment has been made on the potential merits of a proxy measure for early diagnosis in unstageable blood cancers. However, we remain committed to making improvements across different cancer types and reducing disparities in cancer survival. Early cancer diagnosis is also a specific priority within the NHS’s wider Core20Plus5 approach to reducing healthcare inequalities. The NHS currently track early diagnosis in stageable blood cancers by combining the percentage of diagnoses within stage 1 or 2, as it would for any other stageable cancer.

Furthermore, to tackle late, emergency setting diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. There are currently 115 NSS services operating in England with blood cancers being one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS), through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have cancer. Blood cancer is included as a distinct category, labelled haematological neoplasms. The NDRS website also shows the number of people treated for different tumour types by treatment type, as well as survival rates, mortality rates, and data on urgent suspected cancer referrals. Further information is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/ndrs/data/data-outputs/cancer-data-hub

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on improving outcomes for cancer patients in England, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment. It will ensure patients, including those with blood cancer, have timely access to the latest treatments and technology.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what metrics are used to track early diagnosis in blood cancer.

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

The Department continues to support the National Health Service to diagnose and treat cancer as early and fast as possible. There have been improvements in the prognosis of blood cancer patients, with patients now living twice as long. However, we recognise that because of the damaged NHS this Government inherited, patients with cancers with non-specific symptoms such as blood cancer, are waiting too long for diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

There are no current plans to introduce a specific proxy staging measure or a corresponding national target to support the earlier diagnosis of blood cancers. However, the Department will continue to engage with blood cancer charities and key stakeholders to determine how to support the best outcomes for blood cancer patients.

At this time no current assessment has been made on the potential merits of a proxy measure for early diagnosis in unstageable blood cancers. However, we remain committed to making improvements across different cancer types and reducing disparities in cancer survival. Early cancer diagnosis is also a specific priority within the NHS’s wider Core20Plus5 approach to reducing healthcare inequalities. The NHS currently track early diagnosis in stageable blood cancers by combining the percentage of diagnoses within stage 1 or 2, as it would for any other stageable cancer.

Furthermore, to tackle late, emergency setting diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. There are currently 115 NSS services operating in England with blood cancers being one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS), through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have cancer. Blood cancer is included as a distinct category, labelled haematological neoplasms. The NDRS website also shows the number of people treated for different tumour types by treatment type, as well as survival rates, mortality rates, and data on urgent suspected cancer referrals. Further information is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/ndrs/data/data-outputs/cancer-data-hub

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on improving outcomes for cancer patients in England, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment. It will ensure patients, including those with blood cancer, have timely access to the latest treatments and technology.

Agriculture

Found: Current membership Mr Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat; Orkney and Shetland) (Chair) Sarah Bool

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Alistair Carmichael (Chair); Sarah Bool; Charlie Dewhirst; Helena

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Alistair Carmichael (Chair); Sarah Bool; Charlie Dewhirst; Helena

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Alistair Carmichael (Chair); Sarah Bool; Charlie Dewhirst; Helena

No description available