Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the outcome of the NHSE patient safety investigation into Community Health and Eye Care Services as reported in The Sunday Times in May 2025.

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

The safety of all patients, whether they are treated in the National Health Service or the independent sector, is a top priority for the Government. All providers of healthcare are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality, below which care should never fall.

Those providers in receipt of NHS contracts must meet additional requirements, including meeting the provisions of the NHS Provider License and the NHS Standard Contract. These additional measures put in place specific standards which must be met. Contracts to private providers can be and are terminated where these are not met.

We take all claims relating to patient safety seriously. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has carried out inspection activity at a majority of community health and eye care services locations. All locations have been either rated as Good or Requires Improvement, and there have not been any significant concerns identified. The CQC has also not taken any enforcement action. Currently the CQC does not have on-going concerns, but will continue to monitor the providers as part of relevant ongoing engagement.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will set out what companies with current Government contracts will be subject to the profit cap as proposed in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The profit cap provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would apply in England to any non-local authority providers of children’s homes or fostering services, and subject to changing secondary legislation, supported accommodation. The government does not contract directly to companies to provide these services within scope of the profit cap provisions. Local authorities commission these contracts directly.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to provide the latest register of interest for the Department's Senior Civil Servants and Non Executive Board Members as of 1 February 2026 including any updates following the publication of the Department's annual report and accounts for 2024-5.

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

Non-executive board members’ (NEBM) declarations of interest and any updates to them are published on the GOV.UK website, in alignment with Government policy. Updates to NEBM interests following the 2024/25 annual report and accounts publication can be found in the 2025/26 Department register of board members’ interests, at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-register-of-board-members-interests-2025-to-2026/dhsc-register-of-board-members-interests-2025-to-2026

The Department is required to publish the relevant interests of its Permanent Secretary, and other Senior Civil Servants who are Board Members at least annually within its annual report and accounts. Further information is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69412aa329501ea90654a4ba/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-2025-web-accessible-corrected.pdf

The next publication will be later this year.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the use of zip cards as a form of voter ID for people aged 16 and 17.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Government has considered a range of documents for use at the polling station, including Oyster ZIP cards. We recognise that the current Voter ID rules are overly restrictive – however we must take into account that expanding the list of documents accepted at the polling station could make the policy more challenging to administer for polling station staff and could lead to confusion among electors as to what is and is not accepted.

We believe that our proposed change to allow the use of bank cards will significantly expand the proportion of legitimate electors easily able to meet the VID requirements and have no plans to make any further additions to the list of accepted documents.

Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (No. 2)