Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the Public Accounts Committee report HC 1229 on the delivery of a programme prior to appointing a new Permanent Secretary.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary was appointed on 1 November 2025, following an external competition and approval from the Prime Minister.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will respond to the Public Accounts Committee report (HC 1229) in the usual way.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential implications for his polices of the change in the number of available hospice beds in England over the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal assessment has been made of the potential implications for the Department’s policies of the change in the number of available hospice beds in England over the last 12 months.
However, we do recognise the difficult and challenging financial situation that many hospices are facing due to a range of concurrent cost pressures and that, as a result, some hospices have had to reduce the services they offer and the number of inpatient beds.
We have been supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We can now confirm we are providing a further £25 million in capital funding for hospices to spend in 2025/26.
We also recently announced that we are providing approximately £80 million of revenue funding for children and young people’s hospices in England over the next three financial years, from 2026/27 to 2028/29, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. As part of the MSF, we will consider contracting and commissioning arrangements. We recognise that there is currently a mix of contracting models in the hospice sector. By supporting integrated care boards to commission more strategically, we can move away from grant and block contract models. In the long term, this will aid sustainability and help hospices’ ability to plan ahead.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the cost of the £1,000 tax free allowance for (a) trading and (b) property income in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The tax-free allowances simplify the tax system and keep low levels of casual income out of taxation. Individuals with trading income or property income at £1,000 or below are not required to report the income and the use of allowances to HMRC through Self Assessment (SA). As a result, HMRC cannot provide a total estimate on the number of people using the allowances and the cost of the allowances.
More information on the tax free allowances can be found at:
Tax-free allowances on property and trading income - GOV.UK”
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the number of people using the £1,000 tax free allowance for (a) trading and (b) property income in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The tax-free allowances simplify the tax system and keep low levels of casual income out of taxation. Individuals with trading income or property income at £1,000 or below are not required to report the income and the use of allowances to HMRC through Self Assessment (SA). As a result, HMRC cannot provide a total estimate on the number of people using the allowances and the cost of the allowances.
More information on the tax free allowances can be found at:
Tax-free allowances on property and trading income - GOV.UK”
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans the Government has to introduce a replacement for the UK Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme to ensure continued investment in UK horticulture and maintain competitiveness with European growers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Future support for the horticulture sector is being considered alongside Defra’s work to simplify and rationalise agricultural grant funding, ensuring that grants deliver the most benefit for food security and taxpayer value. Our new Farming and Food Partnership Board, bringing together industry and government leaders, will also develop tailored growth plans for sectors including horticulture.
We are already doing a great deal to support the sector. Of at least £200 million allocated to The Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) through to 2030, to date nearly £40 million—representing 26% of total awards—has been granted to research projects benefiting the sector offering targeted opportunities for fruit and vegetable businesses to become more profitable, resilient, and sustainable. Further opportunities for farmer and grower led trials to test ideas and solutions are also now available in FIP via ADOPT grants.
Wider Government support includes: our five-year extension to the Seasonal Worker visa route, providing much needed stability and certainty to businesses; as well as extending the easement on import checks on medium risk fruit and vegetables ahead of the new SPS agreement deal with the EU.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will provide a list of all transport schemes given approval to progress following the Spending Review which had a lower benefit cost ratio score than the Ely Area Rail Capacity Enhancement.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Ely Area Capacity Enhancement (EACE) scheme was paused by the previous government in 2021, and no further funding was allocated to develop, update, or progress the EACE business case. As a result, there has been no ongoing work from which to produce a current or up-to-date benefit–cost ratio, meaning there is no basis upon which to provide the comparisons requested.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have received checks under the NHS Targeted Lung Health Check and NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme per month in each of the last three years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service is currently rolling out the National Lung Cancer Screening Programme to people with a history of smoking. The following table shows the number of participants who attended an appointment through the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme each month, between April 2022 and September 2025:
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
January | NA | 24431 | 38190 | 49260 |
February | NA | 27193 | 38381 | 43158 |
March | NA | 27862 | 35690 | 41974 |
April | 11565 | 20839 | 36195 | 38596 |
May | 14773 | 21163 | 40231 | 42980 |
June | 15630 | 27469 | 40214 | 47289 |
July | 17391 | 29646 | 47658 | 48012 |
August | 17499 | 28690 | 40884 | 42756 |
September | 17921 | 29738 | 46855 | 51898 |
October | 19477 | 26367 | 47881 | Data not available |
November | 22292 | 25482 | 47888 | Data not available |
December | 18193 | 28187 | 40828 | Data not available |
Annual Total/Annual Total to Date | 154741 | 317067 | 500895 | 405923 |
Source: the NHS England Lung Cancer Screening Programme.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many community diagnostic centres were open at the end of (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24, (c) 2024-25, and are expected to be at the end of (d) 2025-26.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table sets out the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) which had started delivering activity, namely having gone live, and which were fully operational, delivering all modalities proposed in their approved business cases, from permanent facilities, from 2022/23 to 2024/25:
Financial year end | Number of CDCs delivering CDC activity. | Fully operational (delivering all planned tests from permanent facilities and location) |
2022/23 | 104 | 10 |
2023/24 | 163 | 54 |
2024/25 | 170 | 101 |
2025/26 (including planned numbers) | 170 | 128 (current number based on delivery reporting November 2025) 154 (expected year end point based on latest delivery plans) |
Source: NHS England
Notes:
The Elective Reform Plan sets out that the Government will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding several existing CDCs and building up to five new CDCs. The locations of both new and expanded CDC schemes will be confirmed in due course. This is funded as part of £600 million of capital investment for diagnostics in 2025/26, which my rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out in her June 2025 statement.
The plan also commits to opening more CDCs 12 hours per day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around busy working lives. Upon entering office in July 2024, 63 CDCs were offering at least one diagnostic service out of hours, available to patients 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
The latest position at the end of November 2025 is that 101 CDCs are offering at least one service to this standard, an increase of 38 from July 2024. By the end of March 2026, this number is currently planned to increase to 116.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is being done to improve the regulatory approval process for personalised medicines to treat cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has completed a public consultation on its draft guideline on individualised mRNA cancer immunotherapies, a new type of personalised cancer treatment. These technologies use cutting-edge science such as artificial intelligence to design a medicine tailored to each patient’s unique tumour profile.
We received positive responses from across the life sciences community, the National Health Service, patient groups, academics, and international regulators. Feedback recognised the United Kingdom’s leadership in this area, while calling for greater clarity in some aspects of the guideline.
In response, we will refine the guideline to ensure regulatory expectations are clearly articulated, without hampering innovation. This will facilitate faster access to these promising new therapies, while upholding our standards of safety, quality, and efficacy. The final version of the guideline will be published in the coming months, with future updates anticipated as the regulatory experience evolves in this rapidly developing field.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the projected slippage is against efficiency plans across integrated care systems in the current financial year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For 2025/26, there is an efficiency and savings target of approximately £11,076 million across all integrated care systems. At month six, the projected delivery for the year remains all but on track against the total efficiency and savings target, with a forecasted shortfall of £5.7 million.
The table below sets out the efficiencies and savings delivered by systems since 2022:
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Efficiencies and savings delivered by systems (£bn) | 5.0 | 7.3 | 8.7 |