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 adequacy of the time taken for leukaemia diagnosis; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential implications for its policies of the findings of Leukaemia UK’s Count Us In campaign.

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

The National Cancer Plan will seek to improve outcomes for all cancers, including non-stageable cancers such as leukaemia. The Department remains committed to the early diagnosis of cancer and to improving outcomes for patients. However, we recognise that there is more to be done to ensure that patients with harder to stage cancers, such as blood cancer, receive fast and early diagnoses.

The National Health Service is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

We have engaged extensively with Cancer 52 and other cancer charities, including Leukaemia UK to inform development of the National Cancer Plan, which will be published shortly. We have listened to concerns about existing early diagnosis targets and considered the feasibility of adopting new metrics to track progress, including suggestions from stakeholders that we track emergency presentation. Further details on our approach to early diagnosis, including how we can improve outcomes for rarer cancers, will be set out in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has considered including emergency presentation as a metric for tracking early cancer diagnosis across all tumour types, including non-stageable cancers such as leukaemia, in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan.

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

The National Cancer Plan will seek to improve outcomes for all cancers, including non-stageable cancers such as leukaemia. The Department remains committed to the early diagnosis of cancer and to improving outcomes for patients. However, we recognise that there is more to be done to ensure that patients with harder to stage cancers, such as blood cancer, receive fast and early diagnoses.

The National Health Service is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

We have engaged extensively with Cancer 52 and other cancer charities, including Leukaemia UK to inform development of the National Cancer Plan, which will be published shortly. We have listened to concerns about existing early diagnosis targets and considered the feasibility of adopting new metrics to track progress, including suggestions from stakeholders that we track emergency presentation. Further details on our approach to early diagnosis, including how we can improve outcomes for rarer cancers, will be set out in due course.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department considers trail hunting to form part of the UK’s rural cultural heritage.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

DCMS and each of the Devolved Governments are working to create inventories of living heritage in the UK. The criteria are set out here: https://livingheritage.unesco.org.uk/info/guidance/criteria.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of uprating Pension Protection Fund compensation for members who lost indexation from April 1997, to reflect the value their pensions would have held if index-linking had been preserved.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Indexation in the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) on pensions built up on or after 6 April 1997 (post-1997 indexation) broadly reflects the statutory requirements for Defined Benefit schemes more generally, which are in line with the consumer prices index, capped at 2.5%.

This may be different to the increases that would have been provided under the rules of the original scheme. The PPF is a compensation scheme and, as such, was never intended to replicate the benefits of schemes which were unable to secure their liabilities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of changes to Indicative Action Plans and the introduction of minimum waiting times on patients with ongoing care needs, including those at risk of serious complications such as irreversible sight loss.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have existing contractual powers to manage activity by providers, which were enhanced in 2025/26 with central support for setting and managing activity. The NHS Standard Contract includes the ability to set indicative activity plans (IAPs) to help providers and commissioners plan demand, capacity and expenditure. Activity management plans (AMPs) allow commissioners and providers to work together to manage elective activity within agreed performance and financial targets.

The setting of IAPs and AMPs must be appropriate, and the designated process needs to be followed. Commissioners’ use of IAPs and AMPs support systems to live within their means and deploy better financial discipline than previous years where systems have overspent.

The provision and use of IAPs and AMPs is designed to deliver the demand and activity levels modelled to achieve the goal of at least 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2026 whilst living within financial budgets set for 2025/26.

Any planning assumptions based on waiting times need to support commissioners’ overall duties to the populations they serve and our waiting time targets, including our commitment to return to the 18-week standard. NHS England have worked with commissioners to ensure services are not planned on the basis of waiting times above this standard.

While IAPs and AMPs are implemented to ensure this financial balance, all providers are expected to have their own safeguards to ensure that patients waiting for planned care are triaged, and that appointments take place according to clinical priority and the length of time patients have waited, avoiding risk of serious complications.

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 ensure that Integrated Care Boards do not (a) implement minimum waiting times and (b) make reductions to Indicative Action Plans in ways that could risk patient harm.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have existing contractual powers to manage activity by providers, which were enhanced in 2025/26 with central support for setting and managing activity. The NHS Standard Contract includes the ability to set indicative activity plans (IAPs) to help providers and commissioners plan demand, capacity and expenditure. Activity management plans (AMPs) allow commissioners and providers to work together to manage elective activity within agreed performance and financial targets.

The setting of IAPs and AMPs must be appropriate, and the designated process needs to be followed. Commissioners’ use of IAPs and AMPs support systems to live within their means and deploy better financial discipline than previous years where systems have overspent.

The provision and use of IAPs and AMPs is designed to deliver the demand and activity levels modelled to achieve the goal of at least 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2026 whilst living within financial budgets set for 2025/26.

Any planning assumptions based on waiting times need to support commissioners’ overall duties to the populations they serve and our waiting time targets, including our commitment to return to the 18-week standard. NHS England have worked with commissioners to ensure services are not planned on the basis of waiting times above this standard.

While IAPs and AMPs are implemented to ensure this financial balance, all providers are expected to have their own safeguards to ensure that patients waiting for planned care are triaged, and that appointments take place according to clinical priority and the length of time patients have waited, avoiding risk of serious complications.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) his Department and (b) NHS England has issued guidance to Integrated Care Boards on the use of minimum waiting times for elective care.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) have existing contractual powers to manage activity by providers, which were enhanced in 2025/26 with central support for setting and managing activity. The NHS Standard Contract includes the ability to set indicative activity plans (IAPs) to help providers and commissioners plan demand, capacity and expenditure. Activity management plans (AMPs) allow commissioners and providers to work together to manage elective activity within agreed performance and financial targets.

The setting of IAPs and AMPs must be appropriate, and the designated process needs to be followed. Commissioners’ use of IAPs and AMPs support systems to live within their means and deploy better financial discipline than previous years where systems have overspent.

The provision and use of IAPs and AMPs is designed to deliver the demand and activity levels modelled to achieve the goal of at least 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2026 whilst living within financial budgets set for 2025/26.

Any planning assumptions based on waiting times need to support commissioners’ overall duties to the populations they serve and our waiting time targets, including our commitment to return to the 18-week standard. NHS England have worked with commissioners to ensure services are not planned on the basis of waiting times above this standard.

While IAPs and AMPs are implemented to ensure this financial balance, all providers are expected to have their own safeguards to ensure that patients waiting for planned care are triaged, and that appointments take place according to clinical priority and the length of time patients have waited, avoiding risk of serious complications.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Plan 2 student loan borrowers are informed of the changes to repayment thresholds due to take effect in April 2027.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The government announced on 26 November 2025, as part of Autumn Budget 2025, the repayment threshold to apply to English Plan 2 student loans from April 2027 to April 2030.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) publish confirmation of the repayment threshold to apply in the upcoming financial year annually on GOV.UK. Further, SLC have extensive guidance on the operation of the student loan repayments system available on GOV.UK, including confirmation of the current repayment threshold.

Found: Stuart Andrew MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (WRP 07) I am submitting this

Found: from countries with critical shortages.66 Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Stuart Andrew