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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what support is available to farmers facing financial hardship due to (a) extreme weather events and (b) market volatility.

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

For farm businesses to stay viable in an increasingly uncertain world, they must be able to profit from other activities.

The Government is offering a New Deal for Farmers to help address this. We have allocated a record £11.8bn to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament, protected farmers in trade deals and unlocked new markets for British produce, and extended the Season Worker Visa Scheme for 5 years. We have started to make the supply chain fairer, and we want our farmers to be primed to bid for a fair share of the £5 billion pounds a year spent on public-sector food and catering contracts.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve public awareness of the early signs of Type 1 diabetes.

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

The National Health Service has publicly accessible information on its website about the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes, available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-1-diabetes/symptoms/

The DigiBete app, launched in June 2020, provides a wide range of clinically approved, age-appropriate resources to help with the self-management and awareness of type 1 diabetes, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.digibete.org/type-1-awareness/

It is the responsibility of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to provide guidance and quality standards for the treatment and care of diabetes in England. The NICE NG18 guideline for type 1 and 2 diabetes provides clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of children and young people.

NG18 recommends that children and young people with suspected type 1 diabetes are referred immediately, on the same day, to a multidisciplinary paediatric diabetes team with the competencies needed to confirm diagnosis and provide immediate care.

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 improve public (a) awareness and (b) education on (i) epilepsy and (ii) Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy.

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

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on epilepsy recommends that clinicians should discuss the risk of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) with patients newly diagnosed with epilepsy, and ensure their understanding of the risk, which will raise awareness of the issue among patients and their families.

Additionally, the Royal College of General Practitioners aims to raise awareness of SUDEP amongst GPs and other primary care professionals, through its e-learning modules on SUDEP and seizure safety, which were developed in collaboration with SUDEP Action and last updated in December 2024.

Health Education England, now part of NHS England, has also developed an Epilepsy Programme in collaboration with SUDEP Action, which is designed to enable healthcare professionals, particularly those who are not specialists in epilepsy, to better understand SUDEP and how the risk of SUDEP can be reduced.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has considered implementing routine screening for Type 1 diabetes in children.

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

A National Institute for Healthcare Research funded the EarLy Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes, or ELSA, study, which is currently underway in England to explore the feasibility and benefits of screening for type 1 diabetes in children aged three to 13 years old.

The UK National Screening Committee, which advises ministers on all aspects of population and targeted screening, is aware of the ELSA study and looks forward to receiving the results of this study when the trial is complete.

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 general practitioners receive training on recognising symptoms of Type 1 diabetes in children and young people.

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

The National Health Service has publicly accessible information on its website about the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes, available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-1-diabetes/symptoms/

The DigiBete app, launched in June 2020, provides a wide range of clinically approved, age-appropriate resources to help with the self-management and awareness of type 1 diabetes, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.digibete.org/type-1-awareness/

It is the responsibility of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to provide guidance and quality standards for the treatment and care of diabetes in England. The NICE NG18 guideline for type 1 and 2 diabetes provides clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of children and young people.

NG18 recommends that children and young people with suspected type 1 diabetes are referred immediately, on the same day, to a multidisciplinary paediatric diabetes team with the competencies needed to confirm diagnosis and provide immediate care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues to GPs on immediate blood glucose testing when symptoms of Type 1 diabetes are reported.

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

The National Health Service has publicly accessible information on its website about the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes, available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-1-diabetes/symptoms/

The DigiBete app, launched in June 2020, provides a wide range of clinically approved, age-appropriate resources to help with the self-management and awareness of type 1 diabetes, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.digibete.org/type-1-awareness/

It is the responsibility of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to provide guidance and quality standards for the treatment and care of diabetes in England. The NICE NG18 guideline for type 1 and 2 diabetes provides clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of children and young people.

NG18 recommends that children and young people with suspected type 1 diabetes are referred immediately, on the same day, to a multidisciplinary paediatric diabetes team with the competencies needed to confirm diagnosis and provide immediate care.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to take steps to amend the VAT threshold structure to support small employers in the (a) hospitality and (b) personal care sector.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

With a VAT registration threshold of £90,000, the UK’s threshold is higher than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD.

The Government’s approach to the VAT threshold aims to balance potential impacts on small businesses, including their growth and financial sustainability, the economy as a whole, and tax revenues.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she will assess the potential merits of only applying VAT to turnover above £90,000 for small businesses.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

With a VAT registration threshold of £90,000, the UK’s threshold is higher than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD.

The Government’s approach to the VAT threshold aims to balance potential impacts on small businesses, including their growth and financial sustainability, the economy as a whole, and tax revenues.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the impact of the VAT threshold on small businesses with turnover between £90,000 and £150,000; and if she will make it her policy to introduce a staggered VAT model to reduce disincentives to growth.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

With a VAT registration threshold of £90,000, the UK’s threshold is higher than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD.

The Government’s approach to the VAT threshold aims to balance potential impacts on small businesses, including their growth and financial sustainability, the economy as a whole, and tax revenues.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the number of small businesses that have limited their (a) turnover and (b) expansion plans to avoid exceeding the VAT threshold.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

With a VAT registration threshold of £90,000, the UK’s threshold is higher than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD.

The Government’s approach to the VAT threshold aims to balance potential impacts on small businesses, including their growth and financial sustainability, the economy as a whole, and tax revenues.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England plans to introduce standardised national protocols for interpreting oxygen saturation thresholds in children with chronic cardiac conditions.

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

The National Paediatric Early Warning System (NPEWS) was launched in England in November 2023. The use of NPEWS allows for a standard approach to recognition and escalation of concern when a child might be deteriorating. NPEWS works by assigning a score to varying levels of physiological values including oxygen saturations, depending on how far from normal those values are.

Recent evaluation by the Liverpool DETECT study group has found that NPEWS predictive performance remained very good within cohorts of children with and without cardiac disease.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a national strategy for palliative and end of life care.

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

The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.

Additionally, we are 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 are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. I am pleased to confirm the continuation of circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, for the next three financial years, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive, to be distributed again via integrated care boards. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.