Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
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 address regional disparities in access to early diagnosis services for osteoporosis.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on developing a national implementation plan for the roll-out of Fracture Liaison Services.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration his Department has given to the potential merits of introducing financial support, including vouchers, for people with Coeliac disease who are unable to access gluten-free prescriptions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Prescribing decisions are made by the responsible clinician, who is accountable for ensuring that prescribing is clinically appropriate and consistent with national and local guidance. NHS England’s guidance on prescribing gluten-free (GF) foods sets out a national framework for primary care, and integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning arrangements in their areas and for supporting general practices to prescribe in line with that framework, taking account of local population needs.
The national position in England remains that gluten free bread and mixes can be prescribed on the National Health Service for eligible people diagnosed with Coeliac disease. However, ICBs can restrict or end the prescribing of GF food. There are no plans to change the current arrangements or to introduce additional financial support, such as vouchers, for GF food.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that GP practices comply with guidance on prescribing gluten-free foods for patients diagnosed with Coeliac disease.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Prescribing decisions are made by the responsible clinician, who is accountable for ensuring that prescribing is clinically appropriate and consistent with national and local guidance. NHS England’s guidance on prescribing gluten-free (GF) foods sets out a national framework for primary care, and integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning arrangements in their areas and for supporting general practices to prescribe in line with that framework, taking account of local population needs.
The national position in England remains that gluten free bread and mixes can be prescribed on the National Health Service for eligible people diagnosed with Coeliac disease. However, ICBs can restrict or end the prescribing of GF food. There are no plans to change the current arrangements or to introduce additional financial support, such as vouchers, for GF food.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the annual average cost of a gluten-free diet for individuals with Coeliac disease compared with a standard diet.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Gluten‑free staple foods are available on prescription in line with the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Prescription of Category 1 Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2004, which support access to essential items such as gluten‑free bread and mixes for patients with diagnosed coeliac disease.
Broader retail price comparisons fall outside the scope of the Department, as food pricing is determined by commercial suppliers and retailers. For this reason, the Department has made no recent estimate of the annual average cost of a gluten‑free diet compared with a standard diet for individuals with coeliac disease.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason Client Level Data on unpaid carers, collected by local authorities, has not yet been published this year; what steps are being taken to publish this information; and when he expects Client Level Data on unpaid carers to be published.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Client Level Data was mandated from 2023 and is a data collection that draws directly from local authorities’ own administrative records.
The first time that Client Level Data was used to inform the adult social care activity report was in October 2025. This report did not publish statistics on support to unpaid carers because the relevant data was incomplete.
Many local authorities delegate unpaid carer support and assessments to external organisations and hence were unable to provide the data from their administrative records. The Department is working with local authorities and stakeholders to improve their recording of data on unpaid carers. We intend to resume publication of the data on unpaid carers as soon as data quality is assessed to be satisfactory.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many unpaid carers received a Carer’s Allowance overpayment in the last 12 months, according to the latest available data his Department holds.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We cannot provide statistics on Carer’s Allowance overpayments where the carer is not in employment/earning, due to the sample sizes being too small. Our latest published statistics on Carer’s Allowance overpayments can be found using the link below. Table 12 provides the proportion of the caseload that has a Carers Allowance overpayment:
Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is planning to take to inform each children's hospice of its share of NHS funding; and what his planned timetable is for this.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children and young people’s hospices and integrated care boards will be informed of their children and young people’s hospice grant allocations for 2026/27 imminently. Communication regarding future allocations, for 2027/28 and 2028/29, will be sent once the 2026/27 process is complete.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of planned levels of funding for the BBC World Service on women and minority groups in countries with limited press freedom.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Grant-in-Aid funding for the next three years for the BBC World Service will be decided through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office allocations process. We will not speculate in the interim on the impact of those allocations.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many carers have had a Carer’s Allowance overpayment debt as a result of breaching the earnings limit in (a) England and (b) Wales.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on fraud and error overpayments is published annually and can be found using the following link: Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK. 2024/25 estimates show that Carer's Allowance Overpayments relating to earnings/employment represented 1.3% of the £4.2bn expenditure on Carer’s Allowance.
A further breakdown as requested is not published as part of any official statistical release.
The Government inherited a system where some busy carers, already struggling under a huge weight of caring responsibilities, have found themselves with unexpected debts due to earnings-related overpayments of Carer’s Allowance which they were asked to pay back. This only affected some of the relatively small number of Carer’s Allowance claimants who also do paid work, but the impact on some of these unpaid carers has been significant.
The Government appointed Liz Sayce OBE to lead an Independent Review into the matter. The Review’s report, which we published on 25 November 2025, alongside the Government’s response, has been invaluable in assessing how these overpayments have arisen; what can be done to support unpaid carers who have incurred debts in the past; and how further overpayments can be minimised in future.
The Review has shown that mistakes were made, and we are determined to put them right. The Government has welcomed the report and is accepting or partially accepting 38 out of the 40 recommendations. In some cases, the changes the report is asking for have already been made. Others will take more time to put in place.
The department agrees the guidance on averaging earnings between 2015 and summer 2025 did not accurately reflect the statutory position with respect to those with fluctuating earnings. That is why we are putting steps in place to run a reassessment exercise. This exercise will begin later this year, and we will communicate details on how this will work in due course.