Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her department is taking to address the ongoing shortage of Creon in England.

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 28 January 2026 in response to Question 107832.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that health visiting services have sufficient capacity to provide the statutory universal health and development reviews for children aged 9-15 months within the recommended timeframe.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The child health workforce, including health visiting teams, are central to how we support families to give their children the best start in life. The Government has committed to strengthening health visiting in order to ensure high-quality support for all families.

In our 10-Year Health Plan, we committed to a Professional Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery. This will set a clear direction for the next 10 to 15 years, inclusive of health visitors, focused on a new professional approach to education, diverse career development, and setting a renewed focus on professional culture.

In 2024/25, the latest year for which annual data is publicly available, 79.7% of 12-month health and development reviews nationally were completed by the time children had turned one year old. 88.4% of 12-month health and development reviews were completed by the time children were 15 months old. These statistics represent the highest percentages for these metrics since recording began.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what safeguards her department will put in place to ensure specialist SEND capacity is not reduced before mainstream inclusion capacity has been established.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The government wants to make sure that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can receive the support they need to achieve and thrive in their local school, but we know that there will always be a vital role for special schools and specialist post-16 provision for children with the most complex needs.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils with SEND.

The department is supporting local authorities by investing at least £3.7 billion in high needs capital funding between 2025/26 and 2029/30, to support local authorities to provide places for children and young people with SEND or those requiring alternative provision.  We expect that local authorities will prioritise investing this funding in specialist bases in mainstream schools to achieve a more inclusive system overall, but there will still be some areas where new special school places are needed.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance her department has issued to local authorities on applying blanket conditions to pavement licenses across multiple premises, including the extent to which such conditions should be proportionate and tailored to individual premises.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Department has published statutory guidance on the pavement licensing regime. The guidance makes clear that local authorities may set local conditions on pavement licences and should consider matters including accessibility, local circumstances and the cumulative impact of multiple licences when setting conditions and determining applications. The guidance does not contain specific provisions on the use of blanket conditions across multiple premises. Decisions on applications and any local conditions attached to licences are matters for local authorities, having regard to the statutory framework and published guidance.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions his department has had with Hong Kong authorities on the barriers faced by UK resident BN(O) status holders in accessing their Mandatory Provident Fund savings after departing Hong Kong.

Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We are committed to supporting the valued BN(O) community here in the UK and are clear that discrimination against BN(O) passport holders is unacceptable.

Documentary requirements for withdrawing funds early are a matter for the Hong Kong authorities, and we continue to raise this issue directly with the Hong Kong Government and the MPF Schemes Authority (MPFA) to encourage a pragmatic solution. Ministers across government have raised the issue directly with the Hong Kong authorities and UK officials continue to discuss the issue with the relevant banks.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment she has made of the treatment of residential management companies as business energy customers; and whether she has considered extending domestic energy protections to such companies.

Answered by Polly Billington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The classification of an energy supply as domestic or non-domestic is determined in accordance with supplier licence conditions and guidance issued by Ofgem, the independent energy regulator. Suppliers are responsible for ensuring that premises are correctly classified, and whether a particular supply is treated as domestic or non-domestic depends on the specific circumstances of the case.

The Government and Ofgem recognise that indirect domestic energy consumers may not always benefit from the same protections as consumers who contract directly with suppliers.

Ofgem has started work on adopting a more consumer outcomes-based approach to regulating both the domestic and non-domestic energy suppliers, with their first consultation having closed over the summer. Stakeholders will have further opportunities to contribute their views to this work as it progresses, and the Government will continue to work closely with Ofgem to ensure all consumers get appropriate protections in the retail market.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the administrative workload on local authorities, schools, families and the SEND Tribunal of operating parallel SEND systems during the transition to the proposed new system; and what assessment she has made of the funding required to support this transition.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

​​The department will support local authorities, schools, families and the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) tribunal to manage the move to our new SEND system. We heard clearly from parents, educators and practitioners the importance of a phased approach to a new system, starting with investment in early intervention. We will share clear guidance ahead of the commencement of new legislation and phase transition, moving children and young people to the new system over a period of seven years and only when they reach the end of their education phase, such as the end of year 6 or year 11.

Under our proposals, a triple lock of transitional protections will mean every child with a special school place in September 2029 will be able to stay in a special school until they finish education. Further proposals will mean children with an education, health and care (EHC) plan will not transition to the new system until 2030, and those who transition out of their EHC plan will have an Individual Support Plan in place ahead of their plan ceasing.

We are investing £200 million of transformation funding to build capacity, strengthen strategic planning and data capability, and implement local authorities’ Local SEND Reform Plans. Through the inclusive mainstream fund, we are also investing £500 million per financial year over the next three years to improve readiness ahead of transitioning to our improved SEND system from 2029.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration has she given to the potential merits of providing parents and carers with a statutory route of redress where provision specified in an Individual Support Plan is not delivered.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

As set out in the department’s consultation, ‘SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First’, the department proposed a duty on settings to produce an Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child or young person receiving targeted, targeted plus or specialist support. Under this proposal, the ISP would provide a clear and consistent record of a child or young person’s needs and the help they receive, so that support is joined‑up, timely and centred on what will help them thrive. The responses to the consultation are carefully being reviewed and we will respond in due course.

The department recognises the importance of ensuring that parents and carers have effective routes to raise concerns where support is not being delivered as expected. The ISP will be developed by settings together with parents and young people, giving every child or young person with special educational needs a clear and consistent record of their needs and the help they receive.

The department proposed strengthening the school complaints system with the inclusion of an appropriate, independent SEND specialist on a complaints panel if the complaint cannot be resolved by the school’s senior management team or head teacher. We also proposed strengthening the utilisation of Disagreement Resolution Services by improving and updating guidance for schools. In addition, we set out plans to improve complaints systems more generally in the Schools White Paper, by exploring digital solutions, updating guidance and setting out clearer handling processes.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school funding allocations for 2026-2027 to meet the costs of the teacher pay award from September 2026.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

I refer the hon. Member for Newbury to the answer of 14 September to Question 15512.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the context of the proposed expansion of the educational psychologist workforce set out in The Schools White Paper 2026, what consideration has she given to the potential merits of measures to improve the recruitment and retention of educational psychologists in local authority services.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is investing £26 million to train at least 200 educational psychologists per year from 2026/27, with further investment to train more over the following three years, subject to future spending reviews. This is in addition to the £31 million already invested since 2023.

Upon graduating, trainees who have had their training funded by the department are required to remain in local authority employment for a minimum period, which is three years for trainees starting from 2024. This is to ensure that children and young people, schools and families are benefitting from the investment of public money in their training.

The department is also investing around £1.8 billion for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer, which will provide access to support from key services, including educational psychologists and trainees.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Bereavement Support Payment recipients had children aged under five at the point their entitlement ended.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what consideration has he given to the potential merits of replacing the 18-month limit on Bereavement Support Payment with a tapered withdrawal of support for families with dependent children.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Bereavement Support Payment was designed to provide financial support during the immediate period following a bereavement, rather than replace income over the longer term. We continue to keep Bereavement Support Payment under review to ensure it remains effective and sustainable within current budgetary constraints.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans her Department has to implement Sections 3 and 48 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

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

The Government is strongly committed to improving the implementation of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS).

In 2024 and 2026 we made changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to support increased delivery of SuDS. The NPPF now requires all development to utilise SuDS where they could have drainage impacts. These systems should be appropriate to the nature and scale of the proposed development and designed to national standards.

Better delivery of SuDS may be achieved by continuing to improve the current planning policy-based approach and looking at ways of improving the approach to adoption and maintenance, rather than commencing Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many project licenses and service licenses currently in force authorise the use of dogs in scientific procedures; and how many dogs are authorised under each license.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

There are currently 32 active project licences which authorise the use of dogs in scientific procedures. Across all projects the maximum number of animals authorised for use is 31,816. Of the 32 licences, there are 23 licences carrying out ‘service’ type activities, with a maximum of 29,589 animals authorised for use.

A better indication of the scale of actual use is provided by the annual accredited official statistics. In 2025, 2,889 procedures involving dogs were carried out in Great Britain. Although this was an increase of around 9% on 2024, it was approximately one third lower than the 4,340 procedures recorded in 2020. The five-year trend is therefore downward overall, despite year-to-year variation. This annual evidence is a more meaningful guide to likely use than the authorised maximum.

All activities authorised under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 are subject to a rigorous licensing process. Before a licence can be granted, applicants must demonstrate that the expected benefits justify the potential harms to the animals involved, and the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (the 3Rs) have been fully applied. This means that harms to animals must be minimised and the work cannot legally be authorised if there is a scientifically satisfactory alternative to the use of animals.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what categories of testing involving dogs are authorised under service licenses, including regulatory toxicology and batch quality control testing.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The majority of licences authorising the use of dogs and containing service type activities are for undertaking Regulatory Toxicology testing (safety testing) for purposes including human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and chemicals. A small number allow the production of biological samples, the development of veterinary treatments and pre-regulatory testing.

All activities authorised under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 are subject to a rigorous licensing process. Before a licence can be granted, applicants must demonstrate that the expected benefits justify the potential harms to the animals involved, and the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (the 3Rs) have been fully applied. This means that harms to animals must be minimised and the work cannot legally be authorised if there is a scientifically satisfactory alternative to the use of animals.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that applications to the Probate Service requiring specialist consideration, including cases involving lost wills and affidavits, are processed without undue delay.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Caseworkers receive ongoing training across all aspects of probate work and are deployed flexibly across workstreams to respond to operational demand and ensure resources are directed where they are needed most.

To improve waiting times, HMCTS has invested in additional staff in 2026, alongside system and process improvements and a programme of upskilling. These measures are intended to improve processing times and prevent growth in the outstanding caseload.

The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness and open caseload in the quarterly Family Court Statistics bulletin, available at: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.

However, HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not categorise probate applications as “specialist” or “non-specialist”, nor does it hold central data on whether each application involves a lost will or affidavit. HMCTS therefore does not hold comprehensive management information on these cases and cannot provide an exact figure for the time taken to process applications referred for specialist review for specific reasons.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average waiting time is for probate applications requiring specialist consideration, including cases involving lost wills and affidavits.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Caseworkers receive ongoing training across all aspects of probate work and are deployed flexibly across workstreams to respond to operational demand and ensure resources are directed where they are needed most.

To improve waiting times, HMCTS has invested in additional staff in 2026, alongside system and process improvements and a programme of upskilling. These measures are intended to improve processing times and prevent growth in the outstanding caseload.

The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness and open caseload in the quarterly Family Court Statistics bulletin, available at: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.

However, HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not categorise probate applications as “specialist” or “non-specialist”, nor does it hold central data on whether each application involves a lost will or affidavit. HMCTS therefore does not hold comprehensive management information on these cases and cannot provide an exact figure for the time taken to process applications referred for specialist review for specific reasons.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that all Integrated Care Boards have access to multidisciplinary specialist foot-care teams for people with diabetes.

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As per the link below, there is extensive information on the main National Health Service website concerning Peripheral neuropathy and other diabetes-related foot complications:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/peripheral-neuropathy/

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local populations, including for foot-related diabetes conditions, and must ensure patients facing those conditions can access high-quality care and treatment.

NHS England maintains a dashboard enabling all services in England and Wales that treat people with diabetes related foot disease to measure their performance against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for prevention and management of diabetic foot problems, to monitor patient outcomes, and to benchmark against peer units. The dashboard can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/national-diabetes-footcare-audit/2024

In addition, the NICE guidance found at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng19

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the department is taking to reduce the incidence of diabetes-related lower-limb amputations, including by improving early detection of peripheral neuropathy and access to preventative foot-care services.

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As per the link below, there is extensive information on the main National Health Service website concerning Peripheral neuropathy and other diabetes-related foot complications:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/peripheral-neuropathy/

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local populations, including for foot-related diabetes conditions, and must ensure patients facing those conditions can access high-quality care and treatment.

NHS England maintains a dashboard enabling all services in England and Wales that treat people with diabetes related foot disease to measure their performance against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for prevention and management of diabetic foot problems, to monitor patient outcomes, and to benchmark against peer units. The dashboard can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/national-diabetes-footcare-audit/2024

In addition, the NICE guidance found at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng19

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the department has to improve public awareness of peripheral neuropathy and early signs of diabetes-related foot complications.

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

As per the link below, there is extensive information on the main National Health Service website concerning Peripheral neuropathy and other diabetes-related foot complications:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/peripheral-neuropathy/

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local populations, including for foot-related diabetes conditions, and must ensure patients facing those conditions can access high-quality care and treatment.

NHS England maintains a dashboard enabling all services in England and Wales that treat people with diabetes related foot disease to measure their performance against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for prevention and management of diabetic foot problems, to monitor patient outcomes, and to benchmark against peer units. The dashboard can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/national-diabetes-footcare-audit/2024

In addition, the NICE guidance found at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng19

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's cost-effectiveness methodology adequately reflects the particular circumstances of medicines for rare diseases, including treatments that address an underlying physiological deficiency rather than its symptoms.

Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been able to recommend many medicines licensed for the treatment of rare diseases for use on the National Health Service where companies engage constructively in the process and price their medicines fairly. NICE keeps its methods and processes under review to ensure that they remain fit for purpose.

NICE will be undertaking a research project on valuing rare disease medicines through its Health Technology Assessment Innovation Laboratory.

Independent cafes and coffee shops

Support for retired service animals

Barbering and hairdressing

Royal National Lifeboat Institution (No. 2)

Battle of Britain Day 2026

Contribution of women to the Bayeux Tapestry

World Suicide Prevention Day 2026

Support for hospices

Found: Charalambous (Labour; Southgate and Wood Green) Sir Christopher Chope (Conservative; Christchurch) Mr Lee Dillon

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Mr Gagan Mohindra (Chair); Andrew Cooper; Mr Lee Dillon; Mr Will