Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 April 2025 to Question 43451 on Neuroendocrine Cancer: Radiotherapy, what recent discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards on the commissioning of selective internal radiation therapy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions selective internal radiation therapy for chemotherapy refractory / intolerant metastatic colorectal cancer in adults in accordance with criteria which is available at the following link:
The National Cancer Plan, coming later in 2025, will set out plans to improve the experience and outcomes for people at every stage of the cancer pathway. It will include how to improve communication and coordination for patients, so that they feel informed, empowered, and in control of their care.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timeline is for the implementation of recorded assessments as standard for Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We announced our intention to record assessments as standard in the Pathways to Work Green Paper as a valuable tool to improve people’s trust in the health assessment process. We are developing our plans to implement this measure and will set out further details in a White Paper later this year.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the Universal Credit system to automatically register eligible households for (a) free school meals and (b) the NHS Healthy Start scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made. The Universal Credit system permits Department of Health and Social Care to check a citizen’s entitlement to Healthy Start vouchers, and Department for Education to check eligibility for Free School Meals.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that (a) charities, (b) asylum seekers and (c) refugees are included in the development of her Department's (i) policy and (ii) procedures.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration and asylum system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and other stakeholders.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the proportion of substantive asylum interview appointments that were cancelled due to an inability to secure a translator in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of substantive interviews completed per month is published in tab ASY_05(M) of the Immigration and Protection dataset: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-and-protection-data-q4-2024.
The requested information on cancelled appointments could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the University of Exeter report entitled Planetary Solvency, published on 16 January 2025; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing guidance on how pension funds can gain more realistic assessments of climate risk.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Trustees of pension schemes in scope of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) are required to undertake scenario analysis to assess the resilience of their investment strategy against climate-related risks and opportunities. Trustees must have regard to the DWP’s statutory guidance when complying with these requirements. The Pensions Regulator has also issued guidance to trustees, which references free online resources such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) climate risk map. This resource can help trustees form an initial view of the types of risks and opportunities that might be relevant and help guide their discussions with advisers.
Climate scenario analysis tools and the information and data behind them are evolving rapidly, so trustees should keep developments under review. It is sensible for trustees to update their scenario analysis if modelling techniques and capabilities change.
The government will continue to work in collaboration with regulators and welcomes progress within the industry to ensure that climate risk models support effective decision-making under the existing legislative requirements.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that newly appointed pension fund trustees are aware of the responsibility to consider climate risks in investments.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
There are a range of governance and reporting requirements that trustees, including new trustees, must meet. For trustees in scope, this includes disclosing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies in the Statement of Investment Principles (SIP) and explaining how and the extent to which those policies have been followed over the scheme year. Guidance is available from the Pensions Regulator (TPR) to help trustees understand these requirements and the 2024 Market Oversight Review provides further insight into TPR’s expectations around ESG duties.
The Occupational Pension Schemes (Climate Change Governance and Reporting) Regulations 2021 place requirements on trustees in our largest occupational pension schemes to demonstrate how they are managing climate-related risks and opportunities in an annual Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report. TPR’s Guidance includes a step-by-step example to help trustees develop their understanding of the requirements and upskill newer trustees. In a 2024 review of TCFD reports, TPR reported confidence in trustees maintaining up-to-date knowledge and understanding of climate risk.
As set out in their Climate Adaptation Report (2025), TPR is proactively focused on raising trustee awareness of climate-related systemic risks. TPR also continues to support new trustees through specific guidance and the Trustee toolkit, a free online learning programme that helps trustees gain the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding needed to fulfil their role.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the level of turnover of Local Government Pension Scheme trustees on an understanding of the duty to consider climate-related risk.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Administering authorities are already required to consider factors that are financially material to the performance of their investments, including environmental considerations such as climate risks.
The government has consulted on proposals to ensure that those involved in decision making in administering authorities have the appropriate level of knowledge and understanding for their roles.