Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to use the Healthy Food Standard to help ensure that supermarkets provide a range of affordable, healthy products in smaller convenience stores.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Healthier food targets and reporting is intended to improve the healthiness of food sales. We will consult soon on the design of the measures, a key aspect of which is to allow businesses flexibility to improve the healthiness of their sales in ways that best reflect their product portfolio and business model. For example, changing store layout, price points, or the reformulation of products. The consultation will also invite views on the size of the business in scope.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 support the hospice sector.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
Hospices play a vital role in palliative care.Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to improve the level of consultant staffing in pathology departments to meed the target of 98% of histopathology tests to be reported within 10 days by March 2029, as specified in the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Department is taking action to ensure sufficient provision of the histopathology workforce. As of April 2026, there were over 1,400 full-time equivalent consultants working in histopathology in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. This is almost 50, or 3.5%, more than in April 2025.
NHS England is expanding histopathology training places and has increased trainee numbers since 2020. Additional actions that have been taken include long-term investment in training, greater flexibility and access to education programmes, training grants, retaining senior expertise through the retire and return for teaching programme, and expanding teaching and training fellowships to support workforce growth.
Alongside workforce expansion, NHS England is increasing productivity through the adoption of digital pathology, service automation, and demand optimisation. These measures, together with consistent standards, modernised assessments to support trainee progression, and retention initiatives, will help ensure the workforce can meet growing demand and support delivery of the National Cancer Plan's ambition for 98% of histopathology tests to be reported within 10 days by March 2029.
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on improving support for carers via the carer allowance system.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
We have accepted or partially accepted 38 of the 40 recommendations in Liz Sayce’s independent review of Carer’s Allowance overpayments. We are working on plans to improve and modernise Carer’s Allowance (CA), making it easier for unpaid carers to combine their caring responsibilities with paid work where they can, and rewarding them more for doing so.
The department also provides support to unpaid carers through income-related benefits, which can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities. Universal Credit and Pension Credit pay an extra £2,500 a year to 1.1 million unpaid carers through the carer element and carer addition respectively.
We have also increased the weekly Carer's Allowance earnings limit to match 16 hours work at National Living Wage levels. This change from April 2025 resulted in the largest ever increase in the limit to £196 net earnings a week and the highest percentage increase since 2001. In April 2026 the earnings limit increased to £204 per week. This means more than 60,000 additional people will be able to receive Carer's Allowance between 2025/26 and 2029/30 as result. This change will mean that those working 16 hours and receiving the NLW will be sure that they can receive CA that week.
The Carer’s Leave Act 2023 gave employees a right to time off to care for someone who is disabled or has a long-term health condition for the first time and the Plan to Make Work Pay review announced in November 2025 presents an opportunity to consider our approach to employment rights for unpaid carers, particularly leave entitlements, giving due consideration to balancing costs and benefits to both businesses and the exchequer.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of community-owned renewable energy to energy security.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Community owned renewable energy will strengthen our energy security by increasing local clean power, reducing exposure to fossil fuel markets and improving the resilience of our energy system.
Government is driving a major expansion of community-owned energy, backed by the Local Power Plan and delivered in partnership with GBE. By 2030, GBE will support over 1,000 local and community energy projects.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for an update on the progress of the Palliative and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The Government is developing a Modern Service Framework (MSF) for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care in England. The MSF is a clinically-led, evidence-based framework to support sustained improvements in outcomes for patients and carers, including by reducing unwarranted variation and addressing inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in last year’s 10-Year Health Plan.
We intend to publish the full MSF report in autumn 2026, with an interim update planned for publication shortly.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help UK robotics and autonomous systems manufacturers to scale up their operations.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Government measures to support British technology companies, including robotics firms, to scale up in the UK comprises crowding-in private sector investment via the British Business Bank and National Wealth Fund, both with expanded capitalisations and a mandate to support industrial strategy companies. Further support includes the Made Smarter programme which funds the development, commercialisation and adoption of robotics in manufacturing. The Government is also accelerating the adoption of robotics technologies through a new £52m Robotics Adoption Hubs programme to provide businesses with the expertise to understand and use these systems.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 potential implications for his policies of trends in the proportion of Phase II and Phrase III in commercial oncology clinical trials.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Department holds data on commercial clinical trials by phase and therapeutic area, including oncology. However, we do not routinely assess trends in specific segments such as Phase II and Phase III oncology clinical trials.
We use this information alongside wider intelligence to inform policy and to support a competitive environment for clinical research across all phases and disease areas, underpinned by significant investment in National Institute for Health and Care Research delivery infrastructure.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 merits of setting up a database of genomic-enabled trials.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
No specific assessment has been made. As set out in our Life Sciences Sector Plan, the Government will design and create a single searchable database of United Kingdom clinical trials by June 2026.
As we implement the UK clinical trials database, we will consider the benefits of including genomic-enabled clinical trials and keep this area under review.
We will put the National Health Service at the front of the global genomics revolution to deliver the 10-Year Health Plan for England.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people in England with epilepsy who experience tonic-clonic seizures and are not seizure-free despite treatment.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Department does not hold data the number of people in England with epilepsy who continue to experience tonic‑clonic seizures despite treatment. Detailed national data on seizure type, seizure frequency, and individual treatment response are not routinely collected centrally.
However, independent prevalence studies indicate that approximately one‑third of people with epilepsy have drug‑resistant epilepsy, meaning their seizures are not fully controlled despite appropriate treatment. For some of these individuals, seizures may include ongoing tonic‑clonic seizures, although the specific proportion varies depending on factors such as epilepsy type, underlying cause, and access to specialist care.