Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the role of Legal Aid in enabling consumers to hold water companies to account for overcharging and environmental damage.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The scope of legal aid is set out under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, and applicants are subject to relevant means and merits tests. Legal aid is available in relation to injunctions for nuisance arising from prescribed types of pollution of the environment, and for public law challenges, such as judicial reviews of decisions concerning water regulation. This would cover challenges that would benefit the environment. Proceedings related to private consumer law are generally not in scope.
Where an issue falls outside the scope of legal aid, individuals can apply for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF), which will be granted where they can show that without legal aid, there is a risk that their human rights may be breached. ECF applications are considered by the Legal Aid Agency on an individual basis.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the Holiday Activities and Food Programme from returns submitted by local authorities following the end of each holiday period.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
For the holiday, activities and food (HAF) programme, the department collects data from local authorities after each delivery period, to support performance monitoring, inform policy development and support evaluation.
Data collection includes the number of children attending HAF provision, broken down by characteristics such as free school meal (FSM) eligibility, as well as the number of places available and how well providers meet the HAF framework of standards.
Since 2022, the HAF programme has provided 20.4 million HAF days to children and young people in this country, providing nutritious meals and enriching activities during school holidays, benefitting their health, wellbeing and readiness to learn. Over the three most recent winter, Easter and summer delivery periods, almost five million HAF days were provided. Over summer 2025, local authorities reported that over 624,000 children and young people attended the programme, of whom more than 513,000 were funded directly through HAF and over 434,000 were receiving benefits-related FSMs.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the provision of data on employee health benefits to SME decision makers on levels of employee ill health.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is working with the Department for Work and Pensions and Department of Health and Social Care on the Keep Britain Working Vanguard Phase, focused on tackling health-related economic inactivity and promoting healthy and inclusive workplaces. We are partnering with employers of all sectors and sizes, including SMEs, alongside employee health benefit providers, to test and identify what interventions are most effective in preventing and managing employee ill health. This will include exploring what support SMEs need to make informed decisions about accessing suitable health benefit provision.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his department is taking to expand leaseholder right of first refusal.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to implementing measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 to make enfranchisement cheaper and easier.
The Act sets the method for calculating the price of a statutory lease extension or freehold acquisition, known as the valuation process. It removes the requirement for marriage value to be paid, caps the treatment of ground rents in the valuation calculation at 0.1% of the freehold value, and allows government to prescribe the rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium.
Valuation rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium will be set by the Secretary of State in secondary legislation. We will consult on valuation rates and commence the relevant provisions as soon as possible.
As per my Written Ministerial Statement of 21 November 2024 (HCWS244), primary legislation will be required to rectify a small number of specific flaws in the 2024 Act before the Act’s enfranchisement provisions are commenced.
Once brought into force, these measures, together with the already implemented removal of the two-year qualifying rule for enfranchisement, will mean leaseholders will be able to buy their freehold at any time, at a fair price.
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, whether the forthcoming National Cancer Plan will contain measures to ensure patients with blood cancer can access lifesaving and cutting-edge new therapies via the NHS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan, to be published in the coming weeks, will set out in more detail how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, as well as prevention, and research and innovation. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer, including improving access to lifesaving and cutting-edge new treatment.
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Government invests over £1.6 billion per year in research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Cancer is a major area of NIHR spending at £141.6 million in 2024/25, reflecting its high priority. For example, the NIHR supported the development of an immunotherapy for patients with an aggressive form of leukaemia, which was approved for routine use in the National Health Service by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in November 2025.
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 ensure NHS patients with Mantle Cell Lymphoma will continue to be able to receive the CAR-T treatment Tecartus after it has exited the Cancer Drugs Fund.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service in England are made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the basis of an evaluation of their costs and benefits. NICE is currently re-evaluating brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus) to determine whether it can be recommended for routine NHS use, taking into account real-world evidence generated through its use in the Cancer Drugs Fund. NICE has been unable to recommend the treatment in final draft guidance, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ta11545/documents
This is because the available evidence does not suggest that brexucabtagene autoleucel is value for money in this population. Final guidance has not yet been published, and consultees have until 19 January to appeal NICE’s final draft recommendations.
In line with an arrangement between NHS England and the company, if NICE’s final guidance does not recommend use, patients who started treatment during the managed access period can continue their treatment.
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, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, whether she plans to consult civil society organisations with expertise in this area.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Labour Manifesto commits to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”. The Government consulted industry, academia and civil society during the development of the recent Replacing Animals in Science strategy and will continue to do so during strategy implementation. This includes collaboration with civil society organisations with expertise in this area, including animal welfare organisations and learned societies, and other interested groups.
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 specific clinical, economic, or operational thresholds (e.g., prevalence shifts, new NICE guidance, excess out of pocket costs) would need to be met to trigger a formal review of the medical exemption list.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to review the list of prescription charge exemptions or the list of medical conditions that entitle someone to apply for a medical exemption certificate. There are no specific conditions that need to be met to trigger a formal review.
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, whether he plans to review the medical exemption list, in the context of their being no formal review since 1968.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to review the list of prescription charge exemptions or the list of medical conditions that entitle someone to apply for a medical exemption certificate. There are no specific conditions that need to be met to trigger a formal review.
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, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, whether she plans to publish the UK alternative method priorities by January 2026.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government’s strategy to support replacing animals in science commits to publish biennially a list of alternative-methods research and development priorities, coalescing UK scientists around these areas and incentivising partnerships between research organisations, CROs and industry. These will be published during 2026 following development with stakeholders as part of the implementation of the strategy.