Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to delegate the commissioning of vaccination and immunisation services to integrated care boards from April 2026.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 29 September 2025 to Question PQ76374.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of removing the subsidy for Ofsted inspections on (a) small and (b) specialist independent schools.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department launched an eight-week consultation on 25 September 2025 on the subject of reducing the subsidy for Ofsted inspection fees. The consultation document is publicly available and sets out how Ofsted-inspected private schools will be affected by the proposed fee increases.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing the subsidy for Ofsted inspections on independent religious schools in (a) Leicester and (b) England.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department launched an eight-week consultation on 25 September 2025 on the subject of reducing the subsidy for Ofsted inspection fees. The consultation document is publicly available and sets out how Ofsted-inspected private schools will be affected by the proposed fee increases.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to reduce the variation in integrated care board (ICB) funding for children's hospices; and if he will commit to holding ICBs to account for the way in which they (a) commission children's palliative care and (b) comply with their legal duties in this area.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Service services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative care and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure that they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
We will closely monitor the shift towards strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
On ICB accountability, NHS England has a legal duty to annually assess the performance of each ICB in respect of each financial year and publish a summary of its findings. This assessment must assess how well the ICB has discharged its functions.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Together for Short Lives’ report entitled Overstretched and Underfunded: The State of Children’s Hospice Funding in 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of cuts to ringfenced NHS funding for children's hospices beyond 2025-26 on the adequacy of (a) end of life care, (b) respite support and (c) other essential services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.
We are providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant.
I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.
We are also supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of national cultural funding for (a) Leicester and (b) the East Midlands compared with other regions.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department has carried out internal policy work to ensure there is a clear understanding of the publicly funded arts, culture and heritage sectors, including looking at national and local government funding. This work ensures future policy development is evidence driven.
Ministers also launched a review of Arts Council England who are responsible for the distribution of arts funding across England. The review will examine everything from funding mechanisms to community engagement. Baroness Hodge of Barking is leading the review and will provide government with her report and recommendations in the autumn of 2025. The government will then publish the conclusions of the review along with the government’s response in 2026.
Details of Arts Council England funding, including that for Leicester and the East Midlands, can be found on the Arts Council England website here https://culture.localinsight.org/#/map The Secretary of State has a range of discussions with Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund across the whole of her portfolio, and DCMS officials regularly discuss support for arts, culture and heritage with their counterparts at our arms-length bodies.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish a breakdown of departmental funding allocated to major cultural festivals in the last five years.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) provided funding for some cultural festivals and events. For example, Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 received £18.41 million of support, and Bradford UK City of Culture 2025 received £15 million. Many other cultural festivals have received funding indirectly; through other organisations that have received funding from DCMS, or via Arts Council England (ACE), our arms-length body.
Expenditure by DCMS is published annually on https://www.gov.uk in the DCMS annual report and accounts. Arts and culture in England, including cultural festivals, are funded through a combination of public funding, lottery funding, private investment, and earned income. ACE is the main public body responsible for distributing government and National Lottery funding to the arts. Details of ACE funding is published on the ACE website here: https://culture.localinsight.org/#/map and is available in their annual reports which are also published online.
If you require funding details about a specific cultural festival, you can write directly to the DCMS for that information.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the value for money of local authorities pursuing repeated appeals against employment tribunal decisions.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Department does not collect this information. Local authorities are independent employers responsible for the management and organisation of their own workforces, including on whether to appeal against employment tribunals. It is the responsibility of individual councils to ensure that value for money is considered.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 tackle racial discrimination within local authorities.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Local authorities are independent employers responsible for the management of their own workforces. The Government is clear that racial discrimination has no place in our society and remains committed to promoting equality, fairness, and respect for all communities.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what his policy is on seeking a UK-Mercosur free trade agreement.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Mercosur countries are important partners for the UK and I am personally committed to strengthening our bilateral trading relationships to remove barriers to trade and help grow UK exports. I recently visited Brazil, where I signed agreements on customs, regulatory reform and export credit and pushed Brazil to complete the Double Taxation Agreement; and Argentina to further UK interests on whisky, financial services and air services.
The UK is not currently negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur. Any decision to seek to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur would be communicated to the House in the usual way.