Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 12 December 2025 to Question 96735, how many of the HSE inspections carried out in Scotland in 2024-25 took place (a) on farms and (b) in social care settings.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In the year 2024/ 2025, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out 1,444 inspections in Scotland.
Seven of these took place on farms (not including premises predominately involved in forestry or aquaculture); and eleven took place in social care settings.
These figures are based on raw live data and can be subject to change due to updates to historical cases. Therefore these figures may differ to the figures published in HSE’s Annual Reports.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases were awaiting Work Capability Assessment reassessments as of 31 January 2026 in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not held because data is not held at individual country level.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the current (a) mean average and (b) longest waiting time for a Work Capability Assessment reassessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to reducing waiting times for claimants awaiting a WCA reassessment. The department is increasing assessment capacity by working with suppliers to expand their workforce, including through accelerated recruitment and training of additional assessors. These measures will help ensure that the department continues to prioritise assessments for new claims, while also increasing throughput of reassessment activity.
From 1 January 2018 to 31 January 2026, the mean average working days for outstanding Work Capability Assessment (WCA) reassessments currently stands at 290 days, whilst the current longest waiting time for an outstanding WCA reassessment to be completed is 1,870 working days (3 December 2018).
Please note
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases were awaiting Work Capability Assessment reassessments as of 31 January 2026 in each constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested about Work Capability Assessment reassessments is not held, this is because the data is not held at constituency level.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of children and young people with cancer from Scotland who have received some or all of their treatment in England within the last five years; and whether his Department provides support for travel costs for those patients.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Government is committed to putting patients first and providing speedy and high-quality care, irrespective of where patients are treated in United Kingdom. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) works collaboratively with the Devolved Governments to drive forward its objective of supporting people, including children and young people with cancer, to lead more independent, healthier lives for longer.
DHSC knows that the cost of travel is an important issue for many young cancer patients and their families in England.
The National Health Service in England runs the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) to provide financial assistance for travel to a hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostics tests, when referred by a doctor or other primary healthcare professional. Patients who do not qualify for the HTCS and who are on a low income may be able to claim the costs from the Department for Work and Pensions through Universal Credit or a Personal Independence Payment. There are also several charities in the UK who provide support, including financial support, for patients with cancer.
On 4 February 2025, DHSC relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to identify tangible ways to improve outcomes and experiences for young cancer patients in England. The taskforce will ensure that the unique needs of children and young people with cancer are carefully considered as part of the National Cancer Plan, which will include further details on how we will improve experience and outcomes for children and young people with cancer in England.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure equity of access to cancer treatment and care for children and young people with cancer from Scotland who may receive some or all of their care in England; and what recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on this matter.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Government is committed to putting patients first and providing speedy and high-quality care, irrespective of where patients are treated in United Kingdom. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) works collaboratively with the Devolved Governments to drive forward its objective of supporting people, including children and young people with cancer, to lead more independent, healthier lives for longer.
DHSC knows that the cost of travel is an important issue for many young cancer patients and their families in England.
The National Health Service in England runs the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) to provide financial assistance for travel to a hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostics tests, when referred by a doctor or other primary healthcare professional. Patients who do not qualify for the HTCS and who are on a low income may be able to claim the costs from the Department for Work and Pensions through Universal Credit or a Personal Independence Payment. There are also several charities in the UK who provide support, including financial support, for patients with cancer.
On 4 February 2025, DHSC relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to identify tangible ways to improve outcomes and experiences for young cancer patients in England. The taskforce will ensure that the unique needs of children and young people with cancer are carefully considered as part of the National Cancer Plan, which will include further details on how we will improve experience and outcomes for children and young people with cancer in England.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a fund to support children and young people with cancer with the costs of travelling to specialist treatment centres through the development of the National Cancer Plan for England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Government is committed to putting patients first and providing speedy and high-quality care, irrespective of where patients are treated in United Kingdom. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) works collaboratively with the Devolved Governments to drive forward its objective of supporting people, including children and young people with cancer, to lead more independent, healthier lives for longer.
DHSC knows that the cost of travel is an important issue for many young cancer patients and their families in England.
The National Health Service in England runs the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) to provide financial assistance for travel to a hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostics tests, when referred by a doctor or other primary healthcare professional. Patients who do not qualify for the HTCS and who are on a low income may be able to claim the costs from the Department for Work and Pensions through Universal Credit or a Personal Independence Payment. There are also several charities in the UK who provide support, including financial support, for patients with cancer.
On 4 February 2025, DHSC relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to identify tangible ways to improve outcomes and experiences for young cancer patients in England. The taskforce will ensure that the unique needs of children and young people with cancer are carefully considered as part of the National Cancer Plan, which will include further details on how we will improve experience and outcomes for children and young people with cancer in England.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will commit to publishing regular data on leukaemia diagnosis delays and outcomes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The National Disease Registration Service collects information on how many people in England are diagnosed with or treated for cancer. Blood cancer is included as a distinct category, labelled haematological neoplasms, with further information avaiable at the following link:
https://nhsd-ndrs.shinyapps.io/incidence_and_mortality/
This creates a clinically rich data resource that is used to measure diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for patients diagnosed with cancer.
The 28-day faster diagnosis standard is a performance standard that aims to have a patient diagnosed with or have cancer ruled out within 28-days from referral. This performance metric monitors diagnostic performance and delays in diagnosis across cancer types, including leukaemia. It is published monthly and can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/
Data is collected on cancer survival, with the most recent dataset being published in February 2023, which provides survival data from 2016 to 2020, followed up to 2021. The next publication will be released soon and will provide data on cancer survival diagnosed from 2018 to 2022 followed up to 2023. The survival datasets can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 6 January 2026 to Question UIN 101823, whether her Department (a) acknowledges; and (b) accepts the findings of the People's Tribunal of Women of Afghanistan's judgement of 11 December 2025.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government supports legal initiatives to hold the Taliban to account for their repression of Afghan women and girls, and we welcome the progress being made across a range of such initiatives. In the interim, we are continuing to work with international partners to maintain collective pressure on the Taliban to reverse their inhuman restrictions on women and girls.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2025 to Question 96731, how many of the 16 in person visits were conducted as joint inspections and with which other enforcement bodies.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Following my answer on 12 December 2025, in which I stated there had been 16 visits since 1 January 2025, the GLAA has identified a further 36 visits during the same period.
Therefore, since 1 January 2025, GLAA Officers have undertaken 52 (not 16) in person inspection visits to farms in Scotland.
Of these 52, 10 were conducted in partnership with other enforcement bodies including Police Scotland, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, UK Visas & Immigration, Local Authority Environmental Health Teams, the Health & Safety Executive and the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service.