theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Carla Lockhart:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure equitable access to (a) maternity and (b) bereavement care services for Black and Asian families. \p Karin Smyth: It is a priority for this Government to make sure all women and babies receive high-quality and equitable access to care, regardless of their background, location or ethnicity.

As part of NHS England's three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, all local areas now have in place Equity and Equality action plans. These plans tackle inequalities and barriers to access for women and babies from ethnic minorities and those living in the most deprived areas and also set out how they will equip staff to provide culturally competent care. Integrated Care Boards are responsible for assuring implementation of these plans, and evidence suggests the plans have led to prioritisation of equity for mothers and babies, and increased engagement with service users.

NHS England is also ensuring that maternity healthcare professionals receive training on culturally competent care, which can be a barrier to equitable access for black and Asian women. This is done through their Core Competency Framework and provision of the Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety in Maternity Services e-learning course. Over 15,400 maternity staff have completed this. NHS England has also embedded equity-focused leadership development through the Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme. All 150 maternity and neonatal units in England have participated in the programme.

With regards to bereavement care services, all trusts in England are now signed up to the National Bereavement Care Pathway, which covers a range of circumstances of baby loss. The aim is to ensure that all bereaved parents, regardless of their background, location or ethnicity, are offered equal, high quality, personalised, safe and sensitive care. In addition, ‘7 days a week’ bereavement services are being set up in every area in England to support women and families who experience pregnancy loss or neonatal death.

We recognise that to deliver consistently high-quality care, much more is required. On 23 June 2025, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced he would be launching an independent, national investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal services to look at the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies and families experience unacceptable care, and to rapidly put in place solutions to improve maternity safety and quality. Alongside this, he also announced that we would be establishing a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, which he will chair. Membership of that taskforce will be representative of those who can speak to the inequalities within maternal health.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on its data cleaning specification for Palantir; and whether that specification defines how patient data are (a) extracted, (b) transformed and (c) loaded into the federated data platform. \p Karin Smyth: NHS England has not had any discussions with my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on this matter.

Each local organisation has their own instance of the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) for which they are the data controller, and can opt into any of the core products that support delivery of patient care.

Local organisations can connect and share information currently stored in separate systems to support staff to access the information they need in one safe and secure environment, where there is a legal basis to do so.

Data is only ingested into an FDP Tenant following establishment of the legal basis and a specific purpose for usage of that data. Most commonly this is for use in FDP products, for example those which support the management of waiting lists, theatre scheduling, or effective discharge of patients.

Data is extracted, cleaned, enriched, and transformed according to the requirements of each use case or product. The FDP program uses the concept of the NHS Canonical Data Model to ensure that data is treated consistently across FDP Tenants, and this enables the development of consistent, reusable products.

Prior to ingestion from the source systems to the FDP Tenant, the NHS-Privacy Enhancing Technology (NHS-PET) service registers the flow. NHS-PET is a standalone service located between primary data sources and the FDP-Associated Services (AS) platform, providing a data orchestration and privacy service for FDP-AS data ingress and inter-tenant transfers.

The NHS-PET service creates records of the types and uses of data which are used in every instance of NHS FDP. If the data is to be used for secondary uses, not direct care, the NHS-PET service can treat personal data to remove identifiers utilising techniques such as anonymisation, masking, generalisation, and pseudonymisation. Privacy treated data is modelled by FDP-AS and is then made available for specific purposes.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Mr Clive Betts:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS Workforce Plan will take steps to increase the number of clinical academics dedicated to blood cancer research. \p Karin Smyth: The 10 Year Workforce Plan will be published later this year. It would not be right to pre-empt the details that will be in the plan. We will work with partners to make sure we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills.

The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), is the largest funder of clinical academic training in the United Kingdom, delivering a comprehensive research career pathway for the full range of clinicians. The NIHR welcomes applications for training awards from the clinical and non-clinical academic workforce conducting research into any aspect of human health, including blood cancer. The NIHR continuously reviews the training offer to identify and address gaps across specialism, geography, and profession, in line with the Department’s priorities.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Liz Jarvis:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of mental health support services for bereaved parents following baby loss. \p Karin Smyth: The Government recognises that experiencing a baby loss can be an extremely difficult time and we are determined to make sure all women, babies, and their families receive safe, personalised, and compassionate care, particularly when things go wrong.

As of June 2025, Maternal Mental Health Services are available in all 42 integrated care system areas of England.  These services provide care for women with moderate/severe or complex mental health difficulties arising from birth trauma or baby loss.

A record 63,858 women accessed a specialist community perinatal mental health service or maternal mental health services in the 12 months to February 2025. This is a 109% increase from March 2020.

We have developed the National Bereavement Care Pathway in collaboration with the United Kingdom’s leading pregnancy and baby loss charity, to reduce the variation in the quality of bereavement care provided by the National Health Service. The pathway covers a range of baby loss circumstances, including miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy for medical reasons, neonatal death, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

While the Government has not carried out a formal assessment of mental health support services for bereaved parents following baby loss, we are committed to transforming and improving mental health care, as set out in our 10-Year Health Plan for England.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Mr Angus MacDonald:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the forthcoming (a) NHS Long Term Workforce Plan and (b) National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme will include policies on staffing in rural areas. \p Karin Smyth: The 10 Year Workforce Plan will be published later this year. We will work with partners to make sure we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills, to ensure the National Health Service has access to the workforce it needs to treat those that require care, treatment, and diagnosis across all our communities, including remote, rural, and coastal communities.

The National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme was launched on 3 July 2025, to support systems across the country to test new ways of working, share learning, and scale what works. We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations. While we will be clear on the outcomes we expect, we will give significant licence to tailor the approach to local need. While the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, that will mean the service will look different in rural communities, coastal towns, or deprived inner cities.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Laura Kyrke-Smith:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing access to the national spinal cord injury database to (a) charities and (b) other stakeholders. \p Stephen Kinnock: The effectiveness of the National Spinal Cord Injury Database (NSCID) is kept under review and is subject to small incremental improvements to reflect changes to spinal cord injury services, and to maintain compliance with legislation. NHS England has been working with spinal cord injury charities to provide them with data within the parameters of information governance, UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data security, and data protection legislation, and data sharing agreements are in place.

Plans to enable patients to connect with charities are in development, which will require working in close collaboration with clinicians who will discuss the option of connecting the patient with a charity at the appropriate moment in their treatment pathway. NHS England has processes in place which enable stakeholders to request access to data held in the NSCID. These processes are compliant with existing information governance, UK GDPR, data protection, and data security legislation and policies. Each request for access to data is assessed in accordance with legislation and accompanying policies.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Steve Darling:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to increase the number of specialist practitioners (a) researching and (b) treating Tourette’s Syndrome. \p Stephen Kinnock: We will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it. NHS England’s Neuroscience Transformation Programme is supporting integrated care boards to deliver the right service, at the right time for all neurology patients, including providing care closer to home.

NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and RightCare Toolkits aim to improve care for patients with neurological conditions by reducing variation.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a range of guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of neurological conditions for use by healthcare professionals and commissioners. NICE guidance ensures that patients are cared for in a consistently evidence-based way.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with providers of community equipment on the financial resilience of those providers. \p Karin Smyth: The Department is aware of concerns raised by community equipment suppliers. NHS England has published planning guidance setting out the funding available to integrated care boards and the overall approach to funding National Health Service providers in the next financial year, which takes account of a variety of pay and non-pay factors and pressures on providers of secondary healthcare. The NHS Payment Scheme is equally applicable to NHS and non-NHS providers of secondary healthcare.

Local authorities and local NHS procuring authorities, whether integrated care boards or NHS providers, are responsible for discussing and agreeing contracts with community equipment providers, which will consider the resources available to them. At the Autumn 2024 Budget, the Government announced a £22.6 billion increase in day-to-day health spending and a £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget over both the last financial year and this year. Departmental budgets beyond 2025/26 have now been set through phase 2 of the Spending Review. This includes £29 billion more day-to-day funding in real terms than 2023/24 for the NHS, and the largest ever health capital budget, with a £2.3 billion real terms increase in capital spending over the Spending Review period.
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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 110 of the document entitled Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for the NHS, whether his Department has made an estimate of how many fewer staff there will be in the NHS by 2035 than projected by the 2023 Long Term Workforce Plan. \p Karin Smyth: This assessment will be made through the 10-Year Workforce Plan which will consider what the 10-Year Health Plan, which set out a new service model for the National Health Service, means for the workforce. Through the workforce plan we will ensure we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients when they need it.

Over summer and autumn 2025, we will work with systems and partners to consider future workforce and will publish the 10-Year Workforce Plan later this year.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Mr Angus MacDonald:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to provide sustainable (a) funding and (b) commissioning of (i) hospice and (ii) palliative care services in rural areas. \p Stephen Kinnock: Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance states that ICBs must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of care services to meet the needs of their local populations, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment. The statutory guidance also outlines areas for consideration when commissioning, including improving equity of access and reducing inequity in outcomes and experiences.

Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS 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 and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.

The Government and the NHS will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

The Department is currently exploring how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan. Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required shifts in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to assess the (a) affordability and (b) accessibility of transferring people unable to access timely care on the NHS to private sector providers for temporomandibular joint disorder. \p Stephen Kinnock: Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) treatment is considered as planned non-emergency care. The NHS.UK website advises that it is not usually serious and generally gets better without treatment. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/temporomandibular-disorder-tmd/

Treatment options for TMJD are:

- conservative treatments such as pain relief, physiotherapy, bite guards, and self-management advice. These are usually provided through primary care and would be considered as non-urgent but necessary care;

- specialist referral, if conservative treatment does not help, specifically referral to oral maxillofacial surgery or a specialist pain clinic may occur. These referrals are part of the routine National Health Service pathways but are prioritised on clinical need; and

- surgical treatments in severe cases, which are scheduled as planned elective procedures. In NHS terms this falls under elective care, but it is not optional in a cosmetic sense, as it is clinically indicated.

NHS England Getting It Right First Time and the Royal College of Surgeons’ Faculty of Dental Surgery have produced guidance to better manage the condition, which is available at the following link:

https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/-/media/FDS/Comprehensive-guideline-Management-of-painful-Temporomandibular-disorder-in-adults-March-2024.pdf

No assessment has been made on the adequacy of the training for general practitioners and dentists on recognising and managing TMJD. The standard of training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council and General Dental Council, which are independent statutory bodies.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Dr Luke Evans:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that updates made to NHS England guidance help inform the NHS 10 Year Health Plan; and which stakeholders in the eating disorders sector have provided views in his Department's consultation processes. \p Stephen Kinnock: Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. Some dental practices may operate local waiting list arrangements.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Surrey Heath constituency, this is the NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB. ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The Surrey Heartlands ICB is expected to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.

ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years. As of 6 June 2025, in England there were 73 dentists in post with a further 20 dentists who have been recruited but are yet to start in post under this scheme. A further 230 posts are currently being advertised.

As a first step to reforming the dental contract, we are consulting on a package of changes to improve access to, and improve the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver improved care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. A link to the consultation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms

The consultation was launched on 8 July and will close on 19 August.
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Dr Al Pinkerton:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure individuals receive timely reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 to support access to dental services in Surrey Heath constituency. \p Stephen Kinnock: The National Health Service contracts with independent dental providers to deliver NHS dental treatment in primary care settings. Dental practices are businesses and therefore able to decide how they operate, providing they remain compliant with the appropriate regulations.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for undertaking special care oral health needs assessments, to identify areas of oral health need, to inform local commissioning intentions, and to determine the local priorities for investment. For the Surrey constituency, this is the NHS Surrey Heartlands.

The NHS constitution states that NHS services will always be available for the people who need them. No one can deny a person the right to access these services because of their age, disability, race, gender or gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, or marital or civil partnership status. The Handbook to the NHS Constitution is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplements-to-the-nhs-constitution-for-england/the-handbook-to-the-nhs-constitution-for-england

Care Quality Commission regulations mandate that all registered providers must have due regard to the protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010.

Furthermore, Community Dental Services provide care to patients who may have difficulty accessing high street dental services due to their social, medical, or dental need. This may include children with learning disabilities, complex medical needs, physical disabilities, or challenging behaviour.
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Damian Hinds:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 January 2025 to Question 21573 on Mental Health: Children and Young People, whether he plans to publish further updates to those statistics. \p Stephen Kinnock: Although no decisions have yet been made to commission further waves, the Department recognises the importance of the Mental Health of Children and Young People in England Report. We will publish plans in due course.
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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department plans to provide for the roll-out of (a) fampridine and (b) other new drugs in each year of this Parliament. \p Karin Smyth: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources.

The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended in a NICE appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance. Information about the amount of funding the NHS plans to provide for the roll-out of new drugs is not available. Commissioners within NHS England receive funding each year to commission services for their population, which includes funding for new and established medicines. Fampridine, however, has not been recommended by NICE, so is not available for routine NHS use within England.
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Sarah Gibson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much capital funding her Department has provided for maternity units serving Wiltshire in each of the last five financial years. \p Karin Smyth: Over the 2020/21 to 2024/25 period, £5.9 million of capital funding was invested in maternity services across the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire Integrated Care System. This funding covered a range of schemes, comprising technology, equipment, and maternity service units. The capital schemes will include cyclical equipment replacement and renewal schemes.

As the integrated care board holds unified records covering the whole area of Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire, we are unable to provide a disaggregated response for the Wiltshire area only.
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Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has received recent correspondence from Palantir. \p Karin Smyth: My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care received a letter from Louis Mosley, the Executive Vice President for the United Kingdom and Europe of Palantir Technologies, on 3 March 2025, offering to meet to discuss the roll-out of the NHS Federated Data Platform.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many pancreatic cancer specialist nurses are employed in the NHS in England. \p Karin Smyth: The Department does not hold information on the number of full time equivalent pancreatic cancer specialist nurses employed in the National Health Service in England.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council does not require any specific post-registration education programme to be undertaken in order for a registered nurse to become a pancreatic cancer specialist nurse. Employers develop specialist roles to meet community and service need locally.
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James Naish:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to extend funding for the NHS Practitioner Health programme beyond March 2026. \p Karin Smyth: Looking after the mental health of our hardworking National Health Service staff is a priority for the Government.

The NHS Practitioner Health programme is funded until March 2026, and more recently the 10-Year Health Plan committed to rolling out Staff Treatment Hubs. These hubs will provide a high-quality occupational health service for all NHS staff, which includes support for mental health issues.
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Alison Bennett:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in (a) his Department and (b) NHS England worked on the 10 year plan. \p Karin Smyth: 66 people from the Department and NHS England were solely employed on the development of the 10-Year Health Plan. In addition, a wide range of people across both organisations have been involved as part of their regular work.
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David Smith:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of reports of Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease not being eligible for free prescription charges as chronic health conditions. \p Karin Smyth: While the Department has made no assessment, approximately 89% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge in the community in England, and there is a wide range of exemptions from prescription charges already in place for which those with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease may be eligible. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, whether they are pregnant or have recently given birth, whether they have a qualifying medical condition, or whether they are in receipt of certain benefits or a war pension.

People on low incomes can apply for help with their health costs through the NHS Low Income Scheme. Prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs) are also available. PPCs allow people to claim as many prescriptions as they need for a set cost, with three-month and 12-month certificates available. The 12-month PPC can be paid for in instalments.
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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the revised NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. \p Karin Smyth: We will publish our 10 Year Workforce Plan by the end of this year. The approach set out in our 10-Year Health plan means we will need a very different kind of workforce strategy. Instead of asking ‘how many staff do we need to maintain our current care model over the next 10 years?’, our new 10 Year Workforce Plan will ask ‘given our reform plan, what workforce do we need, what should they do, where should they be deployed, and what skills should they have?’
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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of not being able to access a consistent brand of Letrozole on patient adherence. \p Karin Smyth: Where a prescriber specifies a specific brand or manufacturer on the prescription, the pharmacy should provide that specific product to the patient. However, obtaining a product from a particular supplier may take the pharmacy longer to source.

Pharmacies are largely private businesses, which provide National Health Services and have their own buying arrangements. Not all manufacturers supply to all wholesalers and not all pharmacies use the same wholesalers. This can mean there may be some specific manufacturer’s products that a pharmacy may not easily be able to source.

Where a pharmacy is unable to supply a particular medicine promptly, their professional guidance states that they should talk to the patient to discuss the possible options available to them. This includes checking whether the medicine is available at another pharmacy or offering to contact the patient’s prescriber to jointly consider whether another suitable brand or medicine is available.
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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of emergency departments were co-located with urgent treatment centres in the most recent period for which data is available. \p Karin Smyth: There are currently 86, which is approximately half, type 1 accident and emergency units with a co-located urgent treatment centre (UTC).

Further co-located UTCs will be built as a result of the capital funding provided as part of our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26.
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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on what dates he has met the British Medical Association to discuss resident doctors (a) pay and (b) terms and conditions in 2025. \p Karin Smyth: My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has met with the British Medical Association to discuss these issues a number of times. The dates and details of these meetings can be found in Department transparency returns, in the usual way.
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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's publication, Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, how the single national formula for medicines will differ from the British national (a) formulary and (b) formulary for children. \p Karin Smyth: The document Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, describes the creation of a Single National Formulary (SNF) for medicines to supersede the current process by which each local area decides which medicines are available to its patients. A SNF is expected to supersede these local processes with a formulary oversight board responsible for sequencing products included in the SNF, based on clinical and cost effectiveness, and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The intention is to drive rapid and equitable adoption of the most clinically and cost-effective medicines.

Work will now begin on design and delivery planning, and we will work collaboratively with key stakeholders, including NICE and industry, on the plans.

The British National Formulary and the British National Formulary for Children are publications of the British Medical Journal and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, that are available on the NICE website. They provide healthcare professionals with a range of information on the selection, prescribing, administration, and dispensing of medicines.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of prioritising UK trained nurses for nursing posts in the NHS. \p Karin Smyth: As set out in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to reorienting the focus of National Health Service recruitment away from its dependency on international recruitment, and towards its own communities, to ensure sustainability in an era of global healthcare workforce shortages. It is our ambition to reduce international recruitment to less than 10% by 2035.

This includes a commitment to developing homegrown nursing talent, helping to bring economic growth to areas across the nation which are most in need. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will outline strategies for improving retention, productivity, training, and reducing attrition, ultimately enhancing conditions for all staff while gradually reducing reliance on international recruitment, without diminishing the value of their contributions.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_165

Max Wilkinson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his speech to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists World Congress, published on 23 June 2025, what his planned timetable is for the NHS Chief Executive and Chief Nursing Office to meet (i) Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and (ii) Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust; and if he will publish the outcomes of those meetings. \p Karin Smyth: An initial meeting between the Chief Executive of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the NHS Chief Executive, and the Chief Nursing Officer for England to discuss maternity and neonatal services took place on 25 June 2025. Further in-depth meetings will take place in due course, and following these meetings the trust board should report on their progress to their public board.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_166

Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce the number of mental health conditions among young people in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire. \p Stephen Kinnock: The NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board is responsible for commissioning services to meet the mental health needs of young people in Fylde and across Lancashire.

Nationally, the Government is investing an extra £688 million this year to transform mental health services by hiring more staff, delivering more early interventions, and getting waiting lists down so young people can have the best possible start in life. We will fulfil our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 staff across child and adult mental health services by the end of this Parliament, and 6,700 of these extra workers have been recruited since July 2024.

We also want to intervene much earlier to support better outcomes for children and young people. That is why the 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will work with schools and colleges to better identify and meet children's mental health needs by expanding mental health support teams in schools to cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30 and by embedding mental health support in the new Young Futures hubs, to ensure there is no 'wrong front door' for people seeking help. At the end of March 2025, 55% of pupils and learners in Lancashire were covered by a mental health support team.

Additionally, we are continuing to provide top-up funding of £7 million to 24 existing early support hubs, including hubs in Chorley and Blackburn, to expand their services and to take part in an ongoing evaluation of these services in 2025/26. This funding will enable the supported hubs to deliver at least 10,000 additional mental health and wellbeing interventions, so that more children and young people are supported.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_167

Alison Bennett:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in (a) his Department and (b) NHS England work in communications. \p Karin Smyth: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_168

Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will consider making resident doctors subject to legislation preventing strike action. \p Karin Smyth: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_169

Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what forecast he has made of the cost to the public purse of the planned strike of resident doctors on 25 July 2025. \p Karin Smyth: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_170

Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) operations and (b) outpatients appointments that will be cancelled if resident doctors strike on 25 July 2025. \p Karin Smyth: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_171

Sir John Hayes:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the services provided to irregular migrants by (a) South Holland District Council (b) South Kesteven District Council and (c) Lincolnshire County Council in the last two years. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The requested data is not held by the Home Office.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_172

Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visa applications were rejected on national security grounds in the last five years, broken down by country of origin. \p Dame Angela Eagle: I refer the Hon Member to the answer he was given on 15 May to Question 51200.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_173

Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support she is providing to local authorities to help them counter radicalisation in areas identified as high risk for Islamist extremism. \p Dan Jarvis: All Local Authorities in England, Scotland and Wales receive dedicated support from the Home Office to deliver the Prevent duty effectively and in proportion to the risk and threat.

Whilst Prevent seeks to tackle the threat from a range of ideologies, we expect all local authorities facing a high risk from Islamist extremism to identify this in their risk assessments and delivery plans, working closely with Counter-Terrorism Police.

Currently, the 28 highest threat areas in England and Wales receive Home Office Prevent funding to help them to go above and beyond the requirements of the Prevent duty. This funding supports the provision of dedicated Prevent posts in these local authorities. Some of these local authorities also receive additional funding to support regional working and share their Prevent expertise with other neighbouring local authorities.

All local authorities have access to the Preventing Radicalisation Fund. This supports the delivery of targeted Prevent projects, that aim to identify and mitigate local radicalisation risks, including the risk from Islamist extremism.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_174

David Simmonds:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding her Department plans to provide to local authorities to (a) house and (b) build housing for (i) asylum seekers and (ii) refugees in each financial year to 2029‑30. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts at Home Office annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_175

Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers have been flagged for links to (a) extremist and (b) Islamist networks since 2018. \p Dan Jarvis: It is the longstanding policy of successive UK Governments that we do not comment on operational intelligence or security matters.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_176

Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passports have been cancelled due to UK citizens travelling abroad to join Islamist terrorist groups in the last five years. \p Dan Jarvis: It is the longstanding policy of successive UK governments that we do not comment on operational intelligence or security matters , including the specific details of individuals who have and their passports revoked.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_177

Euan Stainbank:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to improve asylum claim processing times. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The Home Office continues to invest in a programme of transformation and business improvement, including innovative methods to speed up asylum decision making and improve the quality and consistency of our work.

The latest quarter saw the second highest three-month period for people receiving initial decisions since comparable records began in 2002, and more than double (+116%) those in the three months before the election (April to June 2024).
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_178

Shivani Raja:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has used (a) occupancy level and (b) property capacity data to assess the cost-effectiveness of asylum accommodation contracts in the last 12 months. \p Dame Angela Eagle: I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave her on 08 July 2025 to Question 63118.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-16)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-16 conversation_179

Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of people subject to Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures entered the UK as asylum seekers or refugees. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The statutory reporting requirements associated with the use of TPIM measures are set out in Section 19(1) of the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011.