theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_2
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_2

Llinos Medi:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made with the Welsh Government of the effectiveness of (a) death certification reforms and (b) the statutory medical examiner system; and if he will undertake a review of their implementation. \p Ashley Dalton: The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Overall, the implementation of the reforms has been effective and medical examiners are conducting scrutiny of the causes of death in every case that is not investigated by a coroner. Medical examiners were introduced to provide additional safeguards in death certification, and they are obliged by law to make all the enquiries they consider necessary to conduct their scrutiny and to ensure there has been an opportunity for the bereaved to ask questions and raise concerns in every case. Feedback from bereaved people about the support provided by medical examiner offices is overwhelmingly positive.

Since the introduction of the reforms, the median time taken to register a death in England and Wales appears to have risen by two days, from seven days to nine days, though there is regional variation. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification, and deaths certified through the medical examiner route, which comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, typically had a shorter period between death and registration compared to all deaths. It’s important to note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.

To improve the implementation of the reforms, the Welsh administration has implemented short-term fortnightly oversight meetings to engage all partners along the death certification pathway, including health boards, medical examiner services, coroners, funeral directors, registrars, primary care associations, and patient voice organisations, to monitor, improve, and learn lessons from the implementation through the 2024/2025 winter period.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_3
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Graham Leadbitter:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of UK Government policies between 2010 and 2024 on excess deaths. \p Ashley Dalton: Excess deaths are defined as the difference between the actual number of deaths registered in a particular period and the number expected based on recent trends. Headline figures for England are reported weekly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The following table shows the trends in excess deaths in England and Wales, from 2011 to 2024:

Year

Excess deaths

2011

–7,961

2012

8,303

2013

20,457

2014

2,167

2015

26,874

2016

730

2017

1,918

2018

378

2019

–30,375

2020

69,411

2021

48,759

2022

39,654

2023

11,148

2024

–50,893

Source: ONS statistics for 2011 to 2023, and ONS statistics summed up from weekly figures for 2024, with further information available at the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales

The drivers of excess deaths are not fully understood, and the excess is likely to be the net effect of many complex and potentially related factors. The attribution of excess deaths to these factors is complex and is beyond the scope of the ONS’ methodology. For this reason, the potential impact of Government policies on excess deaths cannot be assessed accurately.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_4
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Tom Gordon:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase bowel cancer screening rates; and whether he plans to increase bowel cancer screening targets. \p Ashley Dalton: The National Health Service is in the final stages of changing the screening age for the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, from those between 60 to 74 years old to those between 50 to 74 years old by 2025, which will increase the numbers being screened.

NHS England has updated the programme’s standard for uptake, increasing the acceptable and achievable thresholds, to acknowledge that uptake has increased by approximately 10% since introducing the Faecal Immunochemical Test.

A new standard will be introduced to monitor uptake for those aged 60 to 74 years old and those aged 50 to 59 years old. The revised standards will soon be published and available in the public domain. The current standards are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bowel-cancer-screening-programme-standards/bowel-cancer-screening-programme-standards-valid-for-data-collected-from-1-april-2018
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_5
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_5

Ellie Chowns:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to set a new date for cross party talks to discuss the work of the Independent Commission on social care. \p Stephen Kinnock: Baroness Casey will be contacting all party groups to set dates with parties across the House very shortly. She will commence her commission in April 2025.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_6
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Neil O'Brien:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people starting an (a) F1 and (b) F2 placement were international medical graduates in each deanery in each year since 2015. \p Karin Smyth: The attached table contains information published by the General Medical Council (GMC) on the place of qualification of all foundation programme doctors by their region. The tables cover the period since 2012 and illustrate the increase in international recruitment following decisions taken by the last government in 2020.

This information is available at the following link as part of the GMC’s Data Explorer tool:

https://gde.gmc-uk.org/postgraduate-training/postgraduate-trainees/country-of-primary-medical-qualification

Table for 37269 (xlsx, 20.7KB)
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_7
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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his oral statement of 13 March 2025 on NHS England Update, Official Report, column 1284, what steps his Department plans to take to implement the mandate to NHS England, published on 30 January 2025, after NHS England is abolished. \p Karin Smyth: Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to lead this transformation. NHS England will have to comply with their legislative functions until the transformation is complete, which includes delivery against their mandate objectives.

The abolition of NHS England will strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy and cut the duplication that comes from having two organisations doing the same job. This will streamline processes and empower staff to focus on delivering better care for patients, driving productivity up and getting waiting times down.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_8
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_8

Dr Luke Evans:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse is of staff being made redundant from NHS England. \p Karin Smyth: As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds, and will consider carefully how any information is published. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while we are scoping the programme.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_9
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Dr Luke Evans:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the minimum tapered annual allowance on trends in the levels of extra work taken on by (a) GPs and (b) consultants. \p Karin Smyth: From 6 April 2023, the standard annual allowance threshold increased from £40,000 to £60,000, giving individuals scope for greater tax-free pension growth. The tapered annual allowance further restricts the amount of tax-free pension saving available to the very wealthiest in society. The taper applies when taxable earnings reach £200,000.

A range of factors may influence personal decisions around intentions to take on extra work, making it difficult to measure the unique impact of tax measures. There is no clear evidence from National Health Service payroll data that the annual allowance pension tax regime constrains the activity of the consultant workforce in aggregate. Given measurement difficulty, no assessment has been made on the impact of the annual allowance pension tax regime on general practice activity, or consultant activity at specialty level.

Where NHS Pension Scheme members do incur annual allowance pension tax charges, these do not have to be met in the current tax year. The NHS Pension Scheme offers a Scheme Pays facility through which individuals can ask the scheme to pay the tax on their behalf in exchange for a fair reduction in the generous pension benefits paid at retirement.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_10
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2025 to Question 29563 on General Practitioners: Finance, what projects he has discussed with the NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board. \p Karin Smyth: The Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund was announced during the 2024 Spending Review, and provides new capital funding of £102 million for the 2025/26 financial year to support improvements in the primary care estate.

The Department and NHS England have worked with the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board to prioritise high-impact projects where investment can unlock significant productivity gains and additional usable space from existing buildings. We are unable to publish the details while the assessment of those schemes is still ongoing, to ensure each project is judged on its own merit.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_11
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Lee Anderson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that only registered nurses are able to use the title of nurse. \p Karin Smyth: The Government recognises that the protection in law of certain professional titles is important for public safety. Protecting a title provides assurance to the public that the person using that title is competent and safe to practise.

Although ‘registered nurse’ is a protected title, ‘nurse’ is currently not a protected title. The Government is aware of the concerns which this generates, along with the complications associated with protecting the nurse title, given that it is used in multiple professions, for example registered nurses, dental nurses, school nurses, and veterinary nurses.

The Government will continue to work with the professional regulators, including the Nursing and Midwifery Council, as it considers its priorities for professional regulation, and will set out its position shortly.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_12
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Freddie van Mierlo:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of trends in the level of NHS trusts having electronic records. \p Karin Smyth: No assessment of these trends has been made. Currently, we have achieved a 91% rollout of Electronic Patient Records (EPR), with work underway to provide tailored support to the remaining 19 trusts that do not yet have an EPR.

The programme is forecasting to achieve 96% EPR coverage by the programme’s end in March 2026, with the remaining 4% of trusts having advanced in their plans for an EPR.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_13
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Jack Rankin:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to SGLT2 inhibitors for patients with (a) type 2 diabetes, (b) chronic kidney disease and (c) heart failure. \p Karin Smyth: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based best practice guidance for the National Health Service.

The NICE has been able to recommend two SGLT2 inhibitors, empagliflozin and dapagliflozin, for treating chronic kidney disease and for treating chronic heart failure with reduced, preserved, or mildly reduced ejection fraction, subject to specified clinical criteria. The NICE has also recommended several SGLT2 inhibitors as monotherapy, or in combination with other drugs, for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended in a NICE appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance, so these treatments should now be available for healthcare professionals to prescribe to NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations.

In September 2024, the NICE added links to the relevant technology appraisal guidance on SGLT-2s, namely empagliflozin and dapagliflozin, to the guideline Chronic kidney disease: assessment and management. This is to provide easy access to the relevant appraisal guidance at the right point in the guideline, and to help users find the information more easily.

The NICE is updating its guideline Chronic heart failure in adults: diagnosis and management, to reflect changes in clinical practice and the introduction of new drug classes, such as SGLT2 inhibitors, since the guideline was first published, ensuring that the NICE’s guideline recommendations and treatment algorithms are up to date, so that all patients can receive equitable care. The updated guidance is expected to be published in August 2025. The NICE publishes a range of resources to support services in putting its recommendations into practice.

The NICE has also published a general practice indicator on chronic kidney disease and SGLT2 inhibitors. NICE indicators measure outcomes that reflect the quality of care or processes and can be used in a number of different settings to support high quality care, including in the uptake of NICE-recommended treatments, such as SGLT2 inhibitors.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Alex McIntyre:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support phlebotomists in Gloucester. \p Karin Smyth: Local organisations are responsible for supporting their workforce, including staff in phlebotomy roles. We are aware of local industrial action in Gloucester. This is a local issue for the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to manage, working in partnership with trade unions.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_15
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish the revised NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. \p Karin Smyth: No set date has been agreed for publication, as the wider work of the 10-Year Health Plan and the forthcoming Spending Review will influence the timing of the revised Long Term Workforce Plan later this year.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Jack Rankin:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in which patient groups will recommendations for combining GLP-1 receptor agonists with SGLT2 inhibitors be included as part of the updated NG28 guidelines. \p Karin Smyth: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) develops its guidelines independently based on a thorough assessment of the available evidence and through extensive engagement with stakeholders.

The NICE’s independent committee is currently updating its clinical guideline recommendations on the use of medicines for the management of type 2 diabetes in adults. The draft recommendations will be issued for public consultation at the earliest opportunity. It is not possible to say what those recommendations will be at this time.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_17
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his oral statement of 13 March 2025 on NHS England Update, Official Report, column 1284, what plans his Department has to support hospital trusts under the NHS Oversight Framework after NHS England is abolished. \p Karin Smyth: Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to lead this transformation. Work has begun immediately to start bringing teams in NHS England and the Department together, and over the next two years, NHS England and the Department will combine to form a new joint centre.

NHS England will continue to carry out its statutory duties until Parliamentary time allows for legislation to be brought forward to amend the Department’s responsibilities.

The abolition of NHS England will strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy and cut the duplication that comes from having two organisations doing the same job. We will empower staff to focus on delivering better care for patients, driving productivity up, and getting waiting times down.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_18
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS nurses providing additional cover for staff shortages are adequately compensated. \p Karin Smyth: These specific assessments have not been made.

We will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade. This will 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.

It is the responsibility of local organisations to ensure they have the right numbers of staff with the right skills to deliver services, supported by guidelines by national and professional bodies, including the management of any staff shortages. The Department does not hold information on any locally negotiated arrangements for enhanced payments that individual NHS organisations might offer as incentives to cover staff shortages.

The national provisions for payment of unsocial hours premia and overtime are set out in the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. These provisions are specific to Agenda for Change staff and include nurses.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_19
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Clive Jones:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what NHS England's functions are; and which (a) existing and (b) new Government bodies will take those functions on. \p Karin Smyth: NHS England is being abolished as an arm’s length body and being brought back into the department. Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir James Mackey, to lead this transformation and return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department.

The functions of NHS England are set out in legislation, these include but are not limited to:

- Commissioning services in the National Health Service;

- The establishment, oversight and support of integrated care boards;

- The oversight and support of NHS trusts and foundation trusts;

- Designing, developing and operating national digital and technology products and services and disseminate data to support the health and care system;

- Planning, recruiting, educating and training the health workforce; and

- Overseeing and promoting the use of research and innovation within the health service.

The team will be focussed on ensuring that layers of bureaucracy are cut and more resources flow to the frontline as well as grasping the untapped potential of the NHS as a single payer public service, to get cutting-edge technology and treatments into the hands of staff and patients much faster and secure a better deal for taxpayers.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_20
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Preet Kaur Gill:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of employees of NHS England: Midlands are in the (a) ESM 1, (b) ESM 2, (c) ESM 3 and (d) ESM 4 salary bands. \p Karin Smyth: Of the 961 staff employed in the NHS England Midlands region, 2.3% of employees in the region are at Executive Senior Manager (ESM) grades, none of whom are at ESM4. The following table shows the number and proportion of staff in the NHS England Midlands region who are at ESM grades, as of end of February 2025:

Grade

Number of staff

Percentage of regional staff

ESM1

16

1.7%

ESM2

5

0.5%

ESM3

1

0.1%

ESM4

0

0.0%
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_21
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking legislative steps to ensure there is an allied health professional on the boards of NHS (a) integrated care boards and (b) hospital trusts. \p Karin Smyth: Allied health professionals play an important role in diagnosing, treating, and caring for patients, often requiring specialised training and certification.

There are no statutory limitations on allied health professionals being board members of integrated care boards, National Health Service trusts, or NHS foundation trusts. The Health and Care Act 2022 promotes integration and joint working across NHS providers and local authorities to provide the best health and care services for their local population. Currently, there are no plans to take legislative steps in this area.

NHS England has published an NHS leadership competency framework for board members. The framework is for chairs, chief executives, and all board members in NHS systems and providers, as well as serving as a guide for the aspiring leaders of the future. It is designed to support the appointment of diverse, skilled, and proficient leaders.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_22
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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of savings from changes to (a) NHS England and (b) Integrated care boards running costs will go the consolidated fund. \p Karin Smyth: Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by James Mackey, to ensure that the expected hundreds of millions of pounds of savings made will be reinvested in frontline services to deliver better care for patients.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_23
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference his Department's consultation entitled 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme, published on 30 January 2025, what (a) meetings he has held with and (b) representations he has received from (i) health charities and (ii) Royal Colleges on NHS payment limits. \p Karin Smyth: The NHS Payment Scheme is a policy of NHS England. NHS England is following standard procedure in its consultation on the NHS Payment Scheme. While the consultation’s objection thresholds apply only to commissioners and providers of National Health Service-funded services, the consultation accepts responses from any interested parties and members of the general public.

On publication, all providers and commissioners affected by the proposals were sent details of the consultation and were asked to respond.

An email to highlight the consultation was also sent to over 4,300 people, including from representative bodies, charities, and other voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations, who had registered for updates about the payment system or had joined the payment system support, FutureNHS. A reminder was also sent out a week before the consultation closed.

NHS England also promoted the consultation alongside the consultation on the NHS Standard Contract, contacting approximately 2,000 people from NHS organisations, local authorities, voluntary sector organisations, and other interested parties. During the consultation period, NHS England also met with ADHD UK to discuss the proposals.

Of the responses that were received regarding the consultation, 16 were from representative bodies, including health charities and royal colleges.
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Dr Simon Opher:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to publish guidance on the use of temporary care environments before the publication of the urgent and emergency care plan. \p Karin Smyth: The Government recognises that long waits in accident and emergency departments are unacceptable and lead to worse patient outcomes. Patients should expect and receive the highest standard of service, and we are determined to tackle the issue of corridor care. NHS England published guidance in September 2024 regarding the use of temporary escalation spaces, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/principles-for-providing-safe-and-good-quality-care-in-temporary-escalation-spaces/

In January 2025, the NHS England mandate and operational planning guidance for 2025/26 were published. These set out the priorities and actions to be taken to reform and improve urgent and emergency care services. This includes increasing the proportion of patients admitted, discharged, and transferred from an emergency department within 12 hours across 2025/26 compared to 2024/25.

We will shortly set out the further improvements and actions to be taken to support urgent and emergency care services this year.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_25
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Rosie Duffield:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet representatives of women and children's rights groups to discuss proposals announced by the Law Commission on 29 March 2023 in relation to surrogacy. \p Karin Smyth: The Law Commission consulted widely as part of the preparation for their report. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health will be writing to the Chairs of the Law Commissions of England, Wales, and Scotland shortly, to follow up their meeting on 5 November 2024. A Government response to the commissions’ report will be published as time allows. As such, the Department is not planning to meet women and children’s rights groups to discuss the matter at this time. We welcome future meetings on the topic at the appropriate time.
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Dr Simon Opher:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to complete the review of postgraduate medical training. \p Karin Smyth: The postgraduate medical training review announced by the Chief Medical Officer for England and National Medical Director of NHS England is underway and on track. NHS England launched an extensive engagement and listening exercise to consider the future of postgraduate medical training in February 2025. This engagement exercise will run through to June 2025, with findings evaluated and reported in summer 2025.
wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_27
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost to the public purse is of the Supervised Toothbrushing Programme. \p Stephen Kinnock: The Department is investing a total of £11.4 million in 2025/26. This includes £11 million to local authorities in England to implement supervised toothbrushing schemes.

£400,000 is being retained nationally to support development of implementation resources and evaluation. Funding for subsequent years will be determined through the Spending Review.

The programme has been launched in collaboration with Colgate-Palmolive who are providing 23 million free toothbrushes and toothpastes which will reach up to 600,000 children each year.

Every £1 spent on supervised toothbrushing is expected to save £3 in avoided treatment costs, amounting to over £34 million over the next five years that can instead be spent on treating other patients.

Tooth decay remains the most common reason for hospital admissions in children aged between five and nine years old. The costs to the National Health Service of hospital admissions for tooth extractions in children aged between zero and 19 years old have been estimated based on the latest NHS national cost collection data, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/costing-in-the-nhs/national-cost-collection/

The costs were £74.8 million for all tooth extractions and £45.8 million for decay-related tooth extractions in 2023/24.
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Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed increase in secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions to 15% on (a) care provider employees, (b) the contribution of the care sector to the economy and (c) the future long-term funding settlement for adult social care. \p Stephen Kinnock: The Government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2024. To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government is making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26 which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.

The Casey Commission will make longer-term recommendations for the transformation of adult social care, and how to best create a fair and affordable adult social care system.
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Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposed increase to employers National Insurance contributions on hospices in Lancashire. \p Stephen Kinnock: We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, enabling the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.

The employer National Insurance contribution rise will be implemented in April 2025, and planning guidance published on 30 January 2025 sets out the funding available to integrated care boards and the overall approach to funding providers in the next financial year. It considers a variety of pay and non-pay factors and pressures on providers of secondary healthcare, including charitable hospices. Further information on the planning guidance is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2025-26-priorities-and-operational-planning-guidance/

We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England, to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are pleased to confirm that the Government has released the first £25 million tranche of that funding, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. An additional £75 million will be available from April 2025.

We are also providing £26 million of 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 and young people’s hospice grant.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

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Mr Peter Bedford:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help support General Practitioners to use new technologies. \p Stephen Kinnock: The national General Practice Improvement Programme provides tailored support to general practices to make changes and improvements. This includes supporting practices to make the best use of technology to implement the modern general practice model, to address the challenges of rising demand and increasing complexity. In addition, many practices have implemented online consultation and triage systems, enhancing patient access and experience.

The Department is also in the process of updating Part IX of the Drug Tariff. The intention is to increase comparison between medical technology products prescribed in primary care, and therefore increase meaningful choice for clinicians and patients, as well as reducing the administrative burden on health and social care professionals. These updates will also support the adoption of new innovative devices in primary care.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_31

Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed increase in employer National Insurance contributions on social care providers in Fylde constituency. \p Stephen Kinnock: To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government is making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.

The additional funding available to Lancashire in 2025/26 means that they will see an increase to their core spending power of up to 7.3% in cash terms.

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, they are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all local people.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_32

Zöe Franklin:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that adults with autism are not placed in accommodation that disrupts access to established support networks. \p Stephen Kinnock: Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes encouraging a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate services that put the wellbeing of people who draw on care at the centre of decisions.

The Care and Support Statutory Guidance sets out that health, care and support, and housing services should centre on the individual and their family. Housing services should be used to help promote an individual’s wellbeing, so that people in need of care and support and carers can build a full and active life. Suitability of living accommodation is one of the matters local authorities must take into account as part of their duty to promote an individual’s wellbeing.

The Department is launching an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission, led by Baroness Casey, will start a national conversation about what working age adults, older people, and their families expect from adult social care. While the commission carries out its work, the Department is taking immediate action to improve adult social care.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_33

Freddie van Mierlo:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the NHS National Program for IT. \p Karin Smyth: The final cost and benefits statement for the programmes delivered under the National Programme for Information Technology was published on 6 June 2013, and can be found online on the GOV.UK website.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_34

Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of call waiting times for emergency support for suicidal people in Bedfordshire. \p Stephen Kinnock: People experiencing suicidal thoughts can access emergency support through a variety of services. These include accident and emergency, mental health crisis services via NHS 111, the police, mental health street triage services, ambulance services, general practitioners, and voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations.

While waiting times data is published by NHS England across many of these services, information on the reason for the call is not available.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_35

Chris Bloore:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of when the NHS will be meet its target of 92% of people waiting for elective mental health treatment waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to their first treatment. \p Stephen Kinnock: The overall elective waiting list stands at 7.48 million patient pathways, with over six million people waiting. We are committed to putting patients first, making sure that patients are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.

As set out in the Government’s Plan for Change, we will ensure that 92% of patients return to waiting no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015. This includes those patients waiting for mental health services where a referral is made to a medical consultant-led mental health service. The majority of National Health Service mental health care is outside the scope of the elective waiting list and the referral to treatment 18-week constitutional standard.

We know that too many people with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they need, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure that mental health is given the same attention and focus as physical health, so that people can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it. We will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on hospitals.

The NHS Planning Guidance 2025/26 includes objectives to increase the number of children and young people accessing services to achieve the national ambition for 345,000 additional children and young people aged zero to 25 years old compared to 2019, and to reduce 12 hour accident and emergency waits. We will also ensure every young person has access to a mental health professional at school, and will set up Young Futures hubs in communities, offering open access mental health services for young people.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_36

Anna Gelderd:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help people in South East Cornwall constituency to access healthcare services in Devon using the Tamar Crossings. \p Stephen Kinnock: The Government acknowledges that the Tamar Crossings are an important local issue. We are determined to work with the National Health Service to ensure that everyone can access a general practice and other healthcare services, and we will move towards a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered in local communities.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_37

Dr Al Pinkerton:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of NHS dentistry in Surrey Heath constituency. \p Stephen Kinnock: Data on dental activity is available at an integrated care board (ICB) level. Information on dental statistics for England for 2023/24, published by the NHS Business Services Authority on 22 August 2024, is available at the following link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202324

The data for the NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB, which includes the Surrey Heath constituency, shows that 33% of adults were seen by a National Health Service dentist in the previous 24 months up to June 2024, compared to 40% in England, and that 55% of children were seen by an NHS dentist in the previous 12 months up to June 2024, compared to 56% in England.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care, and work is underway to ensure that patients can access the 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments, with ICBs having been asked to make these available from 1 April 2025.

The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the ICBs across England.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_38

Brian Mathew:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of ear wax removals in primary care settings in Melksham and Devizes constituency. \p Stephen Kinnock: Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory responsibility to commission cost-effective healthcare to meet the needs of their local population. This includes the arrangement of services for ear wax removal. When ICBs exercise their functions, including commissioning healthcare services such as ear wax removal, they have a duty to reduce inequalities between persons with respect to their ability to access health services, and to reduce inequalities between patients with respect to the outcomes achieved for them by the provision of health services.

Manual ear syringing is no longer advised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) due to the risks associated with it, such as trauma to their ear drum or infection, so general practitioners (GPs) will often recommend home treatment remedies to alleviate ear wax build-up.

However, in line with the NICE’s guidance, a person may require ear wax removal treatment if the build-up of earwax is linked with hearing loss. A GP could then consider referring the patient into audiology services, which ICBs are responsible for commissioning.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_39

Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2025 to Question 29563 on General Practitioners: Finance, what his planned timetable is for confirming funding for GP surgery projects. \p Stephen Kinnock: Integrated care boards were informed of their allocations in the planning guidance issued on 30 January 2025. The final element to be confirmed is the operation of a small element of incentives funding.

The Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund was announced during the 2024 Spending Review and provides new capital funding of £102 million for the 2025/26 financial year, to support improvements in the primary care estate.

Systems have also received their indicative allocations relating to this specific fund through the planning guidance, and have submitted the priority schemes they wish to support to NHS England for assessment at the regional level. The assessments are due to completed by 31 March 2025, and the systems will be notified shortly afterwards about successful schemes.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-03-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-03-27 conversation_40

Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposed increase to employers National Insurance contributions on general practices in Fylde constituency. \p Stephen Kinnock: We have made the necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise will be implemented in April 2025.

General practices (GPs) are valued independent contractors who provide over £13 billion worth of National Health Services. Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.

We are investing an additional £889 million in through the GP Contract to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.