theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Llinos Medi:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing foster carers with the same legal status as (a) health workers and (b) teachers. \p Janet Daby: I pay tribute to the vital efforts of foster carers, who carry out a challenging role that requires skill, dedication and love. This government’s investments in foster care will recruit hundreds more new foster families and strengthen support to retain existing carers to improve the life chances of thousands of children.

Health workers and teachers are classed as either workers or employees in law. Our assessment is that worker or employee status would not be appropriate for the family-centred nature of foster care, in which foster carers are committed to children as if they were their own. Instead of care being provided by staff in an institutional framework, children are provided with support and nurture in a loving family home.

We are committed to reviewing our guidance and working with the sector to improve the support that foster carers receive.

The Children Act 1989 and subsequent statutory guidance (Vol. 4: Fostering Services) set out strong safeguards to protect foster carers from unfair treatment, including the requirement for fostering services to have a complaints procedure and whistleblowing policy.
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Carla Lockhart:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to expand access to apprenticeships in defence-related sectors in Northern Ireland. \p Janet Daby: Apprenticeship and skills policy is devolved to Northern Ireland, and any measures regarding apprenticeships there are a matter for the Northern Irish government.
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Adam Jogee:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure more students from less affluent areas are taught by trained maths teachers. \p Catherine McKinnell: Recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. This is why the government’s Plan for Change has committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in secondary and special schools and in our colleges, over the course of this Parliament.

The department has announced an initial teacher training financial incentives package for the 2025/26 recruitment cycle worth £233 million, including bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free mathematics.

For 2024/25 and 2025/26, mathematics teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools will also receive a targeted retention incentive worth up to £6,000 after tax.

Our High Potential Initial Teacher Training (HPITT) programme, delivered by Teach First, specifically supports schools in disadvantaged communities to recruit the teachers they need. Over the last three cohorts in 2022, 2023 and 2024, an average of 82% of HPITT participants across all subjects have been placed in disadvantaged schools.
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Tom Hayes:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of pupils learning modern foreign languages to GCSE level in Bournemouth. \p Catherine McKinnell: The department is providing funding to support the uptake of languages across the country. We continue to fund the National Consortium for Languages Education, which delivers online continuing professional development for teachers and a new model of language support for schools. This programme is designed to have national reach, ensuring that all schools can benefit regardless of their location.

To further support languages education, the department is offering a £26,000 tax-free bursary for trainee language teachers starting courses in 2025, or alternatively, a £28,000 tax-free scholarship for those training to teach French, German, or Spanish. Additionally, Oak National Academy is developing modern foreign languages lesson resources for key stages 2 to 4, to be fully released by autumn 2025, helping teachers deliver high-quality lessons and reduce planning time.
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Afzal Khan:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with (a) parents, (b) students and (c) teachers on the management of mobile phone use in schools. \p Stephen Morgan: ​Mobile phones have no place in our schools.

Schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality to mobile phones throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime, as set out in the ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance, published in 2024.

The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.

New research from the Children’s Commissioner, with responses from nearly all schools and colleges in England, shows that most schools (99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools) already have policies in place that limit or restrict the use of mobile phones during the school day.

We will continue to build a robust evidence base on the effectiveness on school mobile phone policies.

The department engages regularly with parents, teachers and pupils on a range of issues, including pupil behaviour and mobile phone use.
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Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2025 to Question 63093 on Nurseries: Fylde, what steps her Department took to advertise the opportunity to participate in the programme to schools in Fylde at the last round of allocations; and if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the advertisement process. \p Stephen Morgan: To promote the School-Based Nursery Capital Grant 2024/25, the department published detailed information on GOV.UK and the Education Hub, supported by social media posts. We held two webinars for schools and one for local authorities to explain the programme and answer questions. Additional communications were shared in a variety of ways with local authorities and stakeholders to help cascade information to schools.

The programme received 642 applications, which was more than double the number of available grants. The North West, where Fylde is located, submitted 115 applications (18% of the total), the highest of any region and above its 15% share of primary schools nationally.

The government has committed nearly £370 million to further expand school-based nursery places, with next steps to be announced shortly. Schools in Fylde are encouraged to stay in touch with their local authority about upcoming opportunities to create or expand school-based nursery provision.

The department is reviewing its communications to inform future rounds.
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Steve Darling:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of establishing a national glaucoma pathway, in the context of similar models in (a) Wales and (b) Scotland. \p Stephen Kinnock: In England, integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary and secondary eye cares services to meet identified local needs. This can include commissioning enhanced services in the community such as glaucoma referral refinement and glaucoma monitoring services.
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Josh Babarinde:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of dentist appointments in Eastbourne. \p Stephen Kinnock: The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service 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 Eastbourne constituency, this is the NHS Sussex ICB. ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Sussex ICB is expected to deliver 26,546 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.

To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
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Katie White:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department has allocated for the provision of insulin pumps for local services in the (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27 financial years. \p Ashley Dalton: Insulin pumps were recommended for certain groups of the type 1 diabetes population in 2008 via the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) Technology Appraisal TA151.

The National Health Service is legally obliged to fund and resource medicines and other treatments recommended by NICE’s Technology Appraisals, and commissioners are required to meet the costs. Local integrated care board leaders should already have plans in place, and budgets identified, to meet the needs of their populations who meet the recommended eligibility criteria of TA151, in accordance with the NHS Constitution.

A national contribution is available to meet 75% of the additional costs of the requirements of NICE TA943 on hybrid closed loop (HCL) systems, as a funding variation was agreed with NICE. Insulin pumps are one of the components of HCL systems.
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Melanie Onn:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the current tariff for the Minor Surgery Directed Enhanced Service in the context of rising operational costs. \p Stephen Kinnock: General practices (GPs) are paid for minor surgery directed enhanced services through global sum payments, although they have the option to opt out of these services, and if so, the relevant deductions will be made from their global sum payments.

Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, including Directed Enhanced Services, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contracts.

We are investing an additional £889 million in GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade and means we are reversing the recent trend with a rising share of total NHS resources going to GPs. We are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.
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Josh Babarinde:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to support hospices in Eastbourne. \p Stephen Kinnock: 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. The funding will help hospices to provide the best end of life care to patients and their families, in a supportive and dignified physical environment.

The first £25 million tranche of that funding, which Hospice UK kindly allocated and distributed to hospices throughout England, has been fully spent by hospices on capital projects. From this first tranche of funding, St Wilfrid’s Hospice in Eastbourne received £179,191. Demelza Hospice Care for Children, which is the closest children’s hospice provider to Eastbourne, received £242,135. The second tranche of funding, consisting of £75 million, will be allocated in the coming weeks for use in 2025/26.

In addition, 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. Demelza Hospice Care for Children will receive an allocation of £1,750,000 for 2025/26.
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Josh Fenton-Glynn:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 60400 on Mental Health Services, how many referrals made to mental health services in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 by primary reason for referral are still waiting to receive a first treatment appointment in each (i) NHS Trust, (ii) NHS Integrated Care Board and (iii) NHS England region as of 24 June 2025. \p Stephen Kinnock: A document containing two tables showing the number of referrals received for mental health services, excluding NHS Talking Therapies, by primary reason for referral, and the number of referrals received for NHS Talking Therapies services by presenting complaint, sorted by provider, integrated care board (ICB), and NHS England region, from 2021/22 to 2023/24, is attached.

We do not hold information on presenting conditions for people referred to NHS Talking Therapies who are waiting for a first contact. This is because the first contact will involve an initial assessment which includes, amongst other activity: discussing the patient’s view of the current main problem(s) and the impact on their life; exploring the patient's history of mental health problems; an exploration of any psychological processes that are likely to maintain the patient’s presenting problems; an exploration of any adverse circumstances that maintain a patient’s presenting symptoms; identification of the appropriate problem descriptor(s); and the completion of the NHS Talking Therapies Data Set. Until this initial assessment contact has taken place, any presenting conditions are not recorded. Unlike the Mental Health Services Data Set, within NHS Talking Therapies a 'reason for referral' accompanying the initial referral to the service is not separately recorded.

Caution should be used when interpreting this data. Comparisons at low levels and between providers may not be reflective of the performance of the provider due to high levels of suppressed values due to small numbers. Primary reason for referral is not a mandatory field and completeness levels can be relatively low and vary between providers. Furthermore, if a provider has a small number of people in a specific category, a seemingly large difference between two providers might not be statistically significant and could be due to random chance. Comparisons over time should also be interpreted with caution, as completeness in the dataset has improved over time, with the numbers of providers increasing year on year, which will impact comparisons.

PQ62469 Document (xlsx, 791.4KB)
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Andrew Rosindell:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to work with relevant authorities to reduce the number of allergy related deaths in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency. \p Ashley Dalton: The Department works with various other Government departments, agencies, and other organisations to improve allergy care and outcomes and, ultimately, to reduce the number of allergy related deaths, including for people in Romford constituency.

The Expert Advisory Group on Allergy (EAGA) is jointly chaired by the Department, and includes representation from NHS England, relevant Government departments and agencies, and professional organisations and patient groups. The EAGA's purpose is to identify priority areas for policy change and development related to allergy care, and to advise on how to achieve improved outcomes for people with allergies. This includes identifying areas for the Department, NHS England, and other Government departments and agencies to focus attention on.

Outside the EAGA, the Department collaborates with other Government departments and agencies on allergy policy to address the wide-ranging impact of allergies that can extend beyond healthcare to areas like education and food safety. This includes work with the Department for Education to ensure that schools have appropriate measures in place to support pupils with allergies, and with the Food Standards Agency to ensure that individuals with food allergies have access to safe food and are well-informed about potential allergens in the food they consume.

This cross-Departmental approach is essential for developing comprehensive strategies that address the various challenges presented by allergies, including prevention, management, and the impact on individuals' quality of life.
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John Milne:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the Delivery Plan for ME/CFS. \p Ashley Dalton: The myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, final delivery plan will be published shortly. The plan will focus on boosting research, improving attitudes and education, and bettering the lives of people with this debilitating disease.
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Mrs Sharon Hodgson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the (a) experiences and (b) interests of (i) children with foetal valproate syndrome and (ii) their families are included in NHS reform. \p Ashley Dalton: As part of National Health Service reform, the Department has launched a transformation programme, led by a senior responsible officer. The Department is engaging with partners to ensure their experiences and interests are considered in shaping the future NHS.

The valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, is being considered by the Government. This is a complex area of work, involving several Government departments, and it is important that we get this right. We will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report at the earliest opportunity.
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Mrs Sharon Hodgson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to respond to the Hughes Report before 23 July 2025. \p Ashley Dalton: The Government is carefully considering the work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government departments. The Government will provide a further update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report.
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Carla Lockhart:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help support research into immunotherapy treatments for (a) pancreatic, (b) brain and (c) other difficult-to-treat cancers; and whether he plans to provide additional funding to clinical trials in this area. \p Ashley Dalton: The Department invests in research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR continues to welcome high quality, high impact funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including research into immunotherapy treatments.

The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with pancreatic, brain, and other difficult-to-treat cancers, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments. The Department is committed to turbocharging clinical research and delivering better patient care, to make the United Kingdom a world-leading destination for clinical research. We are working to fast-track clinical trials to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes, and accelerate the development of medicines and therapies of the future, including treatments for cancer.

The Office for Life Sciences’ Cancer Healthcare Goals programme and the Medical Research Council have co-funded and awarded a £9 million grant to the MANIFEST immunotherapy platform. The MANIFEST consortium is led by the Francis Crick Institute and is composed of academia, the National Health Service, and industry partners, with the aim of expanding and advancing UK immunotherapy research and development capabilities, supporting better targeting and improved efficacy of these expensive treatments, and will look to onboard new cancer types and indications as activity progresses.
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Gregory Stafford:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to improve access to minimally-processed foods for (a) all consumers and (b) children and young people. \p Ashley Dalton: The Government’s Eatwell Guide already advises that people should eat more fruit and vegetables, and wholegrain or higher-fibre foods, as well as less processed meat, and food and drink that is high in sugar, calories, saturated fat, and salt.

The Eatwell Guide principles are communicated through a variety of channels, including the NHS.UK website and Government social marketing campaigns. For example, the Better Health Healthier Families website and the Healthy Steps email programme, which aims to help families with primary aged children in England to eat well and move more.

A range of actions that have already been taken to create a healthier environment to help children reduce their consumption of processed foods that are high in energy, saturated fat, salt, and free sugars, and to improve access to affordable minimally processed foods, include:

- the Healthy Start scheme, which supported over 361,000 people in April 2025;

- the Nursery Milk Scheme, which provides a reimbursement to childcare providers in England and Wales for a daily 1/3 pint portion of milk to children and babies; and

- the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, which provides approximately 2.2 million children in Key Stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables per day at school.

In relation to foods and drinks high in calories, saturated fat, salt, and free sugars, work on our commitments is progressing through:

- implementing the television and online advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink;

- consulting on plans to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under 16 years old; and

- giving local authorities stronger, clearer powers to block new fast-food outlets near schools and where young people congregate.
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Liz Jarvis:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to update regulations on the (a) composition, (b) marketing and (c) labelling of commercial (i) infant and (ii) toddler foods. \p Ashley Dalton: Children’s early years provide an important foundation for their future health and strongly influences many aspects of wellbeing in later life.

It is vital that we maintain the highest standards for foods consumed by babies and infants, which is why we have regulations in place that set nutritional, compositional, and labelling standards for commercial baby food. These ensure that the ingredients used in commercial baby food are suitable for the nutritional needs of infants and require businesses to ensure labelling in clear and not misleading. The regulations also set labelling standards to ensure consumers have clear and accurate information about the products they buy.

We continue to keep these regulations under review to ensure they reflect the latest scientific and dietary guidelines.
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Jim Shannon:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve awareness of symptoms of (a) lung and (b) pancreatic cancer. \p Ashley Dalton: The Department is committed to improving symptom awareness of lung cancer and pancreatic cancer, and NHS England is also taking steps to improve awareness.

NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point. NHS England and other National Health Service organisations, nationally and locally, also publish information on the signs and symptoms of many different types of cancer, including lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. This information can be found on the NHS website.

The Department has also committed support to the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce, which is a group of charities focusing on cancers with poor survival rates. This partnership focuses on raising awareness of less survivable cancers, including lung cancer and pancreatic cancer, so more people understand their symptoms and go to see their general practitioner if they have concerns.

As part of developing the forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England, the Department has been working with members of the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce to identify how to improve diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for less survivable cancers, including lung cancer and pancreatic cancer.
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Lee Anderson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for ambulances in the East Midlands Ambulance Service area. \p Karin Smyth: The following table shows the latest East Midlands Ambulance Service response times by ambulance incident category:

Category

May 2025

Category 1 mean response time

00:08:33

Category 1 90th centile response time

00:15:04

Category 2 mean response time

00:31:26

Category 2 90th centile response time

01:02:27

Category 3 mean response time

01:52:10

Category 3 90th centile response time

04:15:28

Category 4 mean response time

02:14:03

Category 4 90th centile response time

05:27:31

Source: NHS England Ambulance Quality Indicators 2025/26

Notes:
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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Integrated Care Board mergers are planned for Dorset. \p Karin Smyth: NHS England has asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health services and reduce duplication of responsibilities within their structure. NHS England provided additional guidance to ICBs, National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts on 1 April 2025 where ICBs were tasked to develop plans setting out how they will manage their resources to deliver across their priorities. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/

Dorset ICB is discussing proposals to form a wider ICB “cluster” with neighbouring colleagues at NHS Somerset and NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire. This is very much a proposal, which will need to be worked through in more detail over the coming months.
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Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of NHS dentists in North Shropshire. \p Stephen Kinnock: The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

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 North Shropshire constituency, this is the NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB.

ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The NHS Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin ICB is expected to deliver 7,408 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 93 dentists in post or appointed to post. A further 230 posts are currently being advertised.
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Katie White:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of mental health conditions among young people. \p Stephen Kinnock: As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government is recruiting 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services.

The Government is investing an extra £688 million this year to transform mental health services, including reducing the number of children with mental health problems.

The 2025 Spending Review and the NHS 10-Year Health Plan confirmed that we will fulfil our commitment to provide access to mental health support within schools in England by expanding mental health support teams to cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30. This expansion will ensure that up to 900,000 more children and young people will have access to support from trained education mental health practitioners in 2025/26.

Additionally, we are continuing to provide top-up funding of £7 million to the 24 Early Support Hubs to expand their services, and will take part in an ongoing evaluation of these services in 2025/26. This new 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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Dr Al Pinkerton:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of access to NHS-funded fertility treatment in Surrey Heath constituency. \p Karin Smyth: We expect integrated care boards to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. NICE is currently reviewing the fertility guidelines and will consider whether the current recommendations for access to National Health Service-funded treatment are still appropriate.

In the light of broader pressures on the National Health Service and on-going changes within NHS England, we have been looking again at achievable ambitions to improve access to fertility services and fairness for all affected couples.
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Bradley Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of prioritising NHS jobs for British citizens who have gained medical qualifications (a) within the UK and (b) from institutions within other European countries. \p Karin Smyth: As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan published on 3 July, we will work across Government to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the National Health Service for a significant period for specialty training.

We will publish a new 10 Year Workforce Plan later this year to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.
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Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether ICBs will be expected to fund redundancy costs from re-organisation from their day-to-day budgets. \p Karin Smyth: Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as reducing integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs, in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy. Good progress is being made, with the Department and NHS England having announced voluntary exit or redundancy schemes.

We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day to day spending in real terms by 2028/29, compared to 2023/24. Ahead of asking the NHS to commence a multi-year planning round, we are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_184

Andrew Ranger:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve (a) safety and (b) regulation in the non-surgical cosmetics sector. \p Karin Smyth: The Government is committed to taking action to address longstanding concerns about the safety of the cosmetics sector, and is exploring options for further regulation in this area. We will set out the details of our approach in our response to the consultation on the licensing of non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England, which we will publish as soon as possible.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_185

Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the expected population coverage of each ICB in England is following the proposed re-organisation. \p Karin Smyth: In order to optimise the impact of strategic commissioning, and release resources to the frontline, we are working with integrated care boards to so that they cover populations of approximately two million people.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_186

Mr Andrew Snowden:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of Tofersen across NHS trusts in England; and what steps he is taking to ensure equitable geographic access. \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 by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.

NICE has selected tofersen for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by SOD1 gene mutations as a topic for guidance development through its Highly Specialised Technology (HST) programme. The HST programme appraises medicines for the treatment of very rare, and often very severe diseases and evaluates whether they can be considered a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. NICE is working with the company to confirm timelines for this evaluation.
wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_187
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_187

Gregory Stafford:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve ambulance response times in (a) Surrey and (b) Hampshire. \p Karin Smyth: The Government recognises that ambulance response times, including in Surrey and Hampshire, are not meeting the high standards patients should expect.

We are determined to turn things around, and our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year.

Our 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will reform the National Health Service, including urgent and emergency care services, with a key focus on shifting urgent care into the community through new Neighbourhood Health Services.
wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_188
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_188

Danny Beales:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the randomised control trial study report entitled Cost utility analysis of adding abiraterone acetate plus prednisone/prednisolone to long term hormone therapy in newly diagnosed advanced prostate cancer in England: Lifetime decision model based on STAMPEDE trial data, published in June 2022, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the findings of that study on the cost utility of adding abiraterone acetate plus prednisone/prednisolone to long term hormone therapy in men with newly diagnosed high risk non metastatic prostate cancer. \p Karin Smyth: NHS England considered abiraterone as an off-label treatment for hormone sensitive, non-metastatic prostate cancer through its clinical policy development process in 2024/25. Through this process, NHS England confirmed that there was sufficient supporting evidence to support the routine commissioning of abiraterone in this indication, and it was ranked in the highest priority level. However, at this point in time, it has not been possible to identify the necessary recurrent headroom in revenue budgets to support the funding of any treatments under consideration. This position is being kept under review.

NHS England examined papers from the STAMPEDE trial, including Cost utility analysis of adding abiraterone acetate plus prednisone/prednisolone to long term hormone therapy in newly diagnosed advanced prostate cancer in England: Lifetime decision model based on STAMPEDE trial data, as part of the review of evidence for the policy proposition.
wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_189
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_189

Helen Morgan:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of differing NHS (a) targets and (b) waiting lists in England and Wales on patients living in border communities. \p Karin Smyth: The devolution of health is a long-standing policy, and no assessment has been made.

For patients living in border communities, we expect local health care services to work closely to ensure differing targets and waiting lists are managed appropriately and effectively to meet the needs of the communities they serve.

We work closely with partners across the devolved administrations to provide support and share best practice to reduce waiting lists. This includes sharing learning as the National Health Service in England makes progress toward delivering the Government’s ambition of ensuring that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029.

The Government has now exceeded its pledge to deliver two million extra operations, scans, and appointments in England, having delivered 4.2 million additional appointments.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_190

Gregory Stafford:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the trends in the levels of ambulance callouts to the same patient more than once in a 24 hour period. \p Karin Smyth: No assessment has been made. The assessment and management of frequent callers is made at a local level by the relevant ambulance trust.
wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_191
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_191

Sarah Bool:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of data protection laws in ensuring that legitimate complaints processes are dealt with effectively by health bodies. \p Karin Smyth: The handling of patient complaints in the National Health Service is governed by the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009. These regulations set out in law the minimum standards NHS organisations must adhere to in respect of their complaint handling arrangements.

There are strong protections in law to ensure that health and care information is used in a safe, secure, and legal way, and these must be observed in any complaints process. These include: the UK General Data Protection Regulation; the Data Protection Act 2018, which establishes a legal framework for processing personal information and keeping it secure, and for only using it for the purposes for which it was collected; the Human Rights Act 1998, which requires public bodies to respect the private life of an individual, including protecting any information held about them; and the common law duty of confidentiality.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_192

Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that ICBs effectively represent small and rural communities, in the context of the re-organisation of ICBs. \p Karin Smyth: NHS England has asked the integrated care boards (ICBs) to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health and care services and to reduce the duplication of responsibilities within the health and care structure. ICBs are responsible for commissioning health and care services for every person within their locality, including people from small and rural communities. We expect ICBs to continue delivering on all of their statutory responsibilities for all of their residents, including those from small and rural communities.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_193

Mr Toby Perkins:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the (a) number of students who graduated in nursing and (b) number and proportion of those graduates who were employed within six months in the last four years, broken down by higher education institution. \p Karin Smyth: The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) publishes information on the number of United Kingdom trained nurses joining their register for the first time, who are resident in England. The following table shows the number of UK trained nurses joining the NMC register in England for the first time by financial year:

Financial year

Number of UK qualified registered nurses joining the NMC register for the first time

2021/22

15,132

2022/23

16,420

2023/24

18,478

2024/25

19,670

Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council, March 2025 Annual Data Report.

The Department does not hold information on the number of graduates who are employed within six months.
wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_194
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-07-09)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-07-09 conversation_194

Alison Bennett:To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of podiatrists; and if he will (a) reinstate full student bursaries and (b) introduce incentives to encourage recruitment and retention in (i) underserved areas and (ii) general. \p Karin Smyth: The Department has no plans to reinstate the bursary for podiatry students, however the Government keeps funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review.

Supplementary financial support is available to podiatry students through the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF). The LSF offers non-repayable funding, in addition to maintenance and tuition fee loans provided by the Student Loans Company. This includes a non-repayable training grant of £5,000 per academic year plus an additional specialist subject payment of £1,000 a year for podiatry students, and where eligible, £2,000 per year for students with childcare responsibilities.

We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients when they need it.