Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will consider allowing families of vulnerable patients who are at highest risk, particularly those affected by transplants and kidney disease, access to NHS COVID vaccinations.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The primary aim of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme remains the prevention of serious illness, resulting in hospitalisations and deaths, arising from COVID-19.
The JCVI has advised that population immunity to COVID-19 has increased due to a combination of naturally acquired immunity following recovery from infection and vaccine-derived immunity. COVID-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people, though it can still be unpleasant, with rates of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 having reduced significantly since COVID-19 first emerged.
The JCVI has also advised that as currently available COVID-19 vaccines provide limited protection against transmission and mild or asymptomatic disease, the focus of the programme is on offering vaccination to those most likely to directly benefit from vaccination. These are the oldest adults and individuals who are immunosuppressed.
The Government has accepted the JCVI advice for autumn 2025 and in line with the advice, a COVID-19 vaccination is being offered to the following groups:
As for all vaccines, the JCVI keeps the evidence under regular review.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the availability and quality of data held by Integrated Care Boards on the prevalence of clinically diagnosed allergic conditions and the specialist allergy workforce in their local areas; and what consideration has he given to the potential merits of establishing a National Allergy Register, embedded within the planned Single Patient Record in improving patient safety and reducing regional inequalities in allergy care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In conducting health needs assessments to inform their commissioning decisions, integrated care boards (ICBs) will have access to a wide range of data sources, including public health data, hospital statistics, primary care data, and social care metrics.
NHS England is working with the UK Fatal Anaphylaxis Register (UKFAR) to develop a mechanism for sharing relevant patient safety anaphylaxis incidents, including the reporting of anaphylaxis in hospitals. The aim will be for the UKFAR to extract and share patient safety incidents reported to the national databases, the National Reporting and Learning System and Learn from Patient Safety Events, relating to severe allergic reactions. Work has been progressing on this.
The National Allergy Strategy Group, an external group of stakeholders, is developing a UK National Allergy Strategy 2025-2035. The Department will carefully consider and respond to it when we receive it next year.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local cancer treatment facilities, such as mobile chemotherapy units and hospital breast cancer clinics, have sufficient resources to meet demand and reduce waiting times for patients.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the plan for reforming elective care, the Government is committed to improving performance on cancer waiting times.
To improve access to cancer treatment, the Government is investing an extra £26 billion in the National Health Service and providing it with the resources it needs, including community diagnostic centres, to ensure patients are diagnosed faster and earlier so that they receive timely access to treatment. £70 million will also be spent on replacing out-of-date radiotherapy equipment so that cancer patients benefit from faster and safer cancer treatment using the most up-to-date technology. Replacing these older machines will save as many as 13,000 appointments from being lost to equipment breakdown.
NHS England has partnered with the charity Hope For Tomorrow to establish mobile chemotherapy units across England, bringing chemotherapy and cancer treatments closer to patients' homes, reducing waiting time for hospital appointments, with units staffed by specialist nurses offering personalised care.
The NHS has made important progress on the treatment of cancer, including breast cancer, delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week to ensure faster treatment for those who need it most.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people eligible for winter flu vaccinations received them in 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
For England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes provisional vaccine uptake data throughout the flu season. Weekly national level data for general practice (GP) patients is available from October to January, at the following link:
Monthly national and regional level data for GP patients, school-aged children, and frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) is available from October to January. The latest monthly data for the 2025 to 2026 season includes all vaccinations given between 1 September to 30 November 2025, and is avaiable at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/vaccine-uptake#seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake:-figures
Up to 4 January 2026, over 18 million people eligible for the national programme had been vaccinated so far this season.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he will take in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan to improve diagnosis and treatment for penile cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing the number of lives lost to cancer, including penile cancer, is a key aim of the National Cancer Plan. The plan will be published early this year. It will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for patients with cancer, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately driving up this country’s cancer survival rates. This will benefit all cancer patients, including penile cancer patients.
The Government supports Scott Arthur’s Private Members Bill on rare cancers which will make it easier for clinical trials into rare cancers, including penile cancer patients, to take place in England by ensuring the patient population can be easily contacted by researchers. This will ensure that the National Health Service will remain at the forefront of medical innovation and is able to provide patients with the newest, most effective treatment options, and ultimately boost survival rates.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when NHS England will publish the delayed breast screening uptake improvement plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England will publish a Breast Screening Programme Uptake Improvement Review this year, to help improve uptake and address inequalities.
The review supports breast screening service providers with national solutions such as:
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) medical support for and (b) access to medical support for people with Crohn's disease in Leeds Central and Headingley constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to meet the needs of patients diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, in the Leeds Central and Headingly constituency, supported by national improvement programmes such as Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) and NHS RightCare. These programmes provide evidence-based tools and guidance to reduce unwarranted variation and improve patient outcomes.
In November 2025, GIRFT published a new handbook, Optimising care for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, in addition to an updated IBD pathway. This handbook provides practical advice, key actions, and examples of innovative practices to improve the care of National Health Service patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Gastroenterology is a top priority for reform in the Elective Reform Plan. Specific action in gastroenterology includes developing an integrated pathway across primary, community, and secondary care for common gastroenterology conditions. We will also drive rapid adoption of remote monitoring in appropriate gastroenterology pathways.
We are also introducing an ‘online hospital’ through NHS Online. This will give people on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home, providing additional appointments to cut waiting times. IBD is amongst nine initial conditions for online referrals from 2027.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure an adequate (a) supply and (b) distribution of the flu vaccine in (i) Bedfordshire and (ii) East of England, in light of the emergence of the H3N2 “subclade K” virus.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The supply and distribution of flu vaccines for the majority of NHS England’s flu programme is managed by individual providers. NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) work with the pharmaceutical sector to support adequate supply, understand provider ordering, and signpost providers to the continued availability of stock towards the end of the season.
There is currently good availability of flu vaccines in Bedfordshire, Luton, and Milton Keynes. Local practices and pharmacies have not reported any significant disruption to supply or distribution. NHS England regional teams monitor availability of appointments and stock levels, and are working with community pharmacies, general practices, and other providers to identify and escalate any providers that need further support with supply, which the NHS England Regional Vaccination Operations Cell will assist with.
For the children’s flu programme, the UKHSA centrally procures and manages the supply of all vaccines to ensure that eligible children aged under 18 years old who present for vaccination can be offered an appropriate vaccine. Supply remains available throughout the entire flu season. Flu vaccines for children are made available to order via the UKHSA’s online ordering platform ImmForm. General practices are able to place weekly orders and receive weekly deliveries of children’s flu vaccines from the UKHSA. School immunisation teams are able to place orders and receive deliveries up to twice per week.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in the UK have been diagnosed with bladder cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on cancer incidence for the United Kingdom. The latest data on bladder cancer incidence available, in England, can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will make an assessment of the potential merits of measures in the Rhode Island Latex Gloves Safety Act 2024 to help prevent latex allergy harm in England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working closely with a range of stakeholders across the Government, the National Health Service, voluntary organisations, and patient representative groups to consider how allergy care and support could be improved.
The Expert Advisory Group on Allergy met most recently on 3 December and continues to bring together key stakeholders to inform policymaking and identify priorities in relation to the holistic care of people with allergies.
In terms of the use of gloves for medical purposes, the NHS purchases examination and surgical gloves through NHS Supply Chain’s two national frameworks and, ultimately, it is the choice of NHS trusts which gloves they wish to procure. Regarding examination gloves, latex was once the most commonly used glove, but nitrile, latex-free, gloves are now the most common choice. There are also ‘specialist examination gloves’ available, which aim to provide a reduction in allergy irritation.
Surgical glove purchase decisions are generally more clinically lead, and the choice of manufacturer and glove is usually made by the surgeon or consultant. There are latex and latex-free options available via the Surgical Glove Framework.