Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, for the purposes of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, what assessment they have made of the adequacy of current adult safeguarding and mental capacity training among GPs, hospital consultants and community nurses.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains neutral on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. The Government has not made an assessment of the current adult safeguarding and mental capacity training among general practitioners, hospital consultations, and/or community nurses in the context of that bill.
The Government’s consideration of the provision and training of a voluntary assisted dying service can be found in section 10 of the bill’s impact assessment, a copy of which is attached.
Asked by: Lord Harper (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many members will be on the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care, how many have been appointed to date, and what are the names and backgrounds of those appointed.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Baroness Louise Casey of Blackstock chairs the independent commission into adult social care (the Commission) alongside a dedicated secretariat team. No commissioners have been appointed.
Baroness Casey and the Commission’s secretariat are based in the Cabinet Office. The secretariat has a total of 11 officials, nine are employed by the Department of Health and Social Care, and two by the Cabinet Office. One external individual has been hired as contingent labour to support the work of the Commission’s secretariat. There are a further four officials working in the Commission’s sponsorship function based in the Department of Health and Social Care.
As the Commission is independent, the secretariat may expand as it carries out its work and as Baroness Casey considers what further skills and expertise she needs.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, and following the published impact assessment and equality impact assessment, what estimate they have made of the proportion of people who would be eligible for assistance to end their own life who have a history of depression, self-harm or other mental health conditions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The published Impact Assessment and Equality Impact Assessment provides illustrative figures for aspects of the service where sufficient information and evidence is available and where the level of detail contained in the bill permits.
The Government does not have an estimate of the proportion of people who would be eligible for assistance to end their own life who have a history of mental health conditions.
Further considerations for information regarding Cohort Estimates and Impacts on individuals and specific groups of individuals can be found in section 7 and section 8 of the bill’s impact assessment, a copy of which is attached.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the condition of maternity wards and equipment across NHS trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s maternity and neonatal infrastructure review was completed in spring 2024 by all trusts in England that provide maternity and neonatal services. It found various issues with maternity and neonatal service infrastructure, including limited physical space, inadequate capacity for efficient services, and poor building conditions.
However, all trust boards are asked to review their estates data and to seek assurance that all healthcare premises, from which they are delivering maternity and neonatal services, are of appropriate standard. In instances where the estate is not of appropriate standard, trust boards should ensure mitigating action is being taken accordingly.
NHS England is developing a data dashboard to present maternity and neonatal estate survey data. This will enable trusts to capture the latest information on their estates and take action at the local level when required.
The independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, chaired by Baroness Amos, is considering the adequacy of maternity and neonatal infrastructure within its scope.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of withdrawing local early-intervention health services on demand for secondary care in Surrey.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The commissioning of local National Health Services is a matter for local integrated care boards (ICBs) working together with providers and other stakeholders. Neither the NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB nor the NHS Frimley ICB are aware of the withdrawal of early intervention services in Surrey.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms will ensure accountability for primary care outcomes within merged ICBs, particularly where decision-making is centralised elsewhere.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Oversight Framework will continue to provide the approach to assessing integrated care boards, including in relation to primary care.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what cross government support is provided to local authorities to identify the location of, and those buried in, historic unmarked mass child graves in England such as those discovered in Royton, Oldham.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the distress caused to bereaved parents by these historic practices and we commend the work that families and charities have been doing to highlight this issue and support other bereaved parents. We are working across Government to better support parents searching for the final resting place of their child’s remains and will ensure they are given as much help as possible. Ministers from across Government will be meeting shortly to discuss this issue, to ensure effective cross-Government coordination and support for affected families.
Tracing a baby’s grave or a record of cremation can be a very difficult time for people both mentally and emotionally. It is important, therefore, that parents searching for the final resting place of their child’s remains are given as much help as possible. The Government expects all hospitals and burial and cremation authorities to assist by providing all information and records available to them, to any parents that enquire about what happened to their stillborn babies and their final resting place, in a timely manner.
The 2025/26 Local Government Finance Settlement makes available over £69 billion for local government. The majority of funding in the Local Government Finance Settlement is unringfenced, recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.
Standards from the mid-1980s onwards brought an end to the historic practice of placing the remains of stillborn babies’ bodies in unmarked graves. The current death certification process means that this historic practice is no longer possible.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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) awareness, (b) diagnosis and (c) treatment for, pulmonary hypertension.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions specialist services for both adults and children to diagnose and treat pulmonary arterial hypertension. Care is provided through a small number of specialised centres and shared care arrangements with other centres.
High-cost drug treatments are delivering improvements in outcomes for this group of patients, as evidenced by the National Pulmonary Hypertension Audit. This audit is funded by NHS England, with further information available at the following link:
Clinical guidelines and pathways exist for the investigation of breathlessness, to support the recognition and diagnosis of this rare condition.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many a) neurologists, b) geriatricians and c) nurses in the NHS have specialist training in Parkinson's.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Department does not hold data specifically on the number of Parkinson’s specialist staff in England, we do hold data on the number of doctors working in the wider specialities of neurology and geriatric medicine. As of August 2025, there were 2,010 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology and 6,284 in geriatric medicine in National Health Service trusts and other organisations in England. This includes 1,025 FTE consultant neurologists and 1,687 FTE consultant geriatricians.
These figures are based on NHS Digital’s workforce data and reflect staff employed by NHS trusts and other core NHS organisations in England. They do not include doctors working in private practice or outside NHS organisations.
The Department does not hold specific data on the number of specialist Parkinson’s nurses currently working in the NHS in England. These roles are commissioned and managed locally by NHS trusts and integrated care boards as part of neurology and movement disorder services.
NHS England has published a service specification for specialised adult neurology services, which includes Parkinson’s disease as part of its scope. This specification sets out requirements for multidisciplinary care, including access to Parkinson’s disease nurse specialists, consultant neurologists, and allied health professionals.
NHS England is also implementing initiatives such as the Neurology Transformation Programme and the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology, which aim to improve access to specialist care, reduce variation, and develop integrated models of service delivery for conditions including Parkinson’s disease. These programmes align with the National Institute for Care Excellence guidance on Parkinson’s disease, reference code NG71, which recommends that people with Parkinson’s have regular access to specialist staff with expertise in the condition.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking with the NHS to end the practice of discharging mothers with newborn babies into B&Bs or other unsuitable accommodation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working closely with the National Health Service to end the practice of mothers with newborns being discharged to bed and breakfasts or other forms of unsuitable shared housing.
Our new Child Poverty Strategy was published 5 December 2025 and will end the unlawful placement of families in bed and breakfasts beyond the six-week limit. To support this, the Government is investing £8 million in Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots in 20 local authorities that have the highest use of bed and breakfasts for homeless families and is continuing the programme for the next three years.
We will work with local authorities, supported by robust NHS pathways, to make sure safe and appropriate alternatives are available and used. This includes identifying issues as early as possible to help ensure that the housing a new mother and their newborn will be discharged to meets their needs.
We are also working across the Government to support children in temporary accommodation. This includes introducing a clinical code for children in temporary accommodation, ensuring these families are proactively contacted by health services and ending the practice of discharging newborn babies into a bed and breakfast or other unsuitable shared accommodation.