Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to WPQ 87435 answered on 26 November, if he will publish copies of the modules about close relative marriage and genetic risk for midwives and health visitors and guidance on how to submit data around consanguinity and pregnancy to the Maternity Services Dataset.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has already published training modules about close relative marriage and genetic risk for midwives and health visitors, as well as guidance on how to submit data around consanguinity and pregnancy to the Maternity Services Dataset. The training modules have been published for health professionals to access and there are no plans to publish them more widely.
Asked by: Baroness Freeman of Steventon (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the article published in Cell on 2 December, The effect of shingles vaccination at different stages of the dementia disease course, which suggests a causal relationship between shingles vaccination and a lower risk of developing dementia and further advancement of dementia following diagnosis; and in the light of that, what plans they have to request that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation reconsider the current availability of the shingles vaccination on the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following a request from the Department, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) briefly discussed the emerging evidence on the link between shingles vaccination and dementia in its June 2025 meeting.
It was noted that results were consistent across different vaccines and different observational studies and had some potential biological plausibility. However, based on currently available data, this possible benefit was not quantifiable due to the high chance of bias in many of these observational studies.
For these reasons, no change to the current JCVI recommendation on shingles vaccination could be advised at this time. The JCVI continues to monitor emerging evidence relating to all immunisation programmes, including on the potential link between shingles vaccination and dementia, keeping its advice under review.
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 geographic barriers there are to accessing independent advocacy services for patients in rural areas, including Wiltshire; and what steps he is taking to help tackle those barriers.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Advocacy services play an important role in helping patients' voices to be heard and in ensuring their legal rights are protected. Guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence indicates that advocacy can provide several benefits, including helping to uphold individuals’ rights, supporting vulnerable individuals, involvement in decision-making, and promoting continuity of care.
There are several different types of patient advocacy services, and it is for local commissioning bodies to plan and commission advocacy services, in line with relevant legislation.
Specifically on complaints advocacy services, whilst National Health Service organisations must have their own complaints procedures, they are not required to provide complaints advocacy services. The legal duty to provide this service rests with local authorities, who are required by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to make arrangements for the provision of independent advocacy services in their area. Each year the Government provides approximately £15 million of grant funding to local authorities towards this service.
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 requirements are placed on NHS trusts and integrated care boards on the publication of independent NHS complaints advocacy services to patients, including in Wiltshire.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Advocacy services play an important role in helping patients' voices to be heard and in ensuring their legal rights are protected. Guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence indicates that advocacy can provide several benefits, including helping to uphold individuals’ rights, supporting vulnerable individuals, involvement in decision-making, and promoting continuity of care.
There are several different types of patient advocacy services, and it is for local commissioning bodies to plan and commission advocacy services, in line with relevant legislation.
Specifically on complaints advocacy services, whilst National Health Service organisations must have their own complaints procedures, they are not required to provide complaints advocacy services. The legal duty to provide this service rests with local authorities, who are required by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to make arrangements for the provision of independent advocacy services in their area. Each year the Government provides approximately £15 million of grant funding to local authorities towards this service.
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 assessment he has made of the adequacy of provision of independent advocacy services for patients in Wiltshire.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Advocacy services play an important role in helping patients' voices to be heard and in ensuring their legal rights are protected. Guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence indicates that advocacy can provide several benefits, including helping to uphold individuals’ rights, supporting vulnerable individuals, involvement in decision-making, and promoting continuity of care.
There are several different types of patient advocacy services, and it is for local commissioning bodies to plan and commission advocacy services, in line with relevant legislation.
Specifically on complaints advocacy services, whilst National Health Service organisations must have their own complaints procedures, they are not required to provide complaints advocacy services. The legal duty to provide this service rests with local authorities, who are required by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to make arrangements for the provision of independent advocacy services in their area. Each year the Government provides approximately £15 million of grant funding to local authorities towards this service.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the withdrawal of the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) report 2023 due to data quality issues; what were the specific data technicalities or defects that were not identified by NHS England or the Department of Health and Social Care; and what steps they plan to take to strengthen data collection and validation protocols during future LeDeR publications to ensure timely and reliable reporting.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that families and stakeholders will be frustrated by the withdrawal of the most recent 2023 Learning from Lives and Deaths of People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People (LeDeR) report, published in September 2025 by King’s College London. We apologise for the upset this has caused to families and loved ones, and we will make sure lessons are learned so that this cannot happen again. We remain committed to ensuring learning from LeDeR is shared and used to drive tangible service improvements.
The report was temporarily withdrawn after a technical issue was identified by NHS England after its publication. Some data used in the LeDeR report comes from Medical Certificate Cause of Death data. This was due to a technical issue related to a new automated process introduced in spring 2023, which meant that some of this data was not updated properly in the LeDeR dataset. This means that some data on cause of death was not included in the 2023 LeDeR report when it should have been, which has subsequently impacted some of the published analysis in the 2023 LeDeR report.
In line with ethical research and statistical practice, King’s College London has now withdrawn the report and has issued a notice setting out the reason why. An updated version is being prepared for publication in January 2026.
A correction has been applied to ensure that the specific automated processing error cannot happen again. NHS England is working with King’s College London to implement a more robust data checking protocol for the next LeDeR report, which will be an analysis of reviews of deaths for people who died in 2024 and whose deaths were notified to LeDeR in that year.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prisoners are (1) eligible for support, and (2) receiving support, under section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The eligibility criteria for Section 117 applies to those who have been discharged from hospital following detention under the Mental Health Act, including those who have been remitted to prison. This is to help meet their needs and reduce the risk of their mental health condition worsening, which could lead to another hospital admission. Where prisoners are remitted back to prison, their right to receive Section 117 aftercare should be dealt with in the same way as it would be in the community, apart from any provisions which do not apply in custodial settings, such as direct payments and choice of accommodation. We do not hold centralised data on the number of prisoners receiving support under Section 117.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of patients waited more than four hours in Basildon Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department in the past year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government acknowledges that urgent and emergency care performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years. We are committed to restoring waiting standards to those set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as outlined in our Medium Term Planning Framework, which is available at the following link:
Basildon Hospital is part of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. In the financial year 2024/25, 29.1% of patients at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust waited for more than four hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge.
We are putting significant funding into expanding urgent and emergency service access for those most in need, including new Urgent Treatment Centres and Same Day Emergency Care facilities. Nationally, this will mean 800,000 fewer accident and emergency patients waiting over four hours this year.
The information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were admitted to A&E in England and seen within a) four hours and b) 12 hours at the weekend in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24 and (d) 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers provided on 11 November to Questions 87614 and 87615. Otherwise, we do not hold data at this level of granularity.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were admitted to A&E in England and seen within a) four hours and b) 12 hours after 5pm in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24 and (d) 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers provided on 11 November to Questions 87614 and 87615. Otherwise, we do not hold data at this level of granularity.