Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the report by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem, published on 26 February, what assessment they have made of the risks to patient safety of inadequate assessment of a patient's ability to self-administer insulin prior to discharge from hospital
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is considering the Health Services Safety Investigations Body’s report and will respond to the recommendation in the report in due course.
To reduce insulin related harm, the NHS Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme published guidance in April 2025 to support trusts to establish Diabetes Safety Boards. GIRFT is also undertaking a pilot across 20 integrated care systems as part of a Community and District Nurse Insulin Programme, which works to empower community diabetes nurses and district nursing teams to support patients at home requiring insulin administration.
To further support services to provide high quality personalised care for all patients needing secondary mental health services, including those with diabetes, NHS England has shared new draft guidance with systems, the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework, sets out how services must effectively assess, plan, and manage people's care in collaboration with all relevant teams, including how they assess safety and risks of harm.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the report by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem, published on 26 February, what steps they plan to take to ensure that vulnerable patients are appropriately supported to administer insulin safely after discharge from hospital.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is considering the Health Services Safety Investigations Body’s report and will respond to the recommendation in the report in due course.
To reduce insulin related harm, the NHS Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme published guidance in April 2025 to support trusts to establish Diabetes Safety Boards. GIRFT is also undertaking a pilot across 20 integrated care systems as part of a Community and District Nurse Insulin Programme, which works to empower community diabetes nurses and district nursing teams to support patients at home requiring insulin administration.
To further support services to provide high quality personalised care for all patients needing secondary mental health services, including those with diabetes, NHS England has shared new draft guidance with systems, the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework, sets out how services must effectively assess, plan, and manage people's care in collaboration with all relevant teams, including how they assess safety and risks of harm.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the NHS Health Check programme in identifying chronic kidney disease; and what steps they are taking to increase uptake of that programme.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Blood pressure is a risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Each year, the NHS Health Check, which is a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.4 million people and identifies over 340,000 cases of high blood pressure.
Individuals who are identified with high blood pressure during their NHS Health Check are referred to their general practice for further clinical investigation who determine whether an individual should be tested for CKD. Data is currently not collected on the number of individuals who are subsequently tested for CKD.
To improve access and engagement with the NHS Health Check, we are developing the NHS Health Check Online service that people can use at home, at a time convenient to them, to understand and act on their CVD risk. The NHS Health Check Online is being piloted in multiple local authorities across England.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the neighbourhood health framework will support the early identification and prevention of chronic kidney disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Neighbourhood Health Framework is designed to provide clarity and consistency to integrated care boards (ICBs), local authorities, and their partners, in developing and scaling neighbourhood health.
It is important that reforms are locally led, as ICBs and local authorities are best placed to design services that make sense for their local populations. Local systems can choose to go further than the minimum aims set out in the framework, and this could include a focus on chronic kidney disease.
Early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease is supported through widespread access to blood and urine tests across the National Health Service, including in primary care and community diagnostic services.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to assess the potential use of artificial intelligence benchmarking to reduce the side effects of radiotherapy when used to treat prostate cancer.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains committed to looking for opportunities to implement artificial intelligence (AI) in cancer services to speed up diagnosis, improve treatment efficacy, and reduce treatment side effects where possible. We have demonstrated this commitment through a £133 million investment in the AI in Health and Care Award, which has funded innovations relevant to prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment that align with the NHS Long Term Plan.
While AI is already being used to support diagnostic and treatment pathways, any future use of AI intended to further improve radiotherapy services, will be carefully evaluated to ensure safety, efficacy, and clinical benefit and benchmarked against existing standards and approaches.
The Government’s recently published National Cancer Plan sets out how we will modernise the National Health Service and utilise AI to support faster radiotherapy planning, provide more accurate contouring, improve productivity, and free up clinicians’ time to focus on patient care. Over the next decade, we will harness AI to help the NHS to deliver more personalised and responsive cancer care.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of digital technologies in supporting treatment and recovery services for people experiencing drug and alcohol addiction.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is continuing to invest in improvements to local alcohol and drug treatment services to ensure those in need can access high quality help and support. From 2026, all drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding will be channelled through the Public Health Grant, with over £13.45 billion allocated across three years, including £3.4 billion ringfenced for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery.
Local authorities are responsible for assessing local needs for alcohol and drug prevention and treatment in their area, and commissioning services to meet these needs. The Government works with local treatment systems to provide a number of digital products including guidance, subject-matter expertise and data tools to help them deliver their service.
Digital products are derived from The National Drug Treatment Monitoring System and other related health datasets and made available via a dedicated website to enable local treatment systems to monitor treatment access and better manage outcomes.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the referral to treatment clock start date is where a GP resubmits a referral following a Single Point of Access triage outcome with which they disagree; and what guidance NHS England has issued to Integrated Care Boards on the referral to treatment clock start date in these circumstances ahead of mandatory Single Point of Access triage processes taking effect from 1 April 2026.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We're setting the Advice and Guidance (A&G) clock start so it's the same as outpatient referrals, ensuring no patient will have to wait longer for an appointment as a result of A&G
As set out in the Medium Term Planning Framework, the National Health Service will move toward delivering care through a ‘Single Point of Access’ (SPoA) for all appropriate requests and referrals, excluding for urgent suspected cancer. Under the new SPoA model, if a patient needs treatment, their Referral to Treatment (RTT) clock start date will be calculated from the date the Advice and Guidance (A&G) request or referral was received by the SPoA. This is instead of the current process for A&G, where the clock start date is the date that the request or referral is converted to a treatment pathway. This will ensure that patients' waiting times are accurately reflected.
In February 2026, NHS England issued The Elective Single Point of Access: Technical Guidance for 2026/27 to integrated care boards. This provides guidance on RTT rules and quality assurance arrangements, and advice on establishing leadership and governance structures that ensure SPoA outcomes are assessed regularly. The SPoA will be supported by improvements to the NHS e-Referral Service, which will enable NHS England to collect data on triage outcomes.
SPoA is designed to promote clinical collaboration between primary care referrers and secondary care clinicians, including by facilitating two-way communication and shared decision making. General practitioners (GPs) can re-submit a referral following a SPoA triage outcome if they have concerns about the clinical decision. Escalation routes for concerns about triage decisions will continue to operate through locally agreed referral pathways and communication processes for GPs and patients, supported by improvements to the NHS e-Referral Service. Where patients have concerns regarding outcomes, local Patient Advice and Liaison Service teams can provide advice and support.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what quality assurance arrangements NHS England has put in place for mandatory Single Point of Access triage decisions from 1 April 2026; what monitoring will be conducted of triage outcomes by specialty and provider; and how GPs and patients will be able to escalate concerns about triage decisions that they consider clinically inappropriate.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We're setting the Advice and Guidance (A&G) clock start so it's the same as outpatient referrals, ensuring no patient will have to wait longer for an appointment as a result of A&G
As set out in the Medium Term Planning Framework, the National Health Service will move toward delivering care through a ‘Single Point of Access’ (SPoA) for all appropriate requests and referrals, excluding for urgent suspected cancer. Under the new SPoA model, if a patient needs treatment, their Referral to Treatment (RTT) clock start date will be calculated from the date the Advice and Guidance (A&G) request or referral was received by the SPoA. This is instead of the current process for A&G, where the clock start date is the date that the request or referral is converted to a treatment pathway. This will ensure that patients' waiting times are accurately reflected.
In February 2026, NHS England issued The Elective Single Point of Access: Technical Guidance for 2026/27 to integrated care boards. This provides guidance on RTT rules and quality assurance arrangements, and advice on establishing leadership and governance structures that ensure SPoA outcomes are assessed regularly. The SPoA will be supported by improvements to the NHS e-Referral Service, which will enable NHS England to collect data on triage outcomes.
SPoA is designed to promote clinical collaboration between primary care referrers and secondary care clinicians, including by facilitating two-way communication and shared decision making. General practitioners (GPs) can re-submit a referral following a SPoA triage outcome if they have concerns about the clinical decision. Escalation routes for concerns about triage decisions will continue to operate through locally agreed referral pathways and communication processes for GPs and patients, supported by improvements to the NHS e-Referral Service. Where patients have concerns regarding outcomes, local Patient Advice and Liaison Service teams can provide advice and support.
Asked by: Lord Ravensdale (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to develop a national plan for sudden unexplained death in childhood.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the devastating impact of sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) on affected families and communities. As the Minister for Public Health and Prevention (Sharon Hodgson MP) set out during a recent Westminster Hall Debate on this issue on 24 March 2026, the Government’s is committed to strengthening pathology services, ensuring high-quality bereavement support and growing the evidence base around SUDC.
Parents who have lost a child to SUDC should be able to access the advice and support that they need. Bereavement support is available on the NHS help page and GOV.UK website in an online-only format.
NHS Bereavement support is commissioned locally, allowing services to be shaped around the needs of local communities. For anyone seeking help after a bereavement, we encourage them to speak to their general practitioner, who can advise on and refer into local bereavement support services. My officials are exploring opportunities to include signposting on the NHS website to SUDC UK to ensure families have access to information when they need it most.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal for a system for equitable distribution of general medical practitioners in England, submitted to the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care on 22 February by John G Gooderham.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will 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. This workforce plan will set out how we will deliver that change by making sure that staff are better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles, and hope for the future.
We are investing £485 million in general practices (GPs) in 2026/27, bringing the total spend on the GP Contract to over £13.8 billion. This builds on the £1.1 billion boost in investment in 2025/26. As part of the 26/27 GP Contract, we are increasing flexibility of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) by removing the restriction that ARRS funding can only be used for recently qualified GPs, increasing the maximum reimbursement amount for GP roles to reflect experience, and enabling primary care networks to recruit a broader range of ARRS roles, where agreed with the commissioner.
Following feedback from the 2026/27 GP Contract consultation, we are introducing a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme which ring-fences and repurposes £292 million of funding from the current Capacity and Access Payment. This funding will be available to practices to hire additional GPs or fund additional sessions with existing GPs to improve access in practices. This aims to strengthen capacity, access, and improve patient satisfaction, whilst also addressing GP unemployment and underemployment.
We know that the way core GP funding is allocated across England is considered outdated and we recognise the importance of ensuring funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country. This is why we are currently reviewing the GP funding formula, the Carr-Hill formula, to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.
The first phase of the review is expected to conclude in March 2026. Subject to ministerial decision, further work would be undertaken to technically develop and model any proposed changes to the formula. Findings from the review will be published in due course by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
The proposal has been received and Government officials will assess it in the normal manner.