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, whether he has held discussions with the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust on potential factors that contributed to bed occupancy rates at the Trust between October and December 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not held discussions with the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust on potential factors that contributed to bed occupancy rates at the trust between October and December 2025. However, in line with normal practice, NHS England regional teams hold discussions with the trust on performance, including bed occupancy rates. We started planning earlier and have taken more action than in previous years to prepare for winter pressures. We closely monitored the impact of winter pressures on the National Health Service over winter months, providing additional support to services across the country as needed.
As set out in the Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26, the NHS is focused on improvements that has seen the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care performance during winter including:
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 recent assessment has he made of the potential implications for his policies of trends in the length of the waiting list for post-mortem examinations for children.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is aware of the workforce challenges within perinatal pathology, which can impact on waiting times. A national programme was established in late 2022 to address this, and significant work has been undertaken in relation to workforce funding, training, and incentives. Actions taken include:
- the 2024 launch of a fully funded international recruitment campaign;
- a £20,000 golden handshake for doctors entering paediatric and perinatal pathology training;
- additional funding being made available to support training posts in areas where there have been interested candidates but no training post for them at a specific provider/location;
- the appointment of a new National Training Programme Director role which has revised the examination structure and aspects of the national training course, and supported an increase in the number of training posts across several recruitment rounds; and
- the perinatal and paediatric training pathway, which will be at a full complement of 16 training posts from February 2026, and with applications for the next specialty training level three having exceeded expectations.
NHS England is also pursuing medium-long-term options to increase service capacity alongside workforce initiatives.
A system of national mutual aid was established in late 2022 to maintain timely access to National Health Service post-mortems in areas with workforce shortages. This has been supported by over £1 million of additional funding in 2025/26.
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 his Department is taking to ensure adequate funding for post-mortem examinations for children.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is aware of the workforce challenges within perinatal pathology, which can impact on waiting times. A national programme was established in late 2022 to address this, and significant work has been undertaken in relation to workforce funding, training, and incentives. Actions taken include:
- the 2024 launch of a fully funded international recruitment campaign;
- a £20,000 golden handshake for doctors entering paediatric and perinatal pathology training;
- additional funding being made available to support training posts in areas where there have been interested candidates but no training post for them at a specific provider/location;
- the appointment of a new National Training Programme Director role which has revised the examination structure and aspects of the national training course, and supported an increase in the number of training posts across several recruitment rounds; and
- the perinatal and paediatric training pathway, which will be at a full complement of 16 training posts from February 2026, and with applications for the next specialty training level three having exceeded expectations.
NHS England is also pursuing medium-long-term options to increase service capacity alongside workforce initiatives.
A system of national mutual aid was established in late 2022 to maintain timely access to National Health Service post-mortems in areas with workforce shortages. This has been supported by over £1 million of additional funding in 2025/26.
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 his Department is taking to ensure timely access to post-mortem examinations for children.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is aware of the workforce challenges within perinatal pathology, which can impact on waiting times. A national programme was established in late 2022 to address this, and significant work has been undertaken in relation to workforce funding, training, and incentives. Actions taken include:
- the 2024 launch of a fully funded international recruitment campaign;
- a £20,000 golden handshake for doctors entering paediatric and perinatal pathology training;
- additional funding being made available to support training posts in areas where there have been interested candidates but no training post for them at a specific provider/location;
- the appointment of a new National Training Programme Director role which has revised the examination structure and aspects of the national training course, and supported an increase in the number of training posts across several recruitment rounds; and
- the perinatal and paediatric training pathway, which will be at a full complement of 16 training posts from February 2026, and with applications for the next specialty training level three having exceeded expectations.
NHS England is also pursuing medium-long-term options to increase service capacity alongside workforce initiatives.
A system of national mutual aid was established in late 2022 to maintain timely access to National Health Service post-mortems in areas with workforce shortages. This has been supported by over £1 million of additional funding in 2025/26.
Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England has assessed the potential merits of a dedicated referral and support pathway for patients experiencing Topical Steroid Withdrawal, distinct from standard eczema care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has been no national assessment of need for a dedicated referral and support pathway for topical steroid withdrawal (TSW). Care for patients presenting with TSW is provided through services commissioned by individual integrated care boards.
The Elective Reform Plan, published January 2025, outlines actions that will help ensure care is delivered in the right place. This includes expanding the use of Advice and Guidance, a clinical collaboration tool that supports timely specialist input and helps patients receive care in the right setting, including for dermatology care.
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, how many days were taken by NHS England staff as sick leave in total in each of the last ten years; and what the average number was.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes monthly information on the sickness absence of staff employed by NHS bodies, including NHS England. This is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-sickness-absence-rates
Annual (financial year) summaries are included within the publication up to 2021/22. Subsequent years’ sickness absence days taken and the associated sickness absence rates can be constructed by aggregating the monthly published data.
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, how many days were taken by NHS England staff as sick leave in total in each month since January 2024; and what the average number was.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes monthly information on the sickness absence of staff employed by NHS bodies, including NHS England. This is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-sickness-absence-rates
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support NHS Somerset to increase participation in bowel cancer screening in Yeovil constituency.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Coverage of bowel cancer screening has been increasing in recent years. In 2019, 60.5% of people took the offer up. Now, it is 71.8%.
To further increase coverage across England, including Yeovil, NHS England is doing the following:
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 3rd March 2026 to question 115687, if he will ask Baroness Amos to consider the potential merits of appointing a Maternity Commissioner in the course of the Independent National Investigation into maternity and neonatal care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation is independent, with the investigation’s terms of reference allowing Baroness Amos, in her role as Chair, to make recommendations as she sees fit.
The independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation is bringing together the findings from past reviews, from local investigations of maternity and neonatal services in selected trusts, and evidence from families and staff, and will develop and publish one clear national set of recommendations.
Baroness Amos and her team have met with hundreds of families as part of the local investigations, and a national call for evidence for women, families, and staff has recently concluded. Her final report will be published in June.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether future breast screening service specifications will include details and standards outlining the on-site support, equipment, and reasonable adjustments screening units must be able to provide to women with disabilities and support needs.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Breast Screening Programme takes equality of access and opportunity for breast screening seriously. There is guidance in place to support breast screening services to address specific needs that people may have in order to attend their breast screening. This guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/breast-screening-identifying-and-reducing-inequalities
Breast screening services are already expected to meet these requirements as part of the current national specification.
A project is underway to assess how the Reasonable Adjustments Digital Flag can be best implemented across screening programmes and how provider services can be best enabled to respond to these requirements. The national screening service specification will be appropriately updated to reflect changes.