Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many doctors have had to file an estimate for their tax returns as a result of not receiving the appropriate Pension Savings Statements before 31 January 2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department, the NHS Business Services Authority, and HM Revenue and Customs do not hold this information.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the dismissal of the executive medical director at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, what oversight they are exercising to ensure that there is not a culture of suppressing clinical concerns regarding patient safety and staffing pressures.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have noted the findings of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection report of 28 March 2024 into the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which rated the trust overall as ‘Requires Improvement’, with specific concerns identified in areas such as freedom to speak up. National Health Service staff should have the confidence to speak out and come forward if they have concerns. There is support in place for staff who wish to raise concerns, including a network of more than 1,200 local Freedom to Speak Up Guardians across healthcare in England, whose role is to help and support NHS workers.
On the question of oversight, the CQC has maintained close and sustained regulatory oversight of the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in light of ongoing concerns about service quality and safety. This has included targeted inspections, staff engagement work, and structured monitoring activity. In response to identified risks within urgent and emergency care at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, the CQC undertook an assessment in December 2025, followed by a further inspection on 6 January 2026. Significant risks were identified during this period, and the CQC subsequently issued a Letter of Intent to the trust. The CQC has continued to work collaboratively with NHS England, participating in monthly quality improvement meetings to monitor the trust’s progress against its action plans.
The CQC will continue to use its statutory powers to ensure that services meet the required standards of quality and safety.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what indicators they use to measure progress in reducing health inequalities; and how those metrics inform policy and funding decisions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to increase the amount of time people spend in good health and prevent premature deaths, with a vision of ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background or location, live longer, healthier lives.
We remain committed to reducing the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between the richest and poorest, an ambitious commitment that shows the Government is serious about tackling health inequalities and addressing the social determinants of health. Indicators to monitor progress in health inequalities are measured in key data outcomes, such as the life expectancy estimates for England and sub-national areas, produced by the Office for National Statistics.
The Government bases decisions on a robust evidence base. For example, we know that the Carr-Hill formula is considered outdated, and evidence suggests that general practices (GPs) serving in deprived parts of England receive on average 9.8% less funding per needs adjusted patient than those in less deprived communities, despite having greater health needs and significantly higher patient-to-GP ratios. This is why we are currently reviewing the formula to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.
We are targeting key metrics such as the HLE gap to enable cross-Government action on primary prevention such as regulation of tobacco, controlling air pollution, and tackling poverty. We also support NHS England’s CORE20PLUS5 approach which targets action to reduce health inequalities in the most deprived 20% of the population and improve outcomes for groups that experience the worst access, experience, and outcomes within the National Health 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 plans they have to publish an impact summary of the Foundation Programme 2026 recruitment cycle, including (1) the projected breakdown of priority versus non-priority eligible applicant numbers, (2) an assessment of the expected displacement of applicants, and (3) the associated mitigation plan to ensure workforce stability.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of implementation and ongoing monitoring and evaluation, after each recruitment stage, NHS England will track and monitor the revised recruitment process.
The bill will not exclude any eligible applicant from applying, but applications will be prioritised as the bill describes. The Government and NHS England will develop more detailed monitoring and evaluation plans, subject to parliamentary passage of the bill. These plans would also seek to address known evidence gaps where possible.
Further detail is provided within the published impact statement on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to set a target for reducing incidence of cardiovascular disease as part of the 10 Year Health Plan for England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to fewer lives being lost to the biggest killers, such as cardiovascular disease. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, to accelerate progress on the ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease modern service framework later this year.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assistance is available to people who are not sufficiently technologically proficient to use the NHS app.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working to improve access to digital services, outcomes, and experiences for the widest range of people, based on their preferences. Digital health tools should be part of a wider offering that includes face-to-face support with appropriate help for people who struggle to access digital services.
Centrally built services, such as the NHS App and National Health Service website, are designed to meet international accessibility standards. We are modernising the mobile patient experience within the NHS App, ensuring information is clearly structured and easy to find and understand.
NHS England has successfully run several programmes to support patients, carers, and health service staff with their digital skills. These include:
the Digital Health Champions programme, a proof of concept to support citizens who have no or low digital skills with understanding how to access health services online;
the Widening Digital Participation programme, aimed to ensure more people have the digital skills, motivation, and means to access health information and services online; and
the NHS App ‘Spoken Word’ Pilot project, designed to test the efficacy of promoting NHS digital health products and services in languages other than English.
We have also recruited over 2,000 NHS App ambassadors and 1,400 libraries to help people to learn how to use the NHS App.
NHS England has published a framework for NHS action on digital inclusion and is developing further resources to support practical actions. All programmes are actively considering how they can contribute to improvements in healthcare inequalities and digital inclusion.
We are also developing a national proxy service to grant authorised access for people to manage health care on behalf of other people that are unable to use the NHS App.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer the Minister of State for Care on 5 January (HC99433), whether they have considered allowing local authorities to set or amend the means-testing criteria for the mandatory Disabled Facilities Grant scheme that such authorities administer on behalf of the Government.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, we continue to fund the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) which is administered by local authorities. This grant helps eligible older and disabled people on low incomes to adapt their homes to make them safe and suitable for their needs. Practical changes include installing stairlifts, level-access showers, and ramps.
As highlighted in the response to HC99433, local authorities already have a significant amount of flexibility in how they deliver the DFG. This includes setting or amending the means-testing criteria.
We have recently announced an additional £50 million for the DFG in 2025/26. This could fund approximately 5,000 home adaptations supporting older and disabled people to live more independently in their homes, it brings the total DFG amount this year to £761 million.
Asked by: Lord Freyberg (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential benefits of technology investments, including optical character recognition and natural language processing, to automate manual processes in clinical audit and registry submission across NHS England; whether businesses cases for that investment have been prepared; if so, in which disease areas or audit programmes those cases were prepared; and what were the outcomes of those cases.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is exploring a range of functionality to automate manual data processes aligned to clinical improvement, including for our Outcomes & Registries Programme, National Disease Registration Service, frontline digitisation and the promotion and adoption of new technology across provider systems. Our central data and digital transformation business cases are primarily focused on the adoption of the technical capabilities and innovations, applicable in many areas, rather than focusing within specific individual audits or registries alone. Some business cases have been accepted and moved forward.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
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 trends in the level of social care standards across England; and what steps he is taking to support greater consistency of care provision.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National standards of care will be an integral part of the national care service we are building, so people can rely on consistent, high‑quality care wherever they live.
We are already progressing towards this through our three objectives for adult social care: giving people real choice and control, joining up health and social care around people’s lives, and ensuring consistent high‑quality care underpinned by national standards.
This year, the Government will set new national standards for care technologies and develop trusted guidance. This will mean that people and care providers can easily find out which technologies are fit for purpose, secure and meet compatibility requirements of health and social care systems in the future.
At the same time, in partnership with the Department for Education, we are developing a catalogue of data standards for Children’s and Adult’s Social Care Case Management Systems. This will enable greater data sharing with other agencies involved in organising a person’s care, in turn, improving the experience of care, local authority efficiency and the quality of central government data collection and reporting.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and social care in England. CQC monitors, inspects and regulates adult social care services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. National measures of care quality have remained steady, with 85% of all social care settings regulated by the CQC rated Good or Outstanding on 2 January 2026. Where concerns on quality or safety are identified, the CQC uses its regulatory and enforcement powers available and will take action to ensure the safety of people drawing on care and support.
The independent commission into adult social care is underway as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a national care service. Phase 1 will report this year.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
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 consider the development of national standards for adult social care in England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National standards of care will be an integral part of the national care service we are building, so people can rely on consistent, high‑quality care wherever they live.
We are already progressing towards this through our three objectives for adult social care: giving people real choice and control, joining up health and social care around people’s lives, and ensuring consistent high‑quality care underpinned by national standards.
This year, the Government will set new national standards for care technologies and develop trusted guidance. This will mean that people and care providers can easily find out which technologies are fit for purpose, secure and meet compatibility requirements of health and social care systems in the future.
At the same time, in partnership with the Department for Education, we are developing a catalogue of data standards for Children’s and Adult’s Social Care Case Management Systems. This will enable greater data sharing with other agencies involved in organising a person’s care, in turn, improving the experience of care, local authority efficiency and the quality of central government data collection and reporting.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and social care in England. CQC monitors, inspects and regulates adult social care services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. National measures of care quality have remained steady, with 85% of all social care settings regulated by the CQC rated Good or Outstanding on 2 January 2026. Where concerns on quality or safety are identified, the CQC uses its regulatory and enforcement powers available and will take action to ensure the safety of people drawing on care and support.
The independent commission into adult social care is underway as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a national care service. Phase 1 will report this year.