Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will estimate the number of newly-qualified nurses who lose their professional status because they have been unable to secure employment within two years of graduation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England. It sets the standards that registrants must meet to demonstrate that they are capable of practising safely and effectively.
There is no requirement for nurses to be in employment in order to maintain their registration with the NMC. Registrants must pay an annual registration fee and revalidate every three years by submitting a range of evidence demonstrating their skills and adherence to the NMC Code of professional standards and behaviours. They must also demonstrate that they have practised for a minimum of 450 hours over the three year revalidation period.
The NMC publishes an annual leavers survey to understand why people leave its permanent register, alongside annual and mid-year registration data reports. The annual and mid-year registration data tables includes a breakdown of leavers by the years since initial registration, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 help restrict the sale of illegal prescription drugs online.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for the regulation of medicines for human use, medical devices, and blood products for transfusion in the United Kingdom. This includes applying the legal controls on the retail sale, supply, and advertising of medicines which are set out in the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.
Sourcing medicines from unregulated suppliers significantly increases the risk of getting a product which is either falsified or not authorised for use. Products purchased in this way will not meet the MHRA’s strict quality and safety standards and could expose patients to incorrect dosages or dangerous ingredients. The MHRA’s Criminal Enforcement Unit works hard to prevent, detect, and investigate illegal activity involving medicines and medical devices. It works closely with other health regulators, customs authorities, law enforcement agencies, and private sector partners, including e-commerce and the internet industry to identify, remove, and block online content promoting the illegal sale of medicines and medical devices.
The MHRA seeks to identify and, where appropriate, prosecute online sellers responsible for putting public health at risk. In 2025, the MHRA and its partners seized almost 20 million doses of illegally traded medicines with a street value of nearly £45 million.
During the same period, it disrupted over 1,500 websites and posts on social media accounts selling medicinal products illegally. Additionally, collaboration with one well-known online marketplace led to the successful identification and blocking of more than two million unregulated prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, and medical devices before they could be offered for sale to the public.
The MHRA is continually developing new and innovative ways to combat the illegal trade in medicines and to raise public awareness. These measures include:
- publication of a #Fakemeds campaign which explains how to access medicines through safe and legitimate online sources, with further information available at the following link:
https://fakemeds.campaign.gov.uk/;
- public guidance on how to safely access and use GLP-1 medications, available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/glp-1-medicines-for-weight-loss-and-diabetes-what-you-need-to-know/glp-1-medicines-for-weight-loss-and-diabetes-what-you-need-to-know.
- implementation of a web-based reporting scheme allowing users to report suspicious online sellers to the MHRA;
- rollout of an online service which will allow users to check if a website has been deemed ‘Not Recommended’ by the MHRA; and
- extensive work with media outlets to raise awareness of the dangers of illegal medicines.
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, what steps NHS England is taking to encourage integrated care boards to commission prioritised oral health pathways for patients undergoing cancer treatment; and whether practices that participate in such schemes are eligible for additional contractual or financial support.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working to ensure that patients who have a diagnosis of cancer receive timely, safe, and effective dental care.
NHS England has produced guidelines which aim to ensure that patients across England with a diagnosis of cancer, including oral cancer, have equitable access to oral healthcare. This could include oral health assessments, prevention, rehabilitation, and reconstruction in primary, either National Health Service or independent, community, secondary, or tertiary care settings. This would be provided as part of a multi-disciplinary team care plan. Ongoing oral health management for the duration of the cancer therapy would take place. Further information can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/oral-healthcare-provision-for-cancer-pathways/
The responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population is delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. In the South West a number of pilot models are being trialled, for example, if a patient does not have 'a usual dental practice’ and has primary dental care requirements, they will be referred to specific general dental practices, referred to as cancer action support practices, based in ICBs where the pathway is running.
Participation in schemes supporting patients undergoing cancer treatment does not create any automatic entitlement to additional contractual or financial support. Any supplementary funding, including through flexible commissioning, is determined locally and subject to commissioner discretion, identified local need, and available resources.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what actions he is taking to reduce the length of time older people spend on trolleys in Accident and Emergency departments, including cases where patients wait many hours or days; and what assessment he has made of the impact of such waits on dignity, safety and health outcomes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that urgent and emergency care performance has fallen short in recent years and is taking action to improve services for patients. We are committed to restoring accident and emergency waiting times to the National Health Service constitutional standard and to reducing long waits that can result in patients receiving care in inappropriate settings. To support this, we are investing £450 million to expand same-day and urgent care services and to improve hospital flow, with a focus on addressing the longest waits and improving patient experience.
As committed to in the Urgent and Emergency Care plan, we will publish data on the prevalence of corridor care for the first time. NHS England has been working with trusts since 2024 to put in place, new reporting arrangements to drive improvement. The data quality is currently being reviewed, and we expect to publish the information shortly.
Where corridor care cannot be avoided, we have published updated guidance to support trusts to deliver it safely, ensuring dignity and privacy is maintained to reduce impacts on patients and staff.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets out clear actions to deliver improvements, reducing the proportion of patients waiting more than 12 hours for admission or discharge to less than 10% of the time. This includes expanding urgent community care, such as urgent community response, neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams, and virtual wards, to reduce avoidable emergency department attendances and hospital admissions. We have asked NHS trusts to focus on eliminating discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by issues within the hospital, and to work with local authorities on eliminating the longest delays. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework sets out a year-on-year trajectory to improve performance towards the constitutional standard, reduce long waits, and improve safety and efficiency in emergency departments.
We have also introduced new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care to support better hospital flow. These set minimum expectations for timely review, availability of advice, and coordinated care when multiple specialist teams are involved, to improve patient care and flow through the hospital.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
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 potential impact of the number of ICU beds on trends in the level of cancellations of scheduled and vital surgeries; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that surgeries that have been rescheduled for this reason are not cancelled.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made on the specific impact of intensive care unit (ICU) bed unavailability on levels of cancelled surgeries. However, tackling waiting lists is a top priority for the Government, and this includes ensuring that patients requiring inpatient treatment will have access to high quality post-operative care.
Between July and September 2025, 0.91% of elective admissions were cancelled last minute by the provider for non-clinical reasons, with 20,189 last minute cancellations, an improvement of 0.06% from the same period the previous year when 0.97% of elective admissions were cancelled last minute, with 21,249 last minute cancellations.
The Department does not hold data broken down by the reason for cancellation, but the rescheduling rate has also improved. If an NHS hospital cancels a patient's operation for non-clinical reasons on the day of admission or day of surgery, the NHS Constitution states it must be rescheduled within 28 days. Between July and September 2025, 21.2% of cancelled elective operations which were not treated within 28 days, so, whilst there is still work to do, this is an improvement from 22.7% in the previous year.
This winter, local systems have been asked to place a particular focus on reducing bed occupancy and improving patient flow. More broadly for 2025/26, we have asked NHS trusts to focus on eliminating discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by issues within the hospital, and to work with local authorities to eliminate the longest delays, starting with those of over 21 days. This will mitigate against the risk of cancelled or rescheduled operations due to intensive care bed unavailability. Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, also set out actions to enhance perioperative care, which can shorten patients’ length of hospital stay and minimise postoperative complications, freeing up hospital beds for those who need them.
Wider elective care reforms will also help make the best use of clinical capacity, so that if a patient’s surgery is cancelled on the day due to ICU bed unavailability, they can be offered a new date for their procedure without delay. This includes new and expanded dedicated surgical hubs to deliver common procedures, thereby freeing up capacity for more complex patients, tackle missed appointments, introduce more straight-to-test pathways, and reduce unnecessary follow up appointments through widening remote monitoring and patient-initiated follow-ups.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce the number of women waiting for gynaecological treatment in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients are treated within 18 weeks of referral to consultant-led care, including in gynaecology, by March 2029.
The Department only holds data at a trust and integrated care board level. Newcastle-under-Lyme is served by the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNB), and Staffordshire is served by the NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (SSOT ICB). Performance against this standard at the UHNB’s gynaecology service has improved by 7.6% since the Government came into office, to 55.5%, with a 16% reduction in the waiting list. At the SSOT ICB, performance for gynaecology services has improved by 6.9% to 55.2% over the same period, with a 15% reduction in waiting list size.
Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the reforms we are making to improve gynaecology waiting times, across England. This includes innovative models of care that offer care closer to home and in the community, piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres for patients with post-menopausal bleeding, and increasing the relative funding available to incentivise providers to take on more gynaecology procedures.
Wider elective reforms will help cut waiting times for gynaecology services in Staffordshire and across England. These include more consistent clinical triage, tackling missed appointments, delivering new and expanded surgical hubs, and scaling up remote monitoring and use of patient-initiated follow ups.
We also provided new funding for general practices (GPs) to expand Advice and Guidance (A&G) services. A&G helps to keep patients out of hospital and delivers more care closer to home, saving time, protecting capacity, and improving care experience. A&G for gynaecology is available in all GPs within the SSOT ICB.
We are also introducing an “online hospital” via NHS Online. From 2027, people on certain pathways, including severe menopause symptoms and menstrual problems that may be a sign of endometriosis or fibroids, will have the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home, providing additional appointments to cut waiting times.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether foundation trusts will retain the option to maintain councils of governors under the 10 Year Health Plan for England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Council of Governors at National Health Service foundation trusts have a range of statutory roles and powers including representing the views of local populations, staff, and other stakeholders to the foundation trusts’ board.
The removal of the Council of Governors forms part of the wider 10-Year Health Plan’s aim to ensure that hospitals put patient experiences and outcomes at the heart of their decision-making. While governors have provided helpful advice and oversight for some foundation trusts, we now need to move to a more dynamic model of drawing on patient, staff, and stakeholder insight.
The removal of the Council of Governors will require primary legislation which the Government will bring forward when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether foundation trusts will retain the option to have councils of governors under the 10‑Year Health Plan for England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Council of Governors at National Health Service foundation trusts have a range of statutory roles and powers including representing the views of local populations, staff, and other stakeholders to the foundation trusts’ board.
The removal of the Council of Governors forms part of the wider 10-Year Health Plan’s aim to ensure that hospitals put patient experiences and outcomes at the heart of their decision-making. While governors have provided helpful advice and oversight for some foundation trusts, we now need to move to a more dynamic model of drawing on patient, staff, and stakeholder insight.
The removal of the Council of Governors will require primary legislation which the Government will bring forward when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his planned timetable is for the removal of the requirement for foundation trusts to have governors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Council of Governors at National Health Service foundation trusts have a range of statutory roles and powers including representing the views of local populations, staff, and other stakeholders to the foundation trusts’ board.
The removal of the Council of Governors forms part of the wider 10-Year Health Plan’s aim to ensure that hospitals put patient experiences and outcomes at the heart of their decision-making. While governors have provided helpful advice and oversight for some foundation trusts, we now need to move to a more dynamic model of drawing on patient, staff, and stakeholder insight.
The removal of the Council of Governors will require primary legislation which the Government will bring forward when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will publish a timetable for (a) replacing the Car Hill Formula, and (b) identifying a new allocation formula.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The review of the Carr-Hill formula has been commissioned through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and commenced in October 2025. 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.
In November, I wrote to MPs to inform them of the details of the review.
Findings from the review will be published in due course by NIHR. MPs will also be updated once the review findings are available.
Implementation of any new funding approach would be subject to ministerial decision and consultation with the General Practice Committee (England) of the British Medical Association, in the context of available funding and our commitment to substantively reform the General Medical Services Contract within this Parliament.