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 steps they are taking to mitigate the impact of resident doctors’ industrial action on NHS capacity and patient safety during the winter period.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government made a comprehensive offer to resident doctors in writing on 8 December 2025. The offer included a range of measures, such as introducing emergency legislation to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates, increasing the number of training posts over the next three years, and measures which would put money back in doctors’ pockets. The offer was rejected by the British Medical Association (BMA) resident doctor membership on 15 December 2025.
As a result, planned strikes from 17 to 22 December went ahead, posing risks to the National Health Service during a critical period. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has taken all possible steps to prevent these strikes, including offering to extend the BMA’s mandate to allow further consultation.
The Department and the NHS are now focused on managing the combined challenges of flu and industrial action, having already vaccinated 17 million people, 170,000 more than last year, and 60,000 more NHS staff, and are working closely with frontline leaders to prepare for disruption.
An operational response, led by NHS England, is stood up to prepare and mitigate the impacts of strikes and to ensure patient safety is maintained. As has always been the case, employers will seek to mitigate the impact of any industrial action, including seeking to agree voluntary patient safety mitigations with trade unions at a local or national level with support from NHS England, and rearranging elective care, as appropriate, to maintain urgent services.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of those who use telemedicine abortion services have an abortion after the 10 week threshold.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2022, the latest available data, there were 152,405 abortions where both abortion medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, were taken at home by residents of England and Wales. Of this, 16 abortions, or 0.01%, were recorded as having occurred at 10 weeks gestation or over. Cases containing inconsistent information, such as at-home abortions over 10 weeks gestation, are returned to clinics for confirmation. At the time of publication of the 2022 statistics, five, or 0.003%, of these abortions were confirmed as having occurred at 10 weeks gestation or over, with the remaining 11 cases being unconfirmed.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 (a) improve capacity within the social care system and (b) reduce delayed discharges.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working closely with NHS England and local authorities to improve social care capacity and reduce delayed discharges.
The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) provided over £1 billion to local authorities for adult social care over 2025/26, based on their areas’ needs, to target increasing fee rates paid to adult social care providers, increasing adult social care workforce recruitment and retention, and reducing waiting times for care.
We are also supporting the digitisation of adult social care, which can strengthen capacity within the social care system through productivity improvements. 80% of registered care providers now have digitised care records, benefitting 89% of people who draw on care. Digital care records can save time spent on administrative tasks, releasing over 20 minutes per care worker, per shift.
The Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 identifies reducing delays in hospital discharge as a key priority. Hospitals are expected to eliminate discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by in-hospital issues, to work with local authorities to tackle the longest delays, starting with those over 21 days, and to profile discharges by pathway to support local planning. In addition, the 2025/26 policy framework for the £9 billion Better Care Fund requires the National Health Service and local authorities to jointly agree local goals for reducing discharge delays.
Starting in the financial year 2026/27, we will reform the Better Care Fund. This reform will provide a sharper focus on ensuring consistent joint NHS and local authority funding for those services that are essential for integrated health and social care, such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation and reablement. We will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of levels of funding for primary care on levels of demand for secondary and urgent care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practice (GP) to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, which is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP Contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole. Over six million more GP appointments have been delivered in the 12-months to November 2025 compared to the same period last year, building capacity and improving access so that patients can be seen when they need to be in primary care.
As part of the GP Contract funding, since 1 October, GPs must allow patients to contact them via an online form at any time during core hours to request an appointment or raise a query, in addition to telephone and in-person requests. By expanding ease of contact via online access, we expect to reduce pressure on accident and emergency as we know that many patients seek medical care in accident and emergency if they fail to make contact with their GP.
We are also funding the expansion of Advice and Guidance (A&G) to improve two-way communication between GPs and hospital specialists and ensure care is delivered in the right setting. We expect this to increase the usage of A&G and help patients receive the care they need in primary and community settings where appropriate, reducing referrals to secondary care.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 ensure people with cleft receive appropriate dental care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be more vulnerable to oral health problems, including patients with clefts.
NHS England commissions services for children, young people and adults with a cleft lip and/or palate. The patient pathway can start from pre-birth and continues into adulthood. Cleft services provide care through multi-disciplinary teams, and the comprehensive care pathway will include elements such as paediatric dentistry, restorative dentistry and orthodontics. More information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d07-cleft-lip.pdf
The Office of the Chief Dental Officer England is in ongoing discussions with members of the Cleft Llip and Palate Association to assess what measures can be taken to better understand and improve access to care for patients born with a cleft.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards across England.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms will ensure accountability for primary care outcomes within merged ICBs, particularly where decision-making may be centralised elsewhere.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Oversight Framework will continue to provide the approach to assessing integrated care boards, including in relation to primary care.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures are in place to prevent CHC funding reductions from compromising care for vulnerable patients in West Dorset constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England have made clear that any work to manage costs by integrated care boards (ICB) must be carried out with clear safeguards in place to protect frontline responsibilities.
ICBs remain legally responsible for the operational delivery of NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and must have regard to the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care, which is available at the following link:
Funding for CHC is not ringfenced, but is calculated using the ICB allocation formula. Individual ICBs should decide how best to use their overall funding allocation to deliver their statutory functions, including CHC. Any ICB measures to manage costs should not impact on an individual’s eligibility for CHC, or their care. This means that eligible individuals must continue to receive appropriate care that meets their assessed needs.
NHS England has issued a good practice guide for CHC to support National Health Service staff by providing practical ways for ICBs to enhance system efficiency and deliver sustainable services.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 ensure that CHC funding cuts do not reduce access to care in West Dorset constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England have made clear that any work to manage costs by integrated care boards (ICB) must be carried out with clear safeguards in place to protect frontline responsibilities.
ICBs remain legally responsible for the operational delivery of NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and must have regard to the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care, which is available at the following link:
Funding for CHC is not ringfenced, but is calculated using the ICB allocation formula. Individual ICBs should decide how best to use their overall funding allocation to deliver their statutory functions, including CHC. Any ICB measures to manage costs should not impact on an individual’s eligibility for CHC, or their care. This means that eligible individuals must continue to receive appropriate care that meets their assessed needs.
NHS England has issued a good practice guide for CHC to support National Health Service staff by providing practical ways for ICBs to enhance system efficiency and deliver sustainable services.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how his Department is supporting NHS staff who may be adversely affected by CHC funding reductions.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England have made clear that any work to manage costs by integrated care boards (ICB) must be carried out with clear safeguards in place to protect frontline responsibilities.
ICBs remain legally responsible for the operational delivery of NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and must have regard to the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care, which is available at the following link:
Funding for CHC is not ringfenced, but is calculated using the ICB allocation formula. Individual ICBs should decide how best to use their overall funding allocation to deliver their statutory functions, including CHC. Any ICB measures to manage costs should not impact on an individual’s eligibility for CHC, or their care. This means that eligible individuals must continue to receive appropriate care that meets their assessed needs.
NHS England has issued a good practice guide for CHC to support National Health Service staff by providing practical ways for ICBs to enhance system efficiency and deliver sustainable services.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to regularly monitor and report on dental access for cleft and other priority groups.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be more vulnerable to oral health problems, including patients with clefts.
NHS England commissions services for children, young people and adults with a cleft lip and/or palate. The patient pathway can start from pre-birth and continues into adulthood. Cleft services provide care through multi-disciplinary teams, and the comprehensive care pathway will include elements such as paediatric dentistry, restorative dentistry and orthodontics. More information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d07-cleft-lip.pdf
The Office of the Chief Dental Officer England is in ongoing discussions with members of the Cleft Llip and Palate Association to assess what measures can be taken to better understand and improve access to care for patients born with a cleft.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to integrated care boards across England.