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 with the South Central Ambulance Service to reduce ambulance wait times for people in Newbury constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that in recent years ambulance response times have not met the high standards patients should expect.
We are determined to turn things around and have taken serious steps to achieve this. Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. The South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) has a dedicated Category 2 performance team driving improvements through targeted interventions.
We have already seen improvements in ambulance response times in SCAS, which serves Newbury. The latest NHS performance figures for SCAS show that Category 2 incidents were responded to in 31 minutes 54 seconds on average, over six minutes faster the same month last year.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are on ENT waiting lists in England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of October 2025, there are 613,974 incomplete ear, nose, and throat patient pathways. Patient pathways are not equivalent to the number of people on the waiting list, as patients can be waiting for more than one treatment at the same time.
A dashboard that provides monthly data on patient pathways is also available at the following link:
https://data.england.nhs.uk/dashboard/rtt
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any NHS regional gender hubs have prescribed puberty blockers to patients under 18 since the publication of the Cass Review.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 1 April 2024, NHS England adopted a new clinical commissioning policy that prevents the newly established Children and Young People's Gender Services from initiating prescriptions for gonadotrophin releasing hormone analogues for the purpose of puberty suppression.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to publish a national strategy for palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England.
The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and will enable integrated care boards to address challenges in access, quality, and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan.
Further information about the MSF is set out in the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 people born with cleft (a) lips and (b) palates have access to appropriate dental care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Eastleigh on 21 November 2025 to Question 89684.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Ockenden report, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the progress in delivering the Immediate and Essential Actions; and if he will publish an update on the implementation status of each action within every NHS trust providing maternity care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The final report of the Ockenden review contained 96 immediate and essential actions (IEAs), some national and some for local implementation. The IEAs contained in the Ockenden review were brought together, alongside other reports and guidance, into NHS England’s three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services. A review of progress against the national actions in April 2025 demonstrated that work has been completed for many actions, but that there have been some challenges, for example in pre-conception care for women with pre-existing medical conditions.
NHS England wrote to all trusts and systems following publication of the review in April 2022, asking them to deliver the recommendations and report to their public boards. The expectation is that local board oversight of progress with implementation should be ongoing. Following discussion, it was agreed that some of the actions should not be universally implemented, for example newly qualified midwives remaining hospital based for one year post-qualifying.
More widely, Baroness Amos is leading a rapid, national, independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal services to help us to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies, and families experience unacceptable care. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has agreed with Baroness Amos that the investigation will publish its final report and recommendations in the spring of 2026, bringing together the findings of past reviews into one clear national set of recommendations.
The Government is also setting up a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The taskforce will take forward the recommendations of the investigation to develop a new national action plan to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 reduce inequality in perinatal outcomes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises that there are stark inequalities for women and babies, and that they should receive the high-quality care they deserve, regardless of their background, location, or ethnicity.
The Government is committed to setting an explicit target to close the maternal mortality gap. We are ensuring that we take an evidence-based approach to determining what targets are set, and that any targets set are women and baby-centred. It is crucial that we also ensure the system is supported to achieve any target set.
Baroness Amos is chairing a national independent Maternity and Neonatal Investigation. The investigation aims to identify the drivers and impact of inequalities faced by women, babies, and families from black and Asian backgrounds, those from deprived groups, and those from other marginalised groups when receiving maternity and neonatal care. The Government is currently establishing a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, to be chaired by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, that will then develop a national action plan based on the recommendations of the investigation.
A number of interventions specifically aimed at addressing maternal and neonatal inequalities are now underway. These include an anti-discrimination programme, which aims to ensure that all service users and their families receive care free from discrimination and racism, and that all staff will experience a work environment free from discrimination and racism. We are also developing an inequalities dashboard and projects on removing racial bias from clinical education and embedding genetic risk equity.
Additionally, all local areas have published equity and equality action plans to tackle inequalities for women and babies from ethnic minorities and those living in the most deprived areas.
We are also putting in place wider actions to improve safety across maternity and neonatal care, which will also contribute to reducing inequalities. This includes the implementation of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, a package of evidence-based interventions to support staff to reduce stillbirth, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and pre-term births. It includes guidance on managing multiple pregnancies to ensure optimal care for the woman and baby. NHS England is also introducing a Maternal Mortality Care Bundle to set clear standards across all services, and to address the leading causes of maternal mortality. Women from black and Asian backgrounds are more at risk of specific clinical conditions that are the leading causes of death. This bundle will target these conditions, and we expect a decline in deaths and harm.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many a) neurologists, b) geriatricians and c) nurses in the NHS have specialist training in Parkinson's.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Department does not hold data specifically on the number of Parkinson’s specialist staff in England, we do hold data on the number of doctors working in the wider specialities of neurology and geriatric medicine. As of August 2025, there were 2,010 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology and 6,284 in geriatric medicine in National Health Service trusts and other organisations in England. This includes 1,025 FTE consultant neurologists and 1,687 FTE consultant geriatricians.
These figures are based on NHS Digital’s workforce data and reflect staff employed by NHS trusts and other core NHS organisations in England. They do not include doctors working in private practice or outside NHS organisations.
The Department does not hold specific data on the number of specialist Parkinson’s nurses currently working in the NHS in England. These roles are commissioned and managed locally by NHS trusts and integrated care boards as part of neurology and movement disorder services.
NHS England has published a service specification for specialised adult neurology services, which includes Parkinson’s disease as part of its scope. This specification sets out requirements for multidisciplinary care, including access to Parkinson’s disease nurse specialists, consultant neurologists, and allied health professionals.
NHS England is also implementing initiatives such as the Neurology Transformation Programme and the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology, which aim to improve access to specialist care, reduce variation, and develop integrated models of service delivery for conditions including Parkinson’s disease. These programmes align with the National Institute for Care Excellence guidance on Parkinson’s disease, reference code NG71, which recommends that people with Parkinson’s have regular access to specialist staff with expertise in the condition.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS England’s total budget has been allocated to vaccination and immunisation programmes in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for the operational delivery of vaccination and immunisation programmes, although this does not include the procurement of vaccines. The following table shows the proportion of NHS England’s total budget allocated to the operational delivery of vaccination and immunisation programmes for the last five years, where accounts have already been published:
Financial year | Vaccination and immunisation costs (£m) | NHS England total budget (£m) | Proportion of NHE England total budget spend on vaccination and immunisation |
2019/20 | 309 | 121,334 | 0.25% |
2020/21 | 955 | 147,132 | 0.65% |
2021/22 | 1,499 | 147,973 | 1.01% |
2022/23 | 989 | 155,228 | 0.64% |
2023/24 | 852 | 165,926 | 0.51% |
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have been admitted to hospital in the last month with Flu A.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England began publishing Winter Situation Reports on 24 November, meaning data on flu-specific bed occupancy is only available from this date onwards.
Between 24 November and 7 December, an average of 2,189 hospital beds were occupied by patients with flu across all acute settings, including both General and Acute and Critical Care beds.
These figures are published in the NHS England Winter Situation Reports which are available at the following link: