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: 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: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
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 the (a) operational risk and (b) physical demands of Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) personnel within NHS ambulance services; and whether he has plans to review the current pension and retirement framework for HART staff alongside other uniformed emergency services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) provide National Health Service care in high-risk environments, guided by national Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response standards. Operational risks are managed through a nationally consistent safe system of work, including Standard Operating Procedures, risk assessments and specialist training. Each ambulance trust supplements these with local risk assessments. Physical demands are addressed through national recruitment standards and mandatory six-monthly Physical Competency Assessments, with restrictions and support if standards are not met. NHS England commissions the Resilience Emergency Capabilities Unit to maintain standards and deliver specialist training.
The NHS Pension Scheme is designed to reward lifelong service to the NHS and is considered exceptionally generous. The Department considers that the current pension arrangements reflect the physical and operational demands on HART staff.
The scheme has many flexible retirement options to allow staff to retire sooner than normal pension age, with pensions reduced accordingly to account for the fact they are paid for longer. Even when taken years before Normal Pension Age, an NHS Pension can provide for a comfortable living and gives exceptional value to staff.
For those facing severe ill-health, the scheme allows for ill-health retirement at any age without a reduction in pension benefits. Additionally, members can access the Early Retirement Reduction Buy Out option, which enables retirement up to three years earlier without a reduction to benefits, with costs sometimes shared by ambulance service employers.
Aligning the NHS Pension Scheme with those of other emergency services, such as police and fire, would require higher contributions from all NHS staff. There are no plans at present to risk pension affordability for NHS staff or to equalise the normal pension ages of all emergency workforces.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
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 the backlog for core anaesthetic training.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan published in July this year, over the three years we will create 1,000 new specialty training posts with a focus on specialties where there is greatest need. We will set out next steps in due course.
On 8 December, the Government put an offer in writing to the British Medical Association Resident Doctors Committee which was rejected. The offer included the creation of 4,000 more specialty training places, with 1,000 of these brought forward to this year and emergency legislation which would prioritise United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland medical graduates for foundation training, and prioritise UK and Republic of Ireland medical graduates and doctors who have worked in the National Health Service for a significant period of time for specialty training. This would have applied for current applicants for training posts starting in 2026, and every year after that.
We have also made changes for the 2025 specialty training application round to help tackle bottlenecks. Full registration with the General Medical Council is now required at the point of application to specialty training rather than when a successful applicant would take up post, and the number of applications that an applicant can make is restricted to five, whereas previously it has been unlimited.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS has spent on agency staff by employment type in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Temporary staffing allows the National Health Service to meet workforce demand fluctuations without the need to increase capacity above that which is required on a sustained basis. NHS England publishes the total agency spend for providers on a quarterly basis. This includes all employment types, as NHS England does not hold a split of spend by employment types. The latest data is available up to September 2025 which can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publications/financial-performance-reports/
In addition, the following table shows total agency spend each year for the last five years
Quarter 2 2025/26 (3 months July 25 to September 25) | £674 million |
Quarter 1 2025/26 (3 months April 25 to June 25) | £360 million |
Quarter 4 2024/25 (12 months April 24 to March 25) | £2,074 million |
Quarter 4 2023/24 (12 months April 23 to March 24) | £3,024 million |
Quarter 4 2022/23 (12 months April 22 to March 23) | £3,463 million |
Quarter 4 2021/22 (12 months April 21 to March 22) | £2,960 million |
Quarter 4 2020/21 (12 months April 20 to March 21) | £2,436 million |
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
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 increase the number of anaesthetists across the UK.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England published in July 2025 that over the next three years we will create 1,000 new specialty training posts with a focus on specialties where there is greatest need.
On 8 December, the Government put an offer in writing to the British Medical Association (BMA) Resident Doctors Committee, which was rejected. The offer would have increased the number of training posts over the next three years from the 1,000 announced in the 10-Year Health Plan to 4,000, bringing forward 1,000 of these training posts to start in 2026. The BMA have rejected the Government's offer, so that is not going ahead. The Government will consider its next steps.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2025 to Question 94028, whether he plans to (a) implement the recommendations of Lord Darzi’s report on eating disorders and (b) set future targets to improve community care for young people with eating disorders.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients died from hospital acquired pneumonia at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon in each of the first six months of 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
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, what steps he is taking to end the blanket use of body mass index thresholds to determine eligibility for joint replacement surgery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 20 November 2025 to Question 89688.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made in developing a strategy for delivering Adult Social Care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.