Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 of the impact of Activity Management Plans issued by NHS Integrated Care Boards on the commitment made in the NHS/Independent Sector Partnership Agreement signed in January 2025 to enable increased independent sector elective activity to reduce waiting times.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) have existing contractual powers to manage activity by providers, which were enhanced in 2025/26 with central support for setting and managing activity. The NHS Standard Contract includes the ability to set Indicative Activity Plans (IAPs) to help providers and commissioners plan demand, capacity, and expenditure. While not binding, if activity exceeds the agreed plan, and therefore the funding agreed, an Activity Management Plan (AMP) can be agreed to bring activity back in line.
The provision and use of IAPs and AMPs is designed to deliver the activity levels required to achieve the goal of at least 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2026 whilst also living within financial budgets set for 2025/26.
Any planning assumptions based on waiting times need to support commissioners’ overall duties to the populations they serve and our waiting time targets, including our commitment to return to the 18-week standard. AMPs allow commissioners and providers to work together to manage elective activity within agreed performance and financial targets, all whilst working towards improving patient waiting times overall.
Patients have a legal right to choose where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient. ICBs are responsible for ensuring that their processes comply with the legal right to choose.
Since the publication of the Partnership Agreement in January 2025, the independent sector has delivered approximately 200,000 additional treatments compared to the same period last year.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
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 of Activity Management Plans issued by NHS Integrated Care Boards and their impact on the NHS’ adherence with its constitutional access standards and patient choice rules.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) have existing contractual powers to manage activity by providers, which were enhanced in 2025/26 with central support for setting and managing activity. The NHS Standard Contract includes the ability to set Indicative Activity Plans (IAPs) to help providers and commissioners plan demand, capacity, and expenditure. While not binding, if activity exceeds the agreed plan, and therefore the funding agreed, an Activity Management Plan (AMP) can be agreed to bring activity back in line.
The provision and use of IAPs and AMPs is designed to deliver the activity levels required to achieve the goal of at least 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2026 whilst also living within financial budgets set for 2025/26.
Any planning assumptions based on waiting times need to support commissioners’ overall duties to the populations they serve and our waiting time targets, including our commitment to return to the 18-week standard. AMPs allow commissioners and providers to work together to manage elective activity within agreed performance and financial targets, all whilst working towards improving patient waiting times overall.
Patients have a legal right to choose where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient. ICBs are responsible for ensuring that their processes comply with the legal right to choose.
Since the publication of the Partnership Agreement in January 2025, the independent sector has delivered approximately 200,000 additional treatments compared to the same period 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, what recent steps he has taken to provide a 24/7 thrombectomy service.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is working to increase the size of the workforce trained to deliver thrombectomy so that 24/7 access is available across England by April 2026.
To achieve this NHS England is working with the General Medical Council in approving a credential to support neuroradiologists to conduct thrombectomy and increase the number of thrombectomies that can be delivered.
In addition, NHS England’s National Medical Director and National Clinical Director for Stroke has supported comprehensive stroke centers in England to improve quality and reduce variation in thrombectomy delivery.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to announce the next phase of modern service frameworks.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Strangford on 26 January 2026 to Question 102753.
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, what steps he is taking to increase the number of blood donations.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England and is delivering initiatives to increase blood donations. These include:
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, what recent steps he has taken to digitise patients’ medical records.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
£1.9 billion has been invested to ensure all National Health Service trusts achieve baseline digital capability, and 95% of trusts will have implemented or upgraded their Electronic Patient Record system (EPR) by March 2026, with the remainder planning to implement after this.
Recent areas for focus have been EPR optimisation, working to improve functionality, efficiency and usability, and a new tiger team service in the Frontline Digitisation Support offer for 2025/26, which is available to provide trusts with rapid on-site support at critical points of their EPR journey. The team’s work will also inform practical guidance to help other trusts deploy successfully and realise the benefits of digitisation.
NHS England is continuing to conduct digital maturity assessments to support local systems and trusts to prioritise and plan local digital investment.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 risks to patient safety arising from hospital records not being fully shared between different NHS trusts.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Appropriate information sharing is essential to delivering safe and effective health care. Improving this will enable enhanced quality of care and safety for patients and better informed clinical and care decision-making empowered by access to precise and comprehensive information.
NHS England has been supporting National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts in acquiring and developing the effectiveness of their electronic patient records and supporting them to reach an optimum level of digital maturity which will further reduce barriers to the sharing of information needed to treat patients.
By 2028, a new single patient record will end the need for patients to have to repeat their medical history when interacting with the NHS. By providing a complete, real-time view of patient information across regions and care settings, it will significantly improve clinical safety and performance.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of proposals to shift from analogue to digital announced in the 10-year Health Plan for England, what provisions will be established to ensure digital exclusion does not exacerbate any existing inequalities...
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service organisations must ensure that all patients have equitable access to care, and that decisions or policies do not unfairly disadvantage people or lead to an increase in inequalities. All NHS organisations are legally obliged to not discriminate against patients or staff.
This means that a non-digital solution should be available for those patients who cannot or do not wish to engage digitally, and these non-digital routes must be available for all services provided by NHS organisations.
Aligned to the Equality Act 2010 and the Health and Social Care Act 2012, each 10-Year Health Plan policy, proposition, programme, proposal, or initiative in scope of public sector equality duties will undergo an Equality Impact Assessments and Equality and Healthcare Inequalities Impact Assessments.
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 5 February 2026 to Question 108297, whether his Department holds any evidence on rates of neonatal and post-neonatal death, including accidental suffocation and overlaying, associated with parental cannabis use during pregnancy and the postnatal period.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) programme is responsible for reviewing stillbirths and neonatal deaths across the United Kingdom to identify causes, improve clinical care, and reduce future preventable deaths. Analysis of MBRRACE-UK data found that between 2014 and 2024, there were 17 neonatal deaths attributed to accidental suffocation, with only one case explicitly linked to cannabis use. There was also one neonatal sudden infant death syndrome case involving maternal cannabis and alcohol history, and one neonatal death where maternal cannabis use was a secondary contributor. There were thus a total of three neonatal deaths linked to cannabis use between 2014 and 2024.
The National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) collects and analyses data on the deaths of all children under 18 years of age. The latest data published by the NCMD highlighted that of the deaths reviewed by Child Death Overview Panels between April 2024 and March 2025, substance misuse during pregnancy was identified as a contributing factor in 62 out of 4,035 infant deaths where data was available. The NCMD thematic report on Deaths of children and young people due to traumatic incidents also highlighted that between 1 April 2019 and March 2022, there were 42 deaths as a result of accidental strangulation or suffocation. 13, or 31%, children were aged under one years old, 17, or 40%, were aged one to four years old, and 12, or 29%, were aged five to 17 years old. In total, 18 children died where entrapment or overlay was found to be a significant contributing factor, but the analysis did not look at whether or not there was substance misuse by the parents.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide additional funding to a) Leicester and b) Leicestershire to reduce NHS waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service funding for local services, including in Leicester and Leicestershire, is allocated to integrated care boards using NHS England’s Fair Share model and the NHS resource allocation formula.
This formula is designed to support equal opportunity of access for equal need, taking into account factors such as demography, morbidity, levels of deprivation, and the unavoidable costs of providing services in different areas. It is based on independent academic research and overseen by the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, which provides advice to my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and the Chief Executive of NHS England.
Through the 2025 Spending Review, announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in June 2025, the Government has prioritised health with a record investment in the health and social care system. The Government is providing £29 billion more day-to-day funding in real terms by 2028/29 than in 2023/24, alongside the largest ever health capital budget, with a £2.3 billion real-terms increase in capital spending over the Spending Review period.
This will support delivery of our commitment that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029, including patients in Leicester and Leicestershire.