Found: Minister of State Lord Timpson and Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State Ashley Dalton and Baroness Merron

Found: Baroness Merron, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women's Health and Mental

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Merron on 5 December (HL Deb col 2044), what distinction exists under Articles 2, 8 or 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights which means that a legal challenge would not arise for a person under 18 years old compared to those who are (1) under 21 years old, and (2) under 25 years old.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

At the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill committee debate on 5 December 2025, the comments referred to were made in relation to the amendments that had been tabled for consideration in the Lords. There would need to be a reasonable, necessary and proportionate justification to underpin restricting access to assisted dying to any age on the face of the Bill. Although the reasons to support an age limit of 18 years old, as opposed to an age limit of 21 or 25 years old, may well be different. This matter was debated at some length on 5 December 2025, and as I stated in that debate, it is rightly for Parliament to decide on any age-related restrictions and to consider the proportionality of the reasons which underpin them. As the Government is neutral, it is not for the Government to comment on the likelihood of a court upholding any particular case brought to challenge the age on the face of the Bill but it was important to note the general risk to aid the debate in the Chamber.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 25 November (HL11903), when they expect to publish data on abortions for the years 2023 and 2024.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Publication of the 2023 abortion statistics has been pre-announced for 15 January 2026 and will be published on the GOV.UK website.

We will announce the exact date for publication of the 2024 abortion statistics in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Merron on 16 December (HL Deb Col 661), what research has been carried out by, or on behalf of, the NHS to identify the reasons for vaccine hesitancy among NHS staff.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). It is funding research into the causes of vaccine hesitancy and ways to improve vaccine uptake in all adults and children, and to reduce inequalities in coverage.

The NIHR has funded a specific study aimed at improving the uptake rate of vaccination in the National Health Service for seasonal influenza. The results are published in Improving uptake of seasonal influenza vaccination by healthcare workers: Implementation differences between higher and lower uptake NHS trusts in England, from Infection, Disease and Health, volume 24, issue 1, published February 2019.

The NIHR has also funded research addressing factors associated with vaccine intention during COVID-19, which included health and social care workers. These results are published in Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, in volume 17 in 2021, and volume 18 in 2022.

Other ongoing research to address the decline in immunisation rates is carried out by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Vaccines and Immunisation and the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit on Evaluation and Behavioural Science. Both have received funding of £5.5 million over five years.

The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including vaccine hesitancy among National Health Service staff.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 8 December (HL12316), in the most recent period for which figures are available, (1) what proportion of, and (2) how many, invoices for contracts carried out for the NHS in England are not paid and must subsequently be resubmitted.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

This information is not held centrally as NHS England do not collect supplier payment information on behalf of National Health Service trusts.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 4 December (HL12450), what timetable has been set for the completion of the review by NHS England of the issues raised by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body regarding electronic patient records, and the implementation of the safety standards and best practices that arise from that review.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England is not currently doing a review of the issues raised by Health Services Safety Investigations Body regarding electronic patient records. NHS England will not manage the timetable for implementation of safety standards and best practices, as this falls to trusts, each of whom have their own statutory duty to deliver safe care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 1 December (HL12276), how many Yellow Card reports of tinnitus (Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities code 10043882), broken down by the medications to which they were linked, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency received in each year since 2014.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion meet applicable standards of safety, quality, and efficacy. The MHRA rigorously assesses available data, including from the Yellow Card scheme, and seeks advice from the Commission on Human Medicines, the MHRA’s independent advisory committee, where appropriate, to inform regulatory decisions, including amending the product information.

The MHRA has received a total of 11,348 United Kingdom reports through the Yellow Card scheme associated with reaction term tinnitus, including worsening of tinnitus, from 1 January 2014 up to and including 27 November 2025. The table in the document attached provides a yearly breakdown of reports associated with tinnitus. It also provides a yearly breakdown of reports received by the substance associated with tinnitus. Please note that each report may list more than one suspect drug. Therefore, the total number of reports received cannot be accurately derived from the figures presented in the table in the attached document. The following table shows a yearly breakdown of reports associated with tinnitus received from 1 January 2014 up to and including 27 November 2025:

It is important to note that anyone can report to the MHRA’s Yellow Card scheme and the recording of these reports in the Yellow Card database does not necessarily mean that the adverse reactions have been caused by the suspect drug. Many factors must be considered in assessing causal relationships, including temporal association, the possible contribution of concomitant medication, and the underlying disease. We encourage reporters to report suspected adverse reaction reports, and the reporter does not have to be sure of a causal association between the drug and the reactions, as a suspicion will suffice.

The number of reports received cannot be used as a basis for determining the incidence of a reaction, as neither the total number of reactions occurring, nor the number of patients using the drug, is known.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 4 December (HL12450), what specific dataset was used to support the analysis that "highly digitised trusts" have a 17.5 per cent reduction in sepsis mortality; and how many NHS trusts were included in the calculation of that figure.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The modelling of sepsis mortality used the Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care dataset, using the episode level version of this dataset to ensure maximum accuracy in identifying inpatient activity related to sepsis.

The research includes nine National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts in England which implemented an enterprise level electronic patient record (EPR) system, where the EPR system was rolled out throughout the whole provider at the point of implementation. A further eight providers are included in the same model as controls, as these are providers without an EPR system at the time of the analysis.

A digitally mature trust was defined as an acute provider in the top decile of digitisation index based on the Digital Maturity Assessment 2016/17.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 4 December (HL12450), how they have defined a "highly digitised trust".

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The modelling of sepsis mortality used the Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care dataset, using the episode level version of this dataset to ensure maximum accuracy in identifying inpatient activity related to sepsis.

The research includes nine National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts in England which implemented an enterprise level electronic patient record (EPR) system, where the EPR system was rolled out throughout the whole provider at the point of implementation. A further eight providers are included in the same model as controls, as these are providers without an EPR system at the time of the analysis.

A digitally mature trust was defined as an acute provider in the top decile of digitisation index based on the Digital Maturity Assessment 2016/17.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 18 November (HL11736), whether they plan to provide no budget to enact recommendations from the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group until after the merger of NHS England with the Department of Health and Social Care.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department recognises the important role that NHS England’s clinical policy development process plays in determining routine commissioning decisions on new specialised services, treatments, and interventions, which have not been reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

We are carefully assessing NHS England’s functions as part of the process of merging NHS England with the Department. The outcome of these ongoing assessments will be made at the earliest opportunity, and we remain committed to progressing this reform at pace, subject to legislation and the will of Parliament.

Until such a time that NHS England is being abolished, Clinical Priorities Advisory Group recommendations are being enacted under the current rules and criteria.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 27 November (HL11874), whether the forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will set out specific forecasts for the number of staff the NHS needs over those 10 years; whether they will publish the assumptions used to produce that plan; and whether the National Audit Office will make an assessment of that plan.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it. It will include modelling of the potential size and shape of the future workforce and implications for major professions.

The updated workforce modelling, and its underlying assumptions, will be set out in and alongside the plan when published in spring 2026. It will be supported by external independent scrutiny. A decision on whether the National Audit Office will be asked to make an assessment of the plan has not yet been made.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 7 November (HL11405), what monitoring processes are in place to ensure that the national sample handling guidance for the whole genome sequencing of solid tumours is being implemented fully.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The performance of the NHS Genomic Medicine Service is monitored quarterly through an assurance framework, which ensures all seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs are operating to national quality standards. This identifies and minimises any potential variation and ensures consistent delivery of the criteria outlined in the National Genomic Test Directory.

Found: Baroness Merron, Minister for Mental Health, said: It has been a privilege to guide this landmark Bill

Found: Letter dated 02/01/2026 from Baroness Merron to Peers regarding Windsor Framework matters raised during

Found: Letter dated 19/12/2025 from Baroness Merron to Peers regarding clarification of a response to a question