Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to apply the core pillars of the renewed women’s health strategy for England to the treatment of migraine, in light of its higher prevalence in women than men.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving care for people with migraine, including those whose symptoms are associated with menopause, is supported through a range of National Health Service initiatives. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance provides evidence-based recommendations on the diagnosis and management of migraine, while NHS England supports improvements in headache and migraine services through initiatives such as the NHS RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit, which aims to improve pathways between primary and specialist care and ensure patients receive the right intervention at the earliest opportunity.
NHS England announced on 10 September that migraine would be added to the list of conditions for which individuals can get further support from participating prescribing pharmacies under the Pharmacy First programme, later this autumn. While migraine affects a higher proportion of women than men, the services referred to above are available to both men and women in need of support.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what training is provided to NHS staff on the prevention of migraine and on the workplace adjustments that should be made for staff who experience migraine.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving care for people with migraine, including those whose symptoms are associated with menopause, is supported through a range of National Health Service initiatives. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance provides evidence-based recommendations on the diagnosis and management of migraine, while NHS England supports improvements in headache and migraine services through initiatives such as the NHS RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit, which aims to improve pathways between primary and specialist care and ensure patients receive the right intervention at the earliest opportunity.
NHS England announced on 10 September that migraine would be added to the list of conditions for which individuals can get further support from participating prescribing pharmacies under the Pharmacy First programme, later this autumn. While migraine affects a higher proportion of women than men, the services referred to above are available to both men and women in need of support.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the care pathway for migraines associated with menopause.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving care for people with migraine, including those whose symptoms are associated with menopause, is supported through a range of National Health Service initiatives. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance provides evidence-based recommendations on the diagnosis and management of migraine, while NHS England supports improvements in headache and migraine services through initiatives such as the NHS RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit, which aims to improve pathways between primary and specialist care and ensure patients receive the right intervention at the earliest opportunity.
NHS England announced on 10 September that migraine would be added to the list of conditions for which individuals can get further support from participating prescribing pharmacies under the Pharmacy First programme, later this autumn. While migraine affects a higher proportion of women than men, the services referred to above are available to both men and women in need of support.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria NHS England will use to determine which planned treatment areas are suitable for inclusion in NHS Online.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Online is being built using existing virtual outpatient models, learning from the delivery of virtual consultations carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, and from other examples in the United Kingdom and overseas. Clinical experts are helping to assess planned care pathways against several criteria to understand their suitability for virtual delivery, including diagnostic complexity, and assessments of safety and risk.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of existing virtual outpatient models in the development of NHS Online.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Online is being built using existing virtual outpatient models, learning from the delivery of virtual consultations carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, and from other examples in the United Kingdom and overseas. Clinical experts are helping to assess planned care pathways against several criteria to understand their suitability for virtual delivery, including diagnostic complexity, and assessments of safety and risk.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the NHS Oversight Framework including vaccination metrics for only the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella and healthcare worker influenza vaccination programmes, what steps they will take to ensure robust accountability for all national vaccination programmes following the transfer of commissioning responsibilities to Integrated Care Boards from April 2027.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have established a programme that will, alongside closer working and a safe transfer checklist, help to ensure that integrated care boards (ICBs) are ready to take on their new responsibilities for vaccination from April 2027. We will also ensure there is appropriate accountability for vaccination services after the responsibility for their commissioning is delegated to ICBs. Work is ongoing and aligned to the merger of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
No changes in the current reporting frameworks in this area are planned, but we keep all such matters under regular review.
The Department does not collect data on the costs of responding to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable infectious disease, but the methodology for assessing the cost-effectiveness of vaccination programmes routinely accounts for benefits such as avoided National Health Service and social care costs, as well as improved health outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they gave to placing a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to lay before Parliament an annual report on the performance of national immunisation programmes, including health inequalities and progress towards national targets, when developing the Health Bill.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have established a programme that will, alongside closer working and a safe transfer checklist, help to ensure that integrated care boards (ICBs) are ready to take on their new responsibilities for vaccination from April 2027. We will also ensure there is appropriate accountability for vaccination services after the responsibility for their commissioning is delegated to ICBs. Work is ongoing and aligned to the merger of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
No changes in the current reporting frameworks in this area are planned, but we keep all such matters under regular review.
The Department does not collect data on the costs of responding to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable infectious disease, but the methodology for assessing the cost-effectiveness of vaccination programmes routinely accounts for benefits such as avoided National Health Service and social care costs, as well as improved health outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the costs associated with responding to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in 2025–26; whether they collect data on the costs of vaccine procurement and deployment, and outbreak response by disease; and, if so, whether they intend to publish this information.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have established a programme that will, alongside closer working and a safe transfer checklist, help to ensure that integrated care boards (ICBs) are ready to take on their new responsibilities for vaccination from April 2027. We will also ensure there is appropriate accountability for vaccination services after the responsibility for their commissioning is delegated to ICBs. Work is ongoing and aligned to the merger of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
No changes in the current reporting frameworks in this area are planned, but we keep all such matters under regular review.
The Department does not collect data on the costs of responding to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable infectious disease, but the methodology for assessing the cost-effectiveness of vaccination programmes routinely accounts for benefits such as avoided National Health Service and social care costs, as well as improved health outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 15 July (HL1814), what evidence they relied on when describing reviews conducted using the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool as “high-quality”, “objective” and “robust”; and how that description is reconciled with the finding of the December 2023 Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK state of the nation report that, of 66 local PMRT reviews considered, only three were assessed as being of “good” quality.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the concerns raised about how perinatal mortality reviews are carried out. The Perinatal Mortality Review Tool provides a framework which needs to also be supported by effective implementation to deliver the objectives of these reviews.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is chairing the Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce to develop a national action plan to reform maternity and neonatal services. As Baroness Amos’ report makes clear, there is a pressing need to improve the quality, transparency, oversight, and accountability of investigations and we are working with the taskforce to review this.
With regard to coronial investigation of stillbirth, I refer the Noble Lord to the answer provided on 15 July in response to Question HL1814, which, for ease of reference, has been reproduced below:
“All bereaved parents have the option to be involved in a high-quality review of the death of their baby, from 22 weeks' gestation up to 28 days post birth, through a perinatal mortality review. While this is carried out by the hospital or hospitals where the mother and baby were looked after, a national tool is in place, namely the national Perinatal Mortality Review Tool, to ensure such reviews are objective, robust, and standardised.
“There are a range of views on how stillbirths should be investigated, and it is important that the Government’s conclusions on coronial investigations of stillbirths reflect the recommendations Baroness Amos has made through the final report of her independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal care, and supports the most effective model for maternity investigations.
“As recommended in Baroness Amos’ report, we will publish the Government’s response to the 2019 consultation, jointly with the Ministry of Justice, in due course.”
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 15 July (HL1814), which specific findings or recommendations in the final report of the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation they consider relevant to determining whether coroners should be permitted to investigate stillbirths, other than the recommendation that the Government publish its response to the consultation conducted in 2019; and when that response will be published.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the concerns raised about how perinatal mortality reviews are carried out. The Perinatal Mortality Review Tool provides a framework which needs to also be supported by effective implementation to deliver the objectives of these reviews.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is chairing the Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce to develop a national action plan to reform maternity and neonatal services. As Baroness Amos’ report makes clear, there is a pressing need to improve the quality, transparency, oversight, and accountability of investigations and we are working with the taskforce to review this.
With regard to coronial investigation of stillbirth, I refer the Noble Lord to the answer provided on 15 July in response to Question HL1814, which, for ease of reference, has been reproduced below:
“All bereaved parents have the option to be involved in a high-quality review of the death of their baby, from 22 weeks' gestation up to 28 days post birth, through a perinatal mortality review. While this is carried out by the hospital or hospitals where the mother and baby were looked after, a national tool is in place, namely the national Perinatal Mortality Review Tool, to ensure such reviews are objective, robust, and standardised.
“There are a range of views on how stillbirths should be investigated, and it is important that the Government’s conclusions on coronial investigations of stillbirths reflect the recommendations Baroness Amos has made through the final report of her independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal care, and supports the most effective model for maternity investigations.
“As recommended in Baroness Amos’ report, we will publish the Government’s response to the 2019 consultation, jointly with the Ministry of Justice, in due course.”