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 August (HL9651), whether the proposed Health Data Research Service will process any data from a patient who has objected to their health data being used in research via the National Data Opt-Out service.

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

Keeping data safe and secure and ensuring patient and public privacy remain key principles of the Health Data Research Service (HDRS). The public will retain a right to opt out of specific uses of their data beyond their direct care, and these opt-outs will be respected with the implementation of HDRS.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance NHS England provides to people who are prescribed antidepressants on the risks of developing persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD); and what consideration NHS England has given to adding PGAD as a side effect on the patient information leaflets for any medications which can cause it.

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

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department with responsibility for the regulation of medicinal products in the United Kingdom. The MHRA ensures that medicines are efficacious and acceptably safe, and that information to aid the safe use of a medicine, including possible side effects, is appropriately described in the authorised product information.

The MHRA’s approved patient information leaflets for the most commonly prescribed antidepressants contain warnings about sexual side effects whilst taking the drug, and for some antidepressants there is a warning about sexual side effects which may continue after stopping the medicine. These warnings are under review by an expert working group of the Commission on Human Medicines, and the findings of this review are due to report in the Autumn.

Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) is not specifically listed as a possible side effect in the patient information leaflets for any antidepressants. PGAD remains poorly defined and requires research into several proposed causal factors.

A total of 13 reports that describe PGAD suspected to be associated with an antidepressant have been received through the Yellow Cared scheme. The reports were received between 2017 and 2025 for sertraline, with six reports, citalopram, with three reports, fluoxetine, with three reports, and reboxetine, with one report.

The MHRA continuously monitors the safety of these medicines. However, the data currently available is considered insufficient to list PGAD as a possible side effect of antidepressants. Any emerging data will be carefully considered and regulatory action taken as needed.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of fiscal pressures, including the rise in employer National Insurance contributions, on (1) workforce retention, and (2) service capability, in independent GP practices and other independent health providers.

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

We have made the necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department is £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise was implemented in April 2025.

The Government committed to recruiting over 1,000 recently qualified general practitioners (GPs) in primary care networks (PCNs) through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) over 2024/25, as part of an initiative to secure the future pipeline of GPs, with over 1,000 doctors otherwise likely to graduate into unemployment in 2024/25. Data on the number of recently qualified GPs for which PCNs are claiming reimbursement via the ARRS show that since 1 October 2024, over 2,000 GPs were recruited through the scheme. Newly qualified GPs employed under the ARRS will continue to receive support under the scheme in the coming year as part of the 2025/26 contract. A number of changes have been confirmed to increase the flexibility of the ARRS. This includes GPs and practice nurses included in the main ARRS funding pot, an uplift of the maximum reimbursable rate for GPs in the scheme, and no caps on the number of GPs that can be employed through the scheme.

We are boosting practice finances by investing an additional £1.1 billion in GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest cash increase in over a decade, and aims to support GPs to build capacity, reduce bureaucracy, and deliver more care in the community.

Primary care providers, including GPs, are valued independent contractors who provide nearly £20 billion worth of NHS services. Every year we consult with each sector both about what services they provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the report by Together for Short Lives Overstretched and unfunded: the state of children's hospice funding in 2025, published on 27 June, what assessment they have made of the variation in funding for children's hospice care provided by (1) North East London Integrated Care Board, and North Central London Integrated Care Board; and what steps they are taking to reduce any disparity.

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

Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between integrated care board (ICB) areas, including the North East London ICB and the North Central London ICB. This will vary depending on the demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative care and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.

The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.

We will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to share examples of best practice in commissioning children's palliative care with integrated care boards across England.

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

NHS England has published statutory guidance on palliative and end of life care and a service specification for children and young people. This sets out the expectations and responsibilities placed on integrated care boards (ICBs) in relation to the commissioning of children’s palliative care.

The NHS Futures platform offers ICB commissioners the opportunity to share examples of best practice amongst each other and with healthcare professionals and researchers. The NHS Futures platform also offers access to upcoming and past webinars and a clinical excellence workstream, among other resources, to support ICB commissioners and clinical staff to support outstanding clinical care based on the best available evidence.

The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.

We will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the collection and publication of national data on drowning incidents, including demographic information, to inform targeted prevention policies.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Lord Kamall

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

22 September 2025

Dear Lord Kamall,

As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what steps are being taken to improve the collection and publication of national data on drowning incidents, including demographic information, to inform targeted prevention policies (HL10639).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces mortality statistics using information provided on death certificates. The ONS codes cause of death using the International Cause of Death (ICD-10). The ICD-10 codes for accidental drowning and submersion are W65 to W74.

The ONS publishes statistics on mortality by specific cause each year, in our Deaths

registered summary statistics [1]. Numbers of deaths for 2024 were published on 20 May 2025, and age-standardised mortality rates will be published on 9 October 2025. Table 3 in that publication presents deaths by specific causes, including accidental drowning and submersion, by sex and five-year age bands. Those published 2024 figures by age and sex are summarised with wider age bands in the table below.

The ONS is currently exploring methods to improve the timeliness of our mortality statistics. We launched a consultation earlier this year asking users about the value of reporting death occurrences rather than registrations for suicide statistics [2], and the same questions are being considered for wider mortality outputs too. This includes assessing the accuracy of “nowcasting”: estimating the number of recent death occurrences, by cause, using factors such as the number registered in the past week and trends in registration delays for that cause.

Death certification reform was also implemented in September 2024 [3], which included adding an ethnicity field to the death certificate for the first time in England and Wales. This aims to improve future reporting of deaths by ethnicity and will enable us to produce further demographic breakdowns in future.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Rourke

Table 1: Number of deaths registered by sex, age group and ONS short list of cause of death code, 2024, England and Wales

Notes:

1. Figures are for deaths registered rather than deaths occurred. For more information see our Impact of registration delays publication [4].

2. Figures include non-residents.

3. Based on underlying cause of death.

4. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) short list for cause of death is based on a standard tabulation list developed by the ONS, in consultation with the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care, DHSC). For more information about the codes included, see our User guide to mortality statistics [5].

5. Figures for deaths aged under 1 year exclude deaths under 28 days, which are registered with separate neonatal death certificate from which it is not possible to assign an underlying cause of death. For more information see the childhood mortality section of our User guide to mortality statistics.

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/d eathsregisteredsummarystatisticsenglandandwales

[2]https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/external-affairs/user-requirements-for-official-suicide-statistics/

[3]https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/death-certification-reform-and-the-introduction-ofmedical-examiners

[4]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/im pactofregistrationdelaysonmortalitystatisticsinenglandandwales/latest

[5]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodolo gies/userguidetomortalitystatisticsjuly2017#ons-short-list-of-cause-of-death

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that integrated care boards systematically collect and monitor prevalence and service data for (1) allergies, and (2) other long-term health conditions, to support effective commissioning and delivery of neighbourhood care.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for undertaking health needs assessments, including any data collection, to understand the health and wellbeing needs of their local populations, including identifying inequalities and planning services accordingly. NHS England has issued guidance to ICBs on developing an intelligence function to ensure locally tailored, evidence-based decisions are made that address health inequalities and support personalised, population-focused care planning.

The 10 Year Health Plan shifts care from hospitals into communities, with neighbourhood health services led by multidisciplinary teams offering preventative and personalised support closer to where people live with increased access to services and information for people with allergies and long-term health conditions.

The plan also commits expanding the use of digital technology. By 2035, two thirds of outpatient care will take place digitally or in the community closer to home, with patients, including those with allergies and long-term conditions, able to access the best of their local hospital in a much more responsive way at home via their phones.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that the local covenant partnerships programme involvements meaningful engagement with civil society bodies such as the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Collaboration and partnership are at the heart of the Civil Society Covenant which was launched by the Prime Minister in July at a major civil society summit. To inform the development of the Civil Society Covenant, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport engaged with over 1,200 organisations and worked closely with the Civil Society Advisory Group, including representatives from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) alongside a wide range of other civil society organisations.

At the launch we announced the Joint Civil Society Covenant Council which will be central to the delivery of the Covenant, setting direction and providing strategic oversight for its implementation. It will have cross-sector membership comprising senior leaders from civil society and senior representatives from government departments. We also announced a Local Covenant Partnerships Programme to support collaborative working between civil society organisations, local authorities and public service providers to deliver services that better meet the needs of their communities.

We will continue working in the spirit of partnership as we establish and develop both the Joint Civil Society Covenant Council and the Local Covenant Partnerships Programme.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to engage with civil society bodies such as the National Council for Voluntary Organisations on the Joint Civil Society Covenant Council.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Collaboration and partnership are at the heart of the Civil Society Covenant which was launched by the Prime Minister in July at a major civil society summit. To inform the development of the Civil Society Covenant, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport engaged with over 1,200 organisations and worked closely with the Civil Society Advisory Group, including representatives from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) alongside a wide range of other civil society organisations.

At the launch we announced the Joint Civil Society Covenant Council which will be central to the delivery of the Covenant, setting direction and providing strategic oversight for its implementation. It will have cross-sector membership comprising senior leaders from civil society and senior representatives from government departments. We also announced a Local Covenant Partnerships Programme to support collaborative working between civil society organisations, local authorities and public service providers to deliver services that better meet the needs of their communities.

We will continue working in the spirit of partnership as we establish and develop both the Joint Civil Society Covenant Council and the Local Covenant Partnerships Programme.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that all primary school pupils leave school with the ability to swim competently and an understanding of water safety.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Swimming and water safety are vital life skills that are compulsory elements of the PE National Curriculum at key stages 1 and 2. In addition, the changes made to the department’s statutory relationships, sex and health education guidance will ensure all pupils are taught about the water safety code, supporting them to be safe in different types of water. To support schools, Oak National Academy offers swimming and water safety units as part of its PE curriculum, developed in partnership with Swim England.

In June, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced a new national approach to PE and school sport as part of which we will establish a PE and School Sport Partnership Network, designed to build stronger links between schools, local clubs, and National Governing Bodies. It will identify and remove barriers to participation in PE and school sport, including swimming.

The department is also providing a grant of up to £300,000 to deliver Inclusion 2028, a programme which upskills teachers to deliver high quality, inclusive PE, including swimming and water safety, to pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many 'yellow card' reports of increased sexual arousal and sexual arousal disorders the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency received each year since 2014, and which medications those reports were tied to.

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 the available data, including from the Yellow Card scheme, and seeks advice from their independent advisory committee, the Commission on Human Medicines, where appropriate, to inform regulatory decisions.

It is important to note that a reaction reported to the Yellow Card scheme does not necessarily mean that it has been caused by the medicine, only that the reporter had a suspicion it may have. Underlying or concurrent illnesses may be responsible, or the events could be coincidental. 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.

The MHRA can confirm that it has received 124 spontaneous suspected United Kingdom Adverse Drug Reaction reports from 1 January 2014 to, and including, 18 September 2025, where a reaction term within the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities’ (MedDRA) High-Level Term "Sexual Arousal Disorders” was reported. MedDRA is a clinically validated international medical terminology dictionary. It’s organised by System Organ Class, divided into High-Level Group Terms, High-Level Terms, Preferred Terms, and finally into Lowest Level Terms.

The following table shows the number of UK spontaneous suspected Adverse Drug Reaction reports where a reaction within the High-Level Term “Sexual Arousal Disorders” was reported, from 1 January 2014 to, and including, 18 September 2025, by year:

In addition, the following table shows a breakdown of these reports by suspect medicine, for all suspect substances for which we received two or more reports:

Note: please be aware that reports received via the Yellow Card scheme can contain more than one suspect medicine and as such the numbers in the table cannot be summed up to the total number of reports.

Suspect substances for which a single report was received were amitriptyline, amoxycillin, atomoxetine, canagliflozin, candesartan, ciprofloxacin, clavulanic acid, clobetasol, clonazepam, diazepam, donepezil, doxycycline, drospirenone, dutasteride, elasomeran, estradiol, etonogestrel, flucloxacillin, flupenthixol, ibutamoren, levonorgestrel, linagliptin, mefloquine, methylphenidate, metronidazole, minoxidil, norelgestromin, pramipexole, propranolol, quetiapine, reboxetine, risperidone, ropinirole, sildenafil, solifenacin, teriparatide, tirzepatide, tramadol, ulipristal, and varenicline.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review water safety provision at public beaches, rivers and lakes without lifeguard supervision, and whether they will issue additional guidance to local authorities.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Responsibilities for water safety sit with various Government departments, agencies, local authorities, and other public bodies. These include regular safety messaging and guidance to ensure people have the knowledge they need to keep themselves safe, as well as provision of safety/lifesaving equipment at water bodies. Water sports national governing bodies are responsible for providing advice and guidance for how to participate in their sports safely. Inland waterway navigation authorities conduct risk assessments to inform the provision of appropriate lifesaving equipment on their networks. In conjunction with other services, HM Coastguard provides safety advice and guidance about the coastal environment.

The National Water Safety Forum brings together a wide range of national groups, including some 80 local authorities, to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for the prevention of drowning and water safety harm in the UK. The Local Government Association has developed a water safety toolkit (copy attached) for local authorities for use inland and on the coast.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to develop a cross-departmental drowning prevention strategy for unguarded waters.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Responsibilities for water safety sit with various Government departments, agencies, local authorities, and other public bodies. These include regular safety messaging and guidance to ensure people have the knowledge they need to keep themselves safe, as well as provision of safety/lifesaving equipment at water bodies. Water sports national governing bodies are responsible for providing advice and guidance for how to participate in their sports safely. Inland waterway navigation authorities conduct risk assessments to inform the provision of appropriate lifesaving equipment on their networks. In conjunction with other services, HM Coastguard provides safety advice and guidance about the coastal environment.

The National Water Safety Forum brings together a wide range of national groups, including some 80 local authorities, to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for the prevention of drowning and water safety harm in the UK. The Forum launched the UK Drowning Prevention Strategy 2016-2026 (copy attached), which aims to reduce the number of accidental drownings in the UK by 50% by 2026. The Local Government Association has developed a water safety toolkit (copy attached) for local authorities for use inland and on the coast.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of the increased deployment of drone technology to deliver urgent medical supplies to (1) remote, and (2) urban, areas.

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

The Government is committed to innovation in drones and other growth sectors, with further information available on the GOV.UK website in an online only format, and work is ongoing across Government, including between the Department and the Civil Aviation Authority, to support the safe and effective introduction of drones into medical logistics.

The Department continuously reviews the available evidence surrounding the use of drones in medical logistics and is supportive of new trials to further build this evidence base, in particular regarding the benefits of the use of drones to deliver urgent medical supplies in remote and urban areas. Last year, the Department of Health and Social Care, working in collaboration with the Department for Transport, Innovate UK, and UK Research and Innovation, supported five pilot projects, allocating them a total of £500,000, to explore the use of drones in the National Health Service. Given the potential of drones to improve how the NHS delivers patient care, the Department of Health and Social Care is supportive of trials that explore the use of drones in medical logistics.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to increase the adoption of drone technology across the health service.

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

The Government is committed to innovation in drones and other growth sectors, with further information available on the GOV.UK website in an online only format, and work is ongoing across Government, including between the Department and the Civil Aviation Authority, to support the safe and effective introduction of drones into medical logistics.

The Department continuously reviews the available evidence surrounding the use of drones in medical logistics and is supportive of new trials to further build this evidence base, in particular regarding the benefits of the use of drones to deliver urgent medical supplies in remote and urban areas. Last year, the Department of Health and Social Care, working in collaboration with the Department for Transport, Innovate UK, and UK Research and Innovation, supported five pilot projects, allocating them a total of £500,000, to explore the use of drones in the National Health Service. Given the potential of drones to improve how the NHS delivers patient care, the Department of Health and Social Care is supportive of trials that explore the use of drones in medical logistics.