Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 2 July (HLWS179), why the redundancy of the former Chief Executive of the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board can be classified as a compulsory redundancy given the statement that NHS England’s approval was conditional on potential shared leadership arrangements which did not materialise.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 2 July, NHS England has advised that the relevant condition was that the former Chief Executive role should not be filled through external recruitment but should instead be addressed through redeployment or other leadership arrangements to avoid an additional redundancy and that this condition was met. The redundancy was therefore classified as a compulsory redundancy.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 2 July 2026 (HL232), what mechanisms they use to ensure compliance with HM Treasury guidance on public sector exit payments, given the statement that the Department of Health and Social Care does not centrally reassess whether an interim post holder performed the same statutory duties as a redundant role.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the answer of 2 July 2026 to Question HL232, compliance with HM Treasury’s guidance on public sector exit payments and value for money protocols is secured through the relevant employer governance and assurance processes, with NHS England oversight where required. Departmental and HM Treasury approval is generally required where the payment relates to a special severance payment or other non-contractual payment.
Responsibility for ensuring that any redundancy decision is lawful, contractual, and represents value for money rests with the employing integrated care board, supported by NHS England’s assurance role where applicable.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 2 July (HL231), what were the reasons for progressing the contractual compulsory redundancy of the former Chief Executive of the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) in August 2025, in light of the statement that ministers had determined during summer 2025 that the South Yorkshire ICB would remain a standalone entity.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has advised that the decision for the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to remain a standalone statutory body did not remove the wider restructuring context in which the Chief Executive role was considered. NHS England considered the case in the context of proposed changes to ICB Chief Executive roles and local senior leadership arrangements. Its approval was conditional on the Chief Executive role not being filled through external recruitment but instead be addressed through redeployment or other leadership arrangements intended to avoid creating an additional redundancy. On that basis, NHS England progressed as a contractual compulsory redundancy.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 16 June (HL696), who authorised the sign-off and publication of National Data Integration Tenant Data Protection Impact Assessment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.
In accordance with NHS England’s established information governance and assurance processes, the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT) Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was reviewed and approved for sign off by the FDP Data Governance Group as well as senior Information Governance Professionals from NHS England.
For publication, the approved DPIA was reviewed by the Information Asset owner for NDIT and redacted in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 prior to approval for publication by the NDIT product owner, Programme Director and senior Information Governance Professionals from NHS England.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 1 July (HL1069), how they intend to measure and enforce equitable access to hospital-based learning disability liaison nurses across all acute trusts given that the commissioning and staffing mix of these services is left to the local discretion of individual integrated care boards.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing local need and commissioning services to best meet the needs of their local population, including determining how services are delivered locally to reduce the health inequalities. Therefore, staffing models may differ between areas to reflect local needs and existing provision. All staff within health and social care must have learning disability and autism training specific to their role as set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, which means that staff who see patients should be better able to meet the needs of people who have a learning disability.
We are committed to ensuring that, under the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard 2025, all publicly funded health and social care service providers are able to share, read, and write reasonable adjustment data by 30 September 2026. The Information Standard is mandated across all publicly funded health and social care providers, commissioners, and IT suppliers. Should issues of non-compliance arise, commissioners of health and publicly funded social care services will be able to enact contractual sanctions at their discretion.
The Government continues to recognise the value of involving patients and family carers in decisions about the care of people with a learning disability. The Health and Care Act 2022 sets duties for involving carers in healthcare. Acute trusts are responsible for determining how best to involve family carers in the delivery of care, taking account of the needs of their patients and local circumstances. There are currently no plans to establish independent or statutory audits to monitor whether acute trusts are consistently involving family carers from admission to discharge. The Friends and Family Test is an important feedback tool that supports the fundamental principle that people who use National Health Services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience.
NHS England has previously published guidance to support primary care to identify people with a learning disability, titled Improving identification of people with a learning disability: guidance for general practice. This information can be shared with other health providers if a patient gives their permission. The Summary Care Record is a national database that holds electronic records of important patient information such as current medication, allergies, and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines, created from general practice medical records. It can be seen and used by authorised staff involved in the patient's direct care, including in other organisations such as an acute trust, with the patient’s consent. We expect acute hospitals to have appropriate arrangements in place to record learning disability information, including through the use of SNOMED codes, which are mandated for use across the NHS including in acute trusts.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 1 July (HL1068), what plans they have to establish independent or statutory audits to monitor whether acute trusts are consistently involving family carers from admission to discharge rather than relying on the advisory information hosted on the NHS England website.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing local need and commissioning services to best meet the needs of their local population, including determining how services are delivered locally to reduce the health inequalities. Therefore, staffing models may differ between areas to reflect local needs and existing provision. All staff within health and social care must have learning disability and autism training specific to their role as set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, which means that staff who see patients should be better able to meet the needs of people who have a learning disability.
We are committed to ensuring that, under the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard 2025, all publicly funded health and social care service providers are able to share, read, and write reasonable adjustment data by 30 September 2026. The Information Standard is mandated across all publicly funded health and social care providers, commissioners, and IT suppliers. Should issues of non-compliance arise, commissioners of health and publicly funded social care services will be able to enact contractual sanctions at their discretion.
The Government continues to recognise the value of involving patients and family carers in decisions about the care of people with a learning disability. The Health and Care Act 2022 sets duties for involving carers in healthcare. Acute trusts are responsible for determining how best to involve family carers in the delivery of care, taking account of the needs of their patients and local circumstances. There are currently no plans to establish independent or statutory audits to monitor whether acute trusts are consistently involving family carers from admission to discharge. The Friends and Family Test is an important feedback tool that supports the fundamental principle that people who use National Health Services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience.
NHS England has previously published guidance to support primary care to identify people with a learning disability, titled Improving identification of people with a learning disability: guidance for general practice. This information can be shared with other health providers if a patient gives their permission. The Summary Care Record is a national database that holds electronic records of important patient information such as current medication, allergies, and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines, created from general practice medical records. It can be seen and used by authorised staff involved in the patient's direct care, including in other organisations such as an acute trust, with the patient’s consent. We expect acute hospitals to have appropriate arrangements in place to record learning disability information, including through the use of SNOMED codes, which are mandated for use across the NHS including in acute trusts.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 1 July (HL1070), what specific contractual or regulatory penalties will be applied from 1 October 2026 to NHS trusts that fail to meet the mandatory compliance deadline for the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing local need and commissioning services to best meet the needs of their local population, including determining how services are delivered locally to reduce the health inequalities. Therefore, staffing models may differ between areas to reflect local needs and existing provision. All staff within health and social care must have learning disability and autism training specific to their role as set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, which means that staff who see patients should be better able to meet the needs of people who have a learning disability.
We are committed to ensuring that, under the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard 2025, all publicly funded health and social care service providers are able to share, read, and write reasonable adjustment data by 30 September 2026. The Information Standard is mandated across all publicly funded health and social care providers, commissioners, and IT suppliers. Should issues of non-compliance arise, commissioners of health and publicly funded social care services will be able to enact contractual sanctions at their discretion.
The Government continues to recognise the value of involving patients and family carers in decisions about the care of people with a learning disability. The Health and Care Act 2022 sets duties for involving carers in healthcare. Acute trusts are responsible for determining how best to involve family carers in the delivery of care, taking account of the needs of their patients and local circumstances. There are currently no plans to establish independent or statutory audits to monitor whether acute trusts are consistently involving family carers from admission to discharge. The Friends and Family Test is an important feedback tool that supports the fundamental principle that people who use National Health Services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience.
NHS England has previously published guidance to support primary care to identify people with a learning disability, titled Improving identification of people with a learning disability: guidance for general practice. This information can be shared with other health providers if a patient gives their permission. The Summary Care Record is a national database that holds electronic records of important patient information such as current medication, allergies, and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines, created from general practice medical records. It can be seen and used by authorised staff involved in the patient's direct care, including in other organisations such as an acute trust, with the patient’s consent. We expect acute hospitals to have appropriate arrangements in place to record learning disability information, including through the use of SNOMED codes, which are mandated for use across the NHS including in acute trusts.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death's report Learning Together, published 11 June, what immediate steps they are taking to ensure frontline NHS staff use accurate clinical terminology in electronic patient records.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing local need and commissioning services to best meet the needs of their local population, including determining how services are delivered locally to reduce the health inequalities. Therefore, staffing models may differ between areas to reflect local needs and existing provision. All staff within health and social care must have learning disability and autism training specific to their role as set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, which means that staff who see patients should be better able to meet the needs of people who have a learning disability.
We are committed to ensuring that, under the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard 2025, all publicly funded health and social care service providers are able to share, read, and write reasonable adjustment data by 30 September 2026. The Information Standard is mandated across all publicly funded health and social care providers, commissioners, and IT suppliers. Should issues of non-compliance arise, commissioners of health and publicly funded social care services will be able to enact contractual sanctions at their discretion.
The Government continues to recognise the value of involving patients and family carers in decisions about the care of people with a learning disability. The Health and Care Act 2022 sets duties for involving carers in healthcare. Acute trusts are responsible for determining how best to involve family carers in the delivery of care, taking account of the needs of their patients and local circumstances. There are currently no plans to establish independent or statutory audits to monitor whether acute trusts are consistently involving family carers from admission to discharge. The Friends and Family Test is an important feedback tool that supports the fundamental principle that people who use National Health Services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience.
NHS England has previously published guidance to support primary care to identify people with a learning disability, titled Improving identification of people with a learning disability: guidance for general practice. This information can be shared with other health providers if a patient gives their permission. The Summary Care Record is a national database that holds electronic records of important patient information such as current medication, allergies, and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines, created from general practice medical records. It can be seen and used by authorised staff involved in the patient's direct care, including in other organisations such as an acute trust, with the patient’s consent. We expect acute hospitals to have appropriate arrangements in place to record learning disability information, including through the use of SNOMED codes, which are mandated for use across the NHS including in acute trusts.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - 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 16 June (HL696), whether the access of Palantir contractors to identifiable patient data was always part of the operational arrangements; and why the National Data Guardian was left unaware of this arrangement until it was exposed by external pressure.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Data Guardian (NDG) highlighted that the published Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT) was not fully reflective of current access arrangements, including limited administrative access by supplier staff.
Access by supplier staff has been part of the operational model for the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) where necessary to support, maintain and assure the system. This access is strictly controlled, limited, and subject to contractual, technical and organisational safeguards.
The DPIA did include information on supplier data processing obligations and considered the risks associated with access to data. However, it was not sufficiently explicit about the nature and extent of limited administrative access by supplier staff. NHS England recognised this and has taken steps to improve transparency in how these arrangements are described. NHS England has also set out in its public communications that suppliers act only under the instructions of National Health Service organisations.
Whilst there is no statutory requirement for NHS England to notify the NDG of specific access arrangements to NDIT, NHS England engages regularly with the NDG through established governance routes as part of routine oversight of the NHS FDP Programme. This matter was discussed at the Data Transformation Check and Challenge Group; the NDG subsequently wrote to NHS England and has received an update in response. NHS England has also published an updated Privacy Notice on the NHS website in an online-only format.
NHS England acts as the data controller for the NHS FDP at the national level, including NDIT. NHS organisations using the platform act as data controllers for their own data and use of the system. Access to data is strictly controlled; any access by external contractors is limited, role-based and time-bound, requires appropriate security clearance and senior approval, and is fully logged and auditable. Data remains under the control of NHS organisations, and suppliers act only under the instruction of those organisations.
NHS England and the Department will continue to engage with the NDG through established governance routes on this matter.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS pensioners flagged for manual reconciliation due to their lifetime allowance are experiencing delays in receiving their annual inflation increases; what is the average wait time for those cases to be resolved; and what is the longest recorded wait time for an affected individual to receive their statutory increase.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), which administers the NHS Pension Scheme on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has confirmed that as of 22 June 2026, there are 1,715 open inflation-related pension increase cases waiting for manual calculation and payment. These are known as ‘second bite’ payments and the average wait time for a case is 155 days, with the shortest wait time being one day and the longest wait time being 1,338 days.
The vast majority of second bites are paid automatically soon after the April pensions increase effective date by the NHSBSA, with 83,074 pensioners receiving their second bite payments over the last four years, April 2023 to April 2026. Manual intervention is necessary for the small number of pensioners at risk of exceeding the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) lump sum allowance due to their second bite payment. Members are requested to complete a declaration form, to enable the NHSBSA to determine if there is tax to be deducted and paid to HMRC when the second bite is paid so that the member receives the amount due net of tax. Delays by members in returning this form to the NHSBSA extend the time that a case remains open.
The NHSBSA, which administers the NHS Pension Scheme for almost four million members, recognises the importance of timely second bite payments and that delays are frustrating for members. The NHSBSA is taking a range of steps to process and pay second bite payments as quickly as possible after the declaration form is returned and to regularly monitor and remind members whose form remains outstanding.
The Department is working with the NHSBSA to oversee their development of a recovery plan that expediates the processing and payment of the delayed second bite payments.