Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many GP practices returned more than 100 HSA4 forms which record an abortion by medicine administered at home in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form does not capture information on whether the form was returned by a general practice.
The HSA4 form does capture information on the hospital or clinic where the termination took place, and whether any medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence. However, the publication of the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales from 2023 onwards has been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process. We will announce the dates of the publication of the data for 2023, and later 2024, in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many individuals received medicines for abortion at home via post in (1) 2023, and (2) 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department collects information on abortions via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form does not capture information on whether abortion medicine was sent via the post, and so the Department does not hold this information.
The HSA4 form does capture whether the medicine was administered at the patient’s usual place of residence. This information is published in the Abortion Statistics for England and Wales for the years 2018 to 2022. However, publication of the abortion statistics for England and Wales from 2023 onwards has been delayed due to several operational issues. These include issues associated with moving to a new data processing system and an increase in the number of paper abortion notification forms to process. We will announce the dates of the publication of the data for 2023, and later 2024, in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (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 30 June (HL8647), whether they plan to include in their statistics abortions undertaken through abortion pills by post, and if so, how.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a legal requirement that all abortions performed in England and Wales, including early medical abortions (EMA) at home, are notified to the Chief Medical Officers for England and Wales respectively, within 14 days of the procedure via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form captures information on where the EMA pills were taken, but not whether they were delivered by post or collected from the clinic.
Statistics on home use of EMA pills for residents of England and Wales are already published by the Department in the annual Abortion Statistics for England and Wales publication. These statistics are published in the main commentary and the additional data tables of the publication. From 2019 to 2022, the statistics on home use of EMA pills were derived using the place of termination information on the HSA4.
In 2022, Parliament voted to permanently approve use of one or both pills for EMA up to 10 weeks at home, following a telephone or e-consultation with a clinician for residents in England and Wales. Following this, in April 2023, new questions were added to the HSA4 form, to capture information on where the abortion medications were taken. Statistics on home use of EMA pills in future publications, from 2023 onwards, will be based on these new questions.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (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 23 July (HL9109), whether they will now answer the question put; namely, where the first 10 Neighbourhood Health Centres will be located, and when will those centres open.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England have written to integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities to invite applications from local places to participate in the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP). As part of this, we have requested initial information on local assets that could host neighbourhood health centres (NHCs). ICBs will be key here as strategic commissioners in identifying where NHCs are required and defining their requirements in the context of other supporting infrastructure in the local area.
Applications should be submitted by 8 August 2025; our 10-Year Health Plan sets out we will start in some of the communities where healthy life expectancy is lowest, delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government where the first 10 Neighbourhood Health Centres will be located, and when will those centres open.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future, and we recognise that delivering high quality NHS healthcare requires the right infrastructure in the right places.
That is why over the course of our 10-Year Health Plan, we will establish over 200 neighbourhood health centres nationwide, with 40 to 50 expected over the course of this Parliament.
We will start in some of the most deprived communities, using public capital to update and refurbish existing, under-used buildings, delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the target time for a patient to obtain a GP appointment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is determined to work with the National Health Service to fix the front door of our health service and ensure that everyone can access general practice (GP) appointments and services, including in Eastbourne. Through our 10-Year Health Plan, it will be easier and faster to see a GP. The 8:00am scramble will end, we will train more doctors, and we will guarantee digital consultations within 24 hours.
The GP Contract requires practices to offer patients an assessment of need, or to signpost them to an appropriate service, on the day they contact the practice, so that patients are not asked to call back another day. An appointment may not always be clinically necessary but where this is appropriate, we expect practices to offer one within two weeks, with urgent needs seen on the same day.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many abortion pills by post have been issued; how many people those pills have been issued to; and of those how many were under 16 years old.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 28 December 2018, eligible women in England could take the second of the two drugs for early medical abortion (EMA), misoprostol, at home. This was changed from 30 March 2020, to allow eligible women in England to take both drugs for EMA, mifepristone and misoprostol, at home, without the need to first attend a hospital or clinic.
The Department does not hold a record of how many drugs for EMA have been issued. However, from 2019 to 2022, latest available data on home use, for one or both drugs taken at home, for residents of England, there were 481,179 abortions where either one or both of the drugs were taken at home. Of these, 2,127, or 0.4%, were for those aged under 16 years old.
From 2020 to 2022, latest available data on home use, for both drugs taken at home, for residents of England, there were 316,795 abortions where both medications were taken at home. Of these, 1,250, or 0.4%, were for those aged under 16 years old.
Please note, the second set of statistics, both pills taken at home, is included within the first, one or both pills taken at home.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many abortions in England have been undertaken for (1) children under 16 years old, and (2) 16-years-olds, in the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 2018 to 2022, latest available data, for residents of England, there were 5,853 abortions for those aged under 16 years old, 0.6% of all abortions for English residents, and 9,530 abortions for those aged 16 years old, 0.9% of all abortions for English residents.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much the creation and opening of each community diagnostic centre cost, and how much it costs annually to operate each centre.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally in the format requested, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
NHS England publishes a monthly report on diagnostic activity for the 15 modalities that make up the Diagnostics Waiting Times and Activity collection. This includes details of activity undertaken in CDCs for those 15 modalities. This is published on the NHS.UK website, in an online only format. It is not, however, a complete record of all CDC activity.
NHS England also publishes a quarterly dataset of all CDC activity at a national level. This is also published on the NHS.UK website, in an online only format. The latest published CDC management information details that CDCs have delivered over 13.9 million additional tests since July 2021.
NHS England’s CDC programme has been supported by a capital budget of £1.48 billion across 2022/23 to 2024/25.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, committed to expanding existing CDCs, as well as building up to five new ones in 2025/26, to support the National Health Service to return to meeting the elective waiting time constitutional standard. The plan also commits to CDCs opening 12 hours per day, seven days a week, and delivering more same-day tests and consultations, with an expanded range of tests.
The 2025/25 capital guidance confirmed that £1.65 billion of capital funding will be allocated to support NHS performance across secondary and emergency care, across 2025/26 more broadly. This includes £450 million which has been provisionally allocated for diagnostics, which includes CDCs, partly to expand existing and build new CDCs. £20 million has also been allocated directly to relevant trusts via a separate processes for CDC pathway productivity.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many diagnostic tests have been undertaken by each community diagnostic centre on a weekly basis since each centre was opened.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally in the format requested, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
NHS England publishes a monthly report on diagnostic activity for the 15 modalities that make up the Diagnostics Waiting Times and Activity collection. This includes details of activity undertaken in CDCs for those 15 modalities. This is published on the NHS.UK website, in an online only format. It is not, however, a complete record of all CDC activity.
NHS England also publishes a quarterly dataset of all CDC activity at a national level. This is also published on the NHS.UK website, in an online only format. The latest published CDC management information details that CDCs have delivered over 13.9 million additional tests since July 2021.
NHS England’s CDC programme has been supported by a capital budget of £1.48 billion across 2022/23 to 2024/25.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, committed to expanding existing CDCs, as well as building up to five new ones in 2025/26, to support the National Health Service to return to meeting the elective waiting time constitutional standard. The plan also commits to CDCs opening 12 hours per day, seven days a week, and delivering more same-day tests and consultations, with an expanded range of tests.
The 2025/26 capital guidance confirmed that £1.65 billion of capital funding will be allocated to support NHS performance across secondary and emergency care, across 2025/26 more broadly. This includes £450 million which has been provisionally allocated for diagnostics, which includes CDCs, partly to expand existing and build new CDCs. £20 million has also been allocated directly to relevant trusts via a separate processes for CDC pathway productivity.