Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS England's guidance entitled Saving babies’ lives version three: a care bundle for reducing perinatal mortality, updated on 24 April 2025, is implemented across NHS trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All trusts are implementing version three of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle to reduce the rates of stillbirth, preterm birth, and to optimise neonatal care. As of May 2025, 116 out of 120 trusts were fully compliant, which is a 10% increase since April last year.
Implementation is overseen through NHS Resolution’s Maternity Incentive Scheme, a financial incentive to encourage trusts to implement safety actions to improve maternity safety. Under Safety Action 6, National Health Service trusts are required to demonstrate that they are on track to comply with all elements of the care bundle.
To do this, trusts must meet quarterly with their integrated care board (ICB) to review implementation progress, and ICBs must confirm that providers are on track to full implementation for the trust. This local oversight approach is in line with the NHS Operating Framework.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that bereaved families are involved in the process for the consultation on secondary legislation to modernise regulatory frameworks.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is preparing draft legislation which will modernise the regulatory framework for the General Medical Council. This will be subject to a statutory three-month public consultation, which will be published on GOV.UK website, and which will act as a blueprint for reforms to other professional regulators’ legislation.
We welcome the views of anyone who has raised a concern about a healthcare professional, including individuals who have suffered harm or whose family members have suffered harm, through this consultation process.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to work towards a national standard for a bereavement care pathway.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Wider bereavement support is commissioned locally, in accordance with the needs of the local population. NHS England has developed guidance to support integrated care boards with their duty to commission palliative care services within integrated care systems. This statutory guidance states that commissioners should ensure that there is sufficient access to bereavement services.
Experts from the bereavement sector, such as the National Bereavement Alliance, have also published the Bereavement Support Service Standards which can be found on their website. These standards are voluntary and can be used by services as part of a regular review of their service design and their provision of bereavement services.
All trusts in England are signed up to the National Bereavement Care Pathway for pregnancy or baby loss, which aims to ensure that all bereaved parents are offered equal, high quality, individualised, safe, and sensitive care. The pathway covers a range of baby loss circumstances, including miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy for medical reasons, neonatal death, and sudden infant death syndrome.
For bereavement support after suicide, NHS England has commissioned Support After Suicide to help systems develop bereavement support services, including developing core standards.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 58 of the policy paper entitled 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, whether Danone's commitment never to introduce a high sugar product to children refers to the recommended levels of sugar for (a) children and (b) adults; and whether this applies to Alpro growing up milks.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out decisive action to tackle the obesity crisis and ease the strain on the NHS, as well as to create the healthiest generation of children ever. It details a number of actions that the Government will take, including plans to introduce mandatory healthy food sales reporting for all large companies in the food sector, fulfilling commitments to restrict junk food advertising targeted at children, banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s and updating the UK Nutrient Profile Model (NPM) 2004/05.
Danone’s published commitment is to never produce a product for children that is high in saturated fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) as defined by the UK Government’s current policy and legislation as a less healthy product.
The Government’s policy and legislation being referred to uses the UK NPM 2004/05 to determine whether a product is classed as being HFSS or non-HFSS. The 2004/05 NPM does not assess individual nutrients in isolation (for example sugar), but it considers the balance of the ingredients and the nutrient composition of foods. The scoring system that underpins the UK NPM 2004/05 was based on dietary reference values for children aged 11 to 16 years’ old, but it was subsequently found to be equally applicable to foods and drinks consumed by those over the age of 5 years. The nutritional needs of infants and young children under 5 years differ from those of older children and adults. Therefore. the UK NPM 2004/05 is not currently regarded as suitable to assess commercially available food and drink products that are to be consumed only by children under 5 years, including Alpro Growing Up Milks.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of training of frontline NHS staff on (a) the definition of domestic abuse, (b) how professionals should respond to immediate and long-term risk and (c) the opportunity of perpetrator incarceration in engaging and safeguarding victims in the long term.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All National Health Service staff complete mandatory safeguarding training, which includes a focus on domestic abuse. This training gives staff the skills and knowledge to identify and respond to all forms of domestic abuse, as set out in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which includes physical or sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour, economic abuse, psychological, emotional, or other abuse. All professionals are trained to identify the immediate and long-term risks of domestic abuse using blended learning methods including e-learning, in-person training, and supervision. Patient facing clinicians and staff complete more detailed mandatory safeguarding training, including further domestic abuse training relevant to their role. National mandatory safeguarding training for all NHS staff is being strengthened for launch in early 2026. This will reinforce the safeguarding responsibilities of staff and will support them in identifying and responding to victims of abuse.
We are committed to making sure that those who have experienced violence and abuse can access the support they need, to manage short and long-term risk. We also know that for many survivors, the emotional and psychological aftermath can last long after the abuse itself ends and the perpetrator is incarcerated. Mental health support is one of the vital parts of the road to recovery. Anyone in England experiencing a mental health crisis, including domestic abuse and assault victims, can speak to a trained NHS professional at any time of the day through the mental health option on NHS 111. In addition, the 8,500 mental health workers we are recruiting will be trained to support people experiencing mental health challenges, including those who have experienced violence and abuse. The NHS is also piloting more specialised support and has launched local pathfinder projects for enhanced trauma-informed mental health support for survivors with the most complex needs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of training (a) modules and (b) courses on domestic abuse undertaken by frontline staff were (i) standalone and (ii) integrated with other training programmes broken down by discipline of staff.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Health professionals are trained to identify and respond to domestic abuse using blended learning methods including e-learning, in-person training, and supervision.
It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that staff complete mandatory safeguarding training, which includes a focus on domestic abuse. Level 1 mandatory safeguarding training for all staff is captured on the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Each National Health Service provider holds its own ESR data which is not collated nationally, and therefore the Department does not hold the information requested. Staff will undertake further domestic abuse training relevant to their role.
National mandatory safeguarding training for all NHS staff is being strengthened for launch in early 2026. This will reinforce the safeguarding responsibilities of staff and will support them in identifying and responding to victims of abuse.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social care, whether he has held recent discussions with the African Diaspora Malaria Initiative partnership.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency and the Malaria Reference Laboratory work closely together and are in regular communication with the African Diaspora Malaria Initiative. The initiative is a diaspora-led charitable initiative whose primary objective is the eradication of malaria in the United Kingdom’s African diaspora.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of treating patients who have contracted malaria in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held centrally. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) holds data on all malaria cases diagnosed in the United Kingdom by the Malaria Reference Laboratory and Public Health Scotland. The UKHSA publishes annual reports on malaria in the UK, which are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/malaria-in-the-uk-annual-report
The UKHSA does not collect data on the cost to the National Health Service of treating patients who have contracted malaria.
NHS England captures and publishes aggregated costs, the average unit cost of providing defined services to NHS patients in England, and patient-level costs, a cost based on the specific interactions a patient has and the events related to their healthcare activity, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/costing-in-the-nhs/national-cost-collection/
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of treating patients who have contracted tuberculosis in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held centrally. NHS England captures and publishes aggregated costs, namely the average unit cost of providing defined services to NHS patients in England, and patient-level costs/PLICS, a cost based on the specific interactions a patient has, and the events related to their healthcare activity, which are available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/costing-in-the-nhs/national-cost-collection/
This provides cost information about patients who have been admitted to a hospital for treatment with a primary diagnosis of tuberculosis, rather than patients who have contracted tuberculosis in the last five years.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many admissions there have been to hospital due to (a) treatment-resistant tuberculosis and (b) complications from treatment-resistant tuberculosis in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those admissions were due to tuberculosis contracted outside of the UK.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes in the Hospital Episode Statistics database that would allow treatment-resistant tuberculosis and complications from treatment-resistant tuberculosis to be identified. ICD-10 codes are used to classify and identify diagnoses.
The UK Health Security Agency uses epidemiological tools, such as whole genome sequencing, to better understand the transmission of tuberculosis. However, it is not possible to determine the proportion of the individuals admitted to hospital who contracted tuberculosis outside of the United Kingdom.