Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a full list of specialised services currently commissioned by NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The list of specialised services currently commissioned by NHS England is available on the NHS England website, in the worksheet entitled Service Code, with column M indicating whether the service is commissioned by NHS England or an integrated care board (ICB), with the word GREEN indicating an ICB and RED indicating NHS England, at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-england-service-codes/
Further information on each of the services is available on the NHS England website via the Prescribed Specialised Services Manual, at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/PRN00115-prescribed-specialised-services-manual-v6.pdf
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a list of which highly specialised services will no longer be commissioned nationally after the abolition of NHS England and will instead be commissioned (a) regionally and (b) locally.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and to plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions, and responsibilities, including specialised commissioning.
It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate, and associated announcements will be made at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will list which highly specialised services will continue to be commissioned nationally after the abolition of NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and to plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions, and responsibilities, including specialised commissioning.
It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate, and associated announcements will be made at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how highly specialised services will be commissioned nationally following the abolition of NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and to plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions, and responsibilities, including specialised commissioning.
It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate, and associated announcements will be made at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
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 national-level (a) strategic planning and 9b) quality assurance for highly specialised services following the abolition of NHS England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and to plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions, and responsibilities, including specialised commissioning.
It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate, and associated announcements will be made at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 22 May 2025 on Childhood Obesity, HCWS652, what steps he is taking to ensure that the final non-statutory guidance issued by the Advertising Standards Authority protects children from unhealthy food and drink advertising.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. These restrictions are expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from United Kingdom children’s diets per year and deliver £2 billion in health benefits.
Ofcom was appointed as the statutory regulator for the advertising restrictions and this was set out in primary legislation via the Health and Care Act 2022. Following consultation, Ofcom appointed the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as the frontline regulator.
The ASA is developing non-statutory implementation guidance to set out how it will enforce the restrictions in practice. The ASA is required by law to consult my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on its implementation guidance ahead of publication.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
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 potential implications for his Department’s policies of the document by Trussell entitled Cost of Hunger and Hardship - final report, published on 30 April 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hunger and poor nutrition are devastating for society - especially children. We are determined to raise the healthiest ever generation, which is why the Government is expanding free school meals, rolling out breakfast clubs and supporting those in need through the Healthy Start scheme. Our Child Poverty Strategy will tackle root causes, to give children the best start in life.Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Care Quality Commission on reducing the waiting time for the re-inspection of healthcare providers rated as requiring improvement.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Departmental officials meet fortnightly with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to discuss measures CQC have put in place to address among other issues, delays in the production of inspection reports and initial inspection and reinspection.
As part of this process, the CQC provides fortnightly updates to senior Departmental officials on the work it is doing to improve and ensure it has robust systems in place to support the changes it is making to deliver its assessment activity of the providers it regulates. This increased reporting to, and oversight from, the Department also allows the level of risk across the CQC’s delivery to be monitored at a senior level.
Delays to the CQC’s inspection activities are partially due to failures of its IT systems. The CQC has accepted recommendations of the independent review into the CQC’s technology which was published in March 2025 and is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/independent-review-cqc-technology-published
The CQC is currently working to review options for alternative methods of inspection report publication while work is carried out to make necessary changes to its IT systems.
The introduction of a ‘hybrid’ approach which launched on 2 December 2024 aims to streamline the existing process by discontinuing scoring at the evidence category level and instead reporting at the quality statement level. This change is intended to improve efficiency for CQC staff. In addition, efforts are underway to address the backlog of ‘stuck’ assessments within the system. As of 24 April 2025, the current number of ‘stuck’ assessments is 52, a reduction of 448.
Work continues to further lower this number and to strengthen the monitoring and management of assessment delays.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to implement the Digital Redbook nationally.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to transforming the way we deliver healthcare for parents and children and supporting the best start in life; digitisation of records is a key enabler of this.
The Department is working closely with officials in NHS England to ensure that plans for digitising the red book align with wider, ambitious plans for digitisation of patient records across the National Health Service. This will mean we deliver the benefits of a seamless experience for families as they access and manage their own health records and those of their children through the NHS App. Further information will be available in due course on the measures we are taking to deliver digital records for children.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Digital Redbook pilot in London.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The eRedbook product was commissioned by NHS England (London) for several years. A comprehensive evaluation was not undertaken, although registration volumes were reported. This has informed our ambition of a digital service to help parents and professionals access information and services to give children the best start in life. The NHS App will be central to delivering this ambition.