Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 26 of the National Security Strategy 2025, published on 24 June 2025, who will be responsible for the creation of a National Action Plan on confronting Antimicrobial Resistance.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A cross-government National Action Plan (NAP) to confront antimicrobial resistance (AMR) exists. The NAP, covering 2024 to 2029, was published on 8 May 2024, and is available at the following link:
It is the second of four five-year NAPs that the United Kingdom Government committed to developing in order to deliver its 20-year vision that AMR is contained, controlled, and mitigated by 2040.
The content of this NAP was developed by the Department in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders across different sectors and the four UK nations. This allowed the NAP to take a One Health approach, encompassing cross-sector activity to drive collaborative and innovative action.
Organisations responsible for delivery provide regular updates to the Department, and the appropriate governance structures ensure delivery is kept on track and that progress is being made on the NAP’s commitments and targets.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on reducing trial approval times to under 150 days.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to cutting the current time it takes to get a clinical trial set up, to under 150 days by March 2026 with the aim of making the United Kingdom a world leader in clinical trials. We are streamlining the set-up and delivery of clinical research through the UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD) programme as set out in our recent publication, Transforming the UK clinical research system: August 2025 update, which is available at the following link:
The UKCRD programme has rapidly implemented a Study Set-Up Plan, co-led by the Department and NHS England to address the delays affecting clinical research set-up through reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, by standardising commercial contracts and removing duplicative steps at sites to create a standardised pathway, for example in pharmacy set-up, to free up workforce capacity. The second phase of the Plan was completed in June 2025, with mandatory use of the new processes and templates for commercial trials by October 2025. The successful implementation of the Plan will be closely monitored for impact.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many days were lost to sickness absence by civil servants in their Department (a) in total and (b) on average per employee between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns, is published annually, and is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence
The next update will be for the year ending 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
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 level of available resource within the NHS of (a) resident doctors, (b) consultants and (c) nurses in the event of strike action.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service makes every effort through rigorous contingency planning to minimise disruption as a result of industrial action and its impact on patients and the public. Assessments are made by local Trusts about the level of resourcing, and they can escalate via regions and nationally, where appropriate.
NHS staff are not obliged to inform their employer that they will be taking part in strike action ahead of strike action taking place.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on creating the world’s most (a) advanced, (b) secure and (c) AI-ready health data platform.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 7 April 2025, the Prime Minister announced that the Government and the Wellcome Trust will invest up to £600 million to create a new Health Data Research Service (HDRS), co-designed through engagement with the public and patients, data users and stakeholder organisations.
Significant progress has been made since then towards the creation of HDRS, as highlighted in the recent NHS England blog post from the senior officials responsible for the programme, which is available at the following link:
Key achievements to date include: job adverts going live for CEO and Chair; stakeholder engagement forums established; and coordinated commitments in three major Government strategy publications, namely the Industrial Strategy, 10-Year Health Plan and Life Sciences Sector Plan.
Over the coming months, we will establish the independent organisation that will run HDRS and complete detailed discovery work. In autumn 2025, we will publish comprehensive policy principles developed with leading experts across healthcare, research, patients, ethics and data protection. Our first services will launch by the end of 2026, with core capabilities rolling out progressively.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many instances of clinical negligence in which NHS Resolution paid damages there were in each clinical speciality in the (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Resolution manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England.
The attached tables show the number of clinical negligence claims where at least one payment has been incurred between 2023/24 and 2024/25, broken down by year and primary specialty. Payments cover damages, claimant costs, and defence costs, while low figures have been supressed to protect claimant identity.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost to the public purse is for (a) clinical negligence and (b) other claims against the National Health Service in England paid out by NHS Resolution in the (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25 financial year, broken down by speciality.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Resolution manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England.
The attached tables show the total payments for clinical negligence claims and non-clinical negligence claims between 2023/24 and 2024/25, broken down by year and primary specialty. NHS Resolution has included all specialties as listed in the published Annual Reports and Accounts.
It has also suppressed low figures given the sensitive and confidential nature of the information held. In some instances, with the low numbers of claims, namely fewer than five, in each category, the likelihood exists that individuals who are the subject of this information may be identified either from this information alone, or in combination with other available information.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress has been made in digitising patient records systems in North-West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The North-West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust is collaborating urgently with NHS England regional and national colleagues on an investment case for the procurement of a modern, enterprise-wide electronic patient record system, to advance the organisation's digital maturity in line with the national Digital Capability Framework and the requirements of the 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the 44 double-vehicle electrical chargepoints planned by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust will be in Huntingdon constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
62 National Health Service trusts were awarded funding from the £8 million NHS Chargepoint Accelerator Scheme to install electric vehicle chargepoints across over 200 NHS sites.
The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust was awarded £219,332 to install chargepoints across nine sites. None were in the Huntingdon constituency.
Sites were put forward by trusts according to clinical and operational decisions on the roll out of electric vehicles within their fleet, and factors such as cost and feasibility of installation.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
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 level of the increase in the NHS backlog at Hinchingbrooke Hospital following strike action by resident doctors in July 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has not made a formal estimate of the level of increases in NHS waiting lists at individual hospital site level.
NHS England regularly publishes its Referral to Treatment Waiting Times every month, which are available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2025-26/. This data goes down to provider level, but not individual hospital site level.