Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department will set out the budget to local authorities so they can distribute funding for local Healthwatch services in the 2026/27 financial year.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As advised in the Local Government Bulletin of 7 January, funding for Local Healthwatch arrangements for financial year 2026/27 will be £14.15 million.
As in previous years, this will be paid via the Local Reform and Community Voices grant. The formal grant allocations letter will be issued in due course.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the Model Neighbourhood Framework to be published.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are developing a Neighbourhood Health Partnership Framework and Model Neighbourhood Guidance to provide greater clarity and consistency for systems in developing and scaling neighbourhood health. We expect this guidance to be available in the new year.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
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 the 10-year health plan of the findings of the report by NHS Providers entitled Investing in the NHS: empowering the sector to drive productivity, renewal and growth, published on 15 October 2025 on local authority funding for NHS infrastructure.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work proactively with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and local authorities to reform National Health Service infrastructure in England. The 2025 Autumn Budget confirmed that the Department of Health and Social Care’s capital budgets will rise to £15.2 billion by the end of the Spending Review period of 2029/30, delivering the largest ever health capital budget, as well as medium-term certainty to the sector to enable multi-year planning.
This settlement commits to a major transformation of care delivery, moving from analogue to digital systems, hospital to community-based care, and from treatment to prevention, and also confirmed £300 million additional capital investment in NHS technology which will support NHS productivity improvements. Additionally, this includes the establishment of 250 neighbourhood health centres across England, of which 120 will be operational by 2030. These will be delivered through upgrading and repurposing existing buildings, and building new facilities through a combination of public sector investment and a new model of public-private partnerships. This is being developed by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, supported by the Department of Health and Social Care, and will build on lessons learnt from past and current models and harness private sector expertise to deliver the new neighbourhood health centres.
Additionally, in November 2025, NHS England published the Capital guidance 2026/27 to 2029/30, which introduced several national reforms to the capital regime which addresses several of the recommendations in the report. These include: multi-year operational capital envelopes allocated directly to providers for the first time, providing firm funding until 2029/30 and indicative assumptions for a further five years; a new balance between national control and regional autonomy, giving regions a lead role in strategic estates planning and delivery oversight; expanded capital freedoms and flexibilities, including greater delegated authority and the ability for high-performing providers and newly authorised foundation trusts to reinvest surpluses; streamlined approvals and higher delegated limits, enabling faster delivery of capital schemes; and integration with the 10-Year Health Plan shifts, namely hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention, ensuring that capital investment underpins the long-term transformation of NHS services.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many a) neurologists, b) geriatricians and c) nurses in the NHS have specialist training in Parkinson's.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Department does not hold data specifically on the number of Parkinson’s specialist staff in England, we do hold data on the number of doctors working in the wider specialities of neurology and geriatric medicine. As of August 2025, there were 2,010 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology and 6,284 in geriatric medicine in National Health Service trusts and other organisations in England. This includes 1,025 FTE consultant neurologists and 1,687 FTE consultant geriatricians.
These figures are based on NHS Digital’s workforce data and reflect staff employed by NHS trusts and other core NHS organisations in England. They do not include doctors working in private practice or outside NHS organisations.
The Department does not hold specific data on the number of specialist Parkinson’s nurses currently working in the NHS in England. These roles are commissioned and managed locally by NHS trusts and integrated care boards as part of neurology and movement disorder services.
NHS England has published a service specification for specialised adult neurology services, which includes Parkinson’s disease as part of its scope. This specification sets out requirements for multidisciplinary care, including access to Parkinson’s disease nurse specialists, consultant neurologists, and allied health professionals.
NHS England is also implementing initiatives such as the Neurology Transformation Programme and the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology, which aim to improve access to specialist care, reduce variation, and develop integrated models of service delivery for conditions including Parkinson’s disease. These programmes align with the National Institute for Care Excellence guidance on Parkinson’s disease, reference code NG71, which recommends that people with Parkinson’s have regular access to specialist staff with expertise in the condition.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to reduce the potential impact of (a) Pharmacy First and (b) pricing of NHS drug tariffs on community pharmacies.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that pharmacies are an integral part of the fabric of our communities, as an easily accessible ‘front door’ to the National Health Service, staffed by highly trained and skilled healthcare professionals.
In 2025/26, the funding for the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework was increased to £3.1 billion. This represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the NHS, at over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. There is also additional funding available, for example, for pharmacies delivering Pharmacy First consultations and flu and COVID-19 vaccinations, supporting pharmacies to continue to deliver a full range of services and support for their community.
As is custom and practice, the Department will consult Community Pharmacy England on any proposed changes to future reimbursement and remuneration of pharmacy contractors shortly.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to the Covid-19 vaccination eligibility criteria on (a) clinically vulnerable people who qualified for vaccination in Autumn 2024 and (b) levels of hospital capacity during the 2025–26 cold and flu season.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s policy on groups eligible for vaccination programmes is based on the advice of the independent expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Over time, the risk from COVID-19 has reduced across the United Kingdom population, through exposure to the virus, changes in the virus and vaccination.
The JCVI carefully considered the latest evidence on the risk of illness, serious disease in specific groups, as well as cost-effectiveness analysis, to provide the Government with advice on the autumn 2025 programme. The evidence indicates that whilst the risk from COVID-19 is now much lower for most people, adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and those who are immunosuppressed are those at highest risk of serious COVID-19 disease. A more targeted vaccination programme, aimed at individuals, with a higher risk of developing serious disease, and where vaccination was considered potentially cost-effective, was advised for autumn 2025.
Whilst current COVID-19 vaccines provide good protection against hospitalisation and/or death for those at highest risk, they provide very limited protection against acquiring COVID-19 infection or mild illness, meaning any potential public health benefit of reducing transmission is much less evident.
Long term health consequences following COVID-19 infection, including post-COVID syndromes, such as long COVID, have been discussed at meetings of the JCVI. It remains uncertain whether getting extra COVID-19 vaccine doses has any effect on the chances of developing long COVID, how it progresses, or how it affects people.
The JCVI has proactively published an updated list of Research Recommendations, encouraging future investigations on the exploration of data and evidence on the benefit of vaccination amongst post-COVID syndromes, and those with underlying medical conditions who are not currently eligible.
The JCVI keeps all vaccination programmes under review. Accordingly, the Government will consider any additional advice from the JCVI in due course. Further information on the details of the modelling and analysis considered are within the 2025 and spring 2026 advice, on the GOV.UK website.
Information is collected on hospital bed occupancy and on the reason for hospital admissions. It is, however, not possible to determine which admissions associated with COVID-19 were for individuals who were eligible for vaccination in autumn 2024 but no longer eligible in autumn 2025.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of recognising Essential Tremor as a disability.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Equality Act 2010 defines disability as ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. The Act defines ‘long-term’ in this context as having lasted, or being likely to last for, at least 12 months, or likely to last for the rest of the life of the person.
This could cover individual people who have Essential Tremor, where the condition has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to commission research on (a) essential tremor and (b) other neurological movement disorders.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department delivers research into neurological movement disorders via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). For example, the NIHR is funding the first James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership on essential tremor, which will bring together clinicians and families to understand the current unmet needs in the management and care of this group of patients and the challenges of living with essential tremor.
The NIHR is also funding a phase III trial, investigating the clinical and cost-effectiveness of rivastigmine patches in preventing falls for people with Parkinson’s disease. This approach is complemented by the STEPS II trial, which will determine if daily use of functional electrical stimulation improves walking speed in people with Parkinson’s disease.
Whilst there is no current funding call specifically for neurological movement disorders, the NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care and topics proposals can be submitted via the NIHR website at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/get-involved/suggest-a-research-topic
These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on neurological movement disorders to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of Eli Lilly’s decision to increase the list price of Mounjaro by up to 170 per cent from September 2025 on people using the drug; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people continue to have affordable access to this treatment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As we shift the focus from treatment to prevention through our 10 Year Health Plan, we are determined to bring revolutionary modern treatments to everyone who needs them, not just those who can afford to pay.
NHS England has worked with Eli Lilly to ensure that the list price increase will not affect National Health Service commissioning of tirzepatide in England as a treatment for eligible patients, and we remain committed to the rollout of this medicine as a weight loss treatment based on clinical priority. This will enable 220,000 eligible people to access the medication over the first three years. Not everyone who wants tirzepatide will be able to access it at first, and the initial eligibility criteria will be for people with a body mass index of 40 or more in addition to four or more qualifying comorbidities.
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have also entered equivalent agreements to maintain their current commissioning approaches.
Pricing in the private market is a matter for Eli Lilly and for private providers. Private patients who are impacted by price increases should discuss any concerns with their private provider. This includes their options regarding payment plans, alternative treatments, and/or stopping or tapering off their current medication. Eli Lilly is working with private providers to support continued patient access.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) help tackle supply chain issues relating to (i) Desmopressin and (ii) Hydrocortisone and (b) manage risks for patients who require access to these medications.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of supply issues affecting desmopressin nasal spray for which the Department issued comprehensive communications to healthcare professionals in March 2025. This included advice on alternative medications, such as desmopressin oral products, and on how to manage affected patients during this time. Where alternative medications are not appropriate, the Department has reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed desmopressin nasal spray for patients. Guidance on ordering these is included in the shortage guidance. The Department has highlighted to prescribers the risk of omission or delay in treatment in patients with arginine vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D).
We are also aware of supply issues affecting hydrocortisone sodium phosphate 100mg/1ml solution for injection. Hydrocortisone sodium succinate 100mg powder remains available for patients. We have issued comprehensive management guidance to healthcare professionals on how to manage patients while supply is disrupted. The guidance highlighted the differences between the two hydrocortisone injections. It also included resources for patients and healthcare professionals on how to administer the alternative hydrocortisone injection.
The Department will continue to work closely with the manufacturers to resolve the issues as soon as possible and to ensure patients have continuous access to medicines. Any patient who is worried about their condition should speak to their clinician in the first instance.