Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce waiting times for gender identity services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and NHS England are committed to implementing the recommendations of the Cass Review in full. NHS England developed an ambitious two-year action plan which sets out how they will continue to transform and improve gender services, helping to tackle waiting lists, whilst ensuring safe and holistic care.
NHS England has opened three children and young people’s gender services in the North-West, London, and Bristol. A fourth East of England service will open later this year. These services operate under a fundamentally different model and embed multi-disciplinary teams in specialist children’s hospitals. The Government is pleased to say that these services have begun seeing patients from the national waiting list.
NHS England remains on schedule to deliver a gender clinic in each region of England by 2026, helping to improve the care offered to children and young people with gender dysphoria and/or incongruence.
The Government is also working to bring down waiting lists and improve care offered in adult gender services. NHS England has increased the number of adult gender dysphoria clinics in England from seven to 12, with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics since July 2020. Furthermore, NHS England is currently carrying out a review of adult gender services, with the aim of producing an updated service specification. The review, which is chaired by Dr David Levy, will examine the model of care and operating procedures of each service, and will carefully consider experiences, feedback, and outcomes from clinicians and patients.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
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 impact of the decision to disestablish NHS England on plans to establish six new regional gender identity hubs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The abolition of NHS England will strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy and cut the duplication that comes from having two organisations doing the same job. We will empower staff to focus on delivering better care for patients, driving productivity up and getting waiting times down.
The Government and NHS England are committed to implementing the recommendations of the Cass Review in full. NHS England has developed a two-year action plan which sets out how it will improve the specialist NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Services, helping to tackle waiting lists, whilst ensuring safe and holistic care. This includes establishing new gender services in each region of England.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
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 impact of the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd (Appellant) v The Scottish Ministers (Respondent) [2025] UKSC 16 on transgender people accessing NHS services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides a comprehensive service, available to all patients including transgender patients. This principle is established as part of the NHS Constitution and the Supreme Court ruling does not impact this commitment.
We are clear that all patients should feel comfortable and confident to access the services they need. Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by the Government, and trusts should follow the clarity the recent Supreme Court ruling in the For Women Scotland case provides.
The NHS is currently reviewing its ‘Delivering same-sex accommodation’ guidance. Ministers have been clear that this needs to be done as soon as possible and we will be working closely with the NHS to ensure we provide NHS organisations with the guidance they need.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of integrating chiropractic care into the National Musculoskeletal health strategy.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England does not nationally commission chiropractic care as it is a complementary and alternative medicine. There are no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of integrating chiropractic care into centrally commissioned National Health Service care.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
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 blind and partially sighted people have access to health information in an accessible format.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Equality Act 2010, health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard which details the approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment or sensory loss, including blind and partially sighted people. NHS England has been undertaking a review of the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What progress her Department has made on improving access to GP appointments.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
Thanks to the efforts of superb GPs up and down the country, in England there is now a record additional 50 million appointments per year being made available.
Our Primary Care Recovery Plan for England is focussed on improving access for patients and reducing bureaucracy for GPs.
Health is devolved to Scotland and I’m sure the honourable lady will use our excellent record to challenge SNP Ministers on their performance.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times he has used powers to direct NHS England under section 45 of the Health and Care Act 2022; and in what context those powers were used.
Answered by Will Quince
Following the transfer of functions from NHS Digital in February, section 13ZC of the NHS Act 2006 (as inserted by section 45 of the Health and Care Act 2022) has been used to direct NHS England on its functions relating to information systems.
Two directions in relation to establishing new information systems have been given, and existing directions previously given to NHS Digital, and now treated as given to NHS England, have been amended. These, and future directions relating to information systems, are available at the following link:
The Secretary of State has not issued directions under section 13ZC in relation to any other matters.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on recruitment consultants in each of the last three years.
Answered by Will Quince
The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on head-hunters in each of the last three years.
Answered by Will Quince
The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse has been of Ministerial severance pay in his Department in each year since 1 January 2016.
Answered by Will Quince
The provision of severance payments for Ministers is set out in legislation. Details of the severance payments made to Ministers on leaving office are published in the Department’s Annual Reports and Accounts.