To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Autism: Children
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce waiting times for autism spectrum disorder assessments for children.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to have due regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on autism, when commissioning services. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, in line with these NICE guidelines.

In 2023 NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for all age autism diagnostic assessment services. This guidance will help the National Health Service improve all age autism assessment services and improve the experience for people referred to an autism assessment service.

We have invested in improving autism assessment services over recent years, including £2.5 million in 2022/23 to support local areas with improvements in autism assessment pathways. For 2023/2024, £4.2 million of funding is available across England to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.

NHS England publishes quarterly data on how many people are waiting for an autism assessment and for how long. While these are experimental statistics, the data does provide useful information nationally and locally, to support local areas in improving their performance and reducing assessment waiting times.

Each ICB in England is expected to have an Executive Lead for learning disability and autism, supporting the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of people with a learning disability and autism, including in relation to appropriate autism assessment pathways. NHS England has published guidance on these roles.


Written Question
Autism: Children
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children are waiting for (a) an assessment and (b) a diagnosis for autism spectrum disorder.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The latest autism assessment waiting times data drawn from the Mental Health Services Dataset was published on 14 March 2024. This data showed that the number of people aged zero to 17 years old with an open referral for suspected autism was 102,024 in December 2023. The data also showed that, in December 2023, 6.3% of patients, or 5,443 patients, aged zero to 17 years old received a first contact appointment within 13 weeks.

Data on children and young people in this dataset is expected to be an underestimate. Caution should be used when interpreting these statistics since they are experimental rather than official statistics. The majority of children assessed for autism in the United Kingdom are seen in child development services, which are out of the scope of this dataset. This means the published figures will underestimate the volume of referrals or diagnoses and the associated impact on health services. NHS England continue to conduct exploratory analysis into the Community Services Dataset, with a view to include autism waiting times data from this dataset. This should improve the coverage of this data.


Written Question
Mobile Phones: Health Hazards
Tuesday 5th March 2024

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will ask the Chief Medical Officers to update their review of the potential impact of mobile phone usage from a young age on children's development.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education recently reviewed the evidence, and found that there is still no clear scientific consensus of a negative impact of screentime and social media use on the mental health, or neurological or functional development of children and young people, and concerns are generally not supported through population-level data. Whilst further research is needed to better understand these issues, there are no plans to ask the Chief Medical Officers to update their review.


Written Question
Sodium Valproate and Surgical Mesh Implants: Compensation
Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the report by the Patient Safety Commissioner entitled The Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published on 7 February 2024.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations and will respond substantively in due course.


Written Question
Electronic Cigarettes
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what NHS support is available for people wanting to give up vaping.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Vaping can be an effective tool for adult smokers to quit smoking. However, the health advice is clear: if you don’t smoke, don’t vape, and children should never vape. The NHS Better Health website provides advice for people who want to quit vaping. Local stop smoking services can also provide resources to support children and adult vapers to quit, through funding from the public health grant. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/

In addition, the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training has produced guidance for local Stop Smoking Service staff on how best to support vapers to quit. We are also exploring further ways to support people to quit vaping, as part of the national Swap to Stop programme. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.ncsct.co.uk/publications/Support_stop_vaping


Written Question
Department of Health and Social Care: Correspondence
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2023 to Question 5802 on Department of Health and Social Care: Correspondence, for what reason has a response not been provided within the statutory timeframe; and what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report prepared by Coroner Andrew Cox on 23 November 2023.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We apologise for the delay in replying to the coroner. The Department is preparing its response to this Regulation 28 report as a matter of urgency. It is within the Chief Coroner’s discretion to publish the report, together with the Department’s response.

Prevention of Future Deaths reports are an important part of our broader system for learning from deaths, as they help to identify themes to inform improved guidance, regular learning, and the development of our policies more generally.

The Department ensures that relevant regulators and other bodies are aware of the matters of concern brought to its attention, so that the system can respond as appropriate. We are working closely with NHS England and other partners in the health system to support healthcare professionals.


Written Question
Department of Health and Social Care: Correspondence
Tuesday 12th December 2023

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will respond to the letter from Andrew Cox, Senior Coroner for the coroner area of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, of 23 November 2023 on matters revealed by inquests giving rise to concern.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Department will respond to the Regulation 28 report issued by Coroner Cox within the statutory timeframe.


Written Question
Retrograde Cricopharyngeus Dysfunction: Medical Treatments
Tuesday 12th December 2023

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of offering Retrograde Cricopharyngeus Dysfunction treatment on the NHS.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are currently no licensed medicines for use in the treatment of Retrograde Cricopharyngeus Dysfunction. Healthcare professionals are responsible for making decisions on the treatment of individual patients.


Written Question
Dental Services: Cornwall
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of NHS dental provision in Cornwall.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We acknowledge that there are additional pressures facing National Health Service dental services in certain parts of the country, including in the South-West of England.

From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to involve patient groups, and for undertaking oral health needs assessments, to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment. NHS England has been working with ICB partners on the South-West Dental Reform Programme and have commissioned additional urgent dental care appointments that people can access via NHS 111.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32.

In July 2022, we announced a package of reforms to improve access to NHS dentistry, which outlined the steps we are taking to meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care. But we know we need to do more, including in some areas where access is particularly problematic. We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will be published shortly.


Written Question
Members: Correspondence
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for the Lords) plans to reply to the correspondence from the the hon. Member for St Ives of 29 September 2023 on gaining consents under legal charges from NHS bodies.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lord Markham) replied to the hon. Member on 17 November 2023.