Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of (a) the prevalence of respiratory disease and (b) the number of emergency hospital admissions for respiratory conditions in South Shields constituency compared with national averages; what steps he is taking to ensure that respiratory health is prioritised; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a Modern Service Framework for respiratory care.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government will consider long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks (MSFs), including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future MSFs will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. After the initial wave of MSFs is complete, the National Quality Board will determine the conditions to prioritise for new MSFs as part of its work programme.

Data is available for emergency Finished Admission Episodes (FAEs) where there was a primary diagnosis of 'respiratory conditions’. The following table shows the number of FAEs for South Shields and England where there was a primary diagnosis of 'respiratory conditions’, for activity in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector, for 2024/25 and provisionally for 2025/26:

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS England.

Available data on trends in respiratory conditions can be found on the Department’s fingertips dataset. Data is not available by parliamentary constituency. Data is available at regional, county, unitary authority, and integrated care board level. Information for South Tyneside can be found at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/Respiratory#page/1/gid/1/pat/15/ati/502/are/E08000023/iid/40701/age/163/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1

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 merits of a respiratory Modern Service Framework, in the context of (a) NHS winter pressures and (b) health outcomes for long-term respiratory conditions and short-term respiratory illnesses such as flu.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government will consider long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks (MSFs), including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future MSFs will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. After the initial wave of MSFs is complete, the National Quality Board will determine the conditions to prioritise for new MSFs as part of its work programme. There has not, therefore, been a specific assessment made in relation to winter pressures.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will instruct the UK Health and Security Agency to add service personnel (a) who flew atomic surveillance missions and (b) for whom he recently extended the eligibility criteria for the Nuclear Test Medal to the long-term Government study into the mortality of nuclear veterans.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

This Government has reset the relationship with Nuclear Test Veterans and the organisations that support them. We remain committed to listening to their concerns and working collaboratively to address them.

In consultation with scientists at the UK Health Security Agency, we have established that it is not possible to add new individuals to the Nuclear Test Veteran longitudinal studies without biasing or affecting the results of the fifth and final analysis. It is important that these studies are carried out to the highest standards, therefore no new individuals have been added to the cohorts.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the recent declassification of the Merlin database and file reference ES 38/ZGWGV, whether service personnel took part in a mission to sample the Soviet nuclear weapon known as Tsar Bomba.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The information in ES38/ZGWGV suggests that Service personnel were involved in at least one sampling sortie after the Tsar Bomba test in October 1961. However, the unit records from this time are now held by The National Archives, and it is not possible to complete a full search without incurring disproportionate cost. No further information is held by the Ministry of Defence.

World Social Work Day 2026

Right To Food UK Commission

Marie Curie Great Daffodil Appeal 2026

Found: Members present: Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Chair); Mr Calvin Bailey; Alex Baker; Lincoln Jopp; Emma Lewell

Found: Durham North East Sam Rushworth Westoe Crown Primary School NE33 3NS South Tyneside North East Emma Lewell

Found: Durham North East Sam Rushworth Westoe Crown Primary School NE33 3NS South Tyneside North East Emma Lewell