Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 develop national guidelines for PICA.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Mid Dunbartonshire on 9 February 2026 to Question 110183.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether decisions on mandatory and additional General Ophthalmic Services contract fees are subject to an Equality Impact Assessment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on mandatory and additional General Ophthalmic Services contract fees are informed by an Equality Impact Assessment, in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 including eligibility for an NHS sight test in the GP learning disability annual health check programme.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Free National Health Service sight tests are provided by community optometrists to eligible groups, including children, people aged 60 years old and over, people on low incomes, and those at risk of diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.
Children and young people with learning disabilities and/or autism are also eligible for free NHS sight tests, where integrated care boards are commissioning a service within a special educational setting.
Adults may qualify under existing exemptions, including being in receipt of income-related benefits or through the NHS low-income scheme.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 trends in the level of inequalities in access to primary eye care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning primary and secondary eye care services to meet the needs of their local population. National Health Service sight tests are widely available across the country, with no known access issues. ICBs can also commission enhanced eye care services in the community.
ICBs are required to work with local authorities to assess the current and future health, care, and wellbeing needs of their local population. They will then set out in joint local health and wellbeing strategies how they will meet those needs, which should include addressing any identified inequalities in accessing services.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the overseas scale rates for employees travelling outside the UK and cost of living pressures.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Where employers reimburse allowable travel expenses, tax relief is available provided the expenses are wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for work purposes.
Ordinarily, employers must hold evidence of the employee’s actual expenditure. However, to reduce administrative burdens on employers, HMRC allows expenses for travel outside the UK to be reimbursed without evidence up to the levels contained within the Overseas Scale Rates.
Where the Overseas Scale rates do not cover the expense incurred by employees, employers can still reimburse and provide tax relief provided they have appropriate evidence.
The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy‑making process.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will conduct a review of overseas scale rates for employees travelling outside the UK.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Where employers reimburse allowable travel expenses, tax relief is available provided the expenses are wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for work purposes.
Ordinarily, employers must hold evidence of the employee’s actual expenditure. However, to reduce administrative burdens on employers, HMRC allows expenses for travel outside the UK to be reimbursed without evidence up to the levels contained within the Overseas Scale Rates.
Where the Overseas Scale rates do not cover the expense incurred by employees, employers can still reimburse and provide tax relief provided they have appropriate evidence.
The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy‑making process.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what percentage of NHS funding was spent on private contacts in each year between 2022 and 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The table attached shows the overview and breakdown of National Health Service spending on non-NHS providers from 2022/23 to 2024/25. The table is taken from the House of Commons Research Briefing on NHS funding and expenditure, using data from the Department’s Care Annual Reports and Accounts, with further information available at the following link:
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00724/SN00724.pdf#
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS services were outsourced to private contracts in Surrey in each year between 2022 and 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning local National Health Services and contracting with providers, including in Surrey. Information is not routinely collected by the Department on the number of services outsourced to private providers in Surrey.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many health visitors were employed by the NHS in England in each year since 2020.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of health visitors working in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England is published monthly by NHS England as part of their NHS Workforce Statistics Collection. The data can be found in the link below within the file: NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations - data tables, December 2025, at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/december-2025
Within this Excel file, the relevant information can be found in Tab 6, titled Nurses and Health Visitors, Midwives and Support to Doctors, Nurses and Midwives by Staff Group, Care Setting and Level – Full Time Equivalent (FTE) and Headcount.
The data includes staff employed by NHS trusts and other core NHS organisations and will therefore exclude staff directly employed by primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers such as community interest companies and private providers.
Local authorities have been responsible for commissioning health visiting services since 2015. These services may be commissioned from NHS trusts as well as other providers. The Department does not hold staffing information for non-NHS providers.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Design for Life roadmap, what progress has been made in reducing NHS equipment wastage.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has been working on reducing waste and its associated carbon since publication of the NHS Clinical Waste Strategy in 2023.
NHS England’s Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) is a mandatory annual data collection for all National Health Service trusts in England that captures waste metrics in waste type tonnages and not specific items of waste. ERIC figures to 2025 show a reduction of 41,000 tonnes of carbon.
The latest reporting year, 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, which covers the period during which the Design for Life Roadmap was launched, in October 2024, saw a reduction of 10,000 tonnes of carbon from waste.
To supplement this work, since publication of the roadmap, the Department has conducted a series of pilots across a range of different medical products and equipment, with most demonstrating waste savings, in carbon terms, from switching to reusable alternatives. The full report can be found on the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s website, who were our partner on these pilots, at the following link:
The Department is building on this work with a dedicated Priority Adoption Working Group, which includes clinical and procurement professionals, to identify the products with the strongest case for safe, immediate transitions to reusables across the NHS, to drive further waste, and cost, savings at scale. NHS England is supporting this work, alongside its own initiatives to reduce the overuse of products and waste. For example, through the Five years of a greener NHS: progress and forward look, the NHS has committed to reduce single-use glove and gown use by 25% by 2030, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/five-years-greener-nhs-progress-forward-look/