Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
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 ensure that all bereaved parents who need specialist psychological support following (a) pregnancy and (b) baby loss can access it (i) at any time and (ii) free of charge through the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Experiencing pregnancy or baby loss can be extremely difficult and traumatic. We are determined to make sure all bereaved parents, regardless of where they live, have access to specialist psychological support, free of charge through the National Health Service.
Following the loss of a baby, all parents should receive timely, equitable, and culturally competent care. To support this, NHS England has provided funding to all integrated care boards to establish seven-day-a-week bereavement services across maternity settings in England, so that support is always available when families need it most. Currently, 38 out of 42 integrated care boards offer a seven day a week bereavement service, with coverage in 115 out of 120 trusts.
Every trust in England has signed up to the National Bereavement Care Pathway. This pathway is designed to improve the quality and consistency of bereavement care for parents and families experiencing pregnancy or baby loss. NHS England is working closely with Sands to agree what steps are necessary to support faster and more consistent implementation of the pathway so that all parents, no matter where they are, receive the support they need at such a difficult time.
As of July 2025, maternal mental health services are now available in all areas of England. These services provide specialist psychological support for women with moderate/severe or complex mental health difficulties arising from birth trauma or baby loss. More mothers than ever before, including those sadly affected by the loss of their baby or child, were able to access maternal mental health services or specialist community perinatal mental health services in the year to April 2025.
Fathers and partners can receive evidence-based assessments and support through specialist perinatal mental health services, and some NHS trusts also work with Home Start UK’s Dad Matters project to support paternal mental health. Where mothers and partners may have a need for mental health support, but it is not a moderate or severe mental health condition, it is important they can be signposted to other forms of support through their general practitioner and NHS Talking Therapies.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England will include (a) targets to improve the early diagnosis of (i) myeloma and (ii) other blood cancers, and steps to (b) reduce the number of GP visits prior to diagnosis and (c) the proportion of patients diagnosed via emergency departments.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early diagnosis is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancers, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes.
To tackle the late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancers earlier and treating them faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and driving up this country’s cancer survival rates. The Plan will be published in early 2026.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of how many and what proportion of patients aged over 75 presenting at A&E in England were screened for delirium in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not available centrally.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the (a) the number and (b) the percentage of people over 60 presenting at A&E who waited over 12 hours to be (a) transferred, (b) admitted or (c) discharged in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes data on the number of accident and emergency attendances and admissions by age. Data is also published on 12-hour accident and emergency attendances, although this is not available by age.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of how many and what proportion of patients aged over 75 presenting at A&E in England were screened to assess their risk of falling in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not available centrally.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of how many and what proportion of patients aged over 75 presenting at A&E in England were screened for general frailty in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not available centrally.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
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 improve diabetes (a) prevention, (b) care and (c) treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Preventing diabetes is a complex task, and requires multi-faceted action. Prevention involves collaboration in order to tackle the underlying issues such obesity, poor diets, and lifestyle issues. We have several programmes in place to help reduce the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, such as the NHS Health Check, England’s flagship cardiovascular disease programme for those aged 40 to 74 years old, which aims to identify people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes as well as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and some cases of dementia, in order to signpost them to behavioural support such as weight management and clinical treatment if needed.
Furthermore, those identified of being at risk of developing type 2 diabetes can be referred to the Healthier You NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, a nine-month programme that supports people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes to reduce their risk through changing their behavior. The programme is highly effective, cutting the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 37% for people completing the programme, compared to those who do not attend.
For those young adults, those aged 18 years old and over, who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and who are overweight or obese, the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission Programme is also available. The programme supports individuals to lose weight, improve their blood sugar levels, reduce diabetes-related medication, and put their diabetes into remission. 32% of patients who completed this programme had put their type 2 diabetes into remission following participation. Further information on the programme is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/diabetes/treatment-care/diabetes-remission/
For patients with established diabetes, NHS England achieved their long-term plan objective that 20% of all type 1 diabetes patients are in receipt of flash glucose monitoring as of April 2021. Progress continues to be made for patients with type 1 diabetes, with over 65% of people currently using flash glucose monitoring to help manage their condition. NHS England can confirm that over 200,000 eligible people living with diabetes benefit from real-time continuous glucose monitoring.
Furthermore, following the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) recommendations on access to hybrid closed loop (HCL) technology last year, NICE and NHS England agreed on a phased implementation period for HCL over five-years, with roll-out commencing in April 2024.
All adults with diabetes are recommended, as prescribed by NICE, to enroll in the eight annual health checks, which include: blood sugars (HbA1c); blood pressure; cholesterol; foot examination; kidney function; urinary albumin; body mass index; and smoking. Adherence to these checks have been associated with reduced emergency admissions, amputations, retinopathy, and mortality. The proportion of people with type 1 diabetes who are receiving all eight care processes had recovered back to 43.3% in 2023/24 and 62.3% for type 2 diabetes, compared to 27% and 37%, respectively, in 2020/21.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the the amount of money that has been paid to private clinics for delivering NHS cataract surgery in each of the last six years; and how much of the amount identified represented profit for the companies involved.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Independent providers play an important role supporting the National Health Service to deliver eyecare services, ensuring patients receive the treatment and care they need.
The data is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to extend the Nursery Milk Scheme entitlement to the end of the academic year in which a child turns five.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursery Milk Scheme is a statutory scheme which allows early years childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five who attend a setting for two or more hours per day. Schools can claim reimbursement from the scheme in respect of their pupils aged under five years old.
There are no plans to extend eligibility for the Nursery Milk Scheme to cover children until the end of the academic year, during which they reach their fifth birthday. Separate legislation allows pupils from lower-income families, and who are eligible for free school meals, to continue to receive free milk at school after the age of five years old.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of NHS hospital trusts unable to deliver comprehensive eyecare services to (a) adults and (b) children.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning secondary eye care services to meet local population need. Appropriate levels of staffing are decided by local system workforce planning.
We recognise the challenges facing secondary eye care services. NHS England has been testing how IT connectivity can improve the triage and referral of patients between primary and secondary care, and how to allow more patients to be managed in the community, increasing secondary eye care capacity.