Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 help tackle sex-selective abortion and infanticide.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to work with providers to ensure abortions are only performed in accordance with the legal grounds set out by the Abortion Act. Sex is not itself a lawful ground for termination of pregnancy in England and Wales and it is illegal for a practitioner to carry out an abortion for that reason alone.
Under section 1 of the Infanticide Act 1938, it is infanticide rather than murder if a woman causes the death of her child under 12 months in age and at the time of the act the balance of her mind was disturbed by not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth. The infanticide offence is currently being considered by the Law Commission as part of their review of homicide offences and sentencing for murder.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 help ensure that Government funding for public health is not use to promote disinformation about vaccines.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service bodies and upper tier and unitary local authorities in England are responsible for making effective, appropriate use of the resources allocated to them, including funding for public health. Local authorities receive a Public Health Grant from the Department, totalling £3.884 billion in 2025/26. This grant, other than funding allocated to Greater Manchester authorities via their retained business rate arrangement, is ring-fenced for use on public health functions, and the local authority Director of Public Health must certify annually that the funding has been used for appropriate purposes. NHS England commissions national NHS public health services, including national immunisation programmes. It does so to evidence-based standards and is accountable for performance to the Department.
The Government is focused on combating vaccine misinformation as part of its 10-Year Health Plan, working with local authorities and community groups to support vaccine trust.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 20 October 2025 to Question 78182 on Retail Trade: Planning Permission, whether the proposing licensing regime for the retail sale of vaping products will regulate the (a) number and (b) cumulative impact of vaping shops that are permitted to operate in a locality.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 8 October 2025, we launched a Call for Evidence to gather views on a range of topics related to tobacco, vapes, and nicotine products, including the implementation of the proposed licensing scheme for the retail sale of these products. The Call for Evidence asks detailed questions, including on factors that should be taken into consideration when making decisions on the granting of a premises licence, such as the location and density of retailers. We welcome feedback on the questions in the Call for Evidence.
The evidence gathered will be used to inform the development of the licensing scheme, and we will launch a subsequent consultation on our policy proposals before bringing forward secondary legislation. The Call for Evidence is available at the following link:
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 16 September 2025 to Question 75606 on Community Development: English Language, what estimate he has made of the cost of providing English language support in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the cost of providing English language interpretation and translation services for the 2024/25 financial year and the 2025/26 financial year to date:
Financial year | Amount |
2024/25 | £9,834 |
2025/26 | £28,619 |
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 impact of banning vaping inside pubs on the economic viability of community pubs.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill provides the Government with powers to make most public places and workplaces that are smoke-free also vape-free.
Many businesses and enclosed public places, including pubs, already have voluntary schemes in place to prohibit vape usage inside their premises. We plan to consult on making most indoor settings, that are subject to existing smoke-free legislation, vape free.
Exactly which settings should become vape-free will be a matter for secondary legislation and will be subject to a full consultation. We will undertake full impact assessments before any regulations are made, including the likely impact on businesses.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many civil servants in his Department are working on the Independent commission into adult social care; whether any (a) Commissioners and (b) other external appointees have been (i) appointed and (ii) assigned to support the work of the Commission; and what the budget for the Commission is in the current financial year.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is a total of ten officials assigned to work on the Independent Commission into adult social care (the Commission). Eight are employed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and two by the Cabinet Office. There are a further four officials working in the Commission’s sponsorship function based in DHSC.
There are currently no Commissioners appointed, and one external individual has been hired as contingent labour to support the work of the Commission.
As the Commission is independent, the secretariat may expand as it carries out its work, and as Baroness Casey considers what further skills and expertise she needs.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to reply to the correspondence from the Rt hon. Member for Braintree of 27 August 2025.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I have received the hon. Member’s letter and I have responded.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department provided to Kent County Council for public health activities in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26; and whether the Council is required to use those funds to promote child vaccinations.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care allocated public health funding to Kent County Council of £86.6 million in 2024/25 and £91.3 million in 2025/26, which consists of:
Total DHSC Public Health Funding to Kent County Council, £ | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
Public Health Grant | 77,308,935 | 82,039,842 |
Drugs and Alcohol Treatment and recovering funding1 | 5,570,725 | 5,584,314 |
Start for Life Grant | 1,755,000 | 1,799,600 |
Stop Smoking Services | 1,944,823 | 1,891,779 |
Total | 86,579,483 | 91,315,535 |
[1] Includes contributions from the Department for Work and Pensions for individual placement and support funding and from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for rough sleeping drug and alcohol treatment funding which are transferred to the Department of Health and Social Care, and paid out via Department of Health and Social Care grants.
Core funding for local authorities’ public health responsibilities is provided through the Public Health Grant. Local authorities are responsible for deciding how best to use this funding in support of their public health responsibilities. There is no specific requirement for them to use it to support access to National Health Service childhood immunisations, but local authority funded services may play an active role in promoting uptake of childhood vaccinations – for example through local authority-commissioned health visiting services that may advise parents on childhood vaccinations.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 help mitigate the loss of the AI auto-contouring technology tool for cancer treatment planning.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including artificial intelligence where it is beneficial to do so.
As the Department focuses on shifting from analogue to digital, we will continue to review opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to speed up diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and ultimately improve patient care and outcomes.
Furthermore, any future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the withdrawal of funding for AI auto-contouring technology on patient care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including artificial intelligence where it is beneficial to do so.
As the Department focuses on shifting from analogue to digital, we will continue to review opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to speed up diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and ultimately improve patient care and outcomes.
Furthermore, any future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.