Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 cost of (a) implementation for GP practices and (b) operation of the online appointment booking system introduced for GP practices in October 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
General practices (GPs) have been required to offer and promote an online consultation tool to their registered patients since 2021.
The change introduced in October 2025 regarding online access will mean explicitly requiring that all modes of contacting the practice are available at least during core hours, from 08:00 to 18:30. This means parity for walk-in, phone, and online access. This requirement builds on policies that have been in place for several years to encourage the shift to modern GPs. Practices that consistently use online access have reported improvements in services for both patients and staff, support timely access to care, and enhance productivity for patients.
The National Health Service provided extensive support to practices in the lead up to the introduction of these requirements and continues to do so. This includes reaching out to any practices that are struggling to help them to prepare, including providing guidance, webinars, case studies, and bringing in GP practitioners and practice staff who are experts in service redesign and improvement in GPs.
NHS England has provided a total of £71 million in funding for practices to procure high-quality online consultation, messaging, and appointment booking tools. An additional £88 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 was provided for transition cover and transformation support for practices to implement these new systems.
We are also investing an additional £1.1 billion in GPs to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, this is the biggest cash increase in over a decade.
The percentage of patients who said that it was easy to contact their GP increased from 61% in August 2024, to 74% in October 2025 according to the Office for National Statistics Health Insight Survey.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 the collection of data on triple-negative breast cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on triple negative breast cancer for England is collected through the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS). An NDRS Quality Assurance Team is in place to identify, investigate, and monitor data quality issues, with over 130 Quality Assurance reports being run each month as well as quarterly reports to assess the completeness of key data.
To drive up the completeness of the data, progesterone receptor status, human epidermal growth factor receptor in situ hybridization status, and oestrogen receptor status are assessed as part of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Data set, which supports national registration.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 allowing appropriately skilled professionals using a competency-based framework to undertake Initial Health Assessments.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are responsible for making sure a health assessment of physical, emotional and mental health needs is carried out for every child they look after, regardless of where that child lives. Integrated care boards (ICBs) commission a health provider to undertake initial health assessments (IHAs). The service specification for this service is aligned to the current Children Act 1989 regulations.
The regulations for health assessments are set out in the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010, the Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations colume 2: care planning, placement and case review and supported within the statutory guidance Promoting the health and wellbeing of looked-after children.
Regulation 7(3) of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 states that IHAs are required to be undertaken within twenty days of a child coming into the care of the local authority. The current regulations for the Children Act 1989 state that the IHA should be undertaken by a registered medical practitioner.
This is different to a review health assessment, which may be carried out by a registered medical practitioner, or by a registered nurse or registered midwife, under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner, as stated in regulation 7(3).
No assessment has been made on the potential merits of allowing additional appropriately skilled professionals using a competency-based framework to undertake IHAs.
If IHAs are not happening on time, ICBs are the first line of statutory safeguarding assurance, which includes identifying early warning signs and responding to risks at local levels. NHS England, through ICBs, also undertake annual checks on how safeguarding, and other statutory commitments, are working in practice and across the system. NHS England is working with ICBs to improve the timeliness of IHAs and review health assessments.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken for occupational therapy a) assessments and b) reassessments.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for the commissioning Occupational Therapy services that meet the needs of their local populations. This includes overseeing waiting lists for access to Occupational Therapy services, improve outcomes and deliver best value from the health budget.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 access to specialist endometriosis services for young people aged 17 and under.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that girls and women deserve better, which is why we are renewing the Women’s Health Strategy, to assess the progress that has been made so far and to continue progressing delivery while empowering women with information about heavy menstrual bleeding and reproductive health conditions.
All hospitals providing specialised care and treatment for endometriosis for patients aged 17 and under must have a paediatric gynaecologist as part of their multi-disciplinary team, who will be a part of the treatment planning and decision-making process. The individual’s parents or a person with parental responsibility must also be involved where applicable. If this is not available, these patients must be referred to a paediatric and adolescent gynaecology service.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) help reduce delays in continuing healthcare reviews for previously unassessed periods of care and (b) reduce the associated administration.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England published guidance in 2023 for assessing requests for Previously Unassessed Periods of Care (PUPoC). This guidance sets out how integrated care boards (ICBs) should approach and address PUPoC assessment requests. The guidance is available at the following link:
The guidance states that ICBs should set their own reasonable and proportionate timeframes for responding to requests. It provides best practice examples for how ICBs should complete PUPoC requests, based on the timeframe for the unassessed period of care and the completion of the required application and consent forms.
NHS England publishes quarterly statistics relating to the activity of NHS Continuing Healthcare and National Health Service-funded Nursing Care which includes PUPoC data, reporting on the number of cases agreed eligible, both total and per 50,000. This is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/nhs-chc-fnc/
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 adequacy of levels of public understanding of winter illness (a) transmission and (b) prevention; and if he will consider a public information campaign on infection prevention, in addition to vaccination programmes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Public Perceptions Tracker provides insight into public attitudes and behaviours in relation to priority public health issues. It is a quarterly online survey, with a sample of approximately 1,000 participants per wave. The sample is representative of the following groups in England: gender identity; age; region; and social grade; interlocked with ethnicity.
In addition to vaccine campaigns, the UKHSA runs annual no-cost public information campaigns each winter, focused on promoting infection prevention behaviours. The campaign includes social media content, downloadable digital assets, and stakeholder engagement.
The UKHSA produces 'Virus Watch' which includes 60-second expert videos, explanatory infographics, and data summaries. This aims to help people understand which viruses are circulating and take the right actions to protect their health and prevent spread.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 adequacy of criteria for (a) parental and (b) professional involvement in decision-making for young people who lack the capacity to make the appropriate decisions to keep themselves safe after they turn 18.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People over the age of 18 years old come under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005, which has the statutory principle that an individual must be assumed to have capacity unless it is established otherwise. All practicable steps must be taken to help any individual above 18 years old to make a decision by themselves, and if unsuccessful, then all decisions made on their behalf must be in their best interests.
On 18 October 2025, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced the intention to launch a public consultation on the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) in the first half of 2026. The consultation will cover a revised Code of Practice and will incorporate changes in case law, legislation, and good practice in application of the MCA.
The LPS, as introduced by the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019, aims to deliver greater involvement of families and professionals in providing care to vulnerable people in circumstances that amount to a deprivation of liberty.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the capacity of NHS dental services in Chichester constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Chichester constituency, this is the NHS Sussex ICB.
We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. The NHS Sussex ICB is expected to deliver 26,546 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.
We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that patients who are digitally excluded can retain (a) telephone and (b) in-person routes to book GP appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that some patients may struggle or prefer not to use digital options. We are committed to ensuring that patients who are digitally excluded can retain telephone and in-person routes to book general practice (GP) appointments, by mandating that GPs must maintain these traditional access methods, alongside digital options. The move to digital-first access is designed to free up phone lines for those who want and need them, not replace them.