Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 support the (a) health and (b) wellbeing of the NHS workforce.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The health and wellbeing of National Health Service staff is a top priority. NHS organisations have a responsibility to create supportive working environments for staff, ensuring they have the conditions they need to thrive.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will roll out Staff Treatment Hubs to ensure all staff have access to high quality occupational health support, including for mental health. To further support this ambition, we will work with the Social Partnership Forum to introduce a new set of staff standards for modern employment, covering issues such as access to healthy meals, support to work healthily and flexibly, and tackling violence, racism and sexual harassment in the workplace.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 tackle health inequalities through the implementation of the 10 Year Health Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan has set out a long-term vision to reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future. Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus of the 10-Year Health Plan, to ensure the NHS is there for anyone who needs it whenever they need it.
We know everyday life poses greater health risks to the most disadvantaged in society, and that the current model of care works least well for those who already experience disadvantage and are far more likely to have complex needs.
To help tackle this, we will distribute NHS funding more equally locally, so it is better aligned with health need. And we will establish a neighbourhood health centre in every community, beginning with places where healthy life expectancy is lowest. Neighbourhood health centres will co-locate NHS, local authority and voluntary sector services, to help create an offer that meets population need.
Neighbourhood health will redesign and join up existing health and care services. General practice leaders will be pivotal in shaping and delivering these new services that require working across several different neighbourhoods, supported by two optional contracts to be introduced from 2026.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 build (a) robust and (b) sustainable partnerships with (i) cancer charities, (ii) community organisations and (iii) people with lived experience of cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 3 September 2025 to Question 69805.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to update dental professional healthcare regulation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to modernising the regulatory frameworks for all healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom.
As a first step, we aim to consult on secondary legislation to modernise the General Medical Council’s regulatory framework in late 2025 and to lay this legislation before Parliament in 2026. This will be followed by further legislation which will modernise the governing legislation for the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and for the Health and Care Professions Council, within the current Parliamentary session.
The Department will continue to work with regulators, the devolved governments and other key partners as we develop more consistent, efficient and effective regulatory frameworks.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of Mounjaro (a) prescribing and (b) medication management services his Department plans to carry out digitally.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are not currently any specific targets for the proportions of prescribing and medication management activity of tirzepatide, also known as Mounjaro, including monitoring, follow-up, and review for tirzepatide that will be carried out digitally.
The National Health Service is in the process of making tirzepatide available for weight management in primary care, including developing and testing new models of care, like community-based services and digital technologies. NHS England is working with the Office for Life Sciences and other partners to develop digitally enabled care pathways, supported by behavioural interventions, with patient safety and clinical oversight at their core. These innovative pathways are being designed to bring together remote prescribing, personalised behavioural support, and ongoing clinical supervision, allowing patients to access high-quality care in a way that is convenient and tailored to their individual needs.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made in addressing increasing clinical negligence costs.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last ten years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan, David Lock KC will be providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs and how we can improve patients’ experience of clinical negligence claims, ahead of a review by the Department in the autumn. The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department funds research on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obesity.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, has awarded £133 million into obesity research grants over the last five years. It has awarded £78 million into research grants exploring chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the last five years.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to encourage the installation of defibrillators in all shopping centre entrances.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve patients' survival rates following out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, the Government committed to improving access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces and reducing inequalities in access to these life-saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED fund, launched in in September 2023, the Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the fund.
Funding was allocated where there was the greatest need, for example: remote communities with extended ambulance response times; places with high footfall and high population densities; hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people; and deprived areas.
There are no plans to undertake further work on improving access or provide additional support for AEDs, in light of the rapid expansion of AEDs across the United Kingdom. According to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), there are now over 110,000 defibrillators in the UK registered on The Circuit, the independently operated national AED database.
We recognise the important work the BHF has undertaken in identifying communities with limited access to a defibrillator. The BHF undertook this work as part of its 2025 community defibrillator fund programme.
The BHF is urgently encouraging areas eligible to apply to its 2025 scheme to do so. Further information is available at the following link:
Like the BHF, several other UK charities provide and support access to AEDs, and in some cases provide support for their maintenance and running costs. London Hearts, AED Donate, and Community Heartbeat Trust are prominent examples working to increase the availability of AEDs.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 improve levels of early diagnoses of dementia.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate (DDR) to the national ambition of 66.7%. The estimated DDR for patients aged 65 years old and over at the end of July 2025 was 66.1%. The rate is an increase of 0.3% compared to the 65.8% in June 2025. This is an overall increase from March 2020 due to sustained recovery efforts.
The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme has already invested £13 million into a range of biomarker innovation projects which include a broad range of biomarker technologies, ranging from an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve the accuracy of blood tests for dementia, to using retinal scans to detect early-onset dementia decades before symptoms. Some of these innovations could support improved diagnosis in the future, if validated for clinical use.
We will also deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia, in order to deliver rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia and will also set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the childhood cancer survival rate in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows age and gender standardised overall one-year and five-year survival rates for children between the ages of zero and 14 years old in England, with the latest data being from 2020:
One-year overall survival data | ||||||
Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|
Patients | 1,415 | 1,428 | 1,307 | 1,381 | 1,319 |
|
Overall Survival (%) | 94.3 | 92.9 | 93.0 | 93.6 | 93.3 |
|
Source: Department of Health and Social Care
Five-year overall survival data | ||||||
Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|
Patients | 1,415 | 1,422 | 1,383 | 1,383 | 1,370 |
|
Overall Survival (%) | 85.8 | 86.3 | 86.1 | 86.2 | 86.2 |
|
Source: Department of Health and Social Care