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 whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence plans to improve the (a) transparency and (b) consistency of its guidance on the application of carer health-related quality of life in its single technology appraisal process.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) technology appraisal process allows its independent committees to take societal benefits, such as health-related quality-of-life for carers and the impact on personal social services, into account. NICE’s methods are set out in its published health technology evaluations manual, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/process/pmg36
Evaluations should consider all health effects for patients, and, when relevant, carers. When presenting health effects for carers, evidence should show when the condition is associated with a substantial effect on a carer’s health-related quality of life and how the technology affects carers. This applies for all therapies, including therapies for rare diseases. NICE appraisals specifically consider health-related quality of life, for both patients and carers, rather than quality of life as a whole.
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, how many children aged between five to 11 years of age have been prescribed Montelukast in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds patient identifiable data relating to drugs prescribed in England and dispensed within a community setting, and which are submitted to the NHSBSA for processing.
The following table shows the total number of identified children in the requested age bands that were prescribed Montelukast for the financial years 2020/2021 to 2024/2025:
Financial year | Age band one to five years old | Age band five to 11 years old |
2020/2021 | 31,448 | 57,057 |
2021/2022 | 44,675 | 62,587 |
2022/2023 | 47,301 | 69,837 |
2023/2024 | 41,346 | 74,859 |
2024/2025 | 30,849 | 70,903 |
Data Source: NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.
It should be noted that the age ranges requested overlap for children aged five years old, so the given age bands should not be added or combined.
Care should be taken when interpreting the patient counts, as some patients could appear in the results for multiple time periods. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple financial years. Therefore, the patient numbers should not be combined and reported at any other levels other than as provided in the dataset.
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, how many children aged between six to 10 years of age have been prescribed Clenil in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds patient identifiable data relating to drugs prescribed in England and dispensed within a community setting, and which are submitted to the NHSBSA for processing. The following table shows the total number of identified children in specific age bands that were prescribed Clenil Modulite for the financial years 2020/2021 to 2024/2025:
Financial year | Age band one to five years old | Age band six to 10 years old |
2020/2021 | 84,498 | 149,296 |
2021/2022 | 127,765 | 160,142 |
2022/2023 | 138,224 | 171,323 |
2023/2024 | 124,551 | 179,865 |
2024/2025 | 105,336 | 172,698 |
Data Source: NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.
Please note that care should be taken when interpreting the patient counts as some patients could appear in the results for multiple time periods and age bands. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple financial years, or at both ages five and six years old within the same year. Therefore, the patient numbers should not be combined and reported at any other levels other than as provided in the dataset.
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, how many children aged one to five have been prescribed montelukast in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds patient identifiable data relating to drugs prescribed in England and dispensed within a community setting, and which are submitted to the NHSBSA for processing.
The following table shows the total number of identified children in the requested age bands that were prescribed Montelukast for the financial years 2020/2021 to 2024/2025:
Financial year | Age band one to five years old | Age band five to 11 years old |
2020/2021 | 31,448 | 57,057 |
2021/2022 | 44,675 | 62,587 |
2022/2023 | 47,301 | 69,837 |
2023/2024 | 41,346 | 74,859 |
2024/2025 | 30,849 | 70,903 |
Data Source: NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.
It should be noted that the age ranges requested overlap for children aged five years old, so the given age bands should not be added or combined.
Care should be taken when interpreting the patient counts, as some patients could appear in the results for multiple time periods. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple financial years. Therefore, the patient numbers should not be combined and reported at any other levels other than as provided in the dataset.
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, how many children aged between one to five years of age have been prescribed Clenil in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds patient identifiable data relating to drugs prescribed in England and dispensed within a community setting, and which are submitted to the NHSBSA for processing. The following table shows the total number of identified children in specific age bands that were prescribed Clenil Modulite for the financial years 2020/2021 to 2024/2025:
Financial year | Age band one to five years old | Age band six to 10 years old |
2020/2021 | 84,498 | 149,296 |
2021/2022 | 127,765 | 160,142 |
2022/2023 | 138,224 | 171,323 |
2023/2024 | 124,551 | 179,865 |
2024/2025 | 105,336 | 172,698 |
Data Source: NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.
Please note that care should be taken when interpreting the patient counts as some patients could appear in the results for multiple time periods and age bands. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple financial years, or at both ages five and six years old within the same year. Therefore, the patient numbers should not be combined and reported at any other levels other than as provided in the dataset.
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, how many children are on the waiting list for tonsillectomy; and how many of those have been waiting for (a) under one year, (b) two years, (c) three years, (d) four years and (e) over five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to returning to the NHS Constitutional standard that 92% of all patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment for consultant-led care, including children who require a tonsillectomy. As a first step towards this, we have now exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments across elective services, having now delivered over three million more.
There were 11,091 cases where a child was waiting for tonsillectomy as of 11 May 2025. Of those, in 9,205 cases the child had been waiting under one year and in 1,886 cases the child had been waiting between one and two years. There were no cases where a child had been waiting more than two 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 has made an assessment of the potential impact of Early Access Programmes on equity of access to (a) tofersen and (b) other innovative treatments.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early access schemes for unlicenced medicines, where approval may be obtained in other markets, including where a licence exists but a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence decision is not available, are managed by companies to benefit patients.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS) provides a route for the supply of new medicines to United Kingdom patients on an unlicensed basis, prior to receiving a marketing authorisation. The EAMS aims to give patients with life threatening or seriously debilitating conditions early access to medicines that show early signs of having a major advantage over existing therapeutics.
The EAMS is a two-step process, with the first step being a Positive Innovative Medicine designation, and the second step being the publishing of a Scientific Opinion. Medicines have to be successful at both of these stages to have access to patients through this scheme.
We are currently reviewing the recently submitted Torfersen, but cannot comment on its progress. The MHRA recognises the importance of rapid assessment, and is committed to doing so in a timely manner.
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 mothers with post-partum depression.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to ensuring that all women and babies receive the safe, personalised, and compassionate care they need, at all stages of pregnancy and post-partum.
A range of specialist mental health services have been made available to women during the perinatal period. For women with, or at risk of, mental health problems, who are planning a pregnancy, who are pregnant, or who have a baby up to two years old, specialist perinatal mental health services provide care in all 42 integrated care system (ICS) areas of England. For women experiencing mental health difficulties directly arising from, or related to, their maternity or neonatal experience, Maternal Mental Health Services are operational in 41 of the 42 ICS areas in England, with the final ICS in England due to launch their service by the end of Quarter 1 of 2025/26. Additionally, 165 Mother and Baby Unit beds have now been commissioned, with 153 currently operational. These units provide inpatient care to women who experience severe mental health difficulties during and after pregnancy.
NHS England’s guidance sets out that all women who have given birth should be offered a postnatal check-up with their general practitioner (GP) after six to eight weeks. This check-up provides an important opportunity for women to be listened to by their GP in a discreet, supportive environment, and for women to be assessed and supported not just in their physical recovery post-birth but also their mental health.
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 help improve the mental health of young people.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need and that waits for mental health services are too long. We are determined to change that.
Nationally, the Government is providing £7 million of funding to extend support for 24 early support hubs that have a track record of helping thousands of young people in their community. We will also provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school in England and roll out Young Futures hubs to provide open access mental health support for children and young people.
In addition, we are recruiting 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services in England to ease pressure on busy mental health services.
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, how many people under the age of 21 have been diagnosed with brain tumours in the last 12 months.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, the total number of brain tumour diagnoses in the zero to 19 year old age group in 2022 was 579. In the same period, for the 20 to 24 year old age group, the total number of brain tumour diagnoses was 154.
The most recent data available is from the 2022 Cancer Registrations Statistics for England. Data is not held for the specific age group of under 21 years old, but it is held for the zero to 19 and 20 to 24 year old age groups.
It is important to note that the statistics are presented as numbers of diagnoses, and not numbers of people. This is due to the possibility of one person receiving more than one diagnosis.