Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust facilities there are in each region of England; and what proportion of those contracts are due to expire before 2030.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 2029, the leases on 308 NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) buildings will begin to expire. The Department has initiated a national programme, Securing the Future, to manage these lease expiries through a structured, phased approach, and has determine which buildings should be retained to meet future health requirements.
Securing the Future will be led by Community Health Partnerships (CHP), a Department owned company that manages the LIFT estate. A business case is being developed to determine how best to secure the required estate after LIFT contract expiry, and this will assess the financial impact of different commercial approaches.
The Securing the Future programme will be informed by CHP’s expertise in managing Public Private Partnership assets. The business case will ensure that commercial arrangements to manage LIFT expiry are robust, and that any wider lessons from managing private finance initiatives are taken on board.
The number of NHS LIFT buildings in each region of England and the percentage of those contracts due to expire before the end of the 2029/30 financial year are as follows:
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 potential impact of the expiry of NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust contracts on the finances of Integrated Care Boards over the next 10 years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 2029, the leases on 308 NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) buildings will begin to expire. The Department has initiated a national programme, Securing the Future, to manage these lease expiries through a structured, phased approach, and has determine which buildings should be retained to meet future health requirements.
Securing the Future will be led by Community Health Partnerships (CHP), a Department owned company that manages the LIFT estate. A business case is being developed to determine how best to secure the required estate after LIFT contract expiry, and this will assess the financial impact of different commercial approaches.
The Securing the Future programme will be informed by CHP’s expertise in managing Public Private Partnership assets. The business case will ensure that commercial arrangements to manage LIFT expiry are robust, and that any wider lessons from managing private finance initiatives are taken on board.
The number of NHS LIFT buildings in each region of England and the percentage of those contracts due to expire before the end of the 2029/30 financial year are as follows:
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 prepare for the expiry of NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust contracts, including the continuity of (a) primary care and (b) community health services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 2029, the leases on 308 NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) buildings will begin to expire. The Department has initiated a national programme, Securing the Future, to manage these lease expiries through a structured, phased approach, and has determine which buildings should be retained to meet future health requirements.
Securing the Future will be led by Community Health Partnerships (CHP), a Department owned company that manages the LIFT estate. A business case is being developed to determine how best to secure the required estate after LIFT contract expiry, and this will assess the financial impact of different commercial approaches.
The Securing the Future programme will be informed by CHP’s expertise in managing Public Private Partnership assets. The business case will ensure that commercial arrangements to manage LIFT expiry are robust, and that any wider lessons from managing private finance initiatives are taken on board.
The number of NHS LIFT buildings in each region of England and the percentage of those contracts due to expire before the end of the 2029/30 financial year are as follows:
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is applying lessons learned from the expiry of hospital Private Finance Initiative contracts to the management of NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust contract expiries.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 2029, the leases on 308 NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) buildings will begin to expire. The Department has initiated a national programme, Securing the Future, to manage these lease expiries through a structured, phased approach, and has determine which buildings should be retained to meet future health requirements.
Securing the Future will be led by Community Health Partnerships (CHP), a Department owned company that manages the LIFT estate. A business case is being developed to determine how best to secure the required estate after LIFT contract expiry, and this will assess the financial impact of different commercial approaches.
The Securing the Future programme will be informed by CHP’s expertise in managing Public Private Partnership assets. The business case will ensure that commercial arrangements to manage LIFT expiry are robust, and that any wider lessons from managing private finance initiatives are taken on board.
The number of NHS LIFT buildings in each region of England and the percentage of those contracts due to expire before the end of the 2029/30 financial year are as follows:
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of nurses and midwives accused of sexual misconduct were placed under interim suspension by the NMC between 2019 and 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information centrally. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England. The NMC is independent of the Government, directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The UK's model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 whether the absence of mandatory strike‑off in the new MPTS guidance for proven sexual misconduct by doctors adequately protects patients.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new guidance for Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service tribunals includes more detail about assessing the seriousness of an allegation and the features that may increase the seriousness. The guidance now also includes sanction bandings. These indicate the range of outcomes that can be expected in different case types, once a tribunal has decided whether a doctor poses a low, medium, or high level of risk to the public.
In cases relating to sexual misconduct, because the level of current and ongoing risk to public protection will generally be considered medium or high, tribunals should consider suspension or erasure. The guidance sets out that in cases where misconduct is found to be sexually motivated, the inherent seriousness is likely to be high, and that makes any outcome short of erasure from the register inappropriate.
The Department monitors how regulators perform their duties and will continue to engage with the General Medical Council, including assessing how the new guidance impacts the outcomes of tribunal findings in cases of sexual misconduct.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 effectiveness of (a) (i) communications and (ii) public advertising on NHS dentistry and (b) oral health initiatives to improve patient access to NHS dental services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no national communication campaigns on National Health Service dentistry and oral health initiatives to improve patient access and therefore no assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the communications and public advertising on NHS dentistry and oral health initiatives aimed at improving patient access to NHS dental services.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local populations and to determine the priorities for investment. They are also responsible for deciding how best to communicate about their services for patients.
NHS England is responsible for maintaining and updating the NHS.uk website for England, which provides information and services to help patients manage their health including on dentistry.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England spent on (a) communications and (b) public advertising relating to NHS (i) dentistry and (ii) oral health initiatives in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has spent no money on communications or advertising relating to National Health Service dentistry or oral health initiatives in the last five years.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local populations and to determine the priorities for investment. They are also responsible for deciding how best to communicate about their services for patients.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of doctors accused of sexual misconduct were placed under interim suspension by the GMC between 2018 and 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information centrally.
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the regulator of all medical doctors, physician assistants, and physician assistants in anaesthesia, still legally known as anaesthesia associates and physician associates, practising in the United Kingdom. The GMC is independent of the Government, being directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any doctors were erased or struck off due to sexual misconduct between 2018 and 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information centrally.
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the regulator of all medical doctors, physician assistants, and physician assistants in anaesthesia, still legally known as anaesthesia associates and physician associates, practising in the United Kingdom. The GMC is independent of the Government, being directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.