Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 (a) health and (b) economic impact of trained healthcare workers leaving their home country to work in the UK on nations in (i) Eastern Europe and (ii) the Global South.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We hugely value our health and social care workers from overseas who work tirelessly to provide the best possible care and enhance our health and care workforce with their valuable skills, experience and expertise. Internationally educated staff remain an important part of the workforce, and our Code of Practice for International Recruitment ensures stringent ethical standards when recruiting health and social care staff from overseas. This includes prohibiting active recruitment from red list countries to the National Health Service, social care, or independent sectors under our Code of Practice.
The Government also remains committed to growing homegrown talent and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join the NHS. Following publication of our 10-Year Health Plan on 3 July 2025, we will produce a refreshed workforce plan, setting out how we will train and provide the staff that the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities and treat them on time again. As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan, we will work across Government to prioritise medical graduates from the United Kingdom for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period for specialty training. The plan also outlines that we will now make it a requirement for newly qualified dentists to practice in the NHS for a minimum period. We intend this minimum period to be at least three years.
The Immigration White Paper also set out reforms to legal migration, so that we can restore order, control and fairness to the system, bring down net migration and promote economic growth. The changes set out include a complete overhaul of the relationship between the immigration system, training and the labour market to support sustainable growth as well as a sustainable immigration system.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 regional differences in IVF provision.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population. We expect these organisations to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, ensuring equal access to fertility treatment across England.
NICE is currently reviewing the fertility guidelines and will consider whether the current recommendations for access to National Health Service-funded treatment are still appropriate.
In the light of broader pressures on the NHS and on-going changes within NHS England, we have been looking again at achievable ambitions to improve access to fertility services and fairness for all affected couples.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for ambulances in the East Midlands Ambulance Service area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the latest East Midlands Ambulance Service response times by ambulance incident category:
Category | May 2025 |
Category 1 mean response time | 00:08:33 |
Category 1 90th centile response time | 00:15:04 |
Category 2 mean response time | 00:31:26 |
Category 2 90th centile response time | 01:02:27 |
Category 3 mean response time | 01:52:10 |
Category 3 90th centile response time | 04:15:28 |
Category 4 mean response time | 02:14:03 |
Category 4 90th centile response time | 05:27:31 |
Source: NHS England Ambulance Quality Indicators 2025/26
Notes:
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to make more medical school places available for students born in the UK.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will publish a new workforce plan later this year to deliver a transformed health service, and to ensure we have the right staff in the right place, so the National Health Service can be there for everyone. International staff, including doctors, remain an important part of our workforce. Alongside this, we are also committed to building and increasing our domestic home-grown talent from across all of our communities.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 reduce waiting times for operations at King's Mill Hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
King’s Mill Hospital is the largest hospital within the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The trust has secured additional outpatient, diagnostic, and operating capacity to help reduce waiting times for operations.
This has been done by working closely with the local independent sector and third parties, increasing clinical staffing levels in certain specialities, and using mutual aid with neighbouring National Health Service partners within and outside of the integrated care system.
These interventions have resulted in a sustained improvement in the proportion of patients on a referral to treatment pathway who are receiving treatment within 18 weeks.
Between the end of June 2024 and the end of April 2025, the total waiting list at the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has decreased by 1.1%, from 35,717 to 35,317. The percentage of patients waiting within 18 weeks has increased by 3%, from 60.7% to 63.7%.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require British trained (a) doctors and (b) nurses to give a minimum of five years’ service to the NHS before working abroad.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no current plans to introduce tie-ins for doctors and nurses working in the National Health Service. The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review.
Later this year, we will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, to treat patients on time again. We will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many households in Ashfield constituency are outside the recommended minimum distance from a defibrillator.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not maintain a register of automated external defibrillators (AEDs); this information is held on The Circuit, an independently operated database. Therefore, the Department does not hold the data requested.
The Government is committed to improving access to AEDs in public spaces and to reducing inequalities in access to these life saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED Fund, launched in September 2023, the Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the fund.
Applications to the fund were allocated where there is the greatest need, for instance 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 now over 100,000 defibrillators in the United Kingdom registered on The Circuit. There has been an increase of 30,000 since September 2023. 58.6% of the over 100,000 defibrillators are accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure that his Department collects data on (a) lobular and (b) ductal breast cancer separately.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Disease Registration Service in NHS England, as the national cancer registry, collects and analyses diagnosis and treatment data on cancer patients in England. Further information on the National Disease Registration Service is available at the following link:
The information collected includes the morphology of the cancer. For breast cancer, this includes recording whether the diagnosis is lobular, ductal, or any other form of breast cancer. In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, this information was reported in 98% of breast cancer registrations.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 access to (a) optician and (b) eye health provision in Ashfield constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing the health needs of their population and for commissioning primary and secondary eye care services to meet them.
Free National Health Service sight tests are widely available across the country, from any optical practice with a contract to provide NHS sight testing services. We are not aware of patients facing undue delay in accessing these services.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the difference in funding levels is for research into (a) lobular and (b) ductal breast cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department of Health and Social Care invests over £1.6 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24, reflecting its high priority.
The level of funding for research generally depends on funding applications received. The NIHR continues to welcome high quality, high impact funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including lobular cancer and ductal breast cancer.
The Department of Health and Social Care has invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre from 2022 to 2027, supporting their research on cancer and lobular breast cancer. This is complemented by wider investments into breast cancer research including, for example, a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, again including lobular breast cancer.
Current NIHR funded research into breast cancer covers aspects of prevention, detection, treatment and follow-up care, which are relevant to both lobular and ductal breast cancer. Of 29 currently active studies, totalling £49.54m in funded awards, there is currently one active study designed to look at the impact of screening on ductal breast cancer diagnosis and treatment specifically.
On 4 February 2025, the Department announced that nearly 700,000 women across the country will take part in a world-leading trial to test how cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools can be used to catch breast cancer cases earlier. The Early Detection using Information Technology in Health (EDITH) trial is backed by £11 million of Government support via the NIHR.
The Department of Health and Social Care recognises that further research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms and disease processes of cancer, including lobular and ductal breast cancer, to unlock pathways for developing new treatments. This type of discovery research is supported by the Medical Research Council, which is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, via UK Research and Innovation, though funding decisions are made independently from Government.