Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to prioritise primary care audiology.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Audiology services are locally commissioned, and the responsibility for prioritising primary care audiology lies with local National Health Service commissioners.
NHS England is supporting the integrated care boards to make informed decisions about the provision of audiology services so that they can provide consistent, high quality, and integrated care.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the document entitled Reforming elective care for patients, published on 6 January 2025, whether his Department's plans to (a) expand non-surgical community-based ear, nose and throat services and (b) develop clinical models to support patients needing ear care will include the provision of ear wax removal services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ear, nose, and throat (ENT) services are one of five priority specialties identified in the Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, for significant transformation, due to the waiting times for ENT services. Given that a significant number of ENT referrals can be managed earlier and in a more convenient setting, we are exploring ways to expand community-based services so that patients receive quicker and more local care whilst reducing pressure on hospitals. The provision of earwax services will form part of this.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will conduct a review of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that concerns have been raised regarding the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS). Ministers are currently considering a number of options for reforming the scheme. In parallel, the Department has been working with the NHS Business Services Authority, the administrators of the scheme, to take steps to improve the VDPS by modernising operations, and processing claims at a faster rate.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
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 access to HIV support services for people affected by HIV.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ending new transmissions of HIV in England by 2030 and is developing the new HIV Action Plan, which we aim to publish this year. The plan will address ways to optimise rapid access to treatment and retention in care, and will improve the quality of life for people living with HIV, including consideration of peer support services.
A key component of the Government’s successful HIV emergency department opt-out testing programme includes a recommendation that 10% of the funding allocated to each site should be used to support community and peer services for individuals diagnosed with a blood borne virus.
NHS England is responsible for delivering HIV care, including support services for those living with HIV. In April 2024, it published the updated national Service Specification for Adult HIV services, which sets out the standards of care that HIV providers are expected to meet, including the availability of community, psychological, and psychosocial support for patients.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the adequacy of the funding into Parkinson's Disease research.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering Parkinson’s disease research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation.
Between the financial years 2019/20 and 2023/24, the Government spent a total of £79.1 million on research into Parkinson’s disease. Research spend is calculated retrospectively, with a time lag due to annual reporting lapses, and so 2023/24 is the most recent financial year we have data for.
As well as funding research itself, the NIHR invests significantly into research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, support services, and collaborations to support and deliver research in England. Collectively this forms NIHR infrastructure. NIHR infrastructure enables the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research into Parkinson’s disease. For example, in the financial year 2022/23, the NIHR Clinical Research Network enabled 114 studies related to Parkinson’s disease to be conducted in the National Health Service.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including Parkinson’s disease. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Welcoming applications on Parkinson's disease to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has conducted an impact assessment for the decision to extend cervical screening intervals.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation to change the cervical screening intervals from three to five years for women aged 25 to 49 years old was made in 2019. The evidence and consultation responses supporting the recommendation can be found at the following link:
https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/cervical-cancer/
The decision to make the changes was based on what is best for individuals. The more accurate human papillomavirus test requires less frequent screening, and changing the frequency eliminates the unnecessary over screening of the population.
The IT system supporting the national cervical screening programme was updated in July 2024, and can now enable the changes that were recommended.
A full impact assessment and equality impact assessment were considered before the changes were agreed by the Government. We will publish these shortly.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is his Department taking to reduce waiting lists for gynaecology services (a) nationally and (b) in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
At the end of April 2025, the gynaecology waiting list was down 15,955 since the end of June 2024. Waits for gynaecology services have also decreased by 1,052 in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board (ICB) over the same period.
However, we know there is more to do across gynaecology services, which is why we’ve committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, by March 2029.
As our first step in achieving this, we have already exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments, having now delivered 3.6 million more.
Gynaecology is one of the specialities serviced by surgical hubs, which are part of the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) High Volume Low Complexity programme, which aims to increase capacity and transform the ways that gynaecology and other services are provided. There are currently 116 elective surgical hubs nationally, three of which are in the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ICB, and there is one additional hub planned.
We are also taking action to support general practitioners and hospital doctors to work more effectively together to ensure patients are always seen in the right setting, through use of Advice and Guidance. The GIRFT programme has recently published a series of advice and guidance templates specifically for gynaecology.
Women’s health hubs bring together healthcare professionals and existing services to provide integrated women’s health services in the community, centred on meeting women’s needs across their life course. Women’s health hubs have a key role to play in shifting care out of hospitals and in reducing gynaecology waiting lists.
The Government is committed to encouraging ICBs to further expand the coverage of women’s health hubs and to supporting ICBs to use the learning from the women’s health hub pilots to improve local delivery of services to women, including in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
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 expand audiology testing capacity.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services, including for audiology.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the 18-week constitutional standard by the end of this Parliament. The plan commits to transforming and expanding diagnostic services and to speeding up waiting times for tests, a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the referral to treatment 18-week standard.
NHS England is supporting provider organisations and integrated care boards, who are the commissioners of audiology services, to improve performance and reduce waiting lists. This includes capital investment to upgrade audiology facilities in NHS trusts, expanding audiology testing capacity via community diagnostic centres, and direct support through a national audiology improvement collaborative. The latest management information data shows that community diagnostic centres have delivered over 56,000 audiology assessments since July 2021.
The 2025 Spending Review confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years across new diagnostic, elective, and urgent care capacity. Further details and allocations will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
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 child vaccination uptakes rates.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to improving vaccination uptake rates to fully protect children and the public from preventable diseases. It is vitally important that everyone has their recommended vaccinations, as they are the best way to help protect yourself and your family from these viruses that can cause serious harm.
The NHS Vaccination Strategy outlines the steps that we will take to improve uptake of our childhood vaccination programmes through investing in the digital infrastructure and data systems for vaccination programmes, delegating commissioning of services to integrated care boards (ICBs), and exploring new ways of using workforce and delivery networks to administer vaccinations that meet the needs of local communities. The strategy is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-vaccination-strategy/
In line with the strategy and with the Government’s commitment, children will receive vital vaccines more easily thanks to a new trial using health visitors to administer childhood immunisations. The initiative, outlined in our urgent and emergency improvement plan, will test having health visiting teams deliver flu vaccinations and other jabs to eligible children, making protection more accessible for underserved families across selected areas.
We are also updating the vaccination schedule from 1 January 2026 to offer the second dose of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at eighteen months old to give young children the best protection against measles, mumps and rubella. Any children who have missed this second dose of MMR can have it at their pre-school vaccinations, at the same time as their 4 in 1 booster. This change is expected to improve MMR vaccine uptake, as has been demonstrated in a number of London boroughs where this change has already been made, and better uptake will reduce the likelihood of measles outbreaks. This is in addition to schedule changes from 1 July 2025 to move the second dose of meningococcal B vaccination to 12 weeks of age to provide earlier protection.
To raise awareness of potential vaccination benefits and increase awareness of the programmes, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) provides a comprehensive suite of resources, including information leaflets in multiple languages and accessible formats. UKHSA also provides comprehensive clinical guidance, including e-learning programmes and training, for healthcare professionals. These are available in print form and for download at the following link:
https://www.healthpublications.gov.uk/ArticleSearch.html
UKHSA also undertakes regular surveys of parents and adolescents to understand how their knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards immunisation, vaccine safety, and disease severity influence their vaccine uptake decision-making. This information enables the resources to be revised and updated to meet the needs of those accessing vaccination services. Data on vaccination uptake is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/vaccine-uptake
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
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 increases in employer National Insurance contributions on (a) levels of staff costs for homecare providers and (b) the delivery of social care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government assessed the impact of the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process. This assessment took account of a range of factors that could affect the delivery of social care services, including changes to employer National Insurance Contributions.
To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government has made available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26. There is also an extra £502 million of support for local authorities in England to manage the impact of changes to employer National Insurance Contributions announced at the Autumn Budget 2024.
In addition, the Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.