Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Major NHS update brings menopause into routine health checks, published on 23 October 2025, what questions will be added to the NHS Health Check.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will be working with experts, including general practitioners, over the coming months to co-design the menopause content for the NHS Health Check.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pwith reference to his Department's press release entitled Major NHS update brings menopause into routine health checks, published on 23 October 2025, what the pathway is for people who are found to be peri-menopausal.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will be working with experts, including general practitioners, over the coming months to co-design the menopause content for the NHS Health Check.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a new (a) strategy and (b) framework to replace the UK Rare Diseases Framework.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Rare Diseases Framework was published following the National Conversation on Rare Diseases, which received nearly 6,300 responses. This helped identify the four priorities of the framework in tackling rare diseases, which are: helping patients get a final diagnosis faster; increasing awareness of rare diseases among healthcare professionals; better coordination of care; and improving access to specialist care, treatment, and drugs.
The Government remains committed to improving the lives of those living with rare conditions and will be publishing the next England Rare Diseases Action Plan for rare disease day in 2026, as in previous years. We recognise that despite the progress that has been made there remains considerable unmet need for people living with rare conditions. We are carefully considering the future of the UK Rare Disease Framework and will be announcing our intentions at a later date.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GPs qualifying in summer 2025 have secured employment in the UK.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Doctors complete general practice (GP) training on a rolling basis throughout the year. Over 1,600 doctors completed the GP Specialty Training programme between June and August 2025. As general practices are independent businesses, data on the proportion of these GPs who have secured employment in the National Health Service in England is not available.
To improve understanding of movement of doctors from GP training to the substantive workforce over time, NHS England publishes quarterly analysis of the last time doctors in their final year of GP specialty training can be identified in a general practice placement and the first time they can be identified in a substantive role recorded by a practice or Primary Care Networks in the National Workforce Reporting Service. This information is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/supplementary-information/2025/gpwf_st3_tracking_202509
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of raising the threshold for Pharmacy First payments on the (a) number of pharmacies claiming payment for Pharmacy First consultations and (b) the total number of pharmacy first consultations undertaken.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of delivering Pharmacy First, pharmacy contractors receive a monthly fixed payment if they deliver a minimum level of activity. This level increased at set intervals between February 2024 and March 2025, as agreed with Community Pharmacy England and announced ahead of the start of the service, and as set out in the Drug Tariff. This balanced giving time for the service to embed and for public awareness to grow with ensuring that the service offers value for money.
There has been a steady increase in the delivery of the service. In 2024/25, the number of Pharmacy First consultations grew by an average of 5% per month.
Service delivery has been carefully monitored. In July, we changed the activity requirement by introducing a lower fixed payment of £500 to support those pharmacies with lower potential for delivery. Pharmacies delivering between 20 to 29 consultations now receive the lower fixed payment. The monthly payment of £1,000 for contractors delivering at least 30 consultations was maintained.
There are currently no plans to change the minimum activity requirement.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason the threshold for Pharmacy First payments has increased since July 2024.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of delivering Pharmacy First, pharmacy contractors receive a monthly fixed payment if they deliver a minimum level of activity. This level increased at set intervals between February 2024 and March 2025, as agreed with Community Pharmacy England and announced ahead of the start of the service, and as set out in the Drug Tariff. This balanced giving time for the service to embed and for public awareness to grow with ensuring that the service offers value for money.
There has been a steady increase in the delivery of the service. In 2024/25, the number of Pharmacy First consultations grew by an average of 5% per month.
Service delivery has been carefully monitored. In July, we changed the activity requirement by introducing a lower fixed payment of £500 to support those pharmacies with lower potential for delivery. Pharmacies delivering between 20 to 29 consultations now receive the lower fixed payment. The monthly payment of £1,000 for contractors delivering at least 30 consultations was maintained.
There are currently no plans to change the minimum activity requirement.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the funding allocated to the Pharmacy First scheme has not been claimed by pharmacies because they did not reach the threshold since July 2024; and whether this money been reallocated.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of delivering Pharmacy First, pharmacy contractors receive a monthly fixed payment if they deliver a minimum level of activity. This level increased at set intervals between February 2024 and March 2025, as agreed with Community Pharmacy England and announced ahead of the start of the service, and as set out in the Drug Tariff. This balanced giving time for the service to embed and for public awareness to grow with ensuring that the service offers value for money.
There has been a steady increase in the delivery of the service. In 2024/25, the number of Pharmacy First consultations grew by an average of 5% per month.
Service delivery has been carefully monitored. In July, we changed the activity requirement by introducing a lower fixed payment of £500 to support those pharmacies with lower potential for delivery. Pharmacies delivering between 20 to 29 consultations now receive the lower fixed payment. The monthly payment of £1,000 for contractors delivering at least 30 consultations was maintained.
There are currently no plans to change the minimum activity requirement.