Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy that integrated care board boundaries should match mayoral combined authority boundaries.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

It remains the Government’s ambition for integrated care boards (ICBs) to be coterminous with one or more strategic authorities wherever feasible, a commitment made in the English devolution white paper and reaffirmed in our 10-Year Health Plan.

This summer as local government reform progresses, the Department of Health and Social Care will work closely with NHS England and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to decide any further ICB mergers and boundary changes.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress the Medical Research Council has made on delivering ME/CFS research improvements.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has prioritised research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) for many years, investing over £4.65 million since 2020, and welcomes high quality applications in this area.

MRC is working with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to deliver on agreed actions from the ME/CFS Final Delivery Plan. This includes funding strategic initiatives to increase research capacity and hosting engagement events to bring together research funders, commercial and academic researchers and patient representatives. For example, in November DHSC, NIHR and UKRI, co-hosted a research showcase to discuss and explore the ongoing research in the fields of ME/CFS and long COVID. MRC continues to liaise with the ME/CFS research community to support future applicants.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the (i) number and (ii) adequacy of provision of paediatric post-mortem specialists in (a) Gloucestershire, (b) the South West and (c) England.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department does not hold information on the number of paediatric post mortem specialists either across England or in the South West or Gloucestershire regions.

NHS England does publish monthly information on the number of staff employed in the National Health Service in England, including information on the grade and specialty of NHS doctors. This includes information on the number of doctors working in the specialty of pathology as well as the sub-specialty of paediatric and perinatal pathology. This is not though the same as those able to provide paediatric post mortems. The relevant information can be found in the file ‘NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data tables’ in each monthly publication, at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

NHS England established a national programme in late 2022 to address paediatric and perinatal pathologist workforce challenges and has undertaken significant work in relation to workforce funding, training, and incentives. This has included making additional funding available to support training posts in areas where there have been interested candidates but no training post available and changes to the national training course and examination structure. The number of training posts has increased across several recruitment rounds and the perinatal and paediatric training pathway will be at a full complement of 16 training posts from February 2026.

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