Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 help increase physiotherapy employment opportunities for the cohort graduating in 2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the employment of newly qualified physiotherapists are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers, and educators to improve the transition into the workforce.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 levels of availability of entry-level physiotherapy roles on musculoskeletal waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the recruitment of physiotherapists are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
To tackle waiting times, we are working to deliver the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Musculoskeletal Community Delivery Programme. GIRFT teams are working with health system leaders to further reduce musculoskeletal community waiting times, which are the largest volume of all community waits, and improve data, metrics, and referral pathways to wider support services. This includes mapping and analysing the provision and role of physiotherapists as First Contact Practitioners in primary care.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 ensure that newly qualified physiotherapists are able to access Band 5 employment opportunities within the NHS, in the context of recruitment freezes and recent trends in the level of advertised posts across England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the recruitment and employment of newly qualified physiotherapists are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers, and educators to improve transition into the workforce.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to support physiotherapists that qualified last year into employment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the employment of newly qualified physiotherapists are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers, and educators to improve the transition into the workforce.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS procedures have been conducted in private hospitals in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving elective performance and cutting waiting lists is a priority for the Government. We have made significant progress with patients being seen faster, and November saw the second biggest drop in the waiting list for 15 years outside of the early days of the pandemic.
Fit for the Future: The 10-Year Health Plan for England and the Partnership Agreement between NHS England and the Independent Healthcare Providers Network reaffirmed our continued commitment to using independent sector capacity to improve access, reduce backlogs, and build a sustainable healthcare system.
Between April 2025 and November 2025, the latest month for which data is available, independent sector providers delivered 9.9% of all elective ordinary and day case procedures for the National Health Service.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 NHS waiting lists in Leicestershire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government. We have committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029.
We are transforming elective services to ensure that patients get timely access to the care they need. This includes investing £6 billion of additional capital over five years for diagnostic, elective, urgent, and emergency capacity in the NHS.
Elective capacity has been increased in Leicestershire through both a surgical hub and community diagnostic centres (CDC). The Leicester General Hospital Elective Hub opened in 2023, and with additional funding expanded further in 2024. Dedicated and protected surgical hubs focus on providing high volume low complexity surgery, separating elective services from urgent and emergency care, improving patient outcomes and reducing hospital pressures.
Within the NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board we are improving community access to scans and tests, helping patients get the care they need through the Hinckley Community Diagnostic Centre and the Leicester Community Diagnostic Centre, both open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
In the NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board, which covers Leicestershire, the waiting list size has fallen by 1,000 since the Government took office in July 2024. The proportion of waits under 18 weeks in November 2025 is 54.8%.
In order to return to the constitutional standard, NHS England is offering a range of support to providers to reduce waiting times. This includes tailored regional and national support, as well as sharing best practice, with additional support via the Getting It Right First Time programme.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a national strategy for palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
Additionally, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. I am pleased to confirm the continuation of circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, for the next three financial years, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive, to be distributed again via integrated care boards. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to review the 60% disability threshold requirement to qualify for the vaccine damage payment scheme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I would like to reiterate my deepest sympathies to all those individuals who have experienced harm following vaccination, and to their families.
I recognise many of the concerns that campaigners have raised regarding the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS). Their input will shape our ongoing consideration of reforms to the scheme.
In parallel, the Department continues to work with the NHS Business Services Authority, the administrators of the VDPS, to take further steps to improve the scheme, including through processing claims at a faster rate.
I will keep Parliament updated, as appropriate.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will review the covid-19 vaccination eligibility criteria for (a) frontline workers and (b) carers to ensure that (i) those who work in high-risk environments, (ii) those who provide unpaid care, (ii) carers aged 70 and over, (iv) those who have previously had contact with infectious diseases and (v) those in who cannot afford to access private vaccination services are not excluded from receiving the vaccine.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The primary aim of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme remains the prevention of serious illness, resulting in hospitalisations and deaths, arising from COVID-19. On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025, and spring 2026. This advice is available at the following link:
The Government accepted the JCVI’s advice for autumn 2025 on 26 June 2025. The announcement is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/advice-accepted-on-autumn-2025-covid-19-vaccination-programme
In its advice for autumn 2024, the JCVI advised that in the era of highly transmissible Omicron sub-variants, any protection offered by the COVID-19 vaccine against the transmission of infection from one person to another is expected to be extremely limited. Therefore, the indirect benefits of vaccination, for instance vaccinating an individual such as an unpaid carer or household member in order to reduce the risk of severe disease in other people, are less evident now compared with previous years. In 2025, the JCVI conducted an extensive review of the scientific evidence surrounding the impact of vaccination on the transmission of the virus from frontline health and social care workers (HSCWs) to patients, the protection of HSCWs against symptoms of the disease, and staff sickness absences. In line with the JCVI’s advice, frontline health and social care workers and unpaid carers are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination under the national programme for autumn 2025. The focus of the programme is now on those who remain at greatest risk of serious disease and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination.
As with all NHS-provided vaccination programmes, only those eligible are offered vaccination. Any of the groups mentioned above who are otherwise eligible, because of their age or due to immunosuppression, are encouraged to take up the offer of vaccination.
As with all vaccines offered as part of the national programme in England, there is no charge for COVID-19 vaccination for those who are eligible. There is therefore no cost to those individuals that might discourage uptake.
The Government has accepted the JCVI’s advice for autumn 2025 and has no plans to change the eligibility for autumn 2025. As for all vaccines, the JCVI keeps the evidence under regular review.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will have discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of reforming Employment Allowance rules to ensure that NHS dental practices are adequately encouraged to provide predominantly NHS care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
HM Treasury has provided funding to cover the additional cost of employer National Insurance contributions for public sector employers only. This is based on the Office for National Statistics definition of public sector organisations and does not include independent primary care contractors such as dentists.
We recognise this is disappointing, but we have had to take necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances. The National Health Service in England invests approximately £4 billion on dentistry every year, of which £3 billion is spent on primary care dentistry. NHS planning guidance is now published and sets out funding available to integrated care boards for 2025/2026.