Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has she made of the adequacy of funding for sexual health services in York and across the country.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department provides funding for sexual health services through the Public Health Grant, which is allocated to local authorities in England, including in York. Sexual health is one of a number of public health services funded through the Public Health Grant, and the Department does not specify how much is spent on sexual health specifically. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning sexual health services to meet the needs of their populations.
In 2025/26 the Public Health Grant, which funds Sexual and Reproductive Health services, rose to £3.884 billion. This was a cash increase of £224 million compared to 2024/25, providing local authorities with an average 6.1% cash increase.
We will continue to invest in local authorities' vital public health work, providing over £13.4 billion over the next three years through a consolidated ringfenced Public Health Grant. This will support vital local health services, including sexual health services.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he can set out the amount of the public health grant for York for each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the amount of core Public Health Grant funding for the City of York Council for each financial year dating back to the last 10 years:
Financial year | Amount (£) |
2016/17 | £8,433,000 |
2017/18 | £8,225,000 |
2018/19 | £8,013,000 |
2019/20 | £7,801,000 |
2020/21 | £8,020,501 |
2021/22 | £8,143,147 |
2022/23 | £8,371,906 |
2023/24 | £8,644,973 |
2024/25 | £8,905,523 |
2025/26 | £9,423,183 |
Source: Public Health Grant and social care charging: local authority circulars, avaiable at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-circulars
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 impact of the change in the public health grant for 2025/6 and 2026/7 on the shift to prevention in the NHS 10 Year Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our 10-Year Health Plan will deliver a shift in the whole health system from sickness to prevention.
Over £13.4 billion will be consolidated into the Public Health Grant over the three-year period beginning in 2026/27, a 5.6% total cash increase over the period. We will publish three-year consolidated Public Health Grant allocations up to 2028/29, in line with the Local Government Finance Settlement, giving local authorities greater certainty to support long term prevention planning and make the best decisions to promote better population health.
The Government will continue to work closely with local authorities and integrated care boards to assess progress on prevention of ill health. For example, the Public Health Outcomes Framework will help us to understand trends in the public’s health by tracking key indicators linked to healthy life expectancy, thereby reducing inequalities, preventing disease, and boosting well-being, as well as providing data for policy, planning, and targeting of interventions which support the shift to prevention.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 effectiveness of York Frailty Hub for enabling people to access palliative care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While no formal national evaluation of the York Community Frailty Hub’s specific impact on palliative care access has been undertaken, the evidence set out in our 10-Year Health Plan shows that the hub is an effective model for improving timely and appropriate care for older frail people closer to their home, including those who may require palliative support.
The Government is developing a palliative and end-of-life care modern service framework (MSF) for England. As part of the development of the MSF, we are running an open call for evidence from stakeholders for examples of evidence-based interventions that are demonstrated to be effective at improving the quality of, and/or access to, palliative care. We welcome submissions on the York Frailty Hub in response to this call for evidence.
The York Frailty Hub was established in November 2023 to address the fragmented support for older people in the community. The hub is an integrated multidisciplinary initiative designed to proactively manage frailty within the community. This service provides frailty prevention, crisis response, and discharge support, aiming to reduce hospital admissions and improve the quality of life, and health and social care outcomes for frail individuals in York.
The Frailty Hub team is a multi-disciplinary team comprised of co-located frailty nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, general practitioners with a special interest in frailty, and a palliative care nurse, among other healthcare professionals.
The Frailty Hub is delivering impactful, coordinated, and cost-effective care for some of York’s most vulnerable citizens and is being recognised nationally as an example of excellent integrated delivery of community care. Continued investment in this model promises further efficiencies, reduced hospital admissions, better outcomes, and an enhanced community care experience. This integrated service is evolving at pace and finding efficiencies whenever possible.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how will he ensure that the number of deaths for alcohol use will reduce in this Parliament.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to shortening the amount of time spent in ill health and preventing premature deaths by addressing the key preventable drivers of poor health, such as alcohol.
Action to prevent harms from alcohol feature in several current strategies and plans. The National Health Service 10-Year Health Plan commits to some crucial steps to help people make healthier choices about alcohol, including making it a legal requirement for alcohol labels to display health warnings and consistent nutritional information. The Men’s Health Strategy outlines the impact alcohol can have on men’s health, and several initiatives to address this, including piloting a new brief intervention to target the rise in cardiovascular disease deaths from combined alcohol and cocaine use among older men. The upcoming National Cancer Plan will continue the work to shift from treatment to prevention, including for alcohol-related cancer risks.
To support better outcomes for people experiencing harmful drinking, the first ever United Kingdom clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment were published in November. All drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding is channelled through the Public Health Grant, with over £13.45 billion allocated across three years, including £3.4 billion ringfenced for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery. Furthermore, in 2025/26, in addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department is providing a total of £310 million in targeted grants to improve treatment services and recovery support, including housing, employment, and inpatient detoxification.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how is she ensuring funding into services for people with gambling and gaming dependencies.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2025, the statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect to fund the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harm. In its first year, the levy has raised just under £120 million, 50% of which is allocated to NHS England and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales to deliver treatment and support services, with 30% allocated to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales to commission prevention activity across Great Britain.
NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities are working collaboratively on the development of their respective gambling treatment and prevention programmes during this period of transition to the new levy system. NHS England continues to work at pace to take on commissioning responsibility for the full treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare from 1 April 2026.
NHS England currently funds a National Centre for Gaming Disorders, offering help and support for people in England aged 13 years old and over, who have difficulty controlling their gaming and the impact it has on their lives. NHS England is currently considering the future approach to gaming services.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 waiting times at York Hospital on patients in January (a) 2025 and (b) 2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that patients have been let down for too long, with their health deteriorating, while they wait for the care they need.
Reducing waiting lists is a key part of the Government’s Health Mission, and we are putting patients first by ensuring that they are seen on time and that they have the best possible experience of care across the country, including at York Hospital.
As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, with an interim target of 65% by March 2026.
The Department does not hold waiting list data for January 2026 and at a hospital level. The latest waiting list data for the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, as of November 2025, shows that 55.7% of waits are below 18 weeks, a 0.2 percentage point improvement from the previous year.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 ICB centralisation on health and care service transformation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the focus of integrated care boards will be the strategic commissioning of health and care services working across larger footprints to drive improvements in services and improve population health. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/strategic-commissioning-framework/
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how he plans to measure the effectiveness of the reorganisation of ICBs at delivering service transformation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Oversight Framework provides a consistent and transparent approach to assessing integrated care boards (ICBs) and National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhs-oversight-framework/
In addition, ICBs will be expected to evaluate the impact of their commissioned services, care models, and proactive interventions as set out in the Strategic Commissioning Framework published 4 November 2025 and available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/strategic-commissioning-framework/
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 effectiveness of York Frailty Hub at supporting rapid discharge from acute care.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the important role that integrated care services such as the York Frailty Hub play in supporting safe and timely discharge and moving care into the community as outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan. While we have not undertaken a formal evaluation, we understand that the hub has proved effective locally in supporting discharge.
We continue to work closely with National Health Service partners to monitor and share best practice in supporting people living with frailty, helping patients to return home or to community settings when clinically appropriate.