Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide funding to help increase staffing levels at (a) James Paget University Hospital and (b) Northgate Hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual National Health Service employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.
Funding provided to NHS trusts, including James Paget University Hospital and Northgate Hospital, is not ringfenced for specific items such as staffing levels. Hospitals receive funding allocations which they can use at their discretion, based on local priorities.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what evidence NICE has identified as the basis for its clinical assessment of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria; and whether NICE has undertaken (a) scoping and (b) evaluation exercises since 2015.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not developed guidance on, or made a clinical assessment of, puberty blockers for gender dysphoria. In 2020, NICE developed two evidence summaries:
These summaries were commissioned by NHS England and developed by NICE to an NHS England process. They helped inform the Cass review.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department reviews NHS England expenditure reports relating to the prescribing of puberty blockers for children; and whether (a) financial oversight and (b) risk assessments have been conducted since 2010.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All arms-length bodies, including NHS England, are held to high standards of financial responsibility and publish annual reports and accounts which are laid before Parliament.
Gonadotrophin releasing hormone analogues, or puberty blockers, have been prescribed to children under 16 years of age in England for licenced uses, for instance precocious puberty and endometriosis, and off label uses, such as gender dysphoria. The cost of prescribing drugs to a patient is met by the patient's integrated care board.
Regarding risks assessments conducted since 2010, in March 2024 NHS England published a suite of documentation relating to its decision to remove gonadotrophin releasing hormone analogues as a routine treatment option in the National Health Service for children under 18 years old with gender dysphoria. This documentation included a review of the published evidence, which concluded that there is very limited evidence about safety, risks, benefits, and outcomes for the use of this medication in children with gender dysphoria.
Restrictions on the sale and supply of these medicines via private and NHS prescriptions were introduced in May 2024. As part of that legislation the Government conducted a targeted consultation and sought advice on patient safety from the independent Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) and Cass Review.
The Government response to the consultation, the full report of the CHM, and the Cass review are available publicly, and respectively, at the following three links:
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20250310143633/https://cass.independent-review.uk/
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what aggregated safety data, including adverse-event summaries, the MHRA has recorded relating to the use of puberty blockers in under-18s since 2010; and whether the Department has been informed of any safety signals during that period.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion meet applicable standards of safety, quality, and efficacy. The MHRA rigorously assesses available data, including from the Yellow Card scheme, and seeks advice from their independent advisory committee, the Commission on Human Medicines, where appropriate to inform regulatory decisions.
Puberty blockers are also known as gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues. These medicines are licenced for conditions such as young children who enter puberty too early, also known as precocious puberty, prostate cancer, and endometriosis. The use of GnRH analogues to suppress puberty in children and young people with gender dysphoria is off-label prescribing. This means that the use of these medicines for this purpose is outside of the licensed uses, and as such the benefits and risks of the medicine for use in this specific population have not been assessed. The MHRA does not regulate off-label use.
The MHRA has received three United Kingdom suspected adverse drug reaction reports in which a GnRH analogue has been reported as being used in a child or young person for the purpose of puberty suppression in gender dysphoria. The GnRH analogues included in this search were buserelin, leuprorelin, goserelin, gonadorelin, nafarelin, and triptorelin. Please note it is not mandatory to provide information on indication when submitting an adverse drug reaction report.
It is important to note that a reaction reported to the Yellow Card scheme does not necessarily mean it has been caused by the medicine, only that the reporter had a suspicion it may have. Underlying or concurrent illnesses may be responsible, or the events could be coincidental.
The MHRA has not identified any safety signals which concern the off-label use of the GnRH analogues for the purpose of puberty suppression in gender dysphoria. However, we acknowledge that there is a clear lack of clinical evidence for the safety and efficacy of using these medicines for gender incongruence and/or dysphoria in those aged 18 years old and under. That is why NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Research have commissioned a carefully designed clinical trial to assess the relative benefits and harms of puberty suppressing hormones on young people’s physical, social, and emotional well-being.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Department holds complete archived referral, assessment, prescribing, and safeguarding data from the former Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service; and whether the Department will publish an aggregated historical summary.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England, as the responsible commissioner of the service at the time, will hold some relevant data, of the type and nature that would routinely be reported through the commissioning process. This would not include patient identifiable information.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what instructions his Department issued to NHS regional gender hubs on prescribing restrictions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In March 2024, NHS England published its clinical policy on puberty suppressing hormones for children and young people who have gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria.
This set out that puberty supressing hormones are not available as a routine commissioning treatment option for the treatment of children and young people who have gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
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 adequacy of the number of GPs in Great Yarmouth constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 31 October 2025, there were 66 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors in general practice (GP) in the Great Yarmouth Constituency. The median number of FTE doctors per 10,000 registered patients was 5.5, compared to the England median of 5.6.
Since October 2024 we have funded primary care networks with an additional £160 million to recruit recently qualified GPs through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. Over 2,600 individual GPs have now been recruited, preventing them from graduating into unemployment. This was a measure to respond to feedback from the profession and to help solve an immediate issue of GP unemployment.
We have committed to training thousands more GPs across the country which will increase capacity and take the pressure off those currently working in the system.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any NHS regional gender hubs have prescribed puberty blockers to patients under 18 since the publication of the Cass Review.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 1 April 2024, NHS England adopted a new clinical commissioning policy that prevents the newly established Children and Young People's Gender Services from initiating prescriptions for gonadotrophin releasing hormone analogues for the purpose of puberty suppression.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England or NHSBSA have identified any gaps or inconsistencies in national prescribing or outcomes data relating to puberty blockers in under-18s.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In March 2024, NHS England published a suite of documentation relating to its decision to remove gonadotrophin releasing hormone analogues as a routine treatment option in the National Health Service for children under 18 years old with gender dysphoria. This documentation included a review of the published evidence, which concluded that there is very limited evidence about safety, risks, benefits, and outcomes for the use of this medication in children with gender dysphoria. Restrictions on the sale and supply of these medicines via private and NHS prescriptions were introduced in May 2024.
In line with the findings and recommendations of the Cass Review, NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Research have commissioned a carefully designed clinical trial to assess the relative benefits and harms of puberty suppressing hormones on young people’s physical, social, and emotional well-being.
With regard to national prescribing data, the Government holds information relating to NHS prescriptions of gonadotropin hormone-releasing hormone agonists for all purposes for children aged 17 years old and under that were prescribed and dispensed in community pharmacies or general practices in England in each year from 2015/16 to September 2025. The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold patient data prior to April 2015.
The Government does not hold data for prescriptions dispensed within secondary care, prisons, or other detention centres, or private prescriptions other than controlled drugs.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many sexual assaults there were in NHS hospitals by staff by the nationality of the assailant in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the appalling crimes of rape and sexual assault. NHS England has introduced a comprehensive package of measures to improve sexual safety across the National Health Service. NHS England has made tackling sexual misconduct in the NHS a priority, with all trusts and integrated care boards (ICBs) now signed up to the Sexual Safety Charter for the NHS.
NHS England is investing in improving the collection and analysis of sexual violence data to support organisations to implement policies that reduce incidents of sexual misconduct in the NHS. NHS providers have a mandatory duty to notify the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of all incidents that affect the health, safety, and welfare of people who use services, including allegations of sexual assault. The provider must also notify the police if a crime has been committed. The CQC uses the information to monitor the safety of services and to ensure that providers have dealt with incidents appropriately. The CQC publishes reports about the services they inspect on their website.
Data relating to sexual assault in NHS hospitals is currently held at NHS trust level. Local police forces hold data where there has been a report to the police of sexual assault. For assaults on NHS staff, the NHS Staff Survey now includes questions about staff experiences of sexual misconduct. Results from the 2024 staff survey show 3.66% experienced unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature from colleagues.