Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the Government’s upcoming Acquired Brain Injury Action Plan will improve data recording and data access relating to brain injury survivors.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We expect to publish the Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Action Plan in the first half of 2026. This will allow time to ensure the plan is in line with our 10-Year Health Plan and is robust, action-oriented, and reflects emerging priorities across health, social care, and other relevant sectors.
The plan is designed to take a cross-Government approach and will cover several key areas to improve outcomes for people living with ABI. We are working with Government departments with responsibility for education, justice, housing and homelessness, work and benefits, transport, sport, and defence on the plan.
The plan will ensure more consistent and comprehensive data gathering, alongside better mechanisms for sharing and accessing information. These improvements will support integrated care, inform commissioning decisions, and strengthen evidence-based policy development.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what policy areas are in the scope of the upcoming acquired brain injury action plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We expect to publish the Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Action Plan in the first half of 2026. This will allow time to ensure the plan is in line with our 10-Year Health Plan and is robust, action-oriented, and reflects emerging priorities across health, social care, and other relevant sectors.
The plan is designed to take a cross-Government approach and will cover several key areas to improve outcomes for people living with ABI. We are working with Government departments with responsibility for education, justice, housing and homelessness, work and benefits, transport, sport, and defence on the plan.
The plan will ensure more consistent and comprehensive data gathering, alongside better mechanisms for sharing and accessing information. These improvements will support integrated care, inform commissioning decisions, and strengthen evidence-based policy development.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department will publish the Acquired Brain Injury Action plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We expect to publish the Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Action Plan in the first half of 2026. This will allow time to ensure the plan is in line with our 10-Year Health Plan and is robust, action-oriented, and reflects emerging priorities across health, social care, and other relevant sectors.
The plan is designed to take a cross-Government approach and will cover several key areas to improve outcomes for people living with ABI. We are working with Government departments with responsibility for education, justice, housing and homelessness, work and benefits, transport, sport, and defence on the plan.
The plan will ensure more consistent and comprehensive data gathering, alongside better mechanisms for sharing and accessing information. These improvements will support integrated care, inform commissioning decisions, and strengthen evidence-based policy development.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
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 excluding (a) general practitioners and (b) other frontline medical staff from the covid-19 booster vaccination programme in autumn 2025 on (i) patient safety and (ii) workforce resilience; if he will take steps to amend the eligibility criteria.
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 JCVI has advised that COVID-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people, though it can still be unpleasant, with rates of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 having reduced significantly since it first emerged. 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:
On 26 June 2025, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice for autumn 2025, and in line with this, in autumn 2025 a COVID-19 vaccination is being offered to adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and the immunosuppressed aged six months old and over.
In line with JCVI advice, frontline health and social care workers (HSCWs) and staff working in care homes for older adults are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination under the national programme for autumn 2025. This is following an extensive review by JCVI of the scientific evidence surrounding the impact of vaccination on the transmission of the virus from HSCWs to patients, protection of HSCWs against symptoms of the disease, and staff sickness absences.
In the current era of high population immunity to COVID-19, additional COVID-19 doses provide very limited, if any, protection against infection and any subsequent onward transmission of infection. For HSCWs, this means that COVID-19 vaccination likely now has only a very limited impact on patient safety and reducing staff sickness absence. Therefore, the focus of the programme is on those at greatest risk of serious disease and who are, as a consequence, most likely to continue to benefit from vaccination.
Any HSCW who is otherwise eligible, because of their age or due to immunosuppression, is encouraged to take up the offer of vaccination.
The Government has accepted JCVI’s advice on eligibility for the autumn 2025 COVID-19 vaccination programme and has no plans to review eligibility for this campaign. As for all vaccines, the JCVI keeps the evidence under regular review.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to ban alcohol advertising.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 3 July 2025, the Department published Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, which outlines plans to introduce mandatory alcohol labelling, to increase awareness of harms and enable people to make healthier choices. It also commits to exploring expanding the ban on sales of alcohol products to children under 18 years old to include alcohol- free products, to protect young people. It further commits to continued expansion of Individual Placement and Support schemes for people with alcohol addiction to find good work. The Plan is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future
The Government is committed to building a National Health Service fit for the future, with a greater emphasis on the prevention of avoidable health harms, supporting people to live well for longer. We will continue to work across Government reduce the negative impact excessive alcohol consumption is having on health, crime and the economy.
The Government has no plans to introduce a ban on alcohol advertising.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his planned timetable is for the publication of the final report of the Review of the NHS adult gender dysphoria clinics in England; and if he will make an oral statement upon receipt.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Review of Adult Gender Services is aiming to publish its report later this summer. NHS England and the Government will need time to consider the findings, advice, and recommendations before issuing their response.
The review has examined records, including patient case notes, and conducted site visits at each of the nine adult gender dysphoria clinics in order to develop a detailed understanding of the operation and delivery of services within each clinic. Further information about how evidence was gathered is detailed in the published key lines of enquiry, at the following link:
The review conducted focus groups with patients of the services, and detailed surveys for patients of the service, their friends and family, and for the clinicians delivering these services.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has undertaken a (a) call for evidence and (b) consultation to support the review of NHS adult gender dysphoria clinics in England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Review of Adult Gender Services is aiming to publish its report later this summer. NHS England and the Government will need time to consider the findings, advice, and recommendations before issuing their response.
The review has examined records, including patient case notes, and conducted site visits at each of the nine adult gender dysphoria clinics in order to develop a detailed understanding of the operation and delivery of services within each clinic. Further information about how evidence was gathered is detailed in the published key lines of enquiry, at the following link:
The review conducted focus groups with patients of the services, and detailed surveys for patients of the service, their friends and family, and for the clinicians delivering these services.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
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 ensure that the NHS follows guidance on the minimum age for gender dysphoria.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 7 August 2024, NHS England published a new service specification that describes the pathway onto the waiting list for NHS Children and Young People's Gender Services in line with the recommendations of the Cass Review. The service specification was agreed following a process of public consultation, respondents to which included medical bodies such as royal colleges of medicine. I would like to assure you that this service specification is followed by all commissioned providers of NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Services.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children under the age of seven have been treated for gender dysphoria since 1 April 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No children under the age of seven have been treated for gender dysphoria since 1 April 2024.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
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 implications for his policies of the recommendations on the minimum age for treatment for gender dysphoria in the Cass Review, published in April 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Last year, NHS England held a public consultation regarding an updated referral pathway policy for children and young people to access NHS Children and Young People's Gender Services in line with the recommendations of the Cass Review.
The public consultation was supported by a detailed Equality and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment. A detailed report on the outcome of the consultation process, alongside guidance for secondary care health professionals, was published by NHS England on 7 August 2024.