Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government’s commission on adult social care will consider reform to the means test of the Disabled Facilities Grant.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, we continue to fund the locally administered Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), which helps eligible older and disabled people on low incomes to adapt their homes.
We have provided an additional £172 million across this and the last financial year to uplift the DFG, which could provide around 15,600 home adaptations to give older and disabled people more independence in their homes. This brings the total funding for the DFG to £711 million across 2024/25 and 2025/26.
We continue to keep all aspects of the DFG under consideration. Recently, we carried out a review of the upper limit for the DFG and are currently considering the findings.
We have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The Terms of Reference for the commission are sufficiently broad to enable Baroness Casey to independently consider how to build a social care system fit for the future, including aspects of the DFG if she sees fit.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many appointments to ministerial private offices since July 2024 have been made by civil service recruitment principles exceptions including the transfer of civil servants from other departments who were appointed by exceptions without open and fair competition.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how many of the people who received one of the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices issued for incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges have never been in possession of a medical exemption certificate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held in the format requested, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost through manual matching of data from multiple unlinked data sources.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how many of the individuals who received one of the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices issued for incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges were in possession of an exemption certificate within the previous 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held in the format requested, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost through manual matching of data from multiple unlinked data sources.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how many of the people who received one of the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices issued for incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges were previously in possession of an exemption certificate and remained eligible for an exemption certificate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not held in the format requested, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost through manual matching of data from multiple unlinked data sources.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how many of the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices issued for incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges were paid.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Overall, 55,347 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) were issued to 50,330 individuals for incorrectly claiming a medical exemption from NHS prescription charges in the period 1 June 2024 to 1 July 2025. 32,724 PCNs have had a payment made against them.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2025 to Question 67790 on Diabetes: Screening, when he expects the UK National Screening Committee to complete the review of the 2024 submission on autoimmune type 1 diabetes screening through blood testing.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is currently awaiting the outcome of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) assessment of the drug teplizumab, which is expected in November.
Once the NICE recommendation on teplizumab has been published, the UK NSC will look again at the 2024 annual call submission on autoimmune type 1 diabetes screening through blood testing and will consider whether a fresh review of the evidence for type 1 diabetes screening should be undertaken.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Scottish Government on including aplastic anaemia on NHS Inform.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Working under the United Kingdom Rare Diseases Framework, the Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, such as aplastic anaemia.
Collaboration at all levels across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales remains an underpinning priority. The Department works closely with colleagues across the devolved nations to ensure policy on rare disease is aligned across the UK, and that we share best practice and areas of learning.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses,, how many enquiry letters were to individuals regarding incorrectly claiming medical exemption from NHS prescription charges in this period.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Between 1 June 2024 and 30 June 2025, a total of 67,777 enquiry letters were issued in relation to National Health Service prescriptions for which a medical exemption certificate had been claimed.
Asked by: Sarah Bool (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2025 to Question 67788 on Prescriptions: Terminal Illnesses, how much revenue was raised from the 50,330 Penalty Charge Notices.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Between 1 June 2024 and 1 July 2025, a total of £980,266.02 was recovered from the 50,330 people who were issued Penalty Charge Notices for incorrectly claiming a medical exemption from prescription charges.