Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of not referencing biological sexes in some maternity care guidance on the safeguarding of patients.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department’s longstanding position is that health information should be as clear as possible and language should be used that appropriately reflects sex as defined in the Equality Act 2010.
National maternity guidance and key documents, such as the Three-Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services, reference women throughout.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to review NHS communications to ensure that language on (a) pregnancy and (b) breast feeding reflects biological sexes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to working with NHS England to ensure health communications are as clear as possible and appropriately reflect sex as a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010. This includes communications about pregnancy and breast feeding.
In April, in its judgment in the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v. The Scottish Ministers, the Supreme Court announced that it had reached a unanimous decision that the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’, and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex. We welcome the clarity this brings.
We recognise that there will be occasions when National Health Service providers want to specifically acknowledge patients with differing characteristics, including the transgender community. This may mean that trusts and providers decide to use additive language, for example “women and trans men”, to ensure health communications reach the largest audience.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS Blood and Transplant has made an assessment of the potential impact of the use of tanning injections more than (a) 12 months (b) three months prior to donating on blood safety.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The safety of blood is of the upmost importance. Patients that receive blood donations can be particularly vulnerable to infections. In the United Kingdom, the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005 mandate permanent deferral from blood donation for anyone with a history of non-prescribed intravenous or intramuscular drug use. The Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005 are available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/50/schedule/part/3/paragraph/2n3
This includes those in receipt of tanning injections, for any period prior to donation. NHS Blood and Transplant has provided guidance on blood safety by the Joint United Kingdom (UK) Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC). JPAC guidance reflects the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005 in the Addiction and Drug Abuse guideline and the Blood Safety Entry guideline, which are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://transfusionguidelines.org/dsg/wb/guidelines/ad001-addiction-and-drug-abuse
https://www.transfusionguidelines.org/dsg/wb/guidelines/bl008-blood-safety-entry
Injections can carry a risk of blood-borne illness. To preserve the safety of patients who receive blood donations, measures are taken to reduce the risk of transmitting blood-borne infections, including cleanliness and safety standards. However, as tanning injections are not well regulated, measures that would normally be used to prevent blood-borne infection cannot be assessed.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason people who have used tanning injections are permanently unable to donate blood.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The safety of blood is of the upmost importance. Patients that receive blood donations can be particularly vulnerable to infections. In the United Kingdom, the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005 mandate permanent deferral from blood donation for anyone with a history of non-prescribed intravenous or intramuscular drug use. The Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005 are available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/50/schedule/part/3/paragraph/2n3
This is also reflected in the Joint United Kingdom (UK) Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC) guidelines, the Addiction and Drug Abuse guideline and the Blood Safety Entry guideline, which are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://transfusionguidelines.org/dsg/wb/guidelines/ad001-addiction-and-drug-abuse
https://www.transfusionguidelines.org/dsg/wb/guidelines/bl008-blood-safety-entry
Injections can carry a risk of blood-borne illness. To preserve the safety of patients who receive blood donations, measures are taken to reduce the risk of transmitting blood-borne infections, including cleanliness and safety standards. However, as tanning injections are not well regulated, measures that would normally be used to prevent blood-borne infection cannot be assessed.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department last reviewed NHS Blood and Transplant’s donor eligibility policy on the use of unlicensed injectable substances.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The safety of blood is of the upmost importance. The Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005 mandate permanent deferral from blood donation for anyone with a history of non-prescribed intravenous or intramuscular drug use, with further information available in the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005, at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/50/schedule/part/3/paragraph/2n3
The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs, which provides expert advice to all the United Kingdom’s governments, conducted a full review of the donor selection criteria in 2017. This includes the use of unlicensed injectable substances.
The Joint United Kingdom (UK) Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services’ Professional Advisory Committee provides expert guidance to the UK blood services. Their Whole Blood and Component Donor Selection Guidelines, which includes the guidance relating to injectable tanning agents, were last updated on 18 July 2025.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 NHS Blood and Transplant donor exclusion policies (a) reflect up-to-date medical evidence and (b) do not unnecessarily restrict donor participation.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant’s (NHSBT) donor selection criteria are based on advice provided by the Joint United Kingdom (UK) Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services’ Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC). JPAC regularly reviews its guidelines to reflect the latest evidence. Their Whole Blood and Component Donor Selection Guidelines were last updated on 18 July 2025.
Based on the recommendations of the For the Assessment of Individualised Risk Steering Group, the Government updated the blood donor selection criteria in 2021, thereby providing more opportunities for people to give blood.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 merits of replacing the lifetime blood donation deferral for people who have used tanning injections with a fixed-term exclusion period similar to those in place for (a) tattoos and (b) piercings.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to update the deferral policy for tanning injections. Unlike tattooing and piercing, tanning injections are not well regulated. Given injectable tanning products work internally, they do not meet the definition of a cosmetic product and are therefore not regulated via the UK Cosmetic Regulation. Regulation ensures safety standards are maintained to reduce the risk of transmitting a blood-borne infection.
To protect the safety of the patient who receives the blood donation, the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005 mandate permanent deferral from blood donation for anyone with a history of non-prescribed intravenous or intramuscular drug use, as per the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/50/schedule/part/3/paragraph/2n3
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has allocated funding to (a) initiatives and (b) organisations that promote the use of the term chestfeeding.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds infant feeding services and support through the National Health Service, local authorities, and the National Breastfeeding Helpline.
We want all families to be able to achieve their infant feeding goals, regardless of their circumstances, and infant feeding support and advice should be available to anyone who needs it.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to delegate the commissioning of vaccination and immunisation services to integrated care boards from April 2026.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 29 September 2025 to Question PQ76374.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 reduce the variation in integrated care board (ICB) funding for children's hospices; and if he will commit to holding ICBs to account for the way in which they (a) commission children's palliative care and (b) comply with their legal duties in this area.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Service services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative care and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure that 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 can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
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.
We will closely monitor the shift towards strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
On ICB accountability, NHS England has a legal duty to annually assess the performance of each ICB in respect of each financial year and publish a summary of its findings. This assessment must assess how well the ICB has discharged its functions.