Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
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 improve access to new innovations for people living with inherited cardiac conditions in East England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Inherited cardiac conditions (ICCs) are a group of largely monogenic disorders affecting the heart, its conducting system and vasculature. Waiting times data for ICCs is not available nationally in the Waiting List Minimum Data Set (WLDMS). Diagnosis codes, which could be used to identify patients with ICCs, are not collected in the WLMDS. While treatment codes are collected, there are no individual treatment codes for ICCs that could alternatively be used to identify patients waiting for treatment for an ICC. We are therefore unable to separate patients with an ICC from wider cardiac patients in England at a national or regional level.
The NHS England East of England Cardiac Network team for 2025/26 focuses on improving referral to treatment times across cardiology, improving access to cardiac diagnostics and ensuring patients access the specialists service that is required such as the ICC services across Royal Papworth Hospital and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
We are taking steps to improve access to diagnostic equipment and other services for ICC in East England, including new innovations wherever possible. For example, James Paget University Hospital has piloted a scheme that focuses echocardiograms in heart failure referral pathways. This streamlines echocardiogram waits across all conditions. The scheme is now being planned in Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn and being considered in Milton Keynes University Hospital as well as in Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board.
NHS England is also piloting the ‘Beat to Treat’ programme at Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn, which uses handheld, AI assisted echocardiograms in clinic and point of care testing for blood tests that are used to assess for heart failure. This will enable results to be received on the day and will allow for treatment to start at the first clinic appointment. This scheme will improve the accuracy of referrals for echocardiogram, refining the waiting list for this scan across all conditions, including ICC.
There are plans to introduce a single point of access for all referrals to the ICC service in Cambridgeshire, namely Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Papworth Hospital. Referrals will be triaged by both teams, to either the Royal Papworth Hospital or Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust element of the service and that there would be a clear standard operating procedure for how this would work and be managed, moving therefore to both sites operating as a joint service for these conditions. A multi-disciplinary team is already in place to support this, as well as access to newer therapies.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
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 tackle inequalities in (a) waiting times and (b) access to treatment for cardiovascular disease patients in East England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients have been let down for too long whilst they wait for the care they need, including patients awaiting cardiology care. The Government has committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT), a standard which has not been met for almost a decade. As a first step, we have set a national target that 65% of patients wait 18 weeks or less by March 2026.
The Elective Reform Plan commits to reforming elective care equitably and inclusively for all adults, children, and young people. The plan sets out the expectations for ICBs and providers to set a clear local vision for how health inequalities will be reduced as part of elective care reform, and to ensure interventions are in place to reduce disparities for groups who face additional waiting list challenges. To support this work, we have committed to improving the submission and quality of demographics data to increase understanding and insight into health inequalities.
Cardiology is one of five priority specialties identified for significant elective reform in the Elective Reform Plan. Reforms include increasing specialist cardiology input earlier in patient care pathways, and improving access to cardiac diagnostic tests. These improvements to common cardiology pathways help standardise patient care, reduce inequalities, and improve access to care, especially in the early stages of pathways, for patients across England.
In the East of England, performance against the 18-week RTT standard for cardiology is 58.1%, compared to 60.9% for cardiology nationally. Regionally, NHS England’s East of England Cardiac Network team is taking focussed action to reduce RTT waiting times, improve access to cardiac diagnostics such as echo and computed tomography coronary angiography, and ensure patients can readily access specialist services as required, such as the Inherited Cardiac Conditions services across the Royal Papworth Hospital and Norfolk, and the Norwich University Hospital.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
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 14 May 2025 to Question 48901 on Motor Neurone Disease: Research, by what date he expects the total allocated to motor neurone disease research since the start of 2022-23 to exceed £50 million.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering motor neurone disease research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and in particular the Medical Research Council.
The commitment to allocate £50 million to motor neurone disease research was introduced by the previous administration. Since the last parliamentary question on the commitment on 14 May, an additional contract is now public information, which confirms that a total of £50.2 million has been committed to motor neurone disease research since the start of the 2022/23 financial year. We will continue to invest in motor neurone disease research via open competition, with no maximum funding limit.
The NIHR and UKRI will continue to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including motor neurone disease. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Welcoming applications on motor neurone disease to all NIHR and UKRI programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to issue further guidance to the NHS organisations on ending the recruitment of dedicated equality, diversity and inclusion staff.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service organisations should be working to address inequalities, in order to ensure the best possible outcomes for all patients, as well as tackling the abuse and discrimination that some NHS staff face in the workplace. Local NHS leaders are best placed to take an evidence-based approach to how they approach this challenge and resource this work.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the expected in-year cost of redundancy payments in (a) DHSC and (b) NHS England is in (i) 2025-26, (ii) 2026-27 and (iii) 2027-28.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Detailed plans are being formulated by a joint Department and NHS England programme team. The remit of work includes formulation of the relevant costs. Further detail on the costs and funding mechanisms will be provided as this work develops.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people who do not meet the criteria to reside were inpatients in (a) Hinchingbrooke Hospital, (b) Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn and (c) Peterborough City Hospital on 21 April 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of patients with no criteria to reside as of 21 April 2025, in Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn, and Peterborough City Hospital:
Hospital | Numbers of patients with no criteria to reside |
Hinchingbrooke Hospital | 35 |
Peterborough City Hospital | 47 |
Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn | 49 |
No criteria to reside refers to patients who are medically fit for discharge but are still in hospital. These delays can be caused by a range of issues including hospital processes, delays in arranging ongoing support, a lack of care capacity, and wellbeing concerns.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department plans to provide for motor neurone disease research in 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering motor neurone disease research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation. Since the start of 2022/23, the Government has allocated £47.8 million to motor neurone disease research.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including motor neurone disease. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on motor neurone disease to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
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 estimate of the impact of providing a one per cent increase in pay to all NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts in the 2025-26 financial year on (a) total costs, (b) pension contributions, (c) National Insurance contributions and (d) spillover costs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the total cost of uplifting the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay scales by one percent in 2025/26, as well as the costs of employer pension contributions (EPC), employer National Insurance contributions (ENIC), and spillover elements from that total:
Full cost to the Department, including spillovers | EPC | ENIC | Spillover costs |
£950,000,000 | £110,000,000 | £80,000,000 | £240,000,000 |
These estimates represent the gross cost per one percent uplift payable from National Health Service funding for AfC staff only. The exact cost will vary depending on the workforce size and composition, and these estimates are based on current assumptions. ENIC costs include the cost of the 2025/26 increase in ENIC rates. EPC and ENIC costs relate to the substantive workforce only. Spillover costs allow for full system costs, including EPCs and ENICs, beyond the substantive workforce.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, by what date he expects the NHS to have a virtual ward capacity of 40 beds per 100,000 people.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS England 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance asks systems to improve access to urgent care services, including virtual ward, also known as hospital at home, services.
No national population target has been set centrally for 2025/26 and it is for local systems to take decision on how best to increase capacity and utilisation as part of the range of urgent care services that can be accessed locally. Progress has continued to be made, with 12,825 virtual ward beds open in March 2025 compared to 11,856 in March 2024.
The Government is committed to transforming the National Health Service from analogue to digital, and this shift will be central to our 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to help improve the career progression of (a) nurses from Agenda for Change Band Five to Band Six and (b) other nurses in the context of plans not to introduce a separate pay spine for nursing.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Evidence submitted through the separate nurse pay spine call for evidence highlighted that career progression issues relating to the pay system do not uniquely impact nurses.
We have therefore accepted several recommendations from workstreams committed to in the 2023 Agenda for Change (AfC) pay deal, which focus on ensuring all AfC staff are in the correct pay band, as well as specific measures to improve career progression for nurses. We have also committed to providing the NHS Staff Council with a funded mandate to address issues with the pay structure.