Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 make the NHS more accessible for people with hearing impairment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged.
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the National Health Service and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated.
Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including people with a hearing or visual impairment.
On 30 June 2025, a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and is reviewing the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 make the NHS more accessible for people with visual impairment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged.
The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the National Health Service and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated.
Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including people with a hearing or visual impairment.
On 30 June 2025, a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and is reviewing the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the NHS are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many full-time equivalent civil servants are working on appointing the new contractor for St Michaels School in Paignton.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
St Michael’s School is part of the school rebuilding programme. The project team is made up of a project director, who is a civil servant, and a project manager. A number of technical specialists also support the project at different stages.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of school food guidelines.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to raising the healthiest generation ever. It is important that children eat nutritious food at school and the department encourages schools to have a whole school approach to healthy eating. The school food standards define the foods and drinks that must be provided, which are restricted, and those which must not be provided.
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, we are acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of decreased funding on the provision of specialist domestic violence services; what steps she is taking to prevent further harm to victims.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Specialist and ‘by and for’ services are essential for providing the tailored support that victims and survivors of domestic abuse need. Access to support services can prevent re-victimisation, and help victims to access support, escape abuse, and move forward with their lives.
That is why we uplifted the National VAWG Helplines, including ‘by and for’ helpline providers, by over £1.5m in 2024/25, and we are now providing a further uplift of over £1m, bringing the total investment to over £6m in 2025/26. We also uplifted the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme by £398k in 2024/25, and we are now providing a further uplift of £600k to bring the total investment up to £2.4m for 2025/26.
The is part of a wider £19.9 million investment into 2025/26, which also includes £2.5m to help prevent and improve the response to VAWG. This includes increasing the understanding and identification of VAWG, work to prevent ‘honour’ based abuse and improving multi-agency working and risk management.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 his Department's provision of care for dementia patients within the local community.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our health system has struggled to support those with complex needs, including those with dementia. Under the 10-Health Year Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services.
We will deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia, and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
To reduce variation in diagnosis rates, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has developed a tool for local systems, which includes an assessment of population characteristics such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. This enables systems to investigate local variation in diagnosis and take informed action to enhance their diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has set ICBs targets to promote CPR training in schools.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal requirement for integrated care boards (ICBs) to promote or recommend cardiopulmonary resuscitation training or any associated targets has been set. The Department and NHS England welcome ICBs setting locally led targets as best practice for local services and commissioners to work to.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish (a) transparent and (b) clearly reported data on hospital admissions and presentations to minor injury clinics due to dog bites, by healthcare trust in Great Britain.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England currently publishes data on hospital admissions, including those due to dog bites. This data can be found at the following link:
In 2023/24, in England, there were 10,678 finished admission episodes with an external cause of being bitten or struck by a dog. This data is available nationally and not disaggregated by individual National Health Service trusts or minor injury unit. There are no current plans to change this approach.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support teachers' mental health.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member for Torbay to the answer of 9 May 2025 to Question 44781.