Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce mandatory epilepsy training for (a) employers and (b) employees.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Employers have a key role to play in supporting workers with long-term health conditions or disabilities in the workplace and it is for employers to assess the training requirements for their workforce. However, the Department of Health and Social Care has no plans to introduce mandatory epilepsy training.
The Department for Work and Pensions’ current offer to employers includes a digital information service which provides tailored guidance to businesses to support employees, including epileptic employees, to remain in work.
The service was developed with user-centred design principles. It offers a simple, interactive, and highly usable resource which helps employers to feel more confident having conversations with their employees about health and disability as well as understanding and fulfilling their legal obligations.
This digital service provides tailored guidance on supporting employees in common workplace scenarios involving health and disability. This enables small businesses to self-serve, by guiding them through key processes. Employers are also able to access links to related government products and services as well as links to sources of external expert support including Epilepsy Action and Epilepsy Society.
The digital information service is available at the following link:
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of piloting a national early-detection scheme for Type 1 Diabetes, in the context of seeking to deliver long-term savings and reducing unplanned hospital admissions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published a RightCare toolkit which sets out what good quality diabetes care looks like for children and young adults and which includes guidance on timely and accurate diagnosis.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of children and young people with type 1 diabetes.
Through our National Institute for Health and Care Research, we have supported the establishment of the Early Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes, or the “ELSA” study. This study is exploring the feasibility and benefits of screening for type 1 diabetes.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
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 implementation of national early-detection programmes for Type 1 Diabetes in England compared to other countries such as Italy, in the context of around a third of people experiencing life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis at diagnosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A national Task and Finish Group has been established by NHS England which brings together key experts from across the health system, including academia/research and leading national clinicians, to jointly assess the opportunities and challenges that are associated with a national screening programme for diabetes and to inform the national direction of travel with regard to the development of national policy in this area.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what action the Government is taking to end regional disparities in access to insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To reduce variation and health inequalities, data on the uptake of continuous glucose monitors (CGM) for diabetics is collected as part of the National Diabetes Audit (NDA).
NHS England plans to routinely publish this data in the NDA Core Quarterly dashboard in 2025/26, which will provide the data insights integrated care boards require to deliver CGM to their populations.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
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 prevent the misdiagnosis of adults over 30 with Type 1 Diabetes as Type 2 within the NHS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To coincide with World Diabetes Day on 14 November 2025, NHS England, in partnership with other key national stakeholders, launched a national awareness campaign to promote health care professionals in their identification and diagnosis of type 1 diabetes and reduce the risk of misdiagnosis.
This included a call to action to healthcare professionals, signposting to information, and action to take if a person is displaying any of the symptoms of type 1 diabetes, as well as supportive resources.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
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 cost-effectiveness of a Type 1 Diabetes screening programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the United Kingdom, new screening programmes and modifications to existing screening programmes are recommended by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific advisory committee.
The UK NSC received a submission via its 2024 open call process to consider screening for autoimmune type 1 diabetes through blood testing. Once the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published its recommendation on the drug teplizumab, the UK NSC will look again at this open call submission and consider whether a fresh review of the evidence for type 1 diabetes screening should be undertaken.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the clarity of escalation pathways for parents of children with complex medical needs.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) in England are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population. ICBs are expected to follow guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In 2022, NICE published guidance on Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs. This is available at the following link:
NHS England is rolling out Martha’s Rule in acute provider sites, which gives in-patients and their families or carers who are concerned about physiological deterioration the ability to initiate a rapid review of their case from someone outside of their immediate care team. When requested, this rapid review will inform whether any new or additional action needs to be taken to ensure patients receive the most appropriate care and treatment, which may include escalation.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of levels of epilepsy medication availability on patient safety.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Medicine supply issues are global in their nature and, whilst not wholly preventable, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage and mitigate risks to patients. The Department has worked hard with industry to help resolve intermittent supply issues with some epilepsy medications. As a result of ongoing activity and intensive work, including asking manufacturers to expedite deliveries, most issues have been resolved.
The Department is currently aware of supply issues affecting some suppliers of clobazam 10 milligram tablets, all strengths of topiramate tablets, clonazepam 2 milligram tablets, and phenobarbital 15 milligram tablets, used in the management of epilepsy.
The supply issue with clonazepam 2mg tablets from one manufacturer is expected to resolve late January 2026. The affected suppliers of topiramate 25 milligram and 50 milligram tablets, and clobazam 10 milligram tablets, are expected to resupply these products by early December 2025. The resupply date from the other affected manufacturers for topiramate 50 milligram, 100 milligram and 200 milligram tablets and phenobarbital 15 milligram tablets is yet to be confirmed. Stock remains available from alternative manufacturers of these products to meet patient demand, and we have issued comprehensive management guidance to the National Health Service.
We have issued guidance for the discontinuation of sodium valproate (Epilim Chronosphere) 750 milligram and 1000 milligram modified release (MR) granules sachets. Alternative strengths of sodium valproate MR granules sachets remain available.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
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 national strategy for palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Additionally, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure 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 am pleased to confirm the continuation of circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, for the next three financial years, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive, to be distributed again via integrated care boards. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
Asked by: Suella Braverman (Reform UK - Fareham and Waterlooville)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve public awareness of the early signs of Type 1 diabetes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service has publicly accessible information on its website about the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes, available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-1-diabetes/symptoms/
The DigiBete app, launched in June 2020, provides a wide range of clinically approved, age-appropriate resources to help with the self-management and awareness of type 1 diabetes, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.digibete.org/type-1-awareness/
It is the responsibility of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to provide guidance and quality standards for the treatment and care of diabetes in England. The NICE NG18 guideline for type 1 and 2 diabetes provides clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of children and young people.
NG18 recommends that children and young people with suspected type 1 diabetes are referred immediately, on the same day, to a multidisciplinary paediatric diabetes team with the competencies needed to confirm diagnosis and provide immediate care.