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 his Department plans to increase support for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis who are employed.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Occupational health as advisory support has a broad remit. It plays an important role in supporting employers to maintain and promote employee health and wellbeing through assessments of fitness for work, advice about reasonable adjustments, work ability or return to work plans, and signposting to treatment for specific conditions such as myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant that supports the recruitment and retention of disabled people in sustainable paid employment. The tailored nature of the scheme allows customers to receive the appropriate grant and support based on their specific health and disability-related needs, including ME/CFS. Access to Work grants do not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments.
The goal is to open up opportunities to good work and to support a healthier, more productive and inclusive nation, by helping more disabled people and people with health conditions like ME/CFS to get appropriate work, get on in that work, and to return to work as quickly as possible if they leave it. This supports the Government’s priority of tackling economic inactivity, as set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.
NHS England recently completed a ME/CFS stocktake, aimed at providing a nationwide overview of service delivery in commissioning and contracting, assessing access, activity, and outcomes. The findings confirmed the widely recognised challenges of significant variation in care delivery across England and a lack of comprehensive activity data.
We aim to publish our ME/CFS final delivery plan by the end of June 2025. The plan will focus on boosting research, improving attitudes and education, and bettering the lives of people with this debilitating disease. The responses to the interim delivery plan consultation, along with continued close engagement with other parts of the Government, the National Health Service, and external stakeholders, will inform the development of the final ME/CFS delivery plan.
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 his Department plans to take to improve the integration of charity hospices into the National Health System.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services, including hospices, will have a big role to play in that shift.
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS 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 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 adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices.
In February, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.
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 his Department plans to take to ensure that hospices receive adequate funding from local health authorities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services, including hospices, will have a big role to play in that shift.
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS 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 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 adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices.
In February, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.
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 his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on social care providers who rely on charitable donations.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process.
To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government has made available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant. Overall, core local government spending power in 2025/26 has increased by up to 6.8% in cash terms.
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 his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes to National Insurance announced at the Autumn Budget 2024 on the expansion of (a) GP practices and (b) other care provision.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have made the necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise was implemented in April 2025.
General practices (GPs) are valued independent contractors who provide over £13 billion worth of services within the National Health Service. Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.
We are investing an additional £889 million in GPs to fix the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the England General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association is supportive of the contract changes.
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 his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on the integration of social care providers into the National Health Service.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2024.
To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government is making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.
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 his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the the level of funding provided by Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board to Rowan's hospice.
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. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. ICBs are responsible for commissioning palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices such as Rowan’s Hospice, also play in providing support to people at end of life and their loved ones.
Most hospices, including Rowan’s Hospice, are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS 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 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 adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. The Government has released the first £25 million tranche of the £100 million of capital funding, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. I am pleased that Rowan’s Hospice received £171,289 from this first tranche. An additional £75 million will be allocated in the coming weeks for use in 2025/26.
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 take steps to help ensure that the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board increases funding for Rowan's Hospice.
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. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. ICBs are responsible for commissioning palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices such as Rowan’s Hospice, also play in providing support to people at end of life and their loved ones.
Most hospices, including Rowan’s Hospice, are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS 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 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 adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. The Government has released the first £25 million tranche of the £100 million of capital funding, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. I am pleased that Rowan’s Hospice received £171,289 from this first tranche. An additional £75 million will be allocated in the coming weeks for use in 2025/26.
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 recent estimate his Department has made of the number of GP practices that will be affected by changes to National Insurance announced at the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have made necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance (NI) rise was implemented in April 2025.
General practices are valued independent contractors and will therefore be subject to the employers’ NI rise. Every year, we consult with the profession about what services general practice provides, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.
We are investing an additional £889 million in general practice to fix the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the England General Practitioners’ Committee of the British Medical Association is supportive of the contract changes
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 monitor (a) PCSE and (b) Capita's performance in managing the NHS Pension Scheme.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Service Authority is the scheme manager for NHS Pensions. NHS England is the employing authority for general practitioners (GPs) and undertakes local pension administration for GPs through Primary Care Support England (PCSE). NHS England has a monthly governance board in place to monitor and assure the delivery of the PCSE service, which includes an assessment of quality and performance indicators.