Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help reduce rates of obesity in Slough.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, we are taking decisive action on the obesity crisis to shift the focus from treatment to prevention and ease the strain on our National Health Service, including in Slough.
We have fulfilled our commitment to restrict junk food advertising targeted at children on television and online. We have also implemented restrictions on volume price promotions for less healthy food and drink, such as three for the price of two offers, and consulted on our proposals to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children aged under 16 years old.
We will go further by introducing mandatory reporting on the healthiness of sales for all large food businesses and setting new healthier food targets. We will also strengthen the existing advertising and promotions restrictions by applying an updated definition of ‘less healthy food and drink’. We published the updated Nutrient Profiling Model in January, ahead of consulting on its policy application.
To support people already living with obesity, we will double the number of patients able to access the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme. From June 2025, the NHS began making weight loss drugs available through primary care. Approximately 220,000 adults will be considered in the first three years with access prioritised by clinical need. We are committed to expanding NHS access and will work closely with industry and local systems to identify innovative ways to do this.
Officials in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ South East team work closely with local partners including local authorities and the NHS to support them with local initiatives to promote a healthy lifestyle and to tackle obesity.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services referral times in Slough.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has made no assessment of the adequacy of access to child and adolescent mental health services for children in the Slough constituency. The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country, including for children and young people’s mental health services in the Slough constituency.
As prioritised in our Medium-Term Planning Framework, we are taking action to reduce the longest waits for specialist mental health support, tackling regional disparities, and expanding access, thereby making services more productive so children and young people spend less time waiting for the treatment they need.
We are also accelerating the rollout of Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges to reach full national coverage by 2029. As part of this, we are investing an additional £13 million to pilot enhanced training for staff so that they can offer more effective support to young people with complex needs, such as trauma, neurodivergence, and disordered eating. An additional 900,000 children and young people had access by this spring, which means that 60% of all pupils will have access to this early support at school, up from 44% in spring 2024.
More widely, we are, rolling out Young Futures Hubs. The Government’s first 50 Young Futures Hubs will bring together services at a local level to support children and young people, helping to ensure that young people can access early advice and wellbeing intervention. We will work to ensure there is no wrong door for young people who need support with their mental health.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of interim support available to children waiting for access to CAMHS support.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has made no assessment of the adequacy of access to child and adolescent mental health services for children in the Slough constituency. The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country, including for children and young people’s mental health services in the Slough constituency.
As prioritised in our Medium-Term Planning Framework, we are taking action to reduce the longest waits for specialist mental health support, tackling regional disparities, and expanding access, thereby making services more productive so children and young people spend less time waiting for the treatment they need.
We are also accelerating the rollout of Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges to reach full national coverage by 2029. As part of this, we are investing an additional £13 million to pilot enhanced training for staff so that they can offer more effective support to young people with complex needs, such as trauma, neurodivergence, and disordered eating. An additional 900,000 children and young people had access by this spring, which means that 60% of all pupils will have access to this early support at school, up from 44% in spring 2024.
More widely, we are, rolling out Young Futures Hubs. The Government’s first 50 Young Futures Hubs will bring together services at a local level to support children and young people, helping to ensure that young people can access early advice and wellbeing intervention. We will work to ensure there is no wrong door for young people who need support with their mental health.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed the adequacy of children's access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the Slough constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has made no assessment of the adequacy of access to child and adolescent mental health services for children in the Slough constituency. The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country, including for children and young people’s mental health services in the Slough constituency.
As prioritised in our Medium-Term Planning Framework, we are taking action to reduce the longest waits for specialist mental health support, tackling regional disparities, and expanding access, thereby making services more productive so children and young people spend less time waiting for the treatment they need.
We are also accelerating the rollout of Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges to reach full national coverage by 2029. As part of this, we are investing an additional £13 million to pilot enhanced training for staff so that they can offer more effective support to young people with complex needs, such as trauma, neurodivergence, and disordered eating. An additional 900,000 children and young people had access by this spring, which means that 60% of all pupils will have access to this early support at school, up from 44% in spring 2024.
More widely, we are, rolling out Young Futures Hubs. The Government’s first 50 Young Futures Hubs will bring together services at a local level to support children and young people, helping to ensure that young people can access early advice and wellbeing intervention. We will work to ensure there is no wrong door for young people who need support with their mental health.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of people that have been waiting over six months to access Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services support in Slough constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently six young people living within the Slough Local Authority area who have been waiting for a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) intervention for over 26 weeks. There are no young people within Slough waiting for longer than 104 weeks to be seen by CAMHS.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps has he taken to increase bowel screening uptake in Slough constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving cancer services is a priority for the Government. We will get the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster so that more patients survive, and we will improve patients’ experience across the system. Slough is seeing an improvement in bowel screening uptake, although this remains below the national average.
Commissioners and providers continue to work together to address this variation and to ensure that all eligible residents are supported to participate in screening at the earliest opportunity.
The Berkshire Bowel Cancer Screening Programme and local partners have undertaken several initiatives to increase awareness and participation in Slough including:
In addition, Slough Borough Council is actively supporting improvement in cancer screening uptake through communication and training measures.
All partners remain committed to collaborative working to reduce inequalities, strengthen pathways, and support increased uptake among underserved populations.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 a sufficient supply of epidural kits across the NHS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no supply issues regarding epidural insertion kits, but there are supply issues impacting some of the usual medicines used to provide pain relief via epidural infusion. However, a range of licensed and unlicensed bags, including unlicensed imports, remain available, and the situation is being closely monitored.
To ensure a system-wide co-ordinated approach on using these products and safe implementation, a National Patient Safety Alert was issued on 2 December 2025 with clear and comprehensive management guidance. The Department and NHS England have also worked with professional stakeholders to provide clinical advice for clinicians at hospital level to minimise potential disruption and maintain safe patient care, which is avaiable at the following link:
https://www.rcoa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2025-12/Epidural%20infusions%20vFinal_0.pdf
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 extending free milk eligibility to the end of the academic year in which a child turns five.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursery Milk Scheme is a statutory scheme which allows early years childcare settings to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to children under the age of five years old who attend a setting for two or more hours per day. Schools can claim reimbursement from the scheme in respect of their pupils aged under five years old.
There are no plans to extend eligibility for the Nursery Milk Scheme to cover children until the end of the academic year, during which they reach their fifth birthday. Separate legislation allows pupils from lower-income families, and who are eligible for free school meals, to continue to receive free milk at school after the age of five years old.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions of the potential impact of Long Covid on levels of (a) employment and (b) long-term sickness.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government understands the scale of the issue at hand, particularly the impact of long COVID on employment and the economy.
We are committed to ensuring that those with long COVID have timely access to a diagnosis and appropriate treatment and services, as well as workplace support.
Across the National Health Service in England, there are services supporting people with post-COVID syndrome, also known as long COVID. These services offer physical, cognitive, and psychological assessment, and, where appropriate, refer patients onto existing services for treatment and rehabilitation. People with long COVID symptoms should see their general practitioner, who will be able to refer them to services depending on their clinical needs.
The role of the health and care system in improving population health and in preventing health issues from becoming work issues is crucial to achieving the 80% employment rate and reducing the disability employment gap.
We have a range of initiatives that integrate health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care, and WorkWell, as well as support through the Department for Work and Pensions from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants.
The NHS 10-Year Health Plan builds on existing work to better integrate health with employment support and incentivise greater cross-system collaboration, recognising that good work is good for health. The plan also states our intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 has provided for Wexham Park Hospital since July 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Wexham Park Hospital is managed by the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (NFT), which received funding from several national capital programmes in 2024/25, including £1.1 million as part of our Critical Infrastructure Risk funding to address backlog maintenance at Wrexham Park Hospital.
In the current year 2025/26, the Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) will receive £10.1 million from our £750 million Estates Safety Fund to address critical infrastructure and safety risks at Wexham Park Hospital and Frimley Park Hospital.
The Frimley ICB has also been provisionally allocated £27.3 million from the Constitutional Standards Recovery Fund to support performance across secondary and emergency care, and £1.2 million from the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund for improvements in the primary care estate in 2025/26.
Alongside funding for national capital programmes, the Frimley ICB and providers have been allocated £43.9 million in operational capital funding, including primary care business-as-usual capital, for 2025/26, to be prioritised according to local needs. For the 2026/27 to 2029/30 period, the Frimley Health NFT have been allocated £142.9 million in operational capital funding.