Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost savings to social care budgets of providing universal access to Fracture Liaison Services each year.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government and NHS England support the clinical case for services which help to prevent fragility fractures and support the patients who sustain them. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is committed to rolling out Fracture Liaison Services across every part of the country by 2030.
Impacts will be assessed, including adult social care budgets, taking into consideration the evidence gathered from the 60 services already in operation in England.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the potential costs savings to the NHS of providing universal access to Fracture Liaison Services in each year.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government and NHS England support the clinical case for services which help to prevent fragility fractures and support the patients who sustain them. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is committed to rolling out Fracture Liaison Services across every part of the country by 2030.
Costs savings to the National Health Service will be assessed taking into consideration the evidence gathered from the 60 services already in operation in England.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's news entitled Early cancer diagnosis in England reaches highest ever level, published on 2 January 2025, if he will publish data on the number of cancers diagnosed at (a) Stage 1 and (b) Stage 2 by cancer type for each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of all stageable cancers diagnosed at both stage 1 and stage 2 are collected by cancer type. This data is compiled by the National Disease Registration Service and published by NHS England, with more information available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/cancer-registration-statistics
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's news entitled Early cancer diagnosis in England reaches highest ever level, published on 2 January 2025, whether data on the number of cancers diagnosed at (a) Stage 1 and (b) Stage 2 is collected by cancer type.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of all stageable cancers diagnosed at both stage 1 and stage 2 are collected by cancer type. This data is compiled by the National Disease Registration Service and published by NHS England, with more information available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/cancer-registration-statistics
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
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 potential impact of changes to National Insurance contributions in the Autumn Budget 2024 on (a) social care and (b) NHS services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have taken tough decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget. This enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26. The employer National Insurance rise will be implemented April 2025. The Department will set out further details on the allocation of funding for next year in due course, including through NHS Planning Guidance and the usual consultations.
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. This assessment took into account a wide range of factors, including changes to employer National Insurance contributions, and the National Living Wage increases.
In response to the range of pressures facing local authorities, the Government is providing a real-terms uplift to core local government spending power of approximately 3.2%, which includes £1.3 billion of new grant funding in 2025/26.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether respiratory health conditions will be prioritised in the new NHS 10-year plan.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Respiratory health conditions make up some of the biggest killers in our country and are a clinical priority, and I look forward to meeting with the Respiratory Health APPG soon. This government is committed to fixing our broken NHS in order to deliver better access to diagnosis and care. I thank the Honourable Lady for raising the 10 year plan for health and would encourage her to follow thousands of others in having her say through change.nhs.uk.Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to his Department was of ministerial severance payments in each year from 19 December 2019 to 30 May 2024; which Ministers received a severance payment in that period; and how much each Minister received.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The details of any ministerial severance payments can be found in our Annual Report & Accounts. Payments made in 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years will be released in due course
Each payment corresponds to the statutory entitlements as laid out in the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991. The Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 is available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1991/5/contents
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of hospital admissions were due to liver disease in 2022-23.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities publishes liver disease profiles. These provide data on the number and rate of hospital admissions for liver disease in England and local areas. The profiles currently include hospital admissions data up to the financial year ending 31 March 2022.
In the financial year ending 2022, there were 82,290 hospital admissions in England due to liver disease. The profiles do not include the proportion of all hospital admissions that are due to liver disease. Data on hospital admissions is updated regularly in the profiles, and data for the financial year ending 2023 will be published this summer.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide additional funding to extend the provision of fracture liaison services to all NHS trusts.
Answered by Will Quince
On 24 January 2023, we announced our plan to publish the Major Conditions Strategy. The Strategy will focus on six major groups of conditions, including musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders such as osteoporosis.
We have now published our initial report ‘Major Conditions Strategy: Case for change and our strategic framework’. It sets out what we have learned so far, and shares what we plan to focus on next to develop the final strategy.
For MSK conditions, it sets out that we will look to aim to improve services where medical treatment is necessary. Together with NHS England, we will explore supporting the further provision of fracture liaison services. This could include identifying people at risk of further osteoporotic fragility fracture and implementing strategies to reduce the risk of future fracture, including falls, and mortality.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
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 reasons for which the drafting process for NICE guidelines on haemochromatosis was paused in April 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reviewed its guidelines portfolio in May 2023 to identify topics that it thinks will add the most value to the health and care system, considering key factors such as clinical benefit, cost effectiveness, the potential to increase productivity and support workforce issues and the potential to address health inequalities. As a result, NICE identified several topics, including the guidance on haemochromatosis, where work will stop for the time being to allow focus on key priorities. NICE consulted on the scope for the guideline on haemochromatosis in January 2023 but has not published the final scope.
These topics will be reconsidered by NICE’s new Prioritisation Board that is being established by its Chief Medical Officer, and as work to establish the prioritisation board progresses, more information on timescales will become available. NICE will make further information available on its website once topics have been reprioritised.