Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
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 potential impact of the use of non-medical clinical practitioners in primary care on patients’ ability to see a fully qualified doctor; and what steps he is taking to ensure newly qualified doctors are able to obtain appropriate posts within the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We hugely value the unique work carried out by general practitioners (GPs). The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure that the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.
GPs remain at the heart of general practice and primary care. However, there is a wide range of clinicians who are well suited to providing care in general practice as part of a multi-disciplinary team. For example, a patient with osteoarthritis might benefit from seeing a physiotherapist. In relation to physician assistants (still legally known as physician associates), Professor Leng’s recent review was clear that, with changes in line with its recommendations, there remains a place for these roles as supporting, complementary members of medical teams, including in general practice.
The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) provides funding for a number of additional roles, to help create bespoke, multi-disciplinary teams. All these roles are in place to assist general practice doctors in reducing their workload and assisting patients directly with their needs, allowing doctors to focus on more complex patients and other priorities, including continuity of care.
The Government has highlighted its commitment to GPs, and since October 2024, we have funded primary care networks with an additional £160 million to recruit recently qualified GPs through the ARRS. Over 2,600 individual GPs have now been recruited, preventing them graduating into unemployment. This was a measure to respond to feedback from the profession and to help solve an immediate issue of GP unemployment.
Over ten million more general practice appointments have been delivered in the 12 months to September 2025 compared to the same period last year, building capacity for continuity of care and improving access so that patients can be seen when they need to be in primary care.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board’s decision to end the Minor Eye Care Service and Community Urgent Eyecare Service on (a) hospital ophthalmology waiting times, (b) the ability of GPs and pharmacists to manage urgent eye conditions and (c) patient outcomes, including the risk of avoidable sight loss.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning decisions and for ensuring that those decisions are supported by a clear evidence base, appropriate engagement, and the necessary impact assessments.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will require the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board to publish the evidence base, consultation documents and impact assessments for the decision to end the Minor Eye Care Service and Community Urgent Eyecare Service across Coventry and South Warwickshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning decisions and for ensuring that those decisions are supported by a clear evidence base, appropriate engagement, and the necessary impact assessments.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
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 that families of adults with learning disabilities are given a greater role in decisions on their (a) care and (b) support.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan, carers will be actively involved in the care planning of those they care for, mirroring the practices of family group conferencing.
Additionally, we are increasing the information captured about unpaid carers throughout the health and care system to help us better understand responsibilities and provide more targeted support. Development of a new ‘MyCarer’ section of the NHS App will also allow people to communicate more easily with relevant clinical team members on behalf of those for whom they care.
To provide further support, in April, the Government increased the Carer’s Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196, the largest ever increase since the Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
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 the additional £880 million allocated to the Social Care Grant.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The £880 million uplift in the Social Care Grant is in recognition of the important role local authorities have in commissioning and delivering social care services. This funding will support social care delivery and will take the total funding in the Social Care Grant to £5.9 billion in 2025/26.
This additional funding forms one part of a wider increase in local government funding, with up to £3.7 billion of additional funding being made available for social care authorities in 2025-26. Overall, the Government is providing an increase to core local government spending power in 2025/26 of 6% in cash terms.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is responsible for ensuring the adequacy of local government budgets. The Department of Health and Social Care will continue working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, local authorities, and the adult social care sector to understand what the impact of cost and demand pressures will be on service delivery and budgets.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department had discussions with the Home Department on the suitability of the Bibby Stockholm as accommodation.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Developing accommodation sites for asylum seekers is a priority for the Government and officials from the Department of Health and Social Care are working with the Home Office and other Government departments to support delivery of these sites, including the Bibby Stockholm vessel at Portland Port.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
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 ensure safe, sustainable staffing levels across maternity services; and what steps he is taking to ensure families affected by baby loss are offered adequate and specialised bereavement support.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department is committed to expanding midwifery training places by 3,650 over a four year period. Increases of 626 in 2019/20 and 1,140 in 2020/21 were achieved, and as of January 2023, the student data collection is showing an increase of 1271 in 2021/22. An additional £127 million was also invested in 2022 to go into the maternity system to help increase the National Health Service maternity workforce and improve neonatal care.
The Government funded the Stillbirths and Neonatal Death charity to work with other baby loss charities and Royal Colleges to produce and support the roll-out of a National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP). The pathway covers a range of circumstances of a baby loss including miscarriage, stillbirth, termination of pregnancy for medical reasons, neonatal death and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. As of 1 January 2023, 108 NHS England trusts (84%) have committed to adopting the nine NBCP standards.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help (a) develop treatments for and (b) reduce the level of incidence of Long Covid; and what recent assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the adequacy of disability benefit (i) provision and (ii) eligibility for people with Long Covid.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government has invested more than £50 million in 22 research projects for Post COVID-19 Syndrome to improve understanding and treatment of the condition. We are also monitoring research being undertaken internationally. The National Institute for Health and Care Research welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Post COVID-19 Syndrome.
The reduction of transmission will reduce the prevalence of Post COVID-19 Syndrome, through pharmaceutical interventions such as vaccines and identifying and isolating positive cases and providing advice to the public on how to protect themselves and others. No specific assessment has been made of the adequacy of disability benefit provision and eligibility for those experiencing the long term effects of COVID-19 infection.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
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 making the recent extension of the relaxation of NHS pensions rules permanent.
Answered by Will Quince
We have announced the intention to implement new permanent retirement flexibilities which benefit all staff groups. A consultation on detailed proposals will be published in due course, which is expected to include a new partial retirement option and allowing retired staff to accrue further pension when returning to service.
The consultation will also propose the permanent removal of the 16-hour rule which limited the work retired staff could do in the first month upon returning to service. This has been suspended since March 2020 due to the response to the pandemic. The Department has also continued the suspension of pension abatement for nurses and other staff who claimed their pension early using special class retirement rights to 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
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 (a) control the numbers of covid-19 cases, (b) protect people vulnerable to covid-19, (c) support people shielding and (d) ensure that people of all incomes are able to access lateral flow tests in winter 2022.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
‘COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19’, published in February, set out how COVID-19 will be managed in the same way as other respiratory viruses. The vaccination and booster programme and the availability of antiviral treatments has ensured a much lower risk of severe illness or hospitalisation.
We have continued to provide free symptomatic testing to those at highest risk and symptomatic testing during periods of high prevalence. The shielding scheme ended in 2021 and our guidance advises those previously considered as clinically extremely vulnerable to manage their risk as appropriate. Free lateral flow device tests are provided to those at greatest risk of serious illness from COVID-19, while testing kits are also available from retailers.