Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing NHS patients who require a mobility (a) scooter and (b) other aids to choose the (i) provider and (ii) retailers of those aids.

My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State does not currently have any plans to make an assessment of either the potential merits of ensuring that adequate training is provided to people with mobility scooters or of the potential merits of allowing National Health Service patients who require mobility scooters or other aids to choose the provider and retailer of those aids.

Mobility scooters are not generally available on the NHS in England. The NHS provides other mobility aids including wheelchairs, walking sticks, and walking frames. Walking frames and some types of walking sticks can be borrowed from the NHS. Advice on how to access these aids is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/care-services-equipment-and-care-homes/walking-aids-wheelchairs-and-mobility-scooters/

The Government is supporting the roll-out of a nationwide certified powered wheelchair and mobility scooter assessment and training scheme. Through the Department for Transport Road Safety Research programme, funding has been provided to Driving Mobility, a registered charity with a network of driving assessment centres covering the whole of the United Kingdom. The training scheme that Driving Mobility is providing will train retail and hire businesses to assess the safe driving ability of individuals purchasing a mobility scooter, including NHS patients. The scheme will also provide retailers with information on best practice and recommendations on how to convey safe driving knowledge to individuals purchasing mobility scooters. Short tests will be included in order to judge competency so that extra support can be provided where needed. Driving Mobility launched the scheme in summer 2023.

For NHS patients who require wheelchairs, integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services and the development of their local wheelchair service eligibility criteria based on the needs of their local population. NHS England is committed to supporting ICBs to implement personal wheelchair budgets. A personal wheelchair budget is a resource available to support people’s choice and provider of wheelchair, either within or outside NHS commissioned services. Since 2 December 2019, people who access wheelchair services, whose posture and mobility needs impact their wider health and social care needs, have a legal right to a personal wheelchair budget. The legal right was created by the National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2019.