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 staffing shortages on patient and staff safety in psychiatric wards in Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

As of July 2025, the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust’s in-patient settings achieved a fill rate of above 90% for planned rostered hours, as clinically required. Fill rates are a key metric for monitoring whether enough staff are available to meet patient needs.

The trust is also required to report care hours per patient day monthly. The most recent figures for the trust and Harbour hospital were 12.9, and 16 respectively. This is above the national average of 9, and the highest out of all mental health trusts in the North West region.

Nationally, the Government has also committed to recruiting an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament, to ease pressure on busy mental health services. We are more than halfway towards our target.