Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS providers are making use of the Royal Mail barcode for NHS mail.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on how many National Health Service providers are making use of Royal Mail barcodes for NHS mail is not held centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Department has made of the potential impact of puberty suppression on levels of likelihood of progression to cross sex hormones.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Cass Review recommended that there is a need to build a more robust evidence base for the use of puberty suppressing hormones as a response to gender dysphoria in childhood, through a carefully considered research programme. The PATHWAYS Trial Study has been established for that purpose, in which puberty suppression will be offered solely within the context of the comprehensive assessment and psychosocial support now offered by the National Health Service.
Kings College London University, which is leading the research, has advised that it is not possible to know before starting puberty suppressing hormones what the treatment plan for any single young person will be at the end of the trial. This will depend on several factors, including their experience of puberty suppressing hormones, their mental and physical health, and their preferences for future care.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Energy, Security and Net Zero on the potential impact of changes to funding for the Energy Company Obligation scheme in March 2026 on cold-related health issues.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers and officials from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero engage regularly on policy issues of interest to both departments. We will continue working together to ensure that cold-related health impacts are considered when implementing the Fuel Poverty Strategy for England and the Warm Homes Plan, and that more health-vulnerable households get the help they need to improve their homes.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
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 on the potential merits of statutory regulation of therapy titles.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Titles can only be protected for statutorily regulated professions. Some regulated professions include the term ‘therapist’ and as such have protected title status, for example Art therapist, Dental therapist, and Occupational therapist. Therapists in general are not a statutorily regulated profession in the United Kingdom. The Government has not made an assessment on the merits of protecting all therapy titles.
The Government is clear that the professions protected in law must be the right ones and that the level of regulatory oversight must be proportionate to the risks to the public.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen enforcement against the illegal online sale of optical appliances, including by overseas suppliers operating in the UK market.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring that medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusions on the market in the United Kingdom are safe, effective, and manufactured to the highest standards of quality. The Medical Devices Regulations 2002 establish the statutory framework that medical devices must meet in order to comply with these standards.
Optical appliances as medical devices must comply with requirements set out in the regulatuons, which include bearing the UKCA or CE marking on the packaging or labelling of the device. Manufacturers based outside of the United Kingdom must have a UK responsible person, and all devices must be registered with the MHRA prior to being placed on the market. Manufacturers or their UK representatives must also monitor use of these devices when used in the UK and report serious incidents to the MHRA.
The MHRA ensure that medical devices placed on the market and put into service in the UK meet these regulatory requirements by: assessing all allegations of non-compliance brought to us, using a risk-based system; monitoring the activity of UK approved bodies we designate to assess the compliance of manufacturers; and investigating medical devices as a result of adverse incident reports or intelligence indicating a potential problem.
If the MHRA considers that a product is breaching the medical devices regulations, typically, the MHRA Devices Compliance Unit will contact the manufacturer or, if the manufacturer is based outside of the UK, the UK Responsible Person, outlining the agency’s concerns and requesting further information with a view to bringing them into compliance.
If a manufacturer fails to co-operate with our requests and continues to place a non-compliant product on the market, or there is a serious risk to public health, the MHRA may consider using our enforcement powers. Guidance on how we enforce medical device regulations is available at the following link:
In addition to our investigatory and enforcement activities, the MHRA maintain ongoing relationships with external stakeholders including major online selling platforms to address non-compliant listings of medical devices available on the UK market, including those listed on overseas websites. This collaboration typically involves reporting mechanisms and proactive engagement with external online platforms to identify, address and prevent non-compliant listings.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to (1) extend regulatory powers, (2) improve reporting mechanisms, and (3) work with (a) online platforms, (b) manufacturers, (c) professional bodies, and (d) enforcement agencies, to address the illegal online sale of optical appliances.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring that medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusions on the market in the United Kingdom are safe, effective, and manufactured to the highest standards of quality. The Medical Devices Regulations 2002 (MDR 2002) establish the statutory framework that medical devices must meet in order to comply with these standards.
Optical appliances as medical devices must comply with the MDR 2002, which include bearing the UKCA or CE marking on the packaging or labelling of the device. Manufacturers or their UK representatives must also monitor the use of these devices when used in the UK and report serious incidents to the MHRA. Allegations of deficiencies and incidents that do not meet these standards must be reported to the MHRA through the Yellow card scheme or informed though published guidance around enforcement and compliance.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of patients waited more than four hours in Basildon Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department in the past year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government acknowledges that urgent and emergency care performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years. We are committed to restoring waiting standards to those set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as outlined in our Medium Term Planning Framework, which is available at the following link:
Basildon Hospital is part of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. In the financial year 2024/25, 29.1% of patients at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust waited for more than four hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge.
We are putting significant funding into expanding urgent and emergency service access for those most in need, including new Urgent Treatment Centres and Same Day Emergency Care facilities. Nationally, this will mean 800,000 fewer accident and emergency patients waiting over four hours this year.
The information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were admitted to A&E in England and seen within a) four hours and b) 12 hours after 5pm in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24 and (d) 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers provided on 11 November to Questions 87614 and 87615. Otherwise, we do not hold data at this level of granularity.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were admitted to A&E in England and seen within a) four hours and b) 12 hours at the weekend in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24 and (d) 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answers provided on 11 November to Questions 87614 and 87615. Otherwise, we do not hold data at this level of granularity.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the workforce modelling used as the basis for the 10 Year Workforce Plan will be independent; and whether the results of that modelling will be independently assessed and tested.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.