Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, What steps are being taken to ensure that data on paediatric traumatic brain injury diagnoses is collected consistently across the NHS to support the development of the Acquired Brain Injury Action Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises that consistent and comprehensive data on traumatic brain injury (TBI) is essential to improving care and informing policy. The forthcoming Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Action Plan will include measures to strengthen data collection and access across the National Health Service and wider services. This will ensure that information on diagnosis and treatment of TBI is gathered systematically and shared effectively to support integrated care, commissioning decisions and evidence-based planning, and to underpin the action plan’s goal of improving prevention, diagnosis, rehabilitation, and long-term support for children and young people, as well as adults, affected by TBI.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is his department taking to raise awareness of the warning signs of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the UK Rare Diseases Framework, the Government is working to improve awareness of rare diseases among healthcare professionals, including rare conditions that lead to sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS).
NHS England has a published the national service specification Cardiology: Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages), which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions-all-ages/
This outlines the service model and mandatory guidelines for commissioned providers in England to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or families affected by inherited cardiac conditions or sudden cardiac death. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification and is working with stakeholders as part of this review including NHS clinical experts and the British Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions Society. The NHS England Genomics Education Programme has also developed a range of educational resources for healthcare professionals.
This includes a Knowledge Hub page on sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, including information on presentation, diagnosis, management, and links for clinicians to further resources. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.genomicseducation.hee.nhs.uk/genotes/knowledge-hub/sudden-arrhythmic-death-syndrome/
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
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 improve the quality and availability of prostate cancer support and treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve the quality and availability of prostate cancer support, NHS England has committed to ensuring that every person diagnosed with cancer has access to personalised care. This includes needs assessments, a care plan, and health and wellbeing information and support. Through the provision of information, personalised care empowers people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer. This approach ensures that each person’s care is planned holistically, covering mental and physical health, as well as any practical or financial concerns.
NHS England has funded an audit of prostate cancer to improve treatment quality and availability. Using routine data collected on patients diagnosed in a National Health Service setting, the audit brings together information to look at what is being done well, where it’s being done well, and what needs to be done better. On 9 October 2025, the latest national prostate cancer audits were published alongside patient summaries. The Government and the NHS are now considering the reports and acting on the findings where appropriate.
The National Cancer Plan will aim to improve how the physical and psychosocial needs of people with cancer can be met, including for prostate cancer, with a focus on personalised care to improve quality of life. It will address how the experience of care can be improved for those diagnosed, treated, and living with and beyond prostate cancer.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to promote active and healthy lifestyles among pensioners, including through access to affordable physical activity and active travel.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that reducing physical inactivity and promoting active, healthy lifestyles in people of all ages, including among pensioners, is important in helping people live longer, healthier lives, and is a key part of the Department’s shift from treatment to prevention.
The NHS Better Health Campaign promotes ways for people of all ages to move more, and signposts to digital support like the NHS Active 10 walking and NHS Couch to 5k app.
The Department supports the National Health Service, together with local authorities, to provide a range of community and social prescribing approaches to support older people, such as walking groups and aquatic/swimming classes.
The Government is promoting active and healthy lifestyles among pensioners through investment in walking and cycling infrastructure and community-based programmes that make active travel safer and more accessible for older adults, and has recently closed its consultation on the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, due to be published next year.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues to GP practices in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency on early detection of prostate cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to ensuring that general practitioners (GPs) have the right training and systems to identify cancer symptoms. Use of specific clinical decision support tools are agreed at a local level. This will benefit cancer patients across England, including in Buckingham and Bletchley. GPs are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development.
The Department is taking cancer detection seriously, including in GPs. The Government has recently launched Jess’s Rule, a patient safety initiative that introduces clinical guidance to support clinicians in taking a “fresh eyes” approach in GPs. It asks GPs to think again if, after three appointments, they have been unable to diagnose a patient, or their symptoms have escalated. This will benefit all cancer patients, including prostate cancer patients.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will review the adequacy of the eligibility criteria for NHS-funded COVID-19 vaccinations for carers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The primary aim of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme remains the prevention of serious illness, resulting in hospitalisations and deaths, arising from COVID-19.
For autumn 2024, the JCVI advised that in an era of high population immunity to COVID-19 and all cases due to Omicron sub-lineages of the virus, any protection against transmission of infection from one person to another is expected to be extremely limited. These considerations informed the JCVI’s advice that unpaid carers, household contacts of the immunosuppressed, and frontline health and social care workers should no longer be offered vaccination to protect those they cared for from transmission.
In their advice covering 2025 and spring 2026, the JCVI advised that population immunity to COVID-19 has increased due to a combination of naturally acquired immunity following recovery from infection and vaccine-derived immunity. COVID-19 is now a relatively mild disease for most people, though it can still be unpleasant, with rates of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 having reduced significantly since COVID-19 first emerged.
The focus of the JCVI-advised programme has therefore moved towards targeted vaccination of the two groups who continue to be at higher risk of serious disease, including mortality. These are the oldest adults and individuals who are immunosuppressed.
The Government has accepted the JCVI advice for autumn 2025 and in line with the advice, a COVID-19 vaccination is being offered to the following groups:
The JCVI keeps all vaccination programmes under review.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement UIN HCWS1118, of 2 December 2025, and the transition to the statutory gambling levy system and consequential changes in April 2026, what steps he is taking to safeguard charities providing gambling harm reduction and treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April, the new statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect to fund the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harm. NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) are working collaboratively on the development of their respective gambling treatment and prevention programmes in England during this transition period.
To maintain continuity, commissioners are working with GambleAware on a managed transition, which includes the extension of GambleAware’s system stabilisation funding until March 2026, ensuring existing charities can continue to support people seeking help.
In January 2026, OHID will formally launch its Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Gambling Harms Prevention and Resilience grant for those voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations wishing to deliver prevention activity over the next two years, following a market engagement process which will end in the new year. Funding will be released from April 2026.
National Health Service regional gambling services currently receive over 1,000 referrals each quarter, with plans to extend capacity. NHS England intends to run a grant funding scheme for voluntary, community, and social enterprise treatment and support services. This will ensure that those affected by gambling-related harms can continue to access much-needed third sector services, whilst integrated care boards look to implement longer-term commissioning arrangements.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department provides to public health teams operating in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency to increase men’s engagement with preventative health services.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 19 November, to coincide with International Men’s Health Day, we published the first ever Men’s Health Strategy for England which aims to improve the health of all men and boys in England, including those in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency. The strategy includes tangible actions to improve access to healthcare, provide the right support to enable men to make healthier choices, develop healthy living and working conditions, foster strong social, community and family networks and address societal norms. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention, respiratory illness, prostate cancer, and heart disease.
We recognise that many of the issues affecting men cannot be solved by the Government alone. The strategy sets out how other sectors, such as the National Health Service, local government, employers, charities, research funders and communities, can contribute to shared outcomes and highlights that improving men’s health will depend on how national priorities are translated into local delivery.
The Department support Upper Tier Local Authorities, including Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes, with the Public Health Grant. This is ringfenced funding given to local government to improve the health of their local populations and to reduce inequalities. We recently announced details of a three-year funding settlement for local government, including the Public Health Grant.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
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 that local authorities are able to act swiftly where there is evidence of illegal tobacco or vaping products being sold on high streets.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will strengthen enforcement and crack down on rogue retailers selling illegal tobacco and vaping products. The bill enables ministers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to introduce a licensing scheme for the retail sale of tobacco, vapes, and nicotine products, and enables the introduction of a new registration system for tobacco, vape, and nicotine products that are sold on the United Kingdom’s market. This will help ensure products are compliant with product safety and standards requirements and enable Trading Standards to remove non-compliant products from the market quickly and efficiently.
Alongside the bill, the Government has announced £10 million of new funding in 2025/26 to Trading Standards, to support the enforcement of illicit and underage tobacco and vape sales in England, and the implementation of the measures in the bill. This funding is being used to boost the Trading Standards workforce by recruiting 94 new apprentices. This will provide greater workforce capacity, enabling swifter enforcement action against illicit activity.
Asked by: Alison Hume (Labour - Scarborough and Whitby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will be assessing the impact of new developments in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Long Covid research, such as the findings of the LOCOME project, on health policy towards those living with long term health conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 6 November, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) jointly hosted a showcase event for post-acute infection conditions research, which included a review of the DecodeME research project and the PrecisionLife study on myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and long COVID research. PrecisionLife is leading on the LOCOME, or LOng COvid and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Diagnostics Stratification, project. The showcase event was attended by speakers from a range of disciplines, including researchers, people with lived experience, ME charities, NIHR and MRC representatives, as well as Government officials.
The Department is always very keen to reflect newly emerging research findings in its policy-making.