Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Centre for Mental Health’s report published on 2 April, Improving support for people with complex mental illnesses; and what plans they have, if any, to take those recommendations forward.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
While no such specific assessment has been made, we know that people with complex mental illnesses are not always able to access the care and treatment they need. We are determined to change that.
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our vision for the neighbourhood health service. It will bring care into local communities, convene professionals into patient-centred teams, end fragmentation, and abolish the National Health Service default of ‘one size fits all’ care. As part of this, we will transform the current mental health system so people can access the right support at the right time in the right place.
We are piloting 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres to bring together a range of community mental health services under one roof, including crisis services and short-stay beds. People with severe or complex mental illness will be able to walk in without an appointment if they need mental health support, as well as advice on employment, housing, or volunteering, delivered by a multi-disciplinary team. The centres will improve continuity of care, drive down waits, and reduce inpatient admissions. Other local areas are looking to rollout the model more widely.
In addition, working with experts and people with lived experience, we will publish a new modern service framework for severe or complex mental illness, setting consistency in clinical standards across the country so that patients and families get high quality, evidence-based treatment and support.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 18 November (HL11324), how many reports they have received via the HSA4 abortion notification form of women who have died within 14 days of taking at-home abortion medication prescribed by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service in each of the past four years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is unable to provide this information as to do so would risk identifying individuals due to the small numbers involved.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with pharmaceutical providers as part of Exercise Pegasus about procurement of testing for immunocompromised patients.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Exercise PEGASUS, the largest simulation of a pandemic in the United Kingdom’s history, involved thousands of participants across different parts of the exercise. Multiple other non-Governmental organisations representing the breadth of society were engaged and will continue to be in advance of phase four of the exercise in 2026. This includes engagement with partners in the pharmaceutical sector and focus groups on clinically vulnerable patient populations. These groups have included the views of mental health organisations and organisations advocating for immunosuppressed individuals.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans to establish a taskforce to oversee the implementation of Exercise Pegasus findings.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to communicating the findings and lessons of the exercise as recommended by the COVID-19 Inquiry, and a post-exercise report will be delivered in due course. The evaluation of Exercise PEGASUS is ongoing and once complete, recommendations will be generated. The implementation and appropriate governance of these recommendations and findings is being actively considered as part of the United Kingdom’s commitment to pandemic preparedness. Exercise PEGASUS has provided valuable experience which is being used to inform the pandemic preparedness strategy and response plans.
Asked by: Lord Pickles (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans are in place to monitor progress towards the recommendations arising from Exercise Pegasus.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to communicating the findings and lessons of the exercise as recommended by the COVID-19 Inquiry, and a post-exercise report will be delivered in due course. The evaluation of Exercise PEGASUS is ongoing and once complete, recommendations will be generated. The implementation and appropriate governance of these recommendations and findings is being actively considered as part of the United Kingdom’s commitment to pandemic preparedness. Exercise PEGASUS has provided valuable experience which is being used to inform the pandemic preparedness strategy and response plans.
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in developing the modern service framework for cardiovascular disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is making good progress on the development of the Cardiovascular Disease Modern Service Framework (CVD MSF), with stakeholder task and finish groups held in October and November 2025. We will provide further information in due course.
The CVD MSF will support consistent, high quality, and equitable care whilst fostering innovation across the cardiovascular disease pathway.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
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 reduce ambulance wait times for Category 2 calls to the national target of 18 minutes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that in recent years ambulance performance has not met the high standards patients should expect.
In October, NHS England published the Medium Term Planning Framework which sets out ambitious targets to improve core urgent and emergency care performance to constitutional standards, including by shortening average Category 2 response times to 18 minutes. This is being supported by practical actions, including reducing avoidable ambulance dispatches and conveyances and ambulance handover delays.
The measures being taken are already improving ambulance response times, including in North East Hampshire. The latest National Health Service performance figures for the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, which serves North East Hampshire, show that in October, Category 2 incidents were responded to in 31 minutes 54 seconds on average, over six minutes faster than the same period last year.
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, how many job vacancies there were for (a) Foundation Year 1 doctors, (b) Foundation Year 2 doctors and (c) specialty training posts in (i) England and (ii) Suffolk NHS region at the most recent date for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the number of vacancies for Foundation Year 1, Foundation Year 2, and specialty training posts in England or in the Suffolk National Health Service region.
NHS England collects and publishes data relating to the fill rates for training places in medical specialties. These are for the entry point of the initial recruitment processes for the specific training programme, rather than a measure of total vacancies at a given point in time. Further information is available at the following link:
https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/fill-rates
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical appointments were missed by (a) deaf and (b) hearing impaired people due to a lack of information support (i) at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, (ii) in the North West and (c) in England over the last three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on medical appointments missed in the format requested. Our Elective Reform Plan sets out the focussed action we are taking to reduce missed appointments, as part of delivering the Government’s commitment to return to the constitutional standard of 92% of patients having their first treatment within 18-weeks of referral. This includes enhancing communication between hospitals and patients, using the results of artificial intelligence to predict missed appointments, and targeting support to vulnerable patient groups, saving up to one million missed appointments.
The Elective Reform Plan and the 10-Year Health Plan commit to modernising care equitably and inclusively, including ensuring consistency in the availability of information, so that patients, including those that are deaf or have hearing impairments, are supported to attend appointments and have the best possible experience of care.
As part of this, NHS England published a refreshed Accessible Information Standard (AIS) in July 2025. This sets out a specific, consistent approach to meeting the information and communication support needs of service users with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, and requires that relevant staff are adequately trained. NHS England is supporting implementation of AIS, so that staff and organisations are aware of the importance of meeting the needs of disabled people using services.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
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 reduce ambulance response times in North East Hampshire constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that in recent years ambulance performance has not met the high standards patients should expect.
In October, NHS England published the Medium Term Planning Framework which sets out ambitious targets to improve core urgent and emergency care performance to constitutional standards, including by shortening average Category 2 response times to 18 minutes. This is being supported by practical actions, including reducing avoidable ambulance dispatches and conveyances and ambulance handover delays.
The measures being taken are already improving ambulance response times, including in North East Hampshire. The latest National Health Service performance figures for the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, which serves North East Hampshire, show that in October, Category 2 incidents were responded to in 31 minutes 54 seconds on average, over six minutes faster than the same period last year.