Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (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 report by the Taskforce for Lung Health, A Modern Service Framework for Respiratory, published on 18 November.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is aware of the Taskforce for Lung Health’s report calling for a modern service framework for respiratory health, including the impact of respiratory conditions on mortality rates, emergency admissions, inequalities, and productivity.
Modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and will then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery. Early priorities will include cardiovascular disease, severe mental illness, and the first ever service framework for frailty and dementia.
The Government will consider other long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks, including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future modern service frameworks will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (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 impact of a modern service framework for respiratory care on tackling health inequalities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is aware of the Taskforce for Lung Health’s report calling for a modern service framework for respiratory health, including the impact of respiratory conditions on mortality rates, emergency admissions, inequalities, and productivity.
Modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and will then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery. Early priorities will include cardiovascular disease, severe mental illness, and the first ever service framework for frailty and dementia.
The Government will consider other long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks, including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future modern service frameworks will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have had discussions with commercial users about pricing arrangements for access to datasets through the Health Data Research Service.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To ensure an appropriate commercial model is developed for the Health Data Research Service (HDRS), discovery work has been undertaken to gain insight into existing commercial models that might be applicable for the HDRS. This discovery work included engagement with 19 commercial organisations representing users of health data, allowing the development of a robust, up to date, and United Kingdom-wide evidence base. Decisions regarding what commercial model and pricing arrangement is used will be within the remit of the incoming HDRS senior leadership team.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of expanding community-based diagnostic and treatment services to reduce pressure on hospital capacity.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out a transformed vision for elective care by 2035, where the majority of interactions no longer take place in a hospital building, instead happening virtually or via neighbourhood services. Planned care will be more efficient, timely, and effective, and will put control in the hands of patients.
The Elective Reform Plan sets out the productivity and modernisation efforts needed to reach the 92% standard by March 2029. This includes expanding existing community diagnostic centres (CDCs), and building up to five new ones in 2025/26, as well as extending opening hours to 12 hours per day, seven days a week. We will also expand the number of hubs over the next three years. Further details and allocations will be set out in due course.
CDCs are key to delivering on the Government’s ambition to move more planned care from hospitals to the community, reducing pressure on hospitals and delivering more convenient care close to home. Under the Government, CDCs have delivered over 9.4 million tests and scans since July 2024, supporting patients to access vital tests, scans, and checks around their busy working lives.
Dedicated and protected surgical hubs transform the way the National Health Service provides elective care by focusing on providing high volume low complexity surgery, as recommended by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. By separating elective services from urgent and emergency care, hubs improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital pressures. There are currently 123 operational hubs across England, 22 of which have opened since the Government took office.
The 2025 Spending Review confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years across new diagnostic, elective, and urgent care capacity. Further details and allocations will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to conduct a public consultation as part of the development of the Modern Service Framework for Cardiovascular Disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Cardiovascular Disease Modern Service Framework (CVD MSF) will help accelerate progress towards the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade.
The Department has no plans to conduct a formal public consultation as part of the development of the CVD MSF. However, the Department and NHS England are engaging widely with stakeholders to co-produce the CVD MSF, ensuring that experts, people, and communities are at the heart of its development.
Asked by: Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of closures of intentional communities on people with severe learning disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal national assessment has been undertaken, and the Government does not monitor the operation or closure of intentional communities.
We want to ensure that people with a learning disability and autistic people get the support they need in the community and are given a choice about where and with whom they live, including small-scale supported living, and settled accommodation.
Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the care needs of their populations, and to develop and build local market capacity. That is why under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their local markets, and ensure that people have a range of high-quality, sustainable, and person-centred care and support options available to them, and that they can access the services that best meet their needs.
Any health and social care provider that carries out a regulated activity must register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England. The CQC can take action, in line with their Enforcement Policy, if the quality or safety of a service has fallen to unacceptable levels. The CQC is not closing down existing services that provide good care, including services developed as village communities. The CQC does not direct commissioning decisions, which remain the responsibility of local authorities. The CQC’s Enforcement Policy is available on the CQC website, in an online only format.
As a response to the independent review into the CQC’s regulation of Whorlton Hall, the CQC has strengthened its regulatory approach for services for autistic people and people with a learning disability. This included updating the statutory guidance, titled Right support, right care, right culture, which sets out regulatory expectations for any service that currently provides or intends to provide regulated care to autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of patients on the Quality and Outcomes Framework learning disabilities register received an annual health check in general practice in England in each of the past three calendar years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) indicator relating to the learning disability register was retired for the 2025/26 contract year. Only people aged 14 years old and over on a general practice (GP) learning disability register are eligible for a learning disability annual health check.
The following table shows the most recent data for those on a learning disability register who have received an annual health check in England for the last three calendar years, up until March 2025, as well as the percentage of patients on a learning disability register who are eligible for an annual health check:
Period | Learning disability annual health checks completed | Percentage of eligible people, aged 14 years old and over, on a GP learning disability register |
April 2022 to March 2023 | 242,641 | 78.13% |
April 2023 to March 2024 | 255,145 | 77.6% |
April 2024 to March 2025 | 267,666 | 79.9% |
The annual statistics publication of Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities sets out the key differences in healthcare between people with a learning disability and those without. This includes data on key health issues for people who are recorded on their GP learning disability register, such as uptake of annual health checks. The 2024 to 2025 statistics is scheduled for publication on 4 December 2025.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for creating a statutory requirement that all patients who consider assisted dying have timely access to palliative and hospice care through the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is, first and foremost, a matter for Parliament. This is a Private Member’s Bill, and we cannot pre‑suppose the outcome of the legislative process.
Irrespective of whether the law changes on assisted dying, we must continue to work towards creating a society where every person who needs it receives high-quality, compassionate palliative care and end of life care.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the noble Lord to the Written Ministerial Statement HLWS1086, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the change has been in NHS waiting lists in Oldham since July 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are clear that the extent of waits for treatment is unacceptable, and cutting waiting lists is a key priority for the Government. We have committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment.
Waiting list data is not available by town. At the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which covers Oldham, the waiting list size has fallen by over 3,000 since the Government took office in July 2024. Patients here are also facing shorter waiting times, with 53.6% of waits within 18 weeks as of September 2025, compared to 52.7% in July 2024.
We are committed to transforming elective services to ensure patients get timely access to the care they need. This includes investing £6 billion additional capital investment over five years for diagnostic, elective, urgent, and emergency capacity in the NHS.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, we delivered 5.2 million additional appointments compared to the previous year, more than double our pledge of two million. This marks a vital first step towards delivering the constitutional standard.
We promised change, and we have made good progress. As of the end of September 2025, 61.8% of pathways on the waiting list are within 18 weeks, an improvement of 3.3% since September 2024, and the number of waits over 18 weeks has reduced by almost 320,000 over the same period.
Asked by: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)
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 of the potential impact of extending statutory regulation by the Health and Care Professions Council to clinical technologists and sonographers on (a) workforce recruitment and retention, (b) diagnostic capacity and (c) patient safety within NHS services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
There are no current plans to extend statutory regulation by the Health and Care Professions Council to clinical technologists or sonographers.