Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of (a) women and (b) men eligible for NHS health checks have had those checks in the last year, broken down by parliamentary constituency in the East of England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on NHS Health Checks broken down by sex or by parliamentary constituencies. Local authorities, who are responsible for commissioning the NHS Health Check, may hold this information locally.
The NHS Health Check should be offered once every five years to eligible people, which means if everyone expected was offered a check and completed one, we would expect 20% of the total eligible population to receive a check each year.
The following table shows the proportion of the total five-year eligible population who had an NHS Health Check in each local authority in the East of England in 2024-2025:
Area | Percentage of the total five-year eligible population who received an NHS Health Check in the year 2024/25 |
England | 9.0 |
East of England | 9.4 |
Cambridgeshire | 13.2 |
Luton | 11.9 |
Essex | 11.4 |
Norfolk | 11.0 |
Southend-on-Sea | 10.5 |
Thurrock | 8.8 |
Peterborough | 7.8 |
Hertfordshire | 7.2 |
Suffolk | 6.0 |
Central Bedfordshire | 5.4 |
Bedford | 5.3 |
To improve access to the programme we are piloting an online NHS Health Check so that people can undertake a check at a time and place convenient to them.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the extent of regional disparities in the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Just under 18 million people, or over 30%, of all ages in England were estimated to be affected by a musculoskeletal (MSK) condition in 2023, and improving their health and work outcomes will help deliver this Government's missions to build a National Health Service fit for the future and kickstart economic growth.
Data shows there are regional disparities in the prevalence of MSK conditions. In England in 2024, those in the most deprived Index of Multiple Deprivation decile were most likely to report a long term MSK problem, at 19.9%, compared to the least deprived decile, at 16.5%.
To tackle this, we are delivering the ‘Getting It Right First Time’ MSK Community Delivery Programme which is working to reduce MSK community waiting times, improve data and metrics and referral pathways to wider support services, which will benefit patients now and into the future.
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 estimate his Department has made of the annual cost to the NHS of treating children with drug-resistant epilepsy who do not respond to conventional medications; and whether his Department is funding research of alternative treatments to ensure those children still receive sufficient medical care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No estimate has been made of the annual cost to the National Health Service of treating children with drug-resistant epilepsy who do not respond to conventional medications. A detailed costing exercise is only usually undertaken where there is a new evidence-based treatment to potentially introduce.
At the national level, there are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with epilepsy, including the RightCare Epilepsy Toolkit and the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology.
The Department funds research into epilepsy via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has funded a range of ongoing and completed epilepsy research, including research into the effectiveness of vagus nerve stimulation as an alternative treatment for children and adults living with drug-resistant epilepsy, and research on implementing ketogenic diet therapy for children and young people with epilepsy.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including alternative treatments for children with drug-resistant epilepsy. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to make weight loss medications available to people living with obesity who are unable to afford them privately and who fall below the weight threshold required for NHS prescription as a result of using the medication.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our 10-Year Health Plan highlights the risk that these medicines will be accessed by those who can pay over those with the highest clinical need. The plan makes a commitment to expand access on the National Health Service through innovative industry partnerships, delivering weight loss services and treatments to patients. Continuing to make these medicines more widely available on the NHS will help reduce inequalities in access.
NHS access is being prioritised for those with the highest clinical need first. NHS England has worked with clinical experts, integrated care boards, patient and public representatives, healthcare professionals, charities, and royal colleges on its prioritisation approach, which is set out in its interim commissioning guidance and available at the following link:
We do not currently have plans to make these medicines available to those who have fallen below the weight threshold required for NHS prescription as a result of using the medication privately. For patients prescribed these medicines by the NHS, they will continue to receive these medicines for as long as clinically appropriate.
For those not currently eligible for weight loss medications, there are a variety of weight management services provided by the NHS and local government. These range from multi-component behavioural programmes to specialist services for those living with severe obesity and associated co-morbidities.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on providing new breast cancer screening units.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2023, ten new mobile breast screening units and nine new static breast screening units have been provided, alongside 37 wider upgrades covering hardware, software and live remote access for existing units.
Breast screening services are commissioned regionally, against a national service specification. Local breast screening providers are responsible for managing their equipment replacement plans and planning for service delivery to ensure they have sufficient capacity to delivery timely breast screening to their eligible population. Alongside the estate and equipment investment, comprehensive data is being collected via a workforce survey for breast screening services to support workforce planning at a local, regional and national level.
Early diagnosis is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan, which will build on the shifts in care set out in the 10-Year Health Plan to diagnose cancers earlier. Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we will make it easier for people to access cancer screening, diagnostic and treatment in patients’ local areas, backed by the latest technology to drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with non-UK nationality worked in the NHS by nationality in each of the last 25 years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes data on the nationality of the National Health Service Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) workforce in England.
Data on the nationality of NHS staff includes a time-series from September 2009 until the latest quarter, with the most recent quarterly data being from June 2025. In the time series, data from September 2009 until September 2015 was recorded yearly, in September of each year. From September 2015 the data was recorded quarterly.
The most recent published data can be found in the file titled ‘HCHS staff in NHS Trusts and core orgs June 2025 - Staff in Post summary tables’, available at the following link:
Data on the nationality of NHS staff is not available prior to September 2009.
It is important to note that because recording of NHS nationality data has improved over time, comparisons of nationality in the NHS over time should be made only with caution.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve (a) transparency and (b) reporting on corridor care incidents in NHS trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is determined to get the National Health Service back on its feet, so patients can be treated with dignity. We are therefore doing everything we can as fast as we can to consign the delivery of care in temporary escalation spaces to the history books.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care this winter, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This includes a commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care for the first time.
We have started collecting data on the prevalence of corridor care and we will look to publish it once data quality improves.
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 information his Department holds on (a) the cost to the public purse of providing NHS services to non-UK nationals and (b) what proportion of this cost the NHS Health surcharge covers.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service care is provided free at the point of use to people who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, including people who were born abroad, if they are not subject to immigration controls. As free at the point of use access to the NHS is based upon ordinary residence and not nationality, we do not collect or hold information on the nationality of people accessing NHS services.
The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) is one of the NHS migrant cost recovery methods and is designed to recover NHS costs attributable to migrants requiring a visa longer than six months. In 2024/25, the IHS generated £2.6 billion in income for the NHS in the UK.
For those who are not covered by the IHS or ordinarily resident in the UK, their healthcare costs are covered in one of two ways. The first is through reciprocal healthcare agreements that the UK has with other countries, where costs are recovered from those countries. The second is where individuals are directly charged by NHS trusts providing care. The Department publishes data on this income in its annual reports and accounts.
The current IHS fee of £1,035 came into force in February 2024. It was calculated as the value of the healthcare budget for 2023/24 that an “average” IHS payer accounts for and reflects the Department’s most recent analysis of the cost of providing NHS services to IHS payers. The full methodology can be found in Annex A of The Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2024, a copy of which is attached.
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 assessment has been made of the potential impact of hospital parking charges on (a) staff and (b) visitors to hospitals; and what information he holds on the total cost of such charges in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential impact of hospital parking charges. Hospitals in England are permitted to charge users for car parking, but those charges must be reasonable and in line with local charges. The revenue from hospital car parking is used to maintain car park facilities and any surplus income is put back into the National Health Service. The following table shows the income from car parking from patients and visitors as well as staff in 2023/24 and 2022/23:
| Income from car parking - patients and visitors | Income from car parking - staff |
2023/24 | £172,332,199 | £70,510,110 |
2022/23 | £145,873,556 | £46,653,234 |
Data on the income from car parking charges is published annually through the NHS Estates Return Information Collection, which is available at the following link:
In 2025/26, the Department is backing the NHS with over £4 billion in operational capital, enabling local NHS organisations to allocate funding to local priorities, which could include hospital car parking.
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, how much funding his Department plans to provide to help support hospitals to provide adequate levels of car parking for visitors in the next 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential impact of hospital parking charges. Hospitals in England are permitted to charge users for car parking, but those charges must be reasonable and in line with local charges. The revenue from hospital car parking is used to maintain car park facilities and any surplus income is put back into the National Health Service. The following table shows the income from car parking from patients and visitors as well as staff in 2023/24 and 2022/23:
| Income from car parking - patients and visitors | Income from car parking - staff |
2023/24 | £172,332,199 | £70,510,110 |
2022/23 | £145,873,556 | £46,653,234 |
Data on the income from car parking charges is published annually through the NHS Estates Return Information Collection, which is available at the following link:
In 2025/26, the Department is backing the NHS with over £4 billion in operational capital, enabling local NHS organisations to allocate funding to local priorities, which could include hospital car parking.