Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
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 help reduce male suicide rates through access to timely mental health care, follow-up after (a) self-harm and (b) crisis presentations and support for men at high-risk due to (i) relationship breakdown and (ii) trauma.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country. This includes transforming mental health services into neighbourhood mental health centres which are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, improving assertive outreach and access to timely mental health care, expanding talking therapies, and giving patients better access to all-hours support directly through the NHS App. These services are available to men at high-risk due to relationship breakdown and trauma.
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published in 2023, identifies middle aged men and people who have self-harmed as a priority group for targeted and tailored support at a national level.
On 19 November 2025, to coincide with International Men’s Health Day, we published the Men’s Health Strategy. 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.
Through the Men’s Health Strategy, we are launching a groundbreaking partnership with the Premier League to tackle male suicide and improve mental health literacy, by embedding health messaging into the matchday experience.
We also announced the Suicide Prevention Support Pathfinders programme for middle-aged men. This program will invest up to £3.6 million over three years in areas of England where middle-aged men are at most risk taking their own lives and will tackle the barriers that they face in seeking support.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 22 December 2025 to question 99733, whether his Department has conducted analysis of the drivers for the 121,506 hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2024-25; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of improved outpatient and secondary care management on reducing avoidable admissions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not conducted a specific assessment of the drivers of hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for 2024/25. In general, COPD is commonly worsened by smoking, occupational exposure, and poor air quality, and exacerbations are often triggered by respiratory infections including flu, pneumococcal disease, and COVID‑19.
There are a range of measures in place to help reduce preventable COPD admissions. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill represents the most significant public health intervention since the 2007 indoor smoking ban and will support our ambition for a smokefree United Kingdom. The Department is also working across Government to tackle air pollution and address poor housing conditions including damp and mould. The National Health Service is running winter vaccination campaigns against key respiratory infections including COVID-19, flu and pneumococcal disease, which can trigger COPD. Further, pulmonary rehabilitation is a proven intervention that improves symptoms and reduces hospital admissions for people with COPD. NHS England’s commissioning standards ensure services are high quality, equitable, and reduce health inequalities.
More broadly, our 10-Year Health plan sets out the new neighbourhood health model to expand urgent care at home and in the community, which will reduce unnecessary hospital visits and admissions, thereby improving patient experience. To enable this, and deliver faster diagnosis and earlier access to treatment, access to spirometry tests in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is growing and will continue to do so as more sites come online. The first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.
Regarding readmissions, the information is not publicly available in the format requested. NHS England publishes annual data on the total number of readmissions in England within 30 days for 2024/25, but this is not broken down by diagnosis. This information can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 22 December 2025 to question 99733, how many of those admissions were readmissions within (a) 30 and (b) 90 days of initial hospitalisation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not conducted a specific assessment of the drivers of hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for 2024/25. In general, COPD is commonly worsened by smoking, occupational exposure, and poor air quality, and exacerbations are often triggered by respiratory infections including flu, pneumococcal disease, and COVID‑19.
There are a range of measures in place to help reduce preventable COPD admissions. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill represents the most significant public health intervention since the 2007 indoor smoking ban and will support our ambition for a smokefree United Kingdom. The Department is also working across Government to tackle air pollution and address poor housing conditions including damp and mould. The National Health Service is running winter vaccination campaigns against key respiratory infections including COVID-19, flu and pneumococcal disease, which can trigger COPD. Further, pulmonary rehabilitation is a proven intervention that improves symptoms and reduces hospital admissions for people with COPD. NHS England’s commissioning standards ensure services are high quality, equitable, and reduce health inequalities.
More broadly, our 10-Year Health plan sets out the new neighbourhood health model to expand urgent care at home and in the community, which will reduce unnecessary hospital visits and admissions, thereby improving patient experience. To enable this, and deliver faster diagnosis and earlier access to treatment, access to spirometry tests in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is growing and will continue to do so as more sites come online. The first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.
Regarding readmissions, the information is not publicly available in the format requested. NHS England publishes annual data on the total number of readmissions in England within 30 days for 2024/25, but this is not broken down by diagnosis. This information can be found at the following link:
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, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of commissioning neighbourhood level respiratory diagnostic hubs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Respiratory diagnostic hubs have been piloted and developed in many parts of England and this learning will inform the development of more neighbourhood health services.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are also supporting the shift to neighbourhood health, with 170 CDCs now being operational across England. All standard model CDCs are required to offer a range of diagnostic tests that support diagnosis of respiratory conditions, including spirometry and lung function tests.
CDCs offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home and greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, reducing the need for hospital visits and speeding up diagnosis, whilst also reducing pressure on hospitals.
We are continuing to invest in expanding diagnostic capacity in the National Health Service, including through increasing CDC capacity. As set out in the Elective reform Plan, we plan to build up to five more CDCs, as part of £600 million capital funding for diagnostics in 2025/26. We are also increasing the operating hours of existing sites so that more offer services 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
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, if he will outline the criteria used to decide which conditions should receive a modern service framework; and whether respiratory health meets these criteria.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Lewes on 27 October 2025 to Question 82544.
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, if his Department will take steps to help ensure that health boards and trusts collect and publish data on the provision of respiratory diagnostics.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Chelmsford on 27 October 2025 to Question 83430.
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, what steps he is taking to help reduce the potential impact of chronic respiratory conditions on the NHS this winter.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England, working with the Department, the UK Health Security Agency, and other partners, is taking action to reduce the impact of respiratory conditions on the National Health Service this winter. This includes robust, consistent Infection Prevention and Control measures, and a campaign to encourage eligible people to get their winter vaccinations. Further details of the actions being taken to reduce demand on acute services during winter are available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 help improve outcomes for people with pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established 13 respiratory clinical networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.
NHS Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) clinics offer expert care from specialist respiratory doctors and nurses for pulmonary fibrosis and other ILDs, often with access to additional services like lung function testing and research facilities.
The National Health Service also provides pulmonary rehabilitation, which plays an important role in the management of patients with pulmonary fibrosis and which should be made available to all patients who would benefit from this intervention.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 move (a) clinics and (b) routine appointments into community hospitals in Surrey.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As announced at the Budget, we are committed to delivering 250 neighbourhood health centres by 2035 across every part of England, and there are now also 100 community diagnostic centres across the country offering out-of-hours services, 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Community diagnostic centres are supporting one of the three 10-Year Health Plan shifts, from the hospital to the community, by offering local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests including imaging tests, endoscopies, and respiratory tests, closer to home, as well as greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, reducing pressure on acute hospital sites.
Over time our aim is also to have a Neighbourhood Health Centre in each community that brings together appropriate National Health Service, local authority, and voluntary sector services in one building to help create a holistic offer that meets the needs of local populations, and to help move care from hospitals into community settings.
Nationwide coverage will take time, but we will start in the areas of greatest need where healthy life expectancy is lowest, including rural towns and communities with higher deprivation levels, targeting places where healthy life expectancy is lowest and delivering healthcare closer to home for those that need it the most.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning, including planning, securing, and monitoring, general practice services within their health systems through delegated responsibility from NHS England. Both ICBs and local health systems will be responsible for determining the most appropriate locations for neighbourhood health centres.
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, what steps he is taking to help (a) increase capacity for and (b) reduce inequalities in access to respiratory diagnosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are increasing capacity and access to respiratory diagnostic tests such as spirometry and fractional exhaled nitric oxide, and will continue to do so as more sites come online. For example, the first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.
In addition, 101 CDCs across the country now offer out-of-hours services 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients across the country can access vital diagnostic tests around busy working lives.