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 steps his Department is taking to improve early diagnosis of endometriosis for patients in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government acknowledges the challenges faced by women with endometriosis and the impact it has on their lives, their relationships, and their participation in education and the workforce. We are committed to improving the diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing care for endometriosis. It is unacceptable that women can wait so long for an endometriosis diagnosis and we are taking action to address this.
Nationally, we are establishing an “online hospital”, NHS Online, which will give people across the country, on certain pathways, the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. It will connect patients with clinicians across the country through secure, online appointments accessed through the NHS App.
Menstrual problems, which may be a sign of endometriosis, will be among the first nine conditions available for referral to NHS Online from 2027. We’ve chosen some of the conditions with the longest waits and where online consultation works best. NHS Online will help to reduce patient waiting times, delivering the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years, four times more than an average trust, while enhancing patient choice and control over their care. This will allow women with menstrual problems which may be a sign of endometriosis across the country to reach a diagnosis and explore treatment options sooner.
Buckinghamshire delivers specialist gynaecology care to women through both community and secondary care, or hospital, services, with community services delivered from general practices across the county, including in Aylesbury. To further improve access to women's health services, the Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust is working to expand community services, increasing clinic sites, and aligning to neighbourhoods including North Bucks, to ensure more women can be seen for specialist gynaecology care more quickly and closer to home in the community service, thereby increasing capacity within the secondary care service to support waiting list reductions.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce statutory duties on Integrated Care Boards to deliver NICE fertility guidelines on IVF cycles.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.
On 31 March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its updated fertility guideline, which recommends that women under 40 years old who meet the clinical eligibility criteria should be offered up to three full cycles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
There are no plans to introduce statutory duties on ICBs to deliver NICE fertility guidelines on IVF cycles. We expect ICBs to consider and reflect the updated NICE fertility guideline in their commissioning decisions, and we are working with NHS England to support greater consistency in provision.
The Government published the Women's Health Strategy on 15 April which commits to ensuring that every woman can easily access fertility services, and we are currently working to assess the current provision of National Health Service commissioned fertility services as a baseline to inform supporting material for every ICB to implement the new NICE guidelines in full.
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 steps his Department is taking to improve access to women’s health services in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency under the renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy was published on 15 April 2026 and women’s access to care is a key theme. We will support integrated care board to introduce a single point of access for all non-urgent referrals to gynaecology and women's health services to speed up access to better treatment
We will redesign clinical pathways for the most common pathways including heavy periods, menopause, and uro-gynaecology. This will standardise care pathways and remove unnecessary procedural delays.
We will fund a specialist centre in each region for group-based approaches to high volume low complexity women’s health pathways. This will improve productivity and empower women in common clinical areas, helping to reduce waiting lists and supporting self-management.
We will accelerate the deployment and spread of innovations that benefit women’s health, launching a FemTech healthcare challenge within two years with a pot of £1.5 million.
Funded by £5.25 million, we will expand access to Musculoskeletal (MSK) Hubs in the community by leveraging the leisure and fitness workforce to deliver evidence-based physical activity for people with MSK conditions.
Buckinghamshire delivers specialist gynaecology care to women through both community and secondary care, or hospital, services, with community services delivered from general practices across the county, including in Aylesbury. To further improve access to women's health services, the Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust and FedBucks are working together to expand community services, increasing clinic sites and aligning to neighbourhoods including North Bucks, to ensure more women can be seen for specialist gynaecology care more quickly and closer to home in the community service, thereby increasing capacity within the secondary care service to support waiting list reductions.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
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 regional variation in IVF provision following publication of the updated NICE fertility guidelines.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.
On 31 March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its updated fertility guideline, which recommends that women under 40 years old who meet the clinical eligibility criteria should be offered up to three full cycles of in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
There are no plans to introduce statutory duties on ICBs to deliver NICE fertility guidelines on IVF cycles. We expect ICBs to consider and reflect the updated NICE fertility guideline in their commissioning decisions, and we are working with NHS England to support greater consistency in provision.
The Government published the Women's Health Strategy on 15 April which commits to ensuring that every woman can easily access fertility services, and we are currently working to assess the current provision of National Health Service commissioned fertility services as a baseline to inform supporting material for every ICB to implement the new NICE guidelines in full.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 fertility patients under the South West London ICB can access three rounds of fertility care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.
On 31 March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its updated fertility guideline, which recommends that women aged under 40 years old who meet the clinical eligibility criteria should be offered up to three full cycles of in vitro fertilisation.
We expect all ICBs to consider and reflect the updated NICE fertility guideline in their commissioning decisions, and we are working with NHS England to support greater consistency in provision.
The Government published the Women's Health Strategy on 15 April which commits to ensuring that every woman can easily access fertility services and we are currently working to assess current provision of NHS-commissioned fertility services as a baseline to inform supporting material for every ICB to implement the new NICE guidelines in full.
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 assessment he has made of the effectiveness of data collection on women’s health outcomes in Buckingham and Bletchley constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A women's health data dashboard is available on the NHS Futures website and is available to anyone working within health and care sector who requires insight into women's health.
The dashboard is intended to provide national and local insight into the key aims of women's health aligned with the priorities of NHS England’s Women’s Health Programme and highlight potential unmet need, unwarranted variation, and health inequalities.
The Government will make the data dashboard publicly available with the next year, as set out in the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy published on 15 April 2026.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 ensure The Renewed Women's Health Strategy for England, published April 2026, improves gynaecology care in regions with local shortages of gynaecologists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy was published on 15 April 2026 and sets out a bold, long‑term plan to transform how the health and care system listens to, supports, and delivers for women and girls across all regions in England.
It puts women’s voices and choices at the centre of care, drives faster improvements in services and outcomes that matter most to women, and tackles long‑standing health inequalities across the life course. The strategy aligns with the 10-Year Health Plan to shift care into the community, harness digital innovation, and strengthen prevention so women can live healthier, more fulfilled lives.
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Lord Rooker (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 inequalities affecting women identified in the report by Warwick University and Cysters, Women’s reproductive health in the West Midlands, published in March.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We were dismayed to read the findings of this report, which highlights the deep inequalities faced in accessing gynaecological care by women in the West Midlands. The Government agrees with the conclusion of the report that every woman deserves access to timely and high-quality care. That is why we will not accept these kinds of disparities as inevitable. Our ambition is a fairer Britain, where people live well for longer and spend less time in ill health, and where women, whatever their background, can rely on high-quality care.
We are shifting the centre of gravity of care from hospitals to communities, with neighbourhood services designed around local need.
Earlier this month, we published a Neighbourhood Health Framework setting out three reform agendas for integrated care boards (ICBs), local authorities, and civil society to deliver the aims of neighbourhood health: to improve services for people who need routine healthcare; to improve proactive care including maintaining and developing access to women's health services; and to deliver better alternatives to hospital care.
The framework provides clarity and consistency, supporting joined-up partnership between ICBs and local authorities, working together to develop locally led neighbourhood health plans.
We have made strong progress in turning the commitments in the last administration’s Women's Health Strategy into tangible action. Our renewed strategy will address gaps from the 2022 strategy, and go further to create a system that listens to women and tackles health inequalities across England.
Renewing the strategy will help identify and remove enduring barriers to high-quality care across England, such as long waits for diagnosis, and will ensure that professionals listen and respond to women’s needs.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 1 April 2026 to Question 122780 and 25 March 2026 to Question 120988 on General Practitioners: Contracts and with reference to the oral statement of 16 April 2026 on the Women's Health Strategy, whether waiting times for patients who are offered secondary care following an Advice and Guidance (A&G) request in (a) March, (b) April, (c) May, (d) June, (e) July, (f) August, (g) September, (h) October and (i) November 2026.will be calculated from (i) the date the A&G request is received, (ii) the date the A&G request is accepted as referred and (iii) other dates on the pathway.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) name, (b) job title, (c) annual remuneration, (d) time commitment and (e) expected end date is for each direct ministerial appointment in his Department.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 9 December 2025, The Department has ten direct ministerial appointments. The following table shows the name, job title, time commitment, whether they were renumerated, and expected end date for each direct ministerial appointment in the Department:
Name | Role Title | Renumerated | Time Commitment | Expected End Date |
Gemma Aldridge | Communications Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care | Paid | Three days per week | January 2026 |
Baroness Valerie Amos | Chair of the Independent Maternity and Neonatal Investigation | Paid | Two days per week | May 2026 (pending approvals) |
Dame Caroline Dineage MP | Co-Chair of the Children and Young People Taskforce | Unpaid | Two days per month | March 2026 (pending approval) |
Professor Darren Hargrave | Co-Chair of the Children and Young People Taskforce | Unpaid | Two days per month | March 2026 (pending approval) |
Dr Sharna Shanmugavadivel | Vice-Chair of the Children and Young People Taskforce | Unpaid | Two days per month | March 2026 (pending approval) |
Jess Asato MP | Adviser on the Health Contribution to Reducing Violence Against Women and Girls | Unpaid | One day per week | May 2026 |
Dame Lesley Regan | Women's Health Ambassador | Paid | Four days per month | June 2026 |
Matthew Hood | Senior Delivery Advisor to the Secretary of State | Paid | up to 260 days per year | September 2027 |
Bishop James Jones | Chair of the Gosport Family Forum | Paid | One day per month | November 2027 |
Baroness Louise Casey | Chair of the Casey Commission formally (Chair of the Independent Commission into adult social care.) | Paid | Three days per week | December 2028 |
In line with our departmental policy, we have been unable to provide the annual renumeration and instead indicated which are renumerated.