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)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will put Women’s Health Hubs at the centre of the Neighbourhood health framework.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the constitutional implications of rejecting the recommendations of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on changes to women's state pension age, published 21 March 2024.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We have taken the PHSO’s report seriously and given the findings the close examination that they deserved. We have set out the detailed reasons for our decision in our new response, on the 29 January, which has been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the answer of 25 February 2026, to Question 112303, on online censorship of women's health, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of censorship by social media companies of information on how bystanders can administer CPR to women.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We recognise the important role of trusted online health content. The Online Safety Act places duties on services to protect their users including from illegal content and content harmful to children. It does not prevent adults or children from accessing legal content about women’s health. Users of the largest categorised services will have access to effective complaints procedures to appeal when content is unduly taken down.
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.