Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many abortion pills by post have been issued; how many people those pills have been issued to; and of those how many were under 16 years old.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 28 December 2018, eligible women in England could take the second of the two drugs for early medical abortion (EMA), misoprostol, at home. This was changed from 30 March 2020, to allow eligible women in England to take both drugs for EMA, mifepristone and misoprostol, at home, without the need to first attend a hospital or clinic.
The Department does not hold a record of how many drugs for EMA have been issued. However, from 2019 to 2022, latest available data on home use, for one or both drugs taken at home, for residents of England, there were 481,179 abortions where either one or both of the drugs were taken at home. Of these, 2,127, or 0.4%, were for those aged under 16 years old.
From 2020 to 2022, latest available data on home use, for both drugs taken at home, for residents of England, there were 316,795 abortions where both medications were taken at home. Of these, 1,250, or 0.4%, were for those aged under 16 years old.
Please note, the second set of statistics, both pills taken at home, is included within the first, one or both pills taken at home.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many abortions in England have been undertaken for (1) children under 16 years old, and (2) 16-years-olds, in the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 2018 to 2022, latest available data, for residents of England, there were 5,853 abortions for those aged under 16 years old, 0.6% of all abortions for English residents, and 9,530 abortions for those aged 16 years old, 0.9% of all abortions for English residents.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans to increase protections to the lives of unborn children.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Existing criminal offences relating to foetuses are contained in the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929. The Government has no plans to change these.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
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 investigate NHS penalty charges resulting from errors in direct debits for prescriptions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to investigate National Health Service penalty charges resulting from errors in direct debits for prescriptions.
Only the 12-month Prescription Prepayment Certificate (PPC) can be paid for by direct debit, and there are processes in place to ensure individuals who pay for their PPC via direct debit are informed of the procedures and their responsibilities.
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers PPCs on behalf of the Department. A patient’s PPC and payments automatically renew unless it is: requested or cancelled by the certificate holder; there is an outstanding balance to be paid on a PPC; or if the holder is turning 60 years old within nine months of their certificate expiring. In these instances, the individual will be notified by letter before the end date of their existing certificate. Where a patient is turning 60 years old within nine months of their certificate expiring, they are advised of alternative routes to exemption to cover the period until they are entitled to the age exemption.
Only where the individual fails to manually renew their PPC but continues to claim free prescriptions after the expiry date of their PPC, will a penalty charge be issued by the NHSBSA.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical appointments were (a) missed by patients and (b) cancelled by the health trust at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in each of the last three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows data on the number of outpatient appointments missed by the patient where they Did Not Attend on the day, without prior cancellation, and the number of outpatient appointments cancelled by the provider, for the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust:
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Missed by patients | 55,243 | 56,286 | 56,383 |
Cancelled by hospital | 58,367 | 57,817 | 57,108 |
The table above includes all outpatient appointments, both new and follow up, where the patient Did Not Attend on the day, or where the hospital cancelled, with the latter including some rearrangements of appointments, such as where a patient has been brought forward or delayed. This data excludes where the patient has cancelled in advance. Please note that the accuracy of the type of missed appointment ascribed could be impacted by incomplete documentation.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the annual cost is for using Hospedia for patients in each NHS trust in England; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national policy on the use of television in hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No data is collected centrally on the annual cost for using Hospedia or the provision of bedside television and similar services by the National Health Service.
NHS providers are locally responsible for the provision of bedside television and similar services, including the charges for them. If patients do not wish to, or are unable to afford the cost of the bedside television, they should still be able to watch the free to view television via their own devices and local hospital Wi-Fi, or in the hospital day rooms or communal areas.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have accessed Vamorolone since it was given NICE approval for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy; what assessment he has made of the adequacy of availability of Vamorolone to patients with DMD in that period; and whether the NHS had fully implemented the NICE recommendation by the April 2025 deadline.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its technology appraisal, titled Vamorolone for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy in people 4 years and over, on 16 January 2025. NHS England routinely commissioned vamorolone in line with the guidance, from 16 April 2025.
When a patient is started on vamorolone, the prescribing clinician submits an electronic prior approval form, confirming that NICE’s recommendation criteria are met. NICE’s costing report, included in the technology appraisal, suggested that 1,390 people expected to receive vamorolone in 2025/26. The NICE’s technology appraisal is available at the following link:
There is only 10 full weeks of data available since routine commissioning commenced in mid-April, and over this period there have been 32 prior approval forms submitted. Whilst submission of a form is not confirmation that treatment has begun, this is used as a proxy indication for the number of patients starting treatment.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of recommending the Quality Standards for Care and Rehabilitation of Cardiac Arrest Survivors and Key Supporters from the Resuscitation Council UK to (a) Integrated Care Boards and (b) NHS trusts.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England welcomes the recent publication on the quality standards for care and rehabilitation of cardiac arrest survivors and their key supporters.
We recognise the importance of this work and will take it into account as part of our ongoing review of all prescribed specialised service specifications. Specifically, the service specification will be reviewed in due course, and this publication will be considered as part of that process. The specification is available at the following link:
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical operations were cancelled at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in each of the last last three years; and what the cost to the NHS was of those cancellations.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the total number of elective cancelled operations for the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, for 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25:
Year | Count of cancellations |
2022/23 | 684 |
2023/24 | 654 |
2024/25 | 600 |
Source: Cancelled Elective Operations Data, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancelled-elective-operations/cancelled-ops-data/
Note: this is for last-minute elective operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons, and excludes emergency and trauma cases.
No estimate has been made for the cost of these cancellations.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to increase the number of specialist rheumatology nurses in the workforce.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The training of nurses is the responsibility of the health care independent statutory regulatory body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). It has the general function of promoting high standards of education and coordinating all stages of education to ensure that nursing students and newly qualified nurses are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for professional practice.
The training curricula for postgraduate training for nurses to specialise as a specialist rheumatology nurse is set by the Royal College of Nursing, and has to meet the standards set by the NMC.
We will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.