Department of Health and Social Care

NHS England has several bespoke services and initiatives to meet the needs of our Armed Forces community including Op COURAGE, the Veterans Mental Health, and Wellbeing Service, which provides a comprehensive mental health care pathway for veterans.

NHS England commissioned Op COURAGE in April 2023 which is the integrated veterans’ mental health and wellbeing service, replacing the previously three separate services of Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service, the Complex Treatment Service, and the High Intensity Service. Access to Op COURAGE is via referral or by direct contact from veterans. The integrated Op COURAGE service has received over 3,500 referrals since it started in April 2023.

The Government is providing an additional £10 million to support the Veterans’ Places, People and Pathways Programme to increase support to a significant community of vulnerable veterans throughout the United Kingdom and enable it to become self-sustaining.

The Frequently Asked Questions have been developed and refined based on feedback from stakeholders and the public. The National Data Opt-Out applies when confidential patient information is used for planning and research, not when it is used for direct care. Although the Federated Data Platform (FDP) will not use such information for planning or research, the answer was revised to make clear that, as with any system handling patient data, the National Data Opt-Out would be respected for any relevant uses of data.

We are committed to providing public information that is meaningful and accessible for a range of audiences. The easy read accessible version has been co-produced with representatives of the audience for whom it is designed. We will continue to keep this under review to make sure it is aligned with the other information available on the FDP.

The Frequently Asked Questions have been developed and refined based on feedback from stakeholders and the public. The National Data Opt-Out applies when confidential patient information is used for planning and research, not when it is used for direct care. Although the Federated Data Platform (FDP) will not use such information for planning or research, the answer was revised to make clear that, as with any system handling patient data, the National Data Opt-Out would be respected for any relevant uses of data.

We are committed to providing public information that is meaningful and accessible for a range of audiences. The easy read accessible version has been co-produced with representatives of the audience for whom it is designed. We will continue to keep this under review to make sure it is aligned with the other information available on the FDP.

The Government understands concerns regarding food inflation and its impact on the current cost of living, and as such is providing support of over £94 billion over 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 13.6% in the year to August 2023. This was down from 14.9% in July and a recent high of 19.2% in March 2023, which was the highest rate seen for over 45 years. This means that food prices are still increasing but at a slower rate than before.

Through the Healthy Food Schemes, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. The three Healthy Food Schemes, namely Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, together help more than three million children. They support wider Government priorities on obesity and levelling up. The schemes help to support children and babies when they are at home, in childcare and in early years at school, and pregnant women. From April 2021, the value of the Healthy Start increased from £3.10 to £4.25, providing additional support to pregnant women and families on lower incomes to make healthy food choices.

The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme provides approximately 2.2 million children in Key Stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school. Around 419 million pieces of fruit and vegetables were distributed to children in 2022/2023. In addition, the Nursery Milk Scheme provides a reimbursement to childcare providers for a daily 1/3 pint portion of milk to children and babies.

Free school meals are provided to over one third of school children. This includes two million pupils who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals, making up 23.8% of all pupils, which is an increase from January 2021 when 1.7 million or 20.8% pupils were eligible. In addition, almost 1.3 million more infants enjoy a free and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of universal infant free school meals in 2014. A further 90,000 disadvantaged pupils in further education also receive a free meal at lunch time. Overall, we spend over £1 billion per annum delivering free lunches to a large proportion of school children.

The Government’s wider programme of work to create a healthier environment to help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight includes:

- regulations which restrict the placement of products high in saturated fat, salt or sugar in store and online;

- efforts to reformulate products high in calories, sugar and salt;

- the Soft Drinks Industry Levy; and

- calorie labelling regulations for food sold in large out of home businesses.

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.

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.

Patients in England are not registered with a dental practice in the National Health Service, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. NHS dental practices are contracted to deliver activity and to deliver a course of treatment to an individual irrelevant of where they live, rather than to provide ongoing regular care. This means that there is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend, allowing patients the choice of where they would like to receive a course of treatment.

The latest NHS Dental Statistics Annual Report published on 24 August 2023 shows that 18.1 million adults were seen by an NHS dentist in the 24 months up to 30 June 2023, an increase of 1.7 million or 10% when compared to the previous year; and 6.4 million children were seen by an NHS dentist in the 12 months up to 30 June 2023, an increase of 800,000 or 14% when compared to the previous year.

The annual GP Patient Survey also includes questions on whether patients have tried to obtain an appointment with an NHS dentist and, if so, whether they had been successful. The latest GP Patient survey data is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/category/statistics/gp-dental-statistics/

Data on admissions due to anaphylaxis is not available prior to 2011. The following table shows the number of admissions due to anaphylaxis between 2011/12 and 2022/23:

Source: NHS England

The information requested is not held centrally. However, the Department has previously commissioned various reports into the compliance of tobacco and vaping legislation, which was led by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. These reports are available at the following link:

https://www.tradingstandards.uk/news-policy-campaigns/tobacco-control/

Information on the approximate length of time between appointments being booked and taking place is not held at constituency or city level. The following table shows the percentage of appointments taking place on the same day as booking and within two weeks of booking for England and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Midlands region in each of the last three years:

Patients can request to register or change their gender to that with which they identity. No formal assessment has been made, however the Government is clear that biological sex matters and that there are different health needs between the sexes. It is important that patients continue to receive the right care for their need whilst feeling comfortable and confident to access the healthcare they need.

The 2022/23 payments made by the National Health Service to general practice is published by NHS Digital. Over £11 million was paid to Babylon GP Practice, including Primary Care Network and COVID-19 payments (minus deductions) in 2022/23.

The Department of Health and Social Care does not have any current plans to commission an independent review of Babylon Health.

In 2018, NHS Hammersmith and Fulham Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England commissioned Ipsos Mori to undertake an independent evaluation of the Babylon GP at Hand practice. The final report was published in May 2019 and is publicly available.

The information requested is subject to commercial agreements which are commercial in confidence. I am therefore unable to provide a figure.

The Department has accepted this recommendation and is working with a broad range of stakeholders, including NHS England and the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, to finalise and implement an appropriate strategy to promote the use of Publicly Accessible Trauma Kits. A review of the equipment contained in the kits is also underway, in line with Recommendation 146 of the Manchester Arena Inquiry Volume 2: Emergency Response.

Funding beyond 2024/25 is subject to future spending decisions through which we will consider further opportunities to build upon our £57 million investment for suicide prevention under the NHS Long Term Plan. In addition, the Government’s £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund will run to March 2025 to support voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in meeting demand for their services supporting people experiencing suicidal thoughts or approaching a mental health crisis. We expect to start making this funding available to successful applicants as soon as possible in the New Year.

The Government is taking action to recover elective services, including for patients waiting for National Health Service gynaecology services in Rotherham, by providing record levels of staffing and funding as the NHS implements the Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care. We have not made a specific assessment of waiting times for NHS gynaecology services in Rotherham.

Published data from NHS England shows that there were 99,067 total general and acute (G&A) beds available in October 2023, including 96,781 core beds and 2,285 escalation beds.

Our Delivery Plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services set the ambition to increase the core G&A bed base by 5,000 permanent staffed beds in 2023/24 compared to planned levels for 2022/23. This would increase the number of core beds to 99,500. As of October, the National Health Service has delivered 2,281 additional core beds. NHS England continues to work with local systems and trusts to deliver this ambition this winter.

G&A bed numbers are expected to peak in January 2024 in response to expected demand. A breakdown of these additional beds by constituency is not available centrally.

No assessment has been made of The Long Shot. The Government has published a review of the Vaccine Task Force’s performance. The review draws out learning that can be applied to future government programmes, both in emergency circumstances, and to business-as-usual activity.

The information requested is subject to commercial agreements which are commercial in confidence. I am therefore unable to provide a figure.

We are aware of disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites.

The National Patient Safety Alert to the National Health Service advises healthcare professionals on the management of patients during this time. We have well-established processes for managing and mitigating medicine supply issues, which involve working with the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the devolved governments and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.

The Department has been working closely with manufacturers of all ADHD medicines and some issues have now been resolved, including Elvanse Adult 50 milligram and 70 milligram capsules. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, including other presentations of Elvanse, which are expected to resolve in early 2024.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, backed by over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over the next five years, sets out the ambition to increase training places for pharmacists across England by nearly 50% to around 5,000 by 2031/32, and to grow the number of pharmacy technicians. Increasing training places will increase the number of pharmacy students, including those choosing to study in schools of pharmacy in proximity to Walsall South constituency.

NHS England is currently scoping a national programme of work on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a senior official will be asked to lead the work on NHS England’s behalf.

No decision has been made on whether to make any changes to prescription charges for 2024/2025. In England, there are extensive arrangements currently in place to ensure that prescriptions are affordable for everyone. Around 89% of prescriptions are dispensed free of charge and extensive arrangements are already in place to help those with the greatest need. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, whether they are pregnant or have recently given birth, or whether they are in receipt of certain benefits or a war pension.

Substantive staff data collected is published by NHS England, with the most recent data available being from July 2023. The data is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/july-2023

Headcount data is available by trust and integrated care system. Bank and agency headcount data is unvalidated and is not of a statistical quality for publication.

The real-world testing of WYSA, which is one of the projects for the AI in Health and Care Award, finished in August 2023. The results are being independently evaluated by a Technology Specific Evaluation team from iCAIRD and are expected to be published early 2024.

Evaluations of AI in Health and Care projects will fill key evidence gaps for relevant published evidence standards frameworks and focus on accuracy, safety, effectiveness, value, fit with site, implementation, feasibility of scale up and sustainability of scale up.

Development of a vaccine strategy remains under review given the evolving understanding from the COVID-19 vaccination programme, the existing seasonal flu and the 12 national immunisation programmes.

The UK Health Security Agency is closely monitoring the situation in China and will continue to work with international partners to assess the emerging information as it becomes available.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has regular discussions on a wide range of matters with Cabinet colleagues including the Secretary of State for Education.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education to ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND), receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time. We are doing this through working together to implement the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, which was published 2 March 2023. The improvement plan includes actions to reform the education, health and care plan system.

The Department and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are members of the GLP1-RA Incident Management Team. Risk management in relation to the advertising and sale of these medicinal products is a standing item for discussion.

MHRA is obliged to consider complaints received about the advertisement of prescription-only medicines (POMs) to the public. Advertising investigations are carried out on a case-by-case basis, having regard to the circumstances of the particular case. Completed advertising investigations leading to correction of advertising materials are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/advertising-investigations-by-mhra

MHRA works closely with other regulators to help ensure that the public are protected from the advertising of POMs. A joint enforcement operation is in place with the Advertising Standards Authority to take targeted action against weight-loss treatment providers who use social media to promote POMs.

MHRA takes proportionate action, on a case-by-case basis, to enforce the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 in respect of the advertisement, sale, and supply of second-generation glucagon-like peptide 1 weight management medications. In cases of serious non-compliance, this can include undertaking formal criminal investigations and, where appropriate and evidentially supported, prosecution through the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Department and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are members of the GLP1-RA Incident Management Team. Risk management in relation to the advertising and sale of these medicinal products is a standing item for discussion.

MHRA is obliged to consider complaints received about the advertisement of prescription-only medicines (POMs) to the public. Advertising investigations are carried out on a case-by-case basis, having regard to the circumstances of the particular case. Completed advertising investigations leading to correction of advertising materials are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/advertising-investigations-by-mhra

MHRA works closely with other regulators to help ensure that the public are protected from the advertising of POMs. A joint enforcement operation is in place with the Advertising Standards Authority to take targeted action against weight-loss treatment providers who use social media to promote POMs.

MHRA takes proportionate action, on a case-by-case basis, to enforce the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 in respect of the advertisement, sale, and supply of second-generation glucagon-like peptide 1 weight management medications. In cases of serious non-compliance, this can include undertaking formal criminal investigations and, where appropriate and evidentially supported, prosecution through the Crown Prosecution Service.

We remain committed to the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year by March 2024 to expand and transform mental health services in England. This extra funding will enable an extra two million people to be treated by mental health services in the National Health Service by March 2024.

We expect integrated care boards to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year.

The Government is giving consideration to all the recommendations in the Law Commission report, Building families through surrogacy: a new law, and will publish a full response in due course.

No such discussions have taken place. The process for assessing all applications made to the Suicide Prevention Grant Fund is still ongoing.

The fund attracted a huge amount of interest from the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, from small, community-led organisations at local level to large national level organisations. We received over 1800 applications overall, covering a range of activities aimed at preventing suicides. We are currently assessing bids and we aim to inform applicants on whether they have been successful by the end of the year.

The United Kingdom has sufficient supply of vaccines to meet the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice for the current 2023 autumn booster campaign and for anticipated campaigns in 2024. All vaccines used in the UK to date are effective at protecting against severe disease from current COVID-19 variants.

There is regular contact between the UK Health Security Agency and vaccine manufacturers to ensure the future supply of vaccines to the UK. Advice on eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines and the choice of vaccine products for future campaigns is provided by the JCVI.

All those eligible for a COVID-19 booster as part of the current vaccination campaign and who are yet to come forward are strongly encouraged to do so.

The information requested is not collected centrally.

The information requested is not collected centrally.

Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom. Smoking causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK and is responsible for just over 70% of all lung cancer deaths. No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users. Smoking costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Almost every minute of every day someone is admitted to hospital because of smoking, and up to 75,000 general practitioner appointments attributed to smoking each month, constituting over 100 appointments every hour.

This is why the Government is planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old or younger this year will never be legally sold tobacco products. As per existing age of sale legislation, smokers will be required to produce identification if retailers are uncertain that they are above the legal smoking age.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) provides funds to organisations via two routes, the Community Grants Programme and special project grants. Both funds complement and enhance NHSBT’s integrated marketing approach and are focused raising awareness, building trust with specific communities, and overcoming barriers to donation.

Since April 2023, The Community Grants Programme has provided around £700,000 of funding to 50 groups resulting in 304 initiatives, 134 events, 99 social media campaigns and 26 press and radio campaigns. The Community Grants Programme has contributed to increases in new Black heritage blood donors, increasing from 1% of new donors being from Black heritage backgrounds to 6% now. Overall, there was an increase from 31% to 48% of non-donors across ethnic backgrounds saying they would donate blood in July 2023.

As a regulated profession, pharmacists have a professional responsibility to keep up to date and must complete a revalidation process with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) annually to provide assurance of competence. In 2021, the GPhC published new learning outcomes for the Initial Education and Training of Pharmacists, including learning outcomes that specifically relate to novel and new therapies. To support this outcome, NHS England commissioned new learning resources within the e-learning for healthcare provisions.

The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors in general practice at each main practice in Bradford East as of October 2023, with the data for branch practices being held at the main practice:

Notes:

1. Data does not include estimates for practices that did not provide fully valid staff records
2. Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) refers to the proportion of full time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. 1 would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time. In GPs in Training Grade contracts 1 FTE = 40 hours and in this table these FTEs have been converted to the standard wMDS measure of 1 FTE = 37.5 hours for consistency.
3. Figures shown do not include staff working in Prisons, Army Bases, Educational Establishments, Specialist Care Centres including Drug Rehabilitation Centres, Walk-In Centres and other alternative settings outside of traditional general practice such as urgent treatment centres and minor injury units.

The Government is delivering on its commitments on mental health. We are investing at least £2.3 billion of additional funding a year by March 2024 to expand and transform mental health services within the National Health Service, so an extra two million people, including in Romford constituency, can get mental health support.

We are investing £57 million in suicide prevention, and all local areas, including Romford constituency, now have suicide prevention plans to address the specific needs of their populations.

The new suicide prevention strategy for England is a five-year strategy which sets out the Government’s ambition for suicide prevention. It is a multi-sector and cross-government suicide strategy, with actions from a wide range of organisations that will be delivered over the next few years.

The Department has also established a £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to run from 2023 to March 2025 to support voluntary, community or social enterprise organisations to deliver suicide prevention activity.

We remain committed to the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England, including in Romford constituency. This extra funding will enable an extra two million people, including young men, to be treated by mental health services within the National Health Service by March 2024. We expect integrated care boards to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year.

The new suicide prevention strategy for England, including Romford constituency, is a five-year strategy which sets out the Government’s ambition for suicide prevention. Many of the actions within the new strategy will support suicide prevention in men by addressing the common risk factors for this group, such as a history of drug or alcohol misuse, family or relationships problems, and social isolation and loneliness.

National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers must comply with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss. NHS England has completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that everyone’s communication needs are met in health and care provision. The review considered the effectiveness of the current AIS, how the standard is implemented and enforced in practice, and identified recommendations for improvement.

One of the aims of the review was to strengthen assurance of implementation of the AIS, and a self-assessment framework has been developed to support providers of NHS and social care services to measure their performance against the AIS and develop improvement action plans to address gaps in implementation. The self-assessment framework has also been designed to help the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to gain insight into people's experiences and whether their accessible communication needs are being met, and help CQC better understand organisational performance and to include that in the CQC assessment framework for provider organisations.

Following publication of the revised standard, NHS England will continue work to support its implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement and updated e-learning modules on the AIS to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it.