Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
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 potential impact of hydrotherapy services on people with learning disabilities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England advises that there is not a strong evidence base for the benefits of hydrotherapy for people with learning disabilities. As part of their duties under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are expected to ensure high quality services that put the wellbeing of people who draw on care at the centre of decisions and ensure positive outcomes. It is the role of local authorities to facilitate the personalisation of care and support services and encourage a variety of services for their population, such as community support options.
As set out in NHS England’s Planning Guidance, integrated care boards (ICBs) are expected to work with local system colleagues to ensure that there is high quality and accessible community infrastructure in place for people with a learning disability and autistic people. The guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2025-26-priorities-and-operational-planning-guidance/
ICBs are expected to assign an executive lead role for learning disability and autism to support planning to meet the needs of people with a learning disability and autistic people.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
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 adequacy of the £26 million NHS England Children’s Hospice Grant for meeting the costs faced by children’s hospices in South Suffolk.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We cannot yet confirm what the funding for 2026/27 will be, or how it will be administered.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to extend the NHS England Children’s Hospice Grant beyond the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. ICBs are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. We cannot yet confirm what the funding for 2026/27 will be, or how it will be administered.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the planned £29 billion annual increase in the NHS budget over the next three years will be allocated to children’s palliative care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services, including for children, are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, must commission.
To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance states that ICBs must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of care services to meet the needs of their local populations, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
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 28 July 2025 to Question 66478 Innovation: Beer and Public Houses, for what reason it is his policy to prohibit sales of non-alcoholic products to people under the age of 18; and how non-alcoholic drinks would be differentiated from soft drinks.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting further growth of the no- and low-alcohol market, which has grown significantly over the past 10 years.
A non-alcoholic product differs from a soft drink as it is a beverage intentionally crafted to mimic traditional alcoholic drinks like beer, wine, or spirits but with very little to no alcohol content. A full definition of an alcohol substitute drink can be found in regulation 9 to the Soft Drinks Industry Levy Regulations 2018, which are available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/41/made
This policy is being pursued as these alcohol substitute drinks are intended for consumption by adults and should not be sold or supplied to children.
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, what steps he is taking to improve levels of early diagnoses of dementia.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate (DDR) to the national ambition of 66.7%. The estimated DDR for patients aged 65 years old and over at the end of July 2025 was 66.1%. The rate is an increase of 0.3% compared to the 65.8% in June 2025. This is an overall increase from March 2020 due to sustained recovery efforts.
The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme has already invested £13 million into a range of biomarker innovation projects which include a broad range of biomarker technologies, ranging from an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve the accuracy of blood tests for dementia, to using retinal scans to detect early-onset dementia decades before symptoms. Some of these innovations could support improved diagnosis in the future, if validated for clinical use.
We will also deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia, in order to deliver rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia and will also set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) review and (b) update the NHS Continuing Healthcare guidance to ensure that mobility assessments fully consider the impact of severe dementia and other cognitive impairments on an person's care needs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to update NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) guidance regarding mobility assessments or specialist assessments by dementia nurses. The CHC assessment process is supported by the Decision Support Tool. This provides practitioners with a way to bring together and record an individual’s needs in the twelve ‘care domains’, including mobility. The assessment should consider the ways in which an individual’s needs interact with one another, for example how cognition impacts on mobility.
Eligibility for CHC is not determined by diagnosis or condition but is assessed on a case-by-case basis considering the totality of an individual’s needs, ensuring a person-centred approach. Someone with specialist knowledge of an individual’s condition, for example dementia, should be involved in the process. Assessments should take into account evidence from a comprehensive range of assessments relating to the individual. For individuals with dementia, this could include specialist assessments by dementia nurses.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include specialist assessments by dementia nurses as standard evidence in NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility decisions.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to update NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) guidance regarding mobility assessments or specialist assessments by dementia nurses. The CHC assessment process is supported by the Decision Support Tool. This provides practitioners with a way to bring together and record an individual’s needs in the twelve ‘care domains’, including mobility. The assessment should consider the ways in which an individual’s needs interact with one another, for example how cognition impacts on mobility.
Eligibility for CHC is not determined by diagnosis or condition but is assessed on a case-by-case basis considering the totality of an individual’s needs, ensuring a person-centred approach. Someone with specialist knowledge of an individual’s condition, for example dementia, should be involved in the process. Assessments should take into account evidence from a comprehensive range of assessments relating to the individual. For individuals with dementia, this could include specialist assessments by dementia nurses.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 potential impact of (a) unprocessed and (b) minimally processed foods on public health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Scientific risk assessment and United Kingdom dietary recommendations are based on robust independent risk assessments by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN).
SACN has considered the evidence on the impact of processing on health in a position statement in 2023 and rapid evidence update in April 2025 which considered evidence published since the 2023 position statement. SACN has concluded that the observed associations between higher consumption of ultra processed foods and adverse health outcomes are concerning.
SACN recommended that on balance, most people are likely to benefit from reducing their consumption of processed foods high in energy, saturated fat, salt and free sugars and low in fibre. This is based on the nutrient content of many ultra processed foods and concerns raised in relation to health.
SACN’s recommendations align with existing policies for supporting healthier diets and advice to consumers. SACN will keep the topic of food processing and health under annual review and consider it again in 2026.
SACN has also previously advised on consumption of fruit and vegetables, supporting the WHO recommendations (2003), red and processed meat as part of its assessment on iron and health (2010), and on consumption of whole grain foods, as part of its recommendations on Carbohydrates and Health (2015). The UK’s national food model the Eatwell Guide, which is based on SACN’s recommendations, already advises that people should eat more fruit and vegetables and wholegrain or higher-fibre foods, as well as less processed meat and food and drink that is high in sugar, calories, saturated fat, and salt.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 impact of the consumption of high caffeine energy drinks on health services in Lancashire.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 3 September 2025, the Government published its consultation on banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under 16 years in England, an important step towards fulfilling our Plan for Change commitment to create the healthiest generation of children ever.
We estimate the proposals could reduce childhood obesity rates by the equivalent of 40,000 children and deliver health benefits worth £7.7 billion through improved health outcomes. In addition, we estimate the proposals could provide NHS savings of £127 million, social care savings of £84 million, and reduced premature mortality is expected to deliver an additional £1.2 billion of economic output.
The Department of Health and Social Care has not assessed the potential impact of the consumption of high-caffeine energy drinks on health services in Lancashire.
The consultation and accompanying impact assessment are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/banning-the-sale-of-high-caffeine-energy-drinks-to-children.