Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of social care standards across England; and what steps he is taking to support greater consistency of care provision.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National standards of care will be an integral part of the national care service we are building, so people can rely on consistent, high‑quality care wherever they live.
We are already progressing towards this through our three objectives for adult social care: giving people real choice and control, joining up health and social care around people’s lives, and ensuring consistent high‑quality care underpinned by national standards.
This year, the Government will set new national standards for care technologies and develop trusted guidance. This will mean that people and care providers can easily find out which technologies are fit for purpose, secure and meet compatibility requirements of health and social care systems in the future.
At the same time, in partnership with the Department for Education, we are developing a catalogue of data standards for Children’s and Adult’s Social Care Case Management Systems. This will enable greater data sharing with other agencies involved in organising a person’s care, in turn, improving the experience of care, local authority efficiency and the quality of central government data collection and reporting.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and social care in England. CQC monitors, inspects and regulates adult social care services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. National measures of care quality have remained steady, with 85% of all social care settings regulated by the CQC rated Good or Outstanding on 2 January 2026. Where concerns on quality or safety are identified, the CQC uses its regulatory and enforcement powers available and will take action to ensure the safety of people drawing on care and support.
The independent commission into adult social care is underway as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a national care service. Phase 1 will report this year.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 help reduce the number of patients waiting over 12 hours to be admitted to, or discharged from, Basildon Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that urgent and emergency care performance has fallen short in recent years. We are committed to restoring accident and emergency waiting times to the National Health Service constitutional standard.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets out clear actions to deliver improvements and make services better. The plan commits to reducing the number of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharge to less than 10% of the time. This is supported by almost £450 million of capital investment for Same Day Emergency Care, Mental Health Crisis Assessment Centres, and new ambulances, avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital and supporting the faster diagnosis, treatment, and discharge for patients.
The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework sets out a further trajectory to improve urgent and emergency care performance year-on-year toward the constitutional standard, reducing long waits and improving patient experience. The plan focuses on practical steps such as expanding urgent treatment centres, improving patient flow, and reducing 12-hour waits, to make emergency departments safer and more efficient.
NHS England provides regional oversight to support local delivery of services and improvement. The Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust’s One Team Improvement Plan has a focus on improving urgent and emergency care outcomes. The programme group looking at quality and patient safety has been focusing on reviewing processes and the fundamentals of care in wards and in the trust’s emergency departments. The trust has also introduced additional consultant cover during the weekends to increase the number of people discharged at the weekend. This helps to keep the emergency department safe as it allows for the movement of people who need to be admitted into the right beds.
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, how many doctors have had to file an estimate for their tax returns as a result of not receiving the appropriate Pension Savings Statements before 31 January 2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department, the NHS Business Services Authority, and HM Revenue and Customs do not hold this information.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the dismissal of the executive medical director at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, what oversight they are exercising to ensure that there is not a culture of suppressing clinical concerns regarding patient safety and staffing pressures.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have noted the findings of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection report of 28 March 2024 into the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which rated the trust overall as ‘Requires Improvement’, with specific concerns identified in areas such as freedom to speak up. National Health Service staff should have the confidence to speak out and come forward if they have concerns. There is support in place for staff who wish to raise concerns, including a network of more than 1,200 local Freedom to Speak Up Guardians across healthcare in England, whose role is to help and support NHS workers.
On the question of oversight, the CQC has maintained close and sustained regulatory oversight of the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in light of ongoing concerns about service quality and safety. This has included targeted inspections, staff engagement work, and structured monitoring activity. In response to identified risks within urgent and emergency care at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, the CQC undertook an assessment in December 2025, followed by a further inspection on 6 January 2026. Significant risks were identified during this period, and the CQC subsequently issued a Letter of Intent to the trust. The CQC has continued to work collaboratively with NHS England, participating in monthly quality improvement meetings to monitor the trust’s progress against its action plans.
The CQC will continue to use its statutory powers to ensure that services meet the required standards of quality and safety.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what indicators they use to measure progress in reducing health inequalities; and how those metrics inform policy and funding decisions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to increase the amount of time people spend in good health and prevent premature deaths, with a vision of ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background or location, live longer, healthier lives.
We remain committed to reducing the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between the richest and poorest, an ambitious commitment that shows the Government is serious about tackling health inequalities and addressing the social determinants of health. Indicators to monitor progress in health inequalities are measured in key data outcomes, such as the life expectancy estimates for England and sub-national areas, produced by the Office for National Statistics.
The Government bases decisions on a robust evidence base. For example, we know that the Carr-Hill formula is considered outdated, and evidence suggests that general practices (GPs) serving in deprived parts of England receive on average 9.8% less funding per needs adjusted patient than those in less deprived communities, despite having greater health needs and significantly higher patient-to-GP ratios. This is why we are currently reviewing the formula to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.
We are targeting key metrics such as the HLE gap to enable cross-Government action on primary prevention such as regulation of tobacco, controlling air pollution, and tackling poverty. We also support NHS England’s CORE20PLUS5 approach which targets action to reduce health inequalities in the most deprived 20% of the population and improve outcomes for groups that experience the worst access, experience, and outcomes within the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish an impact summary of the Foundation Programme 2026 recruitment cycle, including (1) the projected breakdown of priority versus non-priority eligible applicant numbers, (2) an assessment of the expected displacement of applicants, and (3) the associated mitigation plan to ensure workforce stability.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of implementation and ongoing monitoring and evaluation, after each recruitment stage, NHS England will track and monitor the revised recruitment process.
The bill will not exclude any eligible applicant from applying, but applications will be prioritised as the bill describes. The Government and NHS England will develop more detailed monitoring and evaluation plans, subject to parliamentary passage of the bill. These plans would also seek to address known evidence gaps where possible.
Further detail is provided within the published impact statement on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to set a target for reducing incidence of cardiovascular disease as part of the 10 Year Health Plan for England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to fewer lives being lost to the biggest killers, such as cardiovascular disease. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, to accelerate progress on the ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease modern service framework later this year.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on delivering national targets for ambient air including by sharing data.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Department of Health and Social Care ministers engage regularly with ministerial colleagues on air quality. The 10-Year Health Plan for England details action the Government will take to reduce the health harms of air pollution. This includes the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ refreshed Environmental Improvement Plan which sets out action to further improve air quality in England including through revised interim targets.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Department has made of the potential impact of reducing NHS-funded activity delivered by independent sector providers on local waiting times in (a) Leicester, (b) The East Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing waiting lists is a key part of the Government’s Health Mission, and we are committed to putting patients first by ensuring that they are seen on time and that they have the best possible experience of care. Since the Government came into office, the waiting list for routine appointments, operations, and procedures in England has now been cut by 312,369. This is despite 30.1 million referrals onto the waiting list.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment has been made of whether accident and emergency departments have sufficient capacity to meet current levels of patient demand in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On data on corridor care, NHS England has been working with trusts since 2024 to put in place new reporting arrangements to drive improvement and transparency. We are now reviewing the data internally and will begin publishing it shortly.
On services in Surrey Heath, residents there primarily access urgent and emergency care services at Frimley Park Hospital, which is run by the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust within the NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board footprint.
NHS Frimley has implemented winter urgent and emergency care plans to manage increased demand, including maintaining patient flow, expanding same-day emergency care, strengthening community and primary care alternatives, and working with local authorities and community providers to support timely discharge.
We keep performance in all local systems under regular review through established daily operational oversight and escalation arrangements, with patient safety remaining the overriding priority.