Asked by: Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 13 January (HL13304), what plans there are for co-operation between the Independent Review for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism and the Young People and Work Report led by Alan Milburn.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Independent Review for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD, and Autism, and the Young People and Work Report led by Alan Milburn are complementary. The chairs and the secretariats are in regular discussion to ensure cooperation.
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 increase access to healthcare services in rural areas.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan has set out a long-term vision to reform the National Health Service and make it fit for the future. Addressing healthcare inequity is a core focus of the 10-Year Health Plan, to ensure the NHS is there for anyone who needs it whenever they need it.
This includes ending the postcode lottery for cancer patients through introducing new training places targeted at trusts with the biggest workforce gaps, prioritising rural and coastal areas.
There are also a range of adjustments made to integrated care board funding allocations that account for the fact that the costs of providing health care may vary between rural and urban areas. These adjustments specifically support remote or sparsely populated areas.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 address regional variation in access to continuous glucose monitoring, including in Dorset.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning health services to meet the needs of their populations. In doing so they must have regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, including for diabetes. The National Diabetes Audit (NDA), and the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) along with NHS Digital’s NDA and NPDA dashboards provide comprehensive data on care processes and outcomes and highlight variation. The dashboards help commissioners, providers, and paediatric diabetes units benchmark themselves and target improvements.
NHS Dorset has a policy in place for the provision of prescribable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
In order to ensure that Dorset patients are being treated appropriately, use of CGM is tracked against patient eligibility criteria as set out in NICE guidance and the NHS Dorset CGM policy.
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 steps his Department is taking to support earlier diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes in babies, toddlers and children presenting with symptoms in primary care in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local health commissioners and providers in Surrey are responsible for assessing how existing clinical guidance is being applied across primary care settings.
NHS England is undertaking a review of options for supporting primary care services in the identification of acute onset Type 1 diabetes in babies and children and in doing so will engage with relevant national organisations and partners.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, we will continue to support people living with diabetes, including through the rollout of new wearable technologies such as hybrid closed loop (HCL) systems. The rollout of HCL systems is backed by £107 million in 2026/27 and has been made available to over 23,000 additional people since 2023/24.
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 assessment he has made of the adequacy of the consistency with which existing clinical guidance on Type 1 Diabetes is applied across primary care settings in Surrey.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local health commissioners and providers in Surrey are responsible for assessing how existing clinical guidance is being applied across primary care settings.
NHS England is undertaking a review of options for supporting primary care services in the identification of acute onset Type 1 diabetes in babies and children and in doing so will engage with relevant national organisations and partners.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, we will continue to support people living with diabetes, including through the rollout of new wearable technologies such as hybrid closed loop (HCL) systems. The rollout of HCL systems is backed by £107 million in 2026/27 and has been made available to over 23,000 additional people since 2023/24.
Asked by: Steve Yemm (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects treatments for fatty liver disease to be approved for use on the NHS; what assessment he has made of the readiness of the NHS to make such treatments available; and what steps he is taking to ensure eligible patients will receive these treatments once approved.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Newly licensed medicines are appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which is the independent body responsible for developing evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. NICE aims wherever possible to issue draft guidance on new medicines close to the time of licensing. The NHS in England is legally required to fund drugs recommended by NICE, usually within three months of final guidance.
NICE is currently evaluating potential new treatments for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) in anticipation of the medicines being granted a marketing authorisation by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) with guidance expected later this year. NHS England is actively preparing to support the potential introduction of new treatments for MASH, including fatty liver disease with fibrosis, alongside the ongoing NICE appraisal process.
The Department and NHS England will continue to work to ensure that, once approved, effective new treatments for fatty liver disease are introduced in a way that is fair, affordable and protects the wider NHS, while ensuring that patients with the greatest clinical need are able to benefit as quickly as possible.
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, how many radiotherapy machines are currently in operation in NHS hospitals, and how this compares with projected clinical need over the next five and ten years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of radiotherapy treatment machines in use across the National Health Service in England is not recorded as part of a nationally mandated data collection.
The commissioning of radiotherapy services is overseen by local systems. They have the responsibility to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place for local populations, taking account of the different factors that can affect demand and capacity. The projected number of machines needed to meet future demand depends on a range of factors including clinical practice, for instance fraction protocols, patient choice, between different equivalent treatments, local working practices, for instance the hours and days of operation, as well as the technical specification of treatment machines, and the throughput per hour.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
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 the potential implications for its policies of the preliminary findings of the ELSA Study that screens children for Type 1 diabetes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is guided by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific advisory committee which makes its recommendations based on internationally recognised criteria and a rigorous evidence review and consultation process. It is only where the committee is confident that screening would provide more good than harm that a screening programme is recommended, as all medical interventions carry an inherent risk.
The UK NSC is aware of the ELSA study and looks forward to receiving the results of this study when the trial is complete.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
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 the potential impact of vaping devices that (a) contain and (b) can be configured to contain more than the standard 2ml tank capacity through (i) interchangeable and (ii) modular components on public health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will stop vapes and nicotine products from being deliberately branded, promoted, and advertised to children and provides the Government with new powers to restrict the packaging, device appearance, and display of vapes and other nicotine products to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.
On 8 October 2025, we launched a Call for Evidence which sought evidence on the size and shape of vapes, vape tanks, and the components of vaping products, including pods, puff-count capacity, and nicotine delivery.
We are now reviewing the responses, and these will help inform decisions around our future regulatory approach once the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has been enacted.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as part of their upcoming Circular Economy Growth Plan, will consider evidence across a range of interventions, including but not limited to the regulation of product features to support increased recyclability.
Asked by: Laurence Turner (Labour - Birmingham Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 15 January to Question 101203, on Latex: Allergies, if he will place a copy of the Expert Advisory Group on Allergy's December 2025 minutes in the House of Commons Library.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Terms of Reference for the Expert Advisory Group on Allergy, which is overseen and supported by external stakeholders, states that the meetings are confidential. Therefore, the meeting minutes are not shared publicly.