Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the MRS has made in delivering mechanistic research into ME/CFS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not know what ‘MRS’ refers to in this context. The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). A limited amount of mechanistic research is funded through the NIHR, but the majority of mechanistic research is funded through the Medical Research Council (MRC), a UK Research and Innovation Council sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Mechanistic research into myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, is within the remit of the MRC.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
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 ensure that funding for wheelchair users is adequate to meet essential needs, including equipment and specialist support.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, based on the needs of their local population. NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment.
This includes the introduction of personal wheelchair budgets, including through legal rights in 2019, providing a clear framework for ICBs to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated. Personal wheelchair budgets give people greater choice over the wheelchair provided.
NHS England also published a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from ICBs on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. The latest figures from the Quarter 2 2025/26 National Wheelchair Data Collection showed that 84% of adults and 78% of children received their equipment within 18 weeks. Further information on the National Wheelchair Data Collection is available at the following link:
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty under various legislations, including the Care Act 2014, and the Children and Families Act 2014, to make arrangements for the provision of disability aids and community equipment, to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area. Some local authorities deliver this themselves, but a significant number have external contracts for an integrated community equipment service.
NHS England is also responsible for determining allocations of financial resources to ICBs. NHS England’s allocations policy aims to support equal opportunity of access for equal need, alongside NHS England’s duties to reduce health inequalities that are amenable to healthcare.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has marked 2025/26 as a financial reset year with the publication of Planning Guidance 2025/26. He has been clear that systems must live within their means, exhausting all opportunities to improve productivity, tackle waste, and take decisions on how to prioritise resources to best meet the health needs of their local population.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what statistics he has on the demand for and use of wheelchairs; and how that data informs NHS England’s commissioning of appropriate services.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, based on the needs of their local population. NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services and to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment.
This includes the introduction of personal wheelchair budgets, including through legal rights in 2019, providing a clear framework for ICBs to commission personalised wheelchair services which are outcomes focused and integrated. Personal wheelchair budgets give people greater choice over the wheelchair provided.
NHS England also published a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from ICBs on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required. The latest figures from the Quarter 2 2025/26 National Wheelchair Data Collection showed that 84% of adults and 78% of children received their equipment within 18 weeks. Further information on the National Wheelchair Data Collection is available at the following link:
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty under various legislations, including the Care Act 2014, and the Children and Families Act 2014, to make arrangements for the provision of disability aids and community equipment, to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area. Some local authorities deliver this themselves, but a significant number have external contracts for an integrated community equipment service.
NHS England is also responsible for determining allocations of financial resources to ICBs. NHS England’s allocations policy aims to support equal opportunity of access for equal need, alongside NHS England’s duties to reduce health inequalities that are amenable to healthcare.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has marked 2025/26 as a financial reset year with the publication of Planning Guidance 2025/26. He has been clear that systems must live within their means, exhausting all opportunities to improve productivity, tackle waste, and take decisions on how to prioritise resources to best meet the health needs of their local population.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how lipoedema is classified within NICE guidance and NHS commissioning frameworks; and whether he plans to review the categorisation of lipoedema-related interventions to ensure they reflect clinical need.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Lipoedema services in England are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs), which are responsible for assessing the needs of their local populations and determining the most appropriate services to support people with long‑term conditions such as lipoedema.
There is no single national specification for lipoedema services. Instead, ICBs draw on a range of national guidance and best‑practice resources when designing care pathways. These include guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and best‑practice frameworks produced by bodies such as Wounds UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners. This helps ensure that services are safe, effective, and based on the best available evidence.
Most people with lipoedema are supported through primary and community care services, including assessment by local lymphoedema teams, compression therapy, advice on skin care and movement, and support with self‑management. These services aim to help people manage symptoms and maintain mobility and quality of life.
NICE classifies lipoedema within its interventional procedures guidance on the use of liposuction for chronic lipoedema, reference code HTG618, as a chronic, often painful, and progressive condition characterised by the abnormal, symmetrical accumulation of fat in the legs, hips, buttocks, and sometimes arms. In this guidance, NICE concluded that current evidence on both safety and effectiveness is limited and, therefore, recommends that liposuction should only be undertaken within the context of research or under rigorous governance arrangements. This guidance informs, but does not mandate, local commissioning decisions. NICE will review this guidance once the full results of the ongoing LIPLEG clinical trial are available, and will update its recommendations if new evidence supports doing so.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Health Innovation Network Impact Report 2024–25, published on 18 September 2025, in relation to the use of point-of-care diagnostic testing technologies for cardiovascular disease prevention in the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government welcomes the Health Innovation Network (HIN) Impact Report 2024/25, and the network's focus on cardiovascular disease as a strategic priority. We recognise the significant impact of the HINs in driving innovation into the National Health Service, benefitting 4.9 million patients and leveraging £3 billion of investment since 2018. This is why the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan make explicit commitments to continue funding and empowering them.
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: 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 support they are giving to clinicians to provide a standardised approach to effective interventions for treatment of cardiovascular disease conditions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 (CVD MSF) later this year.
The Department and NHS England are engaging widely with stakeholders to co-produce the CVD MSF, ensuring that experts, people, and communities are at the heart of its development. These frameworks will identify the best evidenced interventions that would support progress towards this goal, with a focus on those with the best means to drive up value and equity. Furthermore, they will set standards on how those interventions should be used, alongside a clear strategy to support and oversee uptake by clinicians and providers.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI’s) advice in November 2024 to expand eligibility for the shingles vaccination programme to include people aged 80 and over, what assessment they have made of the impact of delays in implementation on those with comorbidities who are at highest risk of severe shingles disease; what steps they are taking to prioritise protection for these high-risk individuals; and whether they will commit to implementing the JCVI advice before this winter.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Currently, adults become eligible for their shingles vaccination when they turn 65 or 70 years of age, and they remain eligible until their 79th birthday. Adults who are severely immunosuppressed, and therefore most at risk of serious illness and complications from shingles, are eligible from 18 years old and do not have an upper age limit.
The shingles vaccination programme has been in place since 2013, and therefore there will be a significant portion of adults currently aged 80 years old and over who were offered, and received, Zostavax, the previous shingles vaccine. All those who were born after 1 September 1933 would have been offered a vaccine in the programme.
In November 2024, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation provided advice to the Government on eligibility for the shingles vaccination programme. This included advice that the Government should consider expanding the shingles vaccination offer to include older adult cohorts aged 80 years old and over. The Government is carefully considering this advice as it sets the policy on who should be offered shingles vaccinations in the future.
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 consideration they are giving to appointing a National Cardiovascular Disease Director.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has a National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Prevention.
We are committed to reducing premature mortality from heart disease and stroke by 25% in the next ten years and are prioritising ambitious, evidence-led and clinically informed approaches to CVD prevention and care to tackle one of the country’s biggest killers head-on.
To accelerate progress towards this ambition, we will publish a CVD Modern Service Framework (CVD MSF) later this year. The framework will support consistent, high quality and equitable care whist fostering innovation across the CVD pathway. The Department and NHS England are engaging widely with stakeholders to co-produce the CVD MSF, ensuring that experts, people and communities are at the heart of its development.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 ensure that eligible women take up breast cancer screening in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through our National Health Service screening programmes, we can reduce mortality and morbidity from cancer in the population who appear healthy and have no symptoms, by detecting conditions at an earlier, more treatable stage. Each year, over 15 million people are invited for screening, with over 10 million taking up the invitation.
In Birmingham and Solihull, between 2022/23 and 2023/24 there has been an improvement of 4.93% in breast cancer screening uptake in 53 to 70 year old people.
In Sutton Coldfield, the breast screening is offered to all eligible cohorts in line with service specifications of the NHS Breast Screening Programme. In this constituency, uptake and coverage are stable and constituents can access screening at both static and mobile facilities. There is a dedicated focus on reducing health inequalities, supporting access, and informing eligible patients to actively take up their screening appointment and offer.
The breast screening service in Sutton Coldfield is currently undertaking a targeted text messaging initiative targeting eligible patients that have not attended their screening invitation. This includes the offer to rebook their screening appointment and a link to bilingual breast screening videos to support education and awareness. A follow-up text message survey is also being used to explore barriers to attendance and motivating factors, with insights informing ongoing service development.
Other initiatives to increase uptake in the area include:
a dedicated general practice toolkit to support and inform health promotion messaging;
a breast screening resource pack for care homes to support staff in promoting screening awareness and facilitating uptake amongst eligible residents; and
a cancer bus initiative promoting a range of services including breast cancer screening.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 adequacy of support available to low‑income families whose children require prolonged inpatient neonatal and paediatric care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling child poverty and to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty was published on 5 December 2025 and set out a goal to reduce and alleviate the impact of child poverty, with urgent action to improve the lives of children in deepest poverty.
We recognise the significant financial and practical pressures faced by low-income families when a child with a long-term condition requires hospital care. To support eligible low-income families with the costs associated with repeated or prolonged hospital stays, the NHS Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme provides support with the cost of travelling to hospital appointments.
In addition, many hospitals work with charitable partners, such as Ronald McDonald House Charities, to provide free or low-cost accommodation close to specialist children’s hospitals, helping parents stay near their child during treatment.