Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in response to Question tabled on 15 December 2025, UIN 99871, if the Government can outline what steps are being taken to ensure the needs of people with severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis are adequacy met.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The final delivery plan on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), published in July 2025, includes an action for the Department and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for severe ME/CFS. Officials from the Department have commenced discussions with NHS England on how best to take forward this action.
The third and final session in NHS England’s newly-developed ME/CFS e-learning series, Managing Severe ME/CFS, is now live on the NHS Learning Hub. This session provides practical, evidence-based guidance for healthcare professionals to support people living with severe and very severe ME/CFS.
Additionally, as set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. We exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million appointments, tests, and operations in our first year of government, having delivered 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025. This will help people with severe ME/CFS to get support sooner.
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out a transformed vision for elective care by 2035, where most interactions no longer take place in a hospital building, instead happening virtually or via neighbourhood services. We will empower patients by giving them greater choice and control and establishing expected standards for making their experience of planned NHS care as smooth, supportive and convenient as possible, including for people with severe ME/CFS.
Feb. 16 2026
Source Page: New technology to help combat drug and alcohol addictionFeb. 16 2026
Source Page: Parents urged to protect children through vaccination campaignAsked 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.