Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 ICB centralisation on health and care service transformation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the focus of integrated care boards will be the strategic commissioning of health and care services working across larger footprints to drive improvements in services and improve population health. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/strategic-commissioning-framework/
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of patients whose treatment has been delayed as a result of restrictions placed on private providers delivering NHS services.
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.
Integrated care boards have existing contractual powers to manage activity by providers, which were enhanced in 2025/26 with central support for setting and managing activity. Commissioners’ use of these powers support systems to live within their means and deploy better financial discipline than previous years where systems have overspent. As these powers are exercised by local systems, no national assessment has been made.
We expect use of activity management provisions by local systems to support efforts achieving the goal of at least 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2026 whilst living within financial budgets set for 2025/26.
All trusts are expected to have their own safeguards to ensure that patients waiting for planned care are triaged, and that appointments take place according to clinical priority and the length of time patients have waited, avoiding risk of serious complications.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 activity management plans on patient waiting times for elective surgery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards have existing contractual powers to manage activity by providers, which were enhanced in 2025/26 with central support for setting and managing activity. The NHS Standard Contract includes the ability to set Indicative Action Plans (IAPs) to help providers and commissioners plan demand, capacity, and expenditure. While not binding, if activity exceeds the agreed plan, and therefore the funding agreed, an Activity Management Plan (AMP) can be agreed to bring activity back in line.
The provision and use of IAPs and AMPs is designed to deliver the activity levels required to achieve the goal of at least 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment by March 2026 whilst also living within financial budgets set for 2025/26.
Any planning assumptions based on waiting times need to support commissioners’ overall duties to the populations they serve and our waiting time targets, including our commitment to return to the 18 week standard. AMPs allow commissioners and providers to work together to manage elective activity within agreed performance and financial targets, all whilst working towards improving patient waiting times overall.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how he plans to measure the effectiveness of the reorganisation of ICBs at delivering service transformation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Oversight Framework provides a consistent and transparent approach to assessing integrated care boards (ICBs) and National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhs-oversight-framework/
In addition, ICBs will be expected to evaluate the impact of their commissioned services, care models, and proactive interventions as set out in the Strategic Commissioning Framework published 4 November 2025 and available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/strategic-commissioning-framework/
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many existing NHS workers in Poole constituency could be affected by proposed changes to rules around indefinite leave to remain.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the number of existing National Health Service workers, either nationally or in the Poole constituency, who could be affected by proposed changes to the rules on indefinite leave to remain.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS staff receive employer pension contributions on dates on which they are on strike.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Contributions to the NHS Pension scheme are based on pensionable earnings. If staff participate in strike action and do not receive pay for those days, there is no pensionable pay for that period, so neither employee nor employer contributions are made.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which use cases or purposes are currently active in the national instances of the NHS England Federated Data Platform; and what is the number of users currently able to access each purpose, as defined by Palantir on 4 December 2020, Purpose-based Access Controls at Palantir.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform, including the national instance, provides trusts and integrated care boards with a set of core capabilities and nationally commissioned locally developed products to support five key National Health Service priorities:
- Population Health and Person Insight;
- Care Coordination;
- Supply Chain;
- Vaccination and Immunisation; and
- Elective Recovery.
There are currently 28,732 active accounts on the Federated Data Platform's National tenant, and access to data is managed by dataset and product-specific access controls. This figure does not include the number of accounts across local tenants.
The information on the number of users currently able to access each purpose is not routinely collected, as user stats are aligned to products.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (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 18 December 2025 (HL12801), when they will publish the advice to ministers by David Lock KC on the rising legal costs of clinical negligence.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office report.
The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point, and the Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps, in due course.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 ensure that the 18-week waiting time target can be met.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to returning, by March 2029, to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment.
In November 2025, performance against the standard was at 61.8%, 2.6% higher than a year earlier. Since the Government came into office, the waiting list for routine appointments, operations, and procedures in England has now been cut by 312,369 despite 30.1 million referrals being added onto the waiting list.
As set out in the Elective Reform Plan, we’ve set ambitious targets, and are investing in modernisation, and reforming and simplifying pathways, increasing surgical and diagnostic capacity, and empowering patients with faster and more convenient access to care. We’ve made good progress, through there remains lots more to do.
We will empower patients by giving them more choice and control, reform delivery by working more consistently, and in many cases differently, to deliver more elective care, ensure care takes place in the right place, and implement robust and regular oversight of performance with clear expectations.
In September last year, we announced a new “online hospital”, through NHS Online, which will help to reduce patient waiting times, delivering the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years, four times more than an average trust, while enhancing patient choice and control over their care. The first patients will be able to use the service from 2027.
We are investing £6 billion of additional capital over five years for diagnostic, elective, urgent, and emergency capacity in the NHS. This includes £1.65 billion of capital funding in 2025/26 to support both immediate winter capacity and infrastructure transformation, for instance new surgical hubs, community diagnostic centres, and beds to increase capacity for elective and emergency care.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 waiting times at York Hospital on patients in January (a) 2025 and (b) 2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that patients have been let down for too long, with their health deteriorating, while they wait for the care they need.
Reducing waiting lists is a key part of the Government’s Health Mission, and we are putting patients first by ensuring that they are seen on time and that they have the best possible experience of care across the country, including at York Hospital.
As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, with an interim target of 65% by March 2026.
The Department does not hold waiting list data for January 2026 and at a hospital level. The latest waiting list data for the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, as of November 2025, shows that 55.7% of waits are below 18 weeks, a 0.2 percentage point improvement from the previous year.