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 is she ensuring funding into services for people with gambling and gaming dependencies.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2025, the statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect to fund the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harm. In its first year, the levy has raised just under £120 million, 50% of which is allocated to NHS England and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales to deliver treatment and support services, with 30% allocated to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales to commission prevention activity across Great Britain.
NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities are working collaboratively on the development of their respective gambling treatment and prevention programmes during this period of transition to the new levy system. NHS England continues to work at pace to take on commissioning responsibility for the full treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare from 1 April 2026.
NHS England currently funds a National Centre for Gaming Disorders, offering help and support for people in England aged 13 years old and over, who have difficulty controlling their gaming and the impact it has on their lives. NHS England is currently considering the future approach to gaming services.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the National Cancer Plan will support the screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in a) Broxtowe constituency, b) the East Midlands and c) England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan will be published shortly and will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from prevention and screening through early diagnosis, treatment, ongoing care, research and innovation.
Early diagnosis is a key focus of the plan. We will support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer earlier and treat it faster, including through improved access to screening programmes, increased diagnostic capacity, and the continued roll-out of effective diagnostic pathways. The plan will also address access to effective and timely cancer treatment.
Reducing geographical inequalities in cancer outcomes is a central priority of the National Cancer Plan. The plan will look at targeted improvements needed across different cancer types to reduce disparities in cancer survival related to socioeconomic status, geography, and other factors. It will set out how we will work with the NHS and partner organisations to ensure high-quality cancer care is available consistently across the country, including in areas that currently experience poorer outcomes.
Through this national approach, the National Cancer Plan will support improvements in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment for patients in Broxtowe, across the East Midlands, and throughout England.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
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 reduce regional disparities in life expectancy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is taking bold action to tackle the social determinants of health to build a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer. We are committed to increasing the amount of time people spend in good health and preventing premature deaths, with a vision of ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background or location, live longer, healthier lives.
We know everyday life poses greater health risks to the most disadvantaged in society, and that the current model of care works least well for those who already experience disadvantage and are far more likely to have complex needs.
To help tackle this, we will distribute National Health Service funding more equally locally, so it is better aligned with health need. We will free up funding to allow us to move resources more quickly to areas of higher health need, through our plan to remove deficit support funding, worth £2.2 billion in 2025/26, starting from financial year 2026/27.
We know that the Carr-Hill formula is considered outdated, and evidence suggests that general practitioners 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.
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 will he ensure that the number of deaths for alcohol use will reduce in this Parliament.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to shortening the amount of time spent in ill health and preventing premature deaths by addressing the key preventable drivers of poor health, such as alcohol.
Action to prevent harms from alcohol feature in several current strategies and plans. The National Health Service 10-Year Health Plan commits to some crucial steps to help people make healthier choices about alcohol, including making it a legal requirement for alcohol labels to display health warnings and consistent nutritional information. The Men’s Health Strategy outlines the impact alcohol can have on men’s health, and several initiatives to address this, including piloting a new brief intervention to target the rise in cardiovascular disease deaths from combined alcohol and cocaine use among older men. The upcoming National Cancer Plan will continue the work to shift from treatment to prevention, including for alcohol-related cancer risks.
To support better outcomes for people experiencing harmful drinking, the first ever United Kingdom clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment were published in November. All drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding is channelled through the Public Health Grant, with over £13.45 billion allocated across three years, including £3.4 billion ringfenced for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery. Furthermore, in 2025/26, in addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department is providing a total of £310 million in targeted grants to improve treatment services and recovery support, including housing, employment, and inpatient detoxification.
Asked by: Adrian Ramsay (Green Party - Waveney Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when will he announce the next phase of Modern Service Frameworks, and what consideration has been given to including musculoskeletal conditions in the next phase of the Modern Service Frameworks.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan, as well as an overall quality strategy, the National Quality Board will oversee the development of a new series of service frameworks. These modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and will then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery.
Early priorities will include cardiovascular disease, sepsis, severe mental illness, and the first ever service framework for frailty and dementia. As advised by the National Quality Board, the Government will consider other conditions for future phases of modern service frameworks, and has recently announced a Modern Service Framework on Palliative and End of Life Care.
We are advancing modern service frameworks for those conditions where we can swiftly and significantly raise the quality of care and productivity. Future phases will address conditions that carry substantial health and economic consequences.
To support people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, we are working to deliver the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) MSK Community Delivery Programme. GIRFT teams are working with health system leaders to reduce MSK community waiting times, which are the highest of all community waits, and improve data and metrics and referral pathways to wider support services.
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 assessment has been made on trends of indoor air pollution.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Air Quality Expert Group state that there is a challenge of establishing overall trends in indoor air pollution due to limited monitoring and heterogeneity of indoor environments.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is actively addressing this evidence gap through its involvement in two research hubs, headed by UK Research and Innovation and the Medical Research Council, the Child and Adolescent Health Impacts of Learning Indoor Environments under Net Zero Hub, also known as the CHILI, Hub, and the Indoor HABItability during the Transition to Net Zero Housing Hub, also known as the INHABIT, Hub. In addition, the UKHSA contributes to the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Health Protection Research Unit on Climate Change and Health Security Theme on Healthy Indoor Environments. Collectively these projects aim to strengthen the evidence base on the impact of climate change policies on indoor exposure to air pollution and will include monitoring of indoor environments.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much NHS England has spent on maternity negligence claims in each of the past 10 years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Resolution (NHSR) manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England.
The following table shows the total payments for maternity, including obstetrics and neonatology, clinical claims between 2015/16 and 2024/25, broken down by primary specialty and payment year:
Payment Year | Obstetrics (£) | Neonatology (£) | Total Maternity (£) |
2015/16 | 508,103,281 | 194,645 | 508,297,926 |
2016/17 | 581,810,308 | 202,864 | 582,013,172 |
2017/18 | 915,659,658 | 302,381 | 915,962,039 |
2018/19 | 950,627,331 | 634,451 | 951,261,782 |
2019/20 | 902,715,840 | 1,297,437 | 904,013,277 |
2020/21 | 849,970,193 | 3,715,683 | 853,685,876 |
2021/22 | 906,061,294 | 3,213,166 | 909,274,459 |
2022/23 | 1,086,187,276 | 20,097,430 | 1,106,284,706 |
2023/24 | 1,145,173,134 | 30,185,739 | 1,175,358,873 |
2024/25 | 1,287,368,291 | 47,037,798 | 1,334,406,089 |
Source: NHSR
Notes:
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 help reduce health disparities linked to high vitamin D deficiency rates in at-risk population groups.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government recommendations for vitamin D are promoted on the National Health Service webpage and through the social marketing campaigns Best Start in Life, Better Health, and Healthier Families.
The Government’s Healthy Start Scheme was introduced in 2006 to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under the age of four years old from very low-income households. Beneficiaries are eligible for free Healthy Start Vitamins which include folic acid and vitamins C and D for pregnant and breast-feeding women and vitamins A, C and D for children.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Public Health Guideline, reference code PH56, gives information on vitamin D supplementation for population groups specifically at risk of deficiency, including how to increase awareness of and access to vitamin D supplements.
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 steps is he taking to devise an alcohol strategy which reduces (a) use and (b) harmful use and (c) dependency on alcohol.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to shortening the amount of time spent in ill health and preventing premature deaths by addressing the key preventable drivers of poor health, such as alcohol.
Action to prevent harms from alcohol feature in several current strategies and plans. The National Health Service 10-Year Health Plan commits to some crucial steps to help people make healthier choices about alcohol, including making it a legal requirement for alcohol labels to display health warnings and consistent nutritional information. The Men’s Health Strategy outlines the impact alcohol can have on men’s health, and several initiatives to address this, including piloting a new brief intervention to target the rise in cardiovascular disease deaths from combined alcohol and cocaine use among older men. The upcoming National Cancer Plan will continue the work to shift from treatment to prevention, including for alcohol-related cancer risks.
To support better outcomes for people experiencing harmful drinking, the first ever United Kingdom clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment were published in November. All drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding is channelled through the Public Health Grant, with over £13.45 billion allocated across three years, including £3.4 billion ringfenced for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery. Furthermore, in 2025/26, in addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department is providing a total of £310 million in targeted grants to improve treatment services and recovery support, including housing, employment, and inpatient detoxification.
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 recent consideration has he made of the need for a harm reduction strategy to the use of alcohol.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to shortening the amount of time spent in ill health and preventing premature deaths by addressing the key preventable drivers of poor health, such as alcohol.
Action to prevent harms from alcohol feature in several current strategies and plans. The National Health Service 10-Year Health Plan commits to some crucial steps to help people make healthier choices about alcohol, including making it a legal requirement for alcohol labels to display health warnings and consistent nutritional information. The Men’s Health Strategy outlines the impact alcohol can have on men’s health, and several initiatives to address this, including piloting a new brief intervention to target the rise in cardiovascular disease deaths from combined alcohol and cocaine use among older men. The upcoming National Cancer Plan will continue the work to shift from treatment to prevention, including for alcohol-related cancer risks.
To support better outcomes for people experiencing harmful drinking, the first ever United Kingdom clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment were published in November. All drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding is channelled through the Public Health Grant, with over £13.45 billion allocated across three years, including £3.4 billion ringfenced for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery. Furthermore, in 2025/26, in addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department is providing a total of £310 million in targeted grants to improve treatment services and recovery support, including housing, employment, and inpatient detoxification.