Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 24 November (HLWS1086), whether the Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England will (1) quantify the incremental funding needed to ensure the availability of comprehensive specialist palliative care across England, (2) include allocated funding to fully meet that need, and (3) guarantee that every person who is assessed to benefit from and chooses to receive comprehensive specialist palliative care will be legally entitled to it.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Noble Lord to the Written Ministerial Statement HLWS1086 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 1 December 2025 (HL12313), where the results of the NHS Learning Disability Improvement Standard exercise are published; how people with learning disabilities and their families are involved in the exercise; and how the results are made accessible to people with learning disabilities and their families so they are able to compare performance amongst NHS Trusts.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Learning Disability Improvement Standards support National Health Service trusts to assess the quality of care provided for people with a learning disability and were designed with lived experience at the centre of the process. The standards and easy read information are available on the NHS England website.

To understand how well organisations are meeting the standards, the NHS Benchmarking Network undertakes an annual data collection exercise, with further information avaiable at the NHS Benchmarking Network website. All annual summary reports are published on the Learning Disability Improvement Standards Hub website. Each trust that participates in the exercise also receives their own bespoke report and are encouraged to share learning at the local level in suitable formats for the populations they serve.

Ahead of each annual benchmarking exercise, people with a learning disability and user-led organisations are engaged to design and revise the metrics which are asked of NHS organisations. This process recognises that people with lived experience are best placed to ask questions concerning the quality of services they expect and has recently been facilitated by Learning Disability England. Input is also sought from clinicians, managers, and senior leadership, ensuring greater transparency and accountability.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 23 December (HL11565), of the executive senior managers at NHS England who have left since 1 March 2025 and received payments in lieu of notice or annual leave, (1) how many have since been re-employed in any capacity—including as consultants or interim staff—by the NHS or an NHS body, arm’s-length body, or government department, (2) how many of these individuals have been required to repay all or part of their exit payments under current clawback provisions, and (3) what is the total value of the funds successfully recovered to date.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Of the 17 executive senior managers at NHS England who have left since 1 March 2025 and received a payment either in lieu of notice or in lieu of annual leave, six have since been re-employed in the National Health Service, an NHS body, an arm’s length body (ALB), or a Government department. We do not hold information related to consultancy.

One of these six individuals received a redundancy payment which is in the scope of the clawback provisions. Recovery has commenced for a partial recovery proportionate to their gap in NHS employment.

For the other five people securing re-employment in the NHS, an NHS body, an ALB, or a Government department, their payments in lieu related to annual leave or notice, and therefore were not within the scope of clawback arrangements.

Whilst recovery action has actively commenced for the individual in the scope of the claw back provisions, no funds have been recovered to date.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 1 December 2025 (HL12313), what Core20Plus5 indicators they have developed and embedded to monitor access, experiences and outcomes for people with learning disabilities; and how this information will be reported upon nationally.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has put in place indicators designed to monitor access, experience, and outcomes for Core20PLUS populations, including people with a learning disability who are expected to be identified as a priority group. The Core20PLUS5 indicator for learning disability is the ‘Percentage of patients aged 14+ on GP learning disability registers who received an annual health check'. This is reported nationally as part of the NHS Oversight Framework.

There are clear expectations of local systems to improve outcomes for people with a learning disability and governance through existing frameworks. NHS England has published a Statement on Information on Health Inequalities, avaiable on the NHS.UK website in an online only format, which sets out the data that integrated care boards (ICB) are expected to collect. This includes measures relating to percentage of learning disability annual health checks and adult mental health inpatient rates for people with a learning disability and autistic people. Within annual reports, ICBs should explain how information has been used to guide action.

In addition, each ICB is required to have an executive lead on learning disability and autism and to consider and demonstrate how they will reduce the health inequalities faced by people with a learning disability and autistic people in their local populations within the five year strategic plans mandated as part of the Medium-Term Planning Framework, which is avaiable on the NHS.UK website in an online only format.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 19 December 2025 (HL12718), whether they will ask the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to set up a subcommittee on dementia to assess the evidence regarding vaccination against various infections and reduced risk of dementia.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The independent departmental expert committee, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises the Government on matters relating to vaccination and immunisation.

At this time, there are no plans to establish a JCVI sub-committee on dementia.

However, the JCVI continues to monitor emerging evidence relating to all immunisation programmes and, where appropriate, this can include evidence on a potential link between vaccination and reduced risk of dementia.

It is possible for evidence on the link between vaccination and the reduced risk of dementia to be assessed within the existing committee structure, as was the case when research studies suggesting a link between shingles vaccination and reduced dementia risk were considered by the committee last year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Merron on 5 December (HL Deb col 2044), what distinction exists under Articles 2, 8 or 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights which means that a legal challenge would not arise for a person under 18 years old compared to those who are (1) under 21 years old, and (2) under 25 years old.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

At the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill committee debate on 5 December 2025, the comments referred to were made in relation to the amendments that had been tabled for consideration in the Lords. There would need to be a reasonable, necessary and proportionate justification to underpin restricting access to assisted dying to any age on the face of the Bill. Although the reasons to support an age limit of 18 years old, as opposed to an age limit of 21 or 25 years old, may well be different. This matter was debated at some length on 5 December 2025, and as I stated in that debate, it is rightly for Parliament to decide on any age-related restrictions and to consider the proportionality of the reasons which underpin them. As the Government is neutral, it is not for the Government to comment on the likelihood of a court upholding any particular case brought to challenge the age on the face of the Bill but it was important to note the general risk to aid the debate in the Chamber.

Found: Letter dated 19/01/2026 from Baroness Merron to Peers regarding questions raised during a debate on plans

Found: Letter dated 15/01/2026 from Baroness Merron to Lord Kamall regarding questions raised during the Terminally