Found: Baroness Merron: We would be happy to.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 4 June (HL8130), what is the reason for the delay in publishing the next annual LeDeR report seven months later relative to the previous annual report.

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

We expect the report will be published shortly, and the delay has been due to practical data issues.

NHS England commissions Kings College London and its partners to analyse data from Learning from Lives and Deaths, reviews about people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR). The LeDeR report is published by Kings College London, who are currently working on the next report, and will publish it soon. The last report was published in November 2023, a copy of which has been placed in the Library due to the size of the document.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 15 May (HL7354), what factors the UK Health Security Agency's forum has identified impacting the decline in uptake; and what immediate actions the forum has suggested to improve access to services and to address other potential barriers.

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

In 2023, at the request of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), a forum for the four nations of the United Kingdom on inequalities and declining coverage across the routine immunisation programmes was set up. This time-limited group brought together relevant stakeholders from across the UK nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Ten deep dives took place in total, ending in June 2025.

These forums facilitated sharing experiences and learning within and across each nation. They explored possible contributing factors to declining coverage across the UK routine immunisation programmes. Areas for further activity included data collection systems, attitudinal work, delivery models, system leadership and coordination, commonalities and difference with other public health programmes.

Immediate actions have included expanding annual attitudinal surveys of parents of infants from England to UK wide, to further strengthen understanding of barriers and facilitators to vaccination uptake. Updating and strengthening training and quality standards for healthcare professionals providing clear expectations and guidance. Sharing expertise to improve data systems and data collection as well as strengthening collaboration with the Department of Education to improve uptake in educational settings.

A final report from the outputs of the UK Forum will be compiled and presented to a future JCVI meeting.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 15 May (HL7354), how many meetings the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) forum will have in 2025–26; and what engagement UKHSA has planned with stakeholders.

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

In 2023, at the request of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), a forum for the four nations of the United Kingdom on inequalities and declining coverage across the routine immunisation programmes was set up. This time-limited group brought together relevant stakeholders from across the UK nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Ten deep dives took place in total, ending in June 2025.

These forums facilitated sharing experiences and learning within and across each nation. They explored possible contributing factors to declining coverage across the UK routine immunisation programmes. Areas for further activity included data collection systems, attitudinal work, delivery models, system leadership and coordination, commonalities and difference with other public health programmes.

Immediate actions have included expanding annual attitudinal surveys of parents of infants from England to UK wide, to further strengthen understanding of barriers and facilitators to vaccination uptake. Updating and strengthening training and quality standards for healthcare professionals providing clear expectations and guidance. Sharing expertise to improve data systems and data collection as well as strengthening collaboration with the Department of Education to improve uptake in educational settings.

A final report from the outputs of the UK Forum will be compiled and presented to a future JCVI meeting.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will designate a Minister in his Department to (a) have responsibility for the field of cell and gene therapies and (b) chair his Department's Advanced Therapies Medicinal Products Coordination Group.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health, Baroness Merron, is the Minister with responsibility for life sciences and innovation, and cell and gene therapies are included in this remit.

In September 2024, the Department stood up an advanced therapies co-ordination group which aims to create a joined-up ecosystem that will support the development, regulation, and delivery of advanced therapy medicinal products in the United Kingdom. This group is chaired at the Senior Civil Service Grade 1 level. We note the recent report from the Cell and Gene Collective, titled Tomorrow’s Science, Today’s NHS, including the ask for a Minister to chair the group, and we will consider the report’s recommendations in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 22 May (HLWS662), whether they consulted or informed any public health organisations of the decision to delay the legislation to regulate unhealthy food and drink advertisements on TV and online before publishing that statement.

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

The Government is committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.  The decision to exempt brand advertising from these restrictions was made following consultation and was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the legislation in 2021.

The consistent position of the Government, as re-confirmed in a written statement in this House on 22 April 2025, is that brand advertising is not captured by the restrictions, as the legislation only restricts adverts that could reasonably be considered to be for identifiable less healthy products.

Industry raised significant concerns in response to the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) draft implementation guidance published for consultation in February 2025. We are aware that many brands have prepared advertising campaigns in good faith ahead of the previous coming into force date of 1 October 2025 and were concerned about how these adverts would be affected by the ASA’s implementation guidance.

There were several meetings between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to discuss a wide range of options for resolving this issue. This culminated in the successful resolution set out in the written ministerial statement on 22 May 2025. This announced that the Government will lay legislation to explicitly exempt ‘brand advertising’ from the advertising restrictions. Providing legal clarification on the existing policy intention will provide certainty to industry and support businesses to invest in advertising with confidence, while ensuring that we deliver our commitment to protect children from exposure to junk food advertising and the lifelong harms of obesity.

Industry stakeholders were engaged shortly prior to the announcement so that they had sufficient time to agree their voluntary commitment to implement the restrictions from 1 October 2025. We informed other stakeholders at the earliest opportunity and will continue to engage with all stakeholders throughout the consultation on the draft regulations, which will be published soon.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 14 May (HL6764), whether (1) the Department of Health and Social Care, and (2) NHS England’s Workforce, Training and Education Directorate, either (a) hold data on the number of individual applicants for medical speciality training places, or (b) can extract such data from their existing systems.

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

NHS England holds data based on the application process for medical specialty training, which allows for the identification of unique applicants. The following data is part of management information systems summarising information supplied in historic medical specialty training cycles and has not been quality assured for routine publication purposes. Applicants may have chosen to only apply to one specialty programme or may have made multiple applications within any year. The following table shows the data held on the number of unique applicants in rounds one and two of medical specialty training for each of the years 2020 to 2024 across the United Kingdom:

Source: NHS England Medical Specialty Programme Applications Data.

Round one of the medical specialty application process includes applications to first year specialty training and core training programmes, often referred to as ST1 and CT1, and some ‘higher’ medical specialty training programmes, usually at year three, often referred to as ST3. Round two is for entry to most ‘higher’ medical specialty training programmes, often referred to as ST3 or ST4. There will be a limited number of doctors who apply in a year to both rounds one and two, and therefore they will appear twice in the aggregated final column of this data.

The Department also has access to information held in the UK Medical Education Database (UKMED) which is managed jointly by the General Medical Council and the Medical Schools Council. NHS England submits specialty medical recruitment data to the UKMED. This includes more information on individual historical applications to medical specialty training, which underpins the data presented above.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 22 May (HLWS662), what representations they received from (1) the food and drink industry, and (2) the advertising industry, about the regulations to restrict the advertising of unhealthy food; and whether those representations were a factor in the decision to delay those regulations.

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

The Government is committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.  The decision to exempt brand advertising from these restrictions was made following consultation and was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the legislation in 2021.

The consistent position of the Government, as re-confirmed in a written statement in this House on 22 April 2025, is that brand advertising is not captured by the restrictions, as the legislation only restricts adverts that could reasonably be considered to be for identifiable less healthy products.

Industry raised significant concerns in response to the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) draft implementation guidance published for consultation in February 2025. We are aware that many brands have prepared advertising campaigns in good faith ahead of the previous coming into force date of 1 October 2025 and were concerned about how these adverts would be affected by the ASA’s implementation guidance.

There were several meetings between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to discuss a wide range of options for resolving this issue. This culminated in the successful resolution set out in the written ministerial statement on 22 May 2025. This announced that the Government will lay legislation to explicitly exempt ‘brand advertising’ from the advertising restrictions. Providing legal clarification on the existing policy intention will provide certainty to industry and support businesses to invest in advertising with confidence, while ensuring that we deliver our commitment to protect children from exposure to junk food advertising and the lifelong harms of obesity.

Industry stakeholders were engaged shortly prior to the announcement so that they had sufficient time to agree their voluntary commitment to implement the restrictions from 1 October 2025. We informed other stakeholders at the earliest opportunity and will continue to engage with all stakeholders throughout the consultation on the draft regulations, which will be published soon.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 22 May (HLWS662), on what date the food and media companies that signed the letter published on the Advertising Association's website were informed of the decision to delay regulations on TV and online advertising of unhealthy food.

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

The Government is committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.  The decision to exempt brand advertising from these restrictions was made following consultation and was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the legislation in 2021.

The consistent position of the Government, as re-confirmed in a written statement in this House on 22 April 2025, is that brand advertising is not captured by the restrictions, as the legislation only restricts adverts that could reasonably be considered to be for identifiable less healthy products.

Industry raised significant concerns in response to the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) draft implementation guidance published for consultation in February 2025. We are aware that many brands have prepared advertising campaigns in good faith ahead of the previous coming into force date of 1 October 2025 and were concerned about how these adverts would be affected by the ASA’s implementation guidance.

There were several meetings between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to discuss a wide range of options for resolving this issue. This culminated in the successful resolution set out in the written ministerial statement on 22 May 2025. This announced that the Government will lay legislation to explicitly exempt ‘brand advertising’ from the advertising restrictions. Providing legal clarification on the existing policy intention will provide certainty to industry and support businesses to invest in advertising with confidence, while ensuring that we deliver our commitment to protect children from exposure to junk food advertising and the lifelong harms of obesity.

Industry stakeholders were engaged shortly prior to the announcement so that they had sufficient time to agree their voluntary commitment to implement the restrictions from 1 October 2025. We informed other stakeholders at the earliest opportunity and will continue to engage with all stakeholders throughout the consultation on the draft regulations, which will be published soon.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statements by Baroness Merron on 22 April (HLWS587) and 22 May (HLWS662), what were the developments that led to the decision to delay the regulation of unhealthy food advertising in the time between those statements.

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

The Government is committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.  The decision to exempt brand advertising from these restrictions was made following consultation and was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the legislation in 2021.

The consistent position of the Government, as re-confirmed in a written statement in this House on 22 April 2025, is that brand advertising is not captured by the restrictions, as the legislation only restricts adverts that could reasonably be considered to be for identifiable less healthy products.

Industry raised significant concerns in response to the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) draft implementation guidance published for consultation in February 2025. We are aware that many brands have prepared advertising campaigns in good faith ahead of the previous coming into force date of 1 October 2025 and were concerned about how these adverts would be affected by the ASA’s implementation guidance.

There were several meetings between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to discuss a wide range of options for resolving this issue. This culminated in the successful resolution set out in the written ministerial statement on 22 May 2025. This announced that the Government will lay legislation to explicitly exempt ‘brand advertising’ from the advertising restrictions. Providing legal clarification on the existing policy intention will provide certainty to industry and support businesses to invest in advertising with confidence, while ensuring that we deliver our commitment to protect children from exposure to junk food advertising and the lifelong harms of obesity.

Industry stakeholders were engaged shortly prior to the announcement so that they had sufficient time to agree their voluntary commitment to implement the restrictions from 1 October 2025. We informed other stakeholders at the earliest opportunity and will continue to engage with all stakeholders throughout the consultation on the draft regulations, which will be published soon.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 22 May (HLWS662), whether they considered alternatives to delaying the regulation of the advertising of unhealthy food on TV and online.

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

The Government is committed to implementing advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, as part of its ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever.  The decision to exempt brand advertising from these restrictions was made following consultation and was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the legislation in 2021.

The consistent position of the Government, as re-confirmed in a written statement in this House on 22 April 2025, is that brand advertising is not captured by the restrictions, as the legislation only restricts adverts that could reasonably be considered to be for identifiable less healthy products.

Industry raised significant concerns in response to the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) draft implementation guidance published for consultation in February 2025. We are aware that many brands have prepared advertising campaigns in good faith ahead of the previous coming into force date of 1 October 2025 and were concerned about how these adverts would be affected by the ASA’s implementation guidance.

There were several meetings between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to discuss a wide range of options for resolving this issue. This culminated in the successful resolution set out in the written ministerial statement on 22 May 2025. This announced that the Government will lay legislation to explicitly exempt ‘brand advertising’ from the advertising restrictions. Providing legal clarification on the existing policy intention will provide certainty to industry and support businesses to invest in advertising with confidence, while ensuring that we deliver our commitment to protect children from exposure to junk food advertising and the lifelong harms of obesity.

Industry stakeholders were engaged shortly prior to the announcement so that they had sufficient time to agree their voluntary commitment to implement the restrictions from 1 October 2025. We informed other stakeholders at the earliest opportunity and will continue to engage with all stakeholders throughout the consultation on the draft regulations, which will be published soon.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 4 June (HL7528), whether the revised NHS constitution consultation will include the previous proposals about recognising biological sex and protecting single-sex spaces.

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

A consultation on the NHS Constitution, as part of a 10-year review, was launched by the previous administration in May 2024, and was superseded by the General Election in July 2024. The Government will launch a new consultation on the NHS Constitution, with the exact timings for this to be set out in due course.

The proposals that will be included within the upcoming consultation have been developed from a range of evidence, including feedback from the previous consultation, intelligence gathered as part of the 10-Year Health Plan engagement exercise, and the Government’s ambitions for the National Health Service.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 20 May (HL7198), whether they have carried out an impact assessment of reducing staff costs by 50 per cent for NHS England, including on the regional impacts; and if not, when an impact assessment will be carried out and published.

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

Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and to plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions, and responsibilities

It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate.

The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure that the public and parliamentarians are informed of the outcomes.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Merron on 12 March (HL Deb col 700), what consideration they have given to reviewing the priorities of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and its role with digital clinics.

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

Digital clinics do not currently fall within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act and therefore are out outside of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) remit at present.

The HFEA published Modernising Fertility Law in November 2023, which made a number of recommendations for legislative change, including around its regulatory powers.

Ministers have met with the HFEA Chair and discussed the emerging regulatory challenges. The Government is considering the HFEA’s priorities for changing the law and will decide how to take this forward at the earliest opportunity.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 22 May (HLWS662), what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Advertising Standards Authority in its role as the frontline regulator of the measures in the Health and Care Act 2022 about the advertising of unhealthy food and drink on TV and online.

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

The Government has set a bold ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever, and will take action to address the childhood obesity crisis. As part of this, we are committed to implementing the advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online.

The Government appointed Ofcom as the statutory regulator for the advertising restrictions and this was set out in primary legislation via the Health and Care Act 2022. Ofcom appointed the Advertising Standards Authority as the frontline regulator of the advertising restrictions, using powers in the Communications Act 2003. It consulted on this appointment and published the statement, Regulation of advertising for less healthy food and drink: Implementation of new statutory restrictions, following the consultation in July 2023.

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Found: Divestment and engagement and agree shared priorities David Lawson 09/01/2025 Roche Joint meeting with Baroness Merron

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Found: In December, the patient safety minister Baroness Merron pledged to work at pace on financial redress

Found: Health Minister, Baroness Merron, said: “AI has huge potential to improve healthcare, and we need to