Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps are being taken to ensure NHS pathways and commissioning decisions for heart valve disease align with the most up-to-date clinical guidelines.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2025, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme published new and revised cardiology pathways to support evidence-based, including National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, efficient, and consistent care across primary and secondary settings, including for aortic stenosis for patients with severe symptomatic heart valve disease.
NHS England has established an Expert Advisory Group on Heart Valve Disease with the aim of ensuring excellence in care whilst exploring ways to improve heart valve disease management nationwide.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Baroness Merron to Lord Kamall on 19 February (DEP2026-0132), which regions are at capacity for delivering properly supervised medical speciality training posts.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Training capacity varies by specialty, geography and programme size. It is dynamic and is assessed on a case-by-case basis by NHS England when allocating places. It is therefore not possible to provide a stable assessment of capacity within any regions.
When creating new places, NHS England will work with providers and local health systems to ensure that they continue to be of an appropriately high quality, so that doctors have the education and training they need to provide high quality patient care.
Regions will only be allocated new places if they have sufficient training capacity and can meet training quality standards.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the powers of NHS Trusts and the General Medical Council to conduct disciplinary procedures in the case of a resident doctor who has been found to have dishonestly claimed to be neurodivergent or have learning disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service organisations, as independent employers, have their own internal grievance and disciplinary procedures which should comply with employment law and relevant Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service codes and guidance. Any allegations of dishonesty would be considered to be a conduct issue and investigated in accordance with the employer’s disciplinary policy and procedures.
Maintaining High Professional Standards provides a national framework for the handling of concerns about doctors and dentists in the NHS. NHS trusts may also report any concerns about doctors to the General Medical Council (GMC).
The GMC is independent of Government, is directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) is a statutory committee of the GMC. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
In cases relating to dishonesty, the GMC’s Guidance for MPTS tribunals notes that, whilst a range of behaviour can be seen, the nature of the departure from the standards expected may mean that a concern or allegation relating to dishonesty falls at the high end of the spectrum of seriousness. Sanctions for dishonesty range from suspension to erasure, depending on the seriousness of the case.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether NHS Trusts and the General Medical Council have sufficient powers to conduct disciplinary procedures in the case of a resident doctor who has been found to have dishonestly claimed to be neurodivergent or have learning disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service organisations, as independent employers, have their own internal grievance and disciplinary procedures which should comply with employment law and relevant Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service codes and guidance. Any allegations of dishonesty would be considered to be a conduct issue and investigated in accordance with the employer’s disciplinary policy and procedures.
Maintaining High Professional Standards provides a national framework for the handling of concerns about doctors and dentists in the NHS. NHS trusts may also report any concerns about doctors to the General Medical Council (GMC).
The GMC is independent of Government, is directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) is a statutory committee of the GMC. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
In cases relating to dishonesty, the GMC’s Guidance for MPTS tribunals notes that, whilst a range of behaviour can be seen, the nature of the departure from the standards expected may mean that a concern or allegation relating to dishonesty falls at the high end of the spectrum of seriousness. Sanctions for dishonesty range from suspension to erasure, depending on the seriousness of the case.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of delays in access to elective treatment for heart valve disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment of delays in access to elective treatment for heart valve disease has been made.
The Government is committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients are treated within 18 weeks of referral to consultant-led care, including cardiology services and cardiothoracic surgery, by March 2029. As of January 2026, there were 388,626 incomplete cardiology pathways, and 63.9% of patients on cardiology service waiting lists were seen within 18 weeks, up from 60.2% in January 2025. For cardiothoracic surgery services, 72.1% of patients were seen within 18 weeks as of January 2026, up from 68.5% in January 2025.
The Government has made commitments to improve outcomes of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our commitment to achieve a 25% reduction in premature mortality due to CVD and stroke across England. To accelerate progress and tackle variation across the country, a new CVD Modern Service Framework is currently in development and will be published in 2026. In 2025 The Getting It Right First Time programme published new and revised cardiology pathways to support evidence-based, efficient, and consistent care across primary and secondary settings, including for aortic stenosis. This supports early recognition of high-risk features, fast-track referral for those with severe symptomatic disease, and coordinated multidisciplinary evaluation.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the General Medical Council about improving the specificity of data points collected about the reasons that doctors (1) relinquish their licence to practice, and (2) leave the professional register, to better mitigate the causes of doctors leaving the profession.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly discusses the data collections the General Medical Council (GMC) undertakes with the GMC. However, the Department has had no discussions with the GMC on changing data collection relating to the reasons for doctors choosing to relinquish their licence or leave the professional register.
The GMC is independent of the Government, directly accountable to Parliament, and responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure the process by which doctors declare neurodivergence or learning disabilities is robust and cannot be subject to abuse.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service trusts hold information on the Electronic Staff Record system, the human resource system for the NHS, on an employee’s protected characteristics, including disabilities. Individuals and organisations have a responsibility to ensure entries are accurate and organisations are encouraged to monitor trends in their data to better ensure the health and well-being of their employees.
Any allegations of dishonesty would be considered to be a conduct issue and investigated in accordance with the employer's disciplinary policy and procedures.
Local employers across the NHS have arrangements in place to support staff with disabilities, including occupational health provision, employee support programmes, and a focus on healthy working environments.
Employers have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to consider and make reasonable adjustments for employees who have a disability, taking advice from their local occupational health and human resources department. This includes removing or reducing any substantial disadvantages that employees with a disability may face compared to someone who does not have a disability.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what internal or professional disciplinary procedures may be invoked by an NHS Trust in the case of a resident doctor who has been found to have dishonestly claimed to be neurodivergent or have learning disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service organisations, as independent employers, have their own internal grievance and disciplinary procedures which should comply with employment law and relevant Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service codes and guidance. Any allegations of dishonesty would be considered to be a conduct issue and investigated in accordance with the employer’s disciplinary policy and procedures.
Maintaining High Professional Standards provides a national framework for the handling of concerns about doctors and dentists in the NHS. NHS trusts may also report any concerns about doctors to the General Medical Council.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent increase in the number of resident doctors who say they are neurodivergent or have learning disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has been no assessment made of the increase in the number of resident doctors who are neurodivergent or have learning disabilities.
The General Medical Council has published the number of doctors who have declared learning disabilities in their GMC Workforce Report. However, the data is not broken down to specifically show resident doctors. In 2024, just over 6,000 licensed doctors recorded their disability as a ‘learning disability’.
Asked by: Earl Howe (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Baroness Merron to Lord Kamall on 19 February (DEP2026-0132), by what date they expect to conclude negotiations with the British Medical Association resident doctors committee about helping doctors with the up-front cost of their training.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains committed to working constructively with trade unions and improving the working conditions for all our hardworking National Health Service staff. Since 8 January 2026, the Government has been engaging in intensive and constructive discussions with the British Medical Association’s Resident Doctors Committee, exploring various measures aimed at improving the working lives of resident doctors.
Given the nature of negotiations, we cannot at this time provide a specific date by which we expect talks to have concluded. We hope that these talks result in an agreement that works for everyone and avoids further unnecessary disruption for patients and NHS staff.