Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what contingency plans they are putting in place to continue to provide social care services in April where independent care providers withdraw their services due to the increase in employer National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why the Care Act 2014 places a duty on them to shape their care market to meet the diverse needs of all local people.
Local authorities also have a temporary duty under the Care Act 2014 to ensure continuity of care if a provider exits the market due to business failure. This is to ensure that people continue to receive the care and support they need.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress the Department for Health and Social Care has made in (1) collecting data on the experience of young people with cancer regarding clinical trials, and (2) increasing transparency in accessing available data on young people’s experiences with cancer clinical trials.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The research participant experience is an essential part of delivering a world-class research system with participant feedback providing research delivery teams, study sponsors and the Department with actionable data to improve accessibility of health and care studies, and increase recruitment rates and retention of participants.
The Department-funded National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has operated the Participant in Research Experience Survey (PRES) since 2015/16, which aims to offer as many research participants as possible the chance to contribute their experiences of taking part in research. PRES currently operates nationally across the NIHR Research Delivery Network portfolio and is offered to all participants in eligible cancer studies including young people.
To improve data collection on research experience, NIHR is currently exploring a national roll-out of a digital PRES which will increase ease and access for participants to provide feedback on their experience. This system will also be scalable beyond the NIHR Research Delivery Network Portfolio.
To increase transparency in accessing available data on participants’ experiences of research, the PRES dashboard can be accessed by users from across the research system with the following email address domains: nhs.uk, nhs.net, nhs.scot, dh.gsi.gov.uk, ac.uk, hscni.net, nrs.org.uk, mhra.gov.uk, gov.uk, ncri.org.uk.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what metrics the Medicines and Healthcare products and Regulatory Agency use to monitor and improve their management of the safety of (1) medicine products, (2) medical devices, (3) blood and blood products; and how regularly are these metrics reviewed.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patient safety is the highest priority for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The MHRA uses a range of metrics to monitor and improve its management of safety.
Specific safety metrics include the total number of safety signals identified for further assessment, the percentage of adverse drug reaction reports processed within agreed timescales, the percentage of potential signals evaluated within five working days, the number of defective medicinal product recalls, and the number of interventions conducted by the Criminal Enforcement Unit that are assessed to have disrupted or degraded an identified criminal threat. Performance against these metrics is outlined in the MHRA’s Annual Report and Accounts. Further metrics are used internally within the MHRA to monitor performance for all types of medicinal products, including medical devices.
For blood components, the MHRA works with the Serious Hazards of Transfusion Steering Group, to measure safety outcomes associated with transfusion and make recommendations to the system to reduce safety incidents through an annual report.
In 2024, the MHRA updated their reporting processes and established a new set of eight key performance indicators. These were outlined in its 2024/25 Business Plan.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they maintain a complete, current, and accurate list of all establishments to which a GP can refer a patient for a scan, including the new community diagnostic hubs, and if so, what is the URL of the website hosting this list.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold a central list of all establishments to which a general practitioner can refer a patient for a scan.
The Organisation Data Service, operated by NHS Digital, holds and publishes unique identification codes and accompanying reference data for organisations that are involved in health and social care in England and beyond. This covers a wide variety of National Health Service and non-NHS organisations, such as NHS trusts and independent sector healthcare providers, including those that provide diagnostic scans.
A list of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is published by NHS England, and is available on the NHS.UK website, in an online only format. Where a newly opened CDC starts to deliver activity, this will be captured in an updated publication. This includes temporary CDC sites that are delivering services on an interim basis whilst the permanent CDC site is under construction.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the diagnosis codes that will be used in the Office for National Statistics' assessment announced in the press release issued by NHS England on 5 December 2024 entitled "World leading NHS trial to boost health and support people in work”; and whether that analysis linking health and tax records will respect the National Data Opt Out.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The research plan is not complete yet, but it will consider what data should be used, including diagnosis codes, and how people's choices to opt-out will be respected.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following their decision to cancel the cap on social care costs, what plans they have to raise public awareness of the availability of 'immediate needs annuity' and 'deferred needs annuity' policies offered by insurance companies to allow individuals to fund their later life social care costs.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government inherited an undeliverable commitment to implement charging reforms in October 2025, as funding was not guaranteed and preparations for full rollout were not on track. Whilst there are no current plans to promote specific private insurance products for funding future social care costs, we have announced the independent Casey Commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.
The Commission will consider the long-term transformation of adult social care, including what long-term and sustainable funding solutions should look like. It will build on the expert proposals of other reviews, including that of Sir Andrew Dilnot, into care funding and support.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether there are enough hospital beds and ambulances for this winter; and what steps are they taking to increase them.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The national approach on priorities for winter planning were issued by NHS England on 16 September 2024, setting out the key steps to be taken to support the delivery of high-quality care for patients this winter. Provisions for resourcing of hospital beds and ambulances for this winter are an operational matter for the National Health Service.
The NHS is managing extra demand over the winter period, by strengthening same day emergency care, offering more falls services for older people, and with upgraded 24-hour live data centres.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the cut in the winter fuel payment on hospital admissions this winter.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
An impact assessment of the cut in winter fuel payment on hospital admissions this winter has not been produced. The Government has taken action to ensure low-income households are protected this winter.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people as of 1 December who were medically fit to be discharged from hospital had not been.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 1 December 2024, the number of patients in England remaining in hospital who were medically fit to be discharged was 12,086.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the state of patient safety monitoring this winter.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department works closely with NHS England to monitor a variety of metrics relevant to patient safety, including four-hour accident and emergency performance, Category 2 ambulance response times, bed occupancy, and rates of seasonal infectious disease. NHS England publishes monthly statistics that can be found on the NHS.UK website.
Additionally, during the winter period, NHS England publishes additional weekly situational reports. This data can also be found on the NHS.UK website. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care also recently met with hospital trusts and social care organisations to reiterate the importance of maintaining patient safety over winter.