Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which body directions to transfer data, made by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care under section 254 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, will be given to following the abolition of NHS England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers and senior Department officials will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to lead this transformation. As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds.
As we develop what this new centre looks like we will be transparent and clear about the precise changes in organisational design. It is essential that information relating to people’s identifiable health and care is shared appropriately, lawfully, and in line with their reasonable expectations.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress has been made in switching asthma patients from reliever medication to combination medication, in line with updated guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the British Thoracic Society.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To support implementation of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance, NHS England has been engaging with health system partners to coordinate resources and implementation efforts, to make sure that patients are on the appropriate treatment regimen and are using their inhaler at the right time, with the right technique.
The over-prescribing of reliever inhalers amongst people with asthma has seen a steady fall over the past few years. The percentage of patients on the Quality and Outcomes Framework asthma register who received six or more Short Acting Beta-2 Agonist reliever inhaler prescriptions over the previous 12 months fell from 19.8% in April 2022 to 15.9% in February 2025.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what engagement is taking place between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Health and Social Care about the utilisation of music activities to support the health and wellbeing of parents and young children.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to reforming services in the National Health Service to ensure every school has access to specialist mental health professionals, providing early support for young people.
NHS England recognises the value of music therapy in supporting children's mental health. The Department for Education's ongoing Curriculum and Assessment Review aims to broaden the curriculum, ensuring subjects like music, arts, sport, and drama are not overlooked.
The Government will be launching a new National Music Education Network, helping parents, teachers and children find information on courses, classes and more.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many policy reviews and consultations Department of Health and Social Care has launched since the General Election on 4 July 2024; what the subject of each review is; and what the anticipated timescales are for their completion.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the election, the Government has outlined its ambitions through the Plan for Change, which sets out an ambitious set of milestones, across the missions, for this Parliament.
As the House would expect, the Government continually reviews its work to ensure that it is delivering the best outcomes for the people of the United Kingdom, and that its policies continue to represent the best value for the taxpayer.
Public reviews will be available on GOV.UK as they are published.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following plans to distribute wearable tech to remotely monitor health to patients, whether health data from smart watches and other devices will be available on the NHS app; whether such data will be used exclusively for the direct care of patients; and whether such data will be copied to the NHS Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data generated by apps and devices may not be used exclusively for the direct care of patients; some data may be generated by a wearable which will be used for a secondary purpose, such as research, but this must happen in accordance with the law. An individual would have to give their consent for the use of their data by a third-party app.
The NHS Federated Data Platform does not access data from the NHS App or wearables.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what analysis they have conducted on the impact of the proposed NHS England 2025–26 Payment Scheme and Standard Contract on patient choice and the Government’s ambitions to reduce waiting lists.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of its annual planning round for 2025/26, NHS England consulted on proposals for the NHS Payment Scheme (NHSPS), a set of rules, prices, and guidance that governs transactions between providers and commissioners of National Health Service funded secondary care. It is not a change to the Right to Choose.
As set out in the Elective Reform Plan, integrated care boards will be allocated the funding needed to deliver improvements to the 18-week referral-to-treatment performance standard for consultant-led care.
NHS England has conducted an assessment of the impact of the proposed NHSPS, as required by law, which is attached. This impact assessment includes consideration of the impact on patient choice.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many ‘yellow card’ reports of suicide after taking antidepressants were received by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in 2015 and each subsequent year; and how many have been assessed for causation each year over the same time period.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion meet applicable standards of safety, quality and efficacy. The MHRA rigorously assesses available data, including from the Yellow Card scheme, and seeks advice from the Commission on Human Medicines, the MHRA’s independent advisory committee, where appropriate, to inform regulatory decisions including amending the product information.
The MHRA has received a total of 112 reports through the Yellow Card scheme for all antidepressant medications of reports of completed suicide which have been received between 1 January 2015 and 25 February 2025. The following table shows a yearly breakdown thereof:
Year received | Number of reports received |
2015 | 11 |
2016 | 14 |
2017 | 17 |
2018 | 14 |
2019 | 7 |
2020 | 10 |
2021 | 7 |
2022 | 11 |
2023 | 6 |
2024 | 11 |
2025 | 4 |
Source: MHRA
Note: List of antidepressant medications included in the search were: escitalopram, citalopram, paroxetine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, sertraline, venlafaxine, duloxetine, reboxetine, amitriptyline, clomipramine, dosulepin, dothiepin, doxepin, imipramine, lofepramine, nortryptiline, trimipramine, trazodone Isocarboxazid, tranylcypromine, moclobemide, phenelzine, agomelatine, vortioxetine, L-tryptophan, esketamine, mianserin, mirtazapine.
It is important to note that anyone can report to the MHRA’s Yellow Card scheme and the recording of these reports in the Yellow Card database does not necessarily mean that the adverse reactions have been caused by the suspect drug. Many factors must be considered in assessing causal relationships, including temporal association, the possible contribution of concomitant medication, and the underlying disease. We encourage reporters to report suspected adverse reaction reports, the reporter does not have to be sure of a causal association between the drug and the reactions; a suspicion will suffice.
The number of reports received cannot be used as a basis for determining the incidence of a reaction, as neither the total number of reactions occurring, nor the number of patients using the drug, is known. All fatal reports including those reporting completed suicide are assessed by the MHRA and cumulative information is reviewed at regular intervals. Warnings about the risk of suicidal behaviours are contained in the product information for all licensed antidepressants and these warnings are based on causality assessments of individual case reports and the totality of evidence from clinical trials and the scientific literature.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the House of Commons on the 15 January (HC Deb col 371), how many extra GPs they have hired since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of fully qualified general practitioners (GPs) increased by 535 full-time equivalent between July 2024 and December 2024. This data includes estimates for practices that did not provide fully valid staff records. This does not include recently qualified GPs employed through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS).
Information on the number of recently qualified general practitioners for which primary care networks are claiming reimbursement via the ARRS is currently being collated and is not yet published. We are working to verify the data and establish its reliability, which is necessary before any dataset can be published.
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 urinary incontinence on the (1) physical, and (2) mental, health of men.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made. NHS England published Excellence in Continence Care on 23 July 2018, a copy of which is attached, bringing together evidence-based resources and research for guidance for commissioners, providers, and health and social care staff. This guidance covers both urinary and bowel, also known as faecal, incontinence. The guidance states that “pathways of care should be commissioned that ensure early assessment, effective management of incontinence, along with other bladder and bowel problems such as constipation and urinary tract infections and their impact on social, physical and mental well-being.”
NHS England will consider the next steps for Excellence in Continence Care. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence has produced guidance on the management of faecal incontinence in adults, which healthcare professionals and commissioners are expected to take fully into account when delivering services for people with bowel incontinence. The guidance aims to improve the physical and mental health and quality of life for people with faecal incontinence.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Merron on 30 January (HL Deb col 366), when they plan to (1) begin the rollout of fracture liaison services, and (2) achieve universal coverage for fracture liaison services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to rolling out fracture liaison services across every part of the country by 2030.
The Government and NHS England support the clinical case for services which help to prevent fragility fractures and support the patients who sustain them. Officials continue to work closely with NHS England to explore a range of options to provide better quality and access to these important preventative services.
In the meantime, we are investing in 14 high-tech DEXA scanners, which are expected to provide an extra 29,000 scans to ensure people with bone conditions get diagnosed earlier.