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.

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.

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.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of days of work that were lost due to asthma in the UK in each year since 2010 for which there are data available.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Lord Kamall

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

21 March 2025

Dear Lord Kamall,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking for an estimate of the number of days of work that were lost due to asthma in the UK in each year since 2010 for which there are data available (HL5962).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK. The LFS also collects information on whether respondents have missed days off work due to illness and/or injury.

Unfortunately, we do not collect information regarding the type of sickness at a level of detail to identify those suffering from asthma specifically, but we can provide the number of working days lost due to respiratory conditions.

We publish estimates of the number of working days lost through sickness absence, including the number of working days lost due to respiratory conditions, in our Sickness absence in the UK labour market: 2022 article1. This article is due to be updated to include 2023 and 2024 estimates on 1 May 2025. This update will also include revisions to estimates from 2019 to 2022. We will send the updated data to you once it has been published.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1 contains LFS estimates of the number, and percentage, of working days lost due to respiratory conditions from 2012 to 2022, the latest data currently available.

Table 1: Number and percentage of working days lost due to respiratory conditions, between 2012 and 2022.

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.

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