Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they monitor the gender of mice used in research studies that are funded by UK Research and Innovation.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not monitor the gender of mice used in research studies by funder, including those funded by UK Research and Innovation.

The Home Office does require that applicants for project licences involving mice in research studies provide information on whether both sexes are being used and if they are not, a scientific justification is required. This information is not monitored or reported at an aggregate level.

The Home Office publishes non-technical summaries of all licensed programmes of work, setting out their objectives, predicted harms, expected benefits, and the expected number and types of animals to be used.

The Home Office also publishes annual statistics on scientific procedures on living animals in Great Britain, which include information on the number of procedures carried out, the species used, and the purposes for which procedures are undertaken.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of diagnostics delays in health issues based on gender; and if so, what reasons they found for those delays.

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

The Men’s Health Strategy for England explored men’s engagement with health programmes and services. Research shows men can face unique barriers to accessing services, and certain barriers can impact groups of men in different ways or more severely. For example, we know that men are less likely to attend NHS Health Checks. Further information on improving men’s access to healthcare is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/mens-health-strategy-for-england-call-for-evidence/outcome/mens-health-strategy-for-england-call-for-evidence-summary-report#improving-access-to-healthcare-services-1

The renewed Women’s Health Strategy sets out a bold, long‑term plan to transform how the health and care system listens to, supports and delivers for women and girls. It puts women’s voices and choices at the centre of care, drives faster improvements in services and outcomes that matter most to women, and tackles long‑standing health inequalities across the life course. The strategy aligns with the 10-Year Health Plan to shift care into the community, harness digital innovation and strengthen prevention so women can live healthier, more fulfilled lives.

Cutting waiting lists, including for diagnostic tests, is a key priority for the government. It is unacceptable that some patients are waiting over six weeks for a diagnostic test. But this is also about making the system work better, so existing funding goes further.

We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to bring down the size of the list and reduce waiting times. The 2025 Spending Review provides over £6 billion in additional capital investment to strengthen diagnostic, elective and urgent care capacity. But this is also about making the system work better, so existing funding goes further.

Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, builds on the investments already made with an ambitious vision for the future of diagnostic testing. This will include more straight-to-test pathways, increasing and expanding Community Diagnostic Centres and better use of technology. We will address the challenges in diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of computerised tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging scans, and other tests that are needed to reduce waits. Our nationally published data does not break down test recipients by gender. Our investment in growing diagnostic capacity to reduce waiting lists benefits all patients regardless of gender.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the reasons that females have a longer average lifespan, and shorter average health span, than males.

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

We know that women live longer but spend more years in poor health than men, often due to conditions that are misdiagnosed, undertreated, or under-researched.

Healthy life expectancy measures health-related wellbeing by measuring the difference between mortality and the average time someone is expected to remain in self-reported “good” health.

In 2022 to 2024, males in England could expect to spend 60.9 years, or 77% of their life, in “good” general health, compared to 61.3 years, or 74%, for women. While there has been a reduction for both men and women from 2019 to 2021, and this reduction has been larger for women, at 2.4 years, than for men, at 1.8 years. Healthy life expectancy at birth in England has decreased to its lowest level since the Office for National Statistics’ time series began.

A 2023 report from the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities found that changes in self-reported “good” health prevalence has a larger impact on healthy life expectancy than changes in mortality rates. Research found that self-reported poor health was associated with chronic health conditions and multimorbidity.

Our renewed Women’s Health Strategy, published on the 15 April, sets out a bold, long‑term plan to transform how the health and care system listens to, supports and delivers for women and girls. It puts women’s voices and choices at the centre of care, drives faster improvements in services and outcomes that matter most to women, and tackles long‑standing health inequalities across the life course. The strategy aligns with the 10-Year Health Plan to shift care into the community, harness digital innovation and strengthen prevention so women can live healthier, more fulfilled lives.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they take when funding medical research to ensure that diseases common to males and females are studied on a separate gender basis rather than a male-only basis.

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

Through our National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), we are actively committed to ensuring there is more research into women’s health, and that women’s voices and priorities are placed at the heart of this research.

We know that women have been under-represented in some research areas, particularly women in ethnic minority groups, older women, women of reproductive age, disabled women and LGBT+ women. This has implications for the health and care they receive, their options and awareness of treatments, the support they can access afterwards, and their health outcomes. To address this gap, applicants are now required to build inclusion into their research design as a condition of NIHR funding.

As highlighted in the newly published Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, the Department has strengthened NIHR conditions of funding by making it mandatory for researchers to account for sex and gender in their research applications. This move aims to tackle significant and persistent gaps in health and care research.

Alongside this, the NIHR’s Research Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027 sets out how NIHR will become a more inclusive funder of research and widen access to participation in clinical trials. The strategy has been designed to address inequalities associated with the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010.

Through the ongoing systematic collection of data on sex, ethnicity and age of participants taking part in NIHR research, we can monitor progress and continue to champion the inclusion of under-represented groups.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether a health gap for females is caused by bias in medical research.

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

Through our National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), we are actively committed to ensuring there is more research into women’s health, and that women’s voices and priorities are placed at the heart of this research.

We know that women have been under-represented in some research areas, particularly women in ethnic minority groups, older women, women of reproductive age, disabled women and LGBT+ women. This has implications for the health and care they receive, their options and awareness of treatments, the support they can access afterwards, and their health outcomes. To address this gap, applicants are now required to build inclusion into their research design as a condition of NIHR funding.

As highlighted in the newly published Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, the Department has strengthened NIHR conditions of funding by making it mandatory for researchers to account for sex and gender in their research applications. This move aims to tackle significant and persistent gaps in health and care research.

Alongside this, the NIHR’s Research Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027 sets out how NIHR will become a more inclusive funder of research and widen access to participation in clinical trials. The strategy has been designed to address inequalities associated with the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010.

Through the ongoing systematic collection of data on sex, ethnicity and age of participants taking part in NIHR research, we can monitor progress and continue to champion the inclusion of under-represented groups.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the inequalities affecting women identified in the report by Warwick University and Cysters, Women’s reproductive health in the West Midlands, published in March.

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

We were dismayed to read the findings of this report, which highlights the deep inequalities faced in accessing gynaecological care by women in the West Midlands. The Government agrees with the conclusion of the report that every woman deserves access to timely and high-quality care. That is why we will not accept these kinds of disparities as inevitable. Our ambition is a fairer Britain, where people live well for longer and spend less time in ill health, and where women, whatever their background, can rely on high-quality care.

We are shifting the centre of gravity of care from hospitals to communities, with neighbourhood services designed around local need.

Earlier this month, we published a Neighbourhood Health Framework setting out three reform agendas for integrated care boards (ICBs), local authorities, and civil society to deliver the aims of neighbourhood health: to improve services for people who need routine healthcare; to improve proactive care including maintaining and developing access to women's health services; and to deliver better alternatives to hospital care.

The framework provides clarity and consistency, supporting joined-up partnership between ICBs and local authorities, working together to develop locally led neighbourhood health plans.

We have made strong progress in turning the commitments in the last administration’s Women's Health Strategy into tangible action. Our renewed strategy will address gaps from the 2022 strategy, and go further to create a system that listens to women and tackles health inequalities across England.

Renewing the strategy will help identify and remove enduring barriers to high-quality care across England, such as long waits for diagnosis, and will ensure that professionals listen and respond to women’s needs.

This short inquiry will consider pet parasite medication (PPM), with a focus on treatments containing pesticides of concern such as fipronil and imidacloprid. The inquiry will seek to understand distribution pathways, and the impact of PPM use and non-use on biodiversity and human health. It will also cover current regulation, monitoring, and the potential implications for pets and pet owners of alternative medications or application practices.