Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to measure, monitor, and publish national statistics on the life expectancy gap for people with a learning disability following the conclusion of the national LeDeR annual report; and through what formal mechanism future evidence-based national recommendations will be made to address avoidable early mortality.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the conclusion of the national Learning from Lives and Deaths – People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People (LeDeR) annual report, data will be incorporated into a new patient-level dataset. This will bring together data on the health outcomes of people with a learning disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Down syndrome and autistic people in England. Using the General Practice Extraction Service, it will aim to address limitations of current data sources and link with wider datasets such as hospital episodes and mental health activity. This will provide a more comprehensive picture of disparities and inform targeted local and national solutions. We are committed to publication of this dataset and will share next steps in due course.
There are clear expectations of local systems to improve outcomes for people with a learning disability and governance through existing frameworks, including to ensure they consider and act on LeDeR findings. Each integrated care board (ICB) has a duty to reduce health inequalities, including addressing avoidable and premature mortality. Each ICB is also expected to have an executive lead for learning disability and autism, who supports the board in addressing health inequalities, as well as an executive lead on LeDeR, who oversees prioritisation of LeDeR reviews and produces local annual reports. Existing expectations on local health and care systems to review deaths, act on LeDeR findings and address health inequalities remain the same.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the value of co-producing recommendations derived from national patient-level health outcomes datasets for people with a learning disability with experts by experience, in line with the Kingston University Intellectual Disability research group model.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the value of bringing together people with lived experience, clinicians, and other experts when developing initiatives to improve health and care services, including for people with a learning disability.
NHS England employs people with lived experience of learning disability within the national Mental Health, Learning Disability and Neurodevelopmental Conditions programme. It has also published resources to support co-production in health, including a Co-production resource toolkit, which is an approach supported by NHS England regional teams.
Over the past year, NHS England has worked with people with lived experience, charities, clinicians, and integrated care boards to evaluate and improve the Learning from Lives and Deaths of people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) review process, including the future of LeDeR beyond the publication of the 2024 report.
Co-production is also central to a number of nationally supported initiatives. For example, mandatory training on learning disability and autism, introduced by the Health and Care Act 2022, is required under the Code of Practice to be co-produced and co-delivered with people with lived experience. NHS England has also been working with people with lived experience, clinical professionals, and commissioners to produce guidance to improve the identification of people with a learning disability on general practice learning disability registers.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will allocate funding to the Learning Disability (LD) Physician training course beyond February 2027; if so, for how many years they project any such funding to continue, and how many training posts this will support; and, if no further funding is planned, what are their reasons for discontinuing the funding for the course.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to reducing health inequalities experienced by people with a learning disability and we recognise the contribution that programme participants and graduates make to the care of people with a learning disability.
Decisions regarding future funding for specific programmes are reviewed regularly and made in the context of wider workforce planning and available resources. NHS England will continue to engage with stakeholders on future workforce planning and funding decisions.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to commission an independent, external audit of the deliverables and data security under the Federated Data Platform contract with Palantir.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England continually assesses performance against the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) contract, and performance of the programme as a whole. NHS England regularly publishes data on uptake and benefits each quarter, in the interest of full transparency and to help the public understand the difference it is making to patients’ lives. The NHS FDP is delivering for the National Health Service, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently.
NHS England has commissioned an academic partner, Imperial College London, to conduct an independent evaluation of the impact, processes, and value for money of the NHS FDP. This evaluation is currently in progress.
In addition, the National Audit Office has also begun a study examining how the Department and the NHS in England are working to integrate patient data, and whether they are on track to secure the expected improvements from their investments.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision by NHS England to remove the requirement for executive healthcare experience in their new template job description for Integrated Care Board Chief Executives.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has advised that the template job description in question requires someone with substantial board-level experience, including at Chief Executive Officer level, knowledge of the health, care, and local‑government landscape and expert understanding of strategic commissioning. The revised description broadens the potential candidate pool, from executive experience within healthcare to a career in healthcare or equivalent, for example an executive career in a large and complex organisation, to enable the National Health Service to attract talented leaders from a wider range of relevant backgrounds.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Merron on 2 July (HLWS179), why the redundancy of the former Chief Executive of the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board can be classified as a compulsory redundancy given the statement that NHS England’s approval was conditional on potential shared leadership arrangements which did not materialise.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 2 July, NHS England has advised that the relevant condition was that the former Chief Executive role should not be filled through external recruitment but should instead be addressed through redeployment or other leadership arrangements to avoid an additional redundancy and that this condition was met. The redundancy was therefore classified as a compulsory redundancy.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 2 July 2026 (HL232), what mechanisms they use to ensure compliance with HM Treasury guidance on public sector exit payments, given the statement that the Department of Health and Social Care does not centrally reassess whether an interim post holder performed the same statutory duties as a redundant role.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the answer of 2 July 2026 to Question HL232, compliance with HM Treasury’s guidance on public sector exit payments and value for money protocols is secured through the relevant employer governance and assurance processes, with NHS England oversight where required. Departmental and HM Treasury approval is generally required where the payment relates to a special severance payment or other non-contractual payment.
Responsibility for ensuring that any redundancy decision is lawful, contractual, and represents value for money rests with the employing integrated care board, supported by NHS England’s assurance role where applicable.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 2 July (HL231), what were the reasons for progressing the contractual compulsory redundancy of the former Chief Executive of the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) in August 2025, in light of the statement that ministers had determined during summer 2025 that the South Yorkshire ICB would remain a standalone entity.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has advised that the decision for the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to remain a standalone statutory body did not remove the wider restructuring context in which the Chief Executive role was considered. NHS England considered the case in the context of proposed changes to ICB Chief Executive roles and local senior leadership arrangements. Its approval was conditional on the Chief Executive role not being filled through external recruitment but instead be addressed through redeployment or other leadership arrangements intended to avoid creating an additional redundancy. On that basis, NHS England progressed as a contractual compulsory redundancy.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 16 June (HL696), who authorised the sign-off and publication of National Data Integration Tenant Data Protection Impact Assessment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.
In accordance with NHS England’s established information governance and assurance processes, the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT) Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was reviewed and approved for sign off by the FDP Data Governance Group as well as senior Information Governance Professionals from NHS England.
For publication, the approved DPIA was reviewed by the Information Asset owner for NDIT and redacted in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 prior to approval for publication by the NDIT product owner, Programme Director and senior Information Governance Professionals from NHS England.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 1 July (HL1069), how they intend to measure and enforce equitable access to hospital-based learning disability liaison nurses across all acute trusts given that the commissioning and staffing mix of these services is left to the local discretion of individual integrated care boards.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing local need and commissioning services to best meet the needs of their local population, including determining how services are delivered locally to reduce the health inequalities. Therefore, staffing models may differ between areas to reflect local needs and existing provision. All staff within health and social care must have learning disability and autism training specific to their role as set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, which means that staff who see patients should be better able to meet the needs of people who have a learning disability.
We are committed to ensuring that, under the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard 2025, all publicly funded health and social care service providers are able to share, read, and write reasonable adjustment data by 30 September 2026. The Information Standard is mandated across all publicly funded health and social care providers, commissioners, and IT suppliers. Should issues of non-compliance arise, commissioners of health and publicly funded social care services will be able to enact contractual sanctions at their discretion.
The Government continues to recognise the value of involving patients and family carers in decisions about the care of people with a learning disability. The Health and Care Act 2022 sets duties for involving carers in healthcare. Acute trusts are responsible for determining how best to involve family carers in the delivery of care, taking account of the needs of their patients and local circumstances. There are currently no plans to establish independent or statutory audits to monitor whether acute trusts are consistently involving family carers from admission to discharge. The Friends and Family Test is an important feedback tool that supports the fundamental principle that people who use National Health Services should have the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience.
NHS England has previously published guidance to support primary care to identify people with a learning disability, titled Improving identification of people with a learning disability: guidance for general practice. This information can be shared with other health providers if a patient gives their permission. The Summary Care Record is a national database that holds electronic records of important patient information such as current medication, allergies, and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines, created from general practice medical records. It can be seen and used by authorised staff involved in the patient's direct care, including in other organisations such as an acute trust, with the patient’s consent. We expect acute hospitals to have appropriate arrangements in place to record learning disability information, including through the use of SNOMED codes, which are mandated for use across the NHS including in acute trusts.