Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria they will use in reducing staff costs by 50 per cent for NHS England; and how this methodology was established with regard to local and regional outcomes.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers and senior Department officials are working with the new executive team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to jointly lead the formation of a new joint centre.
At this stage, while we are scoping the transformation programme, it is too early to share details of any programmes to reduce staff costs, but we are looking closely at areas of duplication between NHS England and the Department. The reductions will be achieved through a mix of efficiencies, removing duplication between the Department and NHS England and stopping functions at the centre that will support our aim of empowering the frontline.
The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure the public and parliamentarians are informed.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people born on or after 1 January 2009 who will continue to smoke if the provisions of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill are enacted.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tobacco is the single most important entirely preventable cause of ill health, disability, and death in this country, and is responsible for 80,000 deaths in the United Kingdom each year. The majority of smokers start in their youth and are then addicted for life. More than four in five smokers start before the age of 20 years old.
As a result of Government action, smoking rates have declined in all ages since the 1970s, but there is still much further to go. Legislation has been an important driver of this decline, including raising the age of sale for smoking from 16 to 18 years old, which reduced prevalence in this age group by 30%.
The available data does not allow us to estimate the number of people under 18 years old that smoke and vape in England, and the data that is available is not comparable as it covers different age groups and countries. However, using the NHS Smoking Drink and Drugs survey data, we estimate that the number of 11 to 15 year olds regularly smoking in England is 42,000 in 2023. We do not have similar data for years 2022 and 2024. Using the Action on Smoking and Health GB survey data, we estimate that the number of children aged 11 to 17 years old that regularly use a vape in Great Britain, which can also be called an e-cigarette, is 169,000 in 2022, 206,000 in 2023, and 234,000 in 2024.
Our modelling of the estimated impact of the Smokefree Generation (SFG) policy on smoking rates is presented in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Impact Assessment. In the central scenario we modelled, smoking prevalence among those aged 18 years old and over is estimated to fall from 11.6% in 2023 to 1.6% in 2056. In terms of the number of smokers, we estimate this is equivalent to approximately 700,000 smokers aged 18 years old and over in 2056 when SFG is implemented, compared to approximately 2.4 million smokers aged 18 years old and over if not implemented.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people in England under the age of 18 who regularly used (1) a vape, (2) an e-cigarette, or (3) smoked tobacco, in each of the years 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tobacco is the single most important entirely preventable cause of ill health, disability, and death in this country, and is responsible for 80,000 deaths in the United Kingdom each year. The majority of smokers start in their youth and are then addicted for life. More than four in five smokers start before the age of 20 years old.
As a result of Government action, smoking rates have declined in all ages since the 1970s, but there is still much further to go. Legislation has been an important driver of this decline, including raising the age of sale for smoking from 16 to 18 years old, which reduced prevalence in this age group by 30%.
The available data does not allow us to estimate the number of people under 18 years old that smoke and vape in England, and the data that is available is not comparable as it covers different age groups and countries. However, using the NHS Smoking Drink and Drugs survey data, we estimate that the number of 11 to 15 year olds regularly smoking in England is 42,000 in 2023. We do not have similar data for years 2022 and 2024. Using the Action on Smoking and Health GB survey data, we estimate that the number of children aged 11 to 17 years old that regularly use a vape in Great Britain, which can also be called an e-cigarette, is 169,000 in 2022, 206,000 in 2023, and 234,000 in 2024.
Our modelling of the estimated impact of the Smokefree Generation (SFG) policy on smoking rates is presented in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Impact Assessment. In the central scenario we modelled, smoking prevalence among those aged 18 years old and over is estimated to fall from 11.6% in 2023 to 1.6% in 2056. In terms of the number of smokers, we estimate this is equivalent to approximately 700,000 smokers aged 18 years old and over in 2056 when SFG is implemented, compared to approximately 2.4 million smokers aged 18 years old and over if not implemented.
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 number of extra enforcement officers required in each local authority to ensure that people born on after 1 January 2009 do not purchase tobacco products if the provisions of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill are enacted.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
History shows that when we have introduced targeted tobacco control measures, the size of the illicit market has not increased and in fact continued to fall. When the age of sale was increased from 16 to 18 in 2007, prevalence in this age group reduced by 30% and the number of illicit cigarettes consumed overall fell by 25% from 10 billion in 2005/06 to 7.5 billion in 2007/08.
The Department will conduct a New Burdens Assessment to assess the impact of policies in the Bill on local authorities prior to the Bill receiving Royal Assent. At this stage, we have not made a specific assessment of the number of additional enforcement officers needed in each local authority. However, we have engaged with National Trading Standards, the Association of Chief Trading Standards Officers' Board and Trading Standards regions to identify where to additional support and funding is needed to enforce the provisions in the Bill. As a result, an additional £10 million funding for Trading Standards was announced on 23 March 2025 which will bolster operations in local communities for the next year. This will fund an expected 80 more apprentice enforcement officers to tackle underage sales and prevent harmful tobacco and vape products finding their way into neighbourhood shops. We have allocated the apprenticeship funding regionally, based on smoking and vaping prevalence in the area, to target the areas where enforcement will most likely be needed.
In total, we will invest £30 million of new funding in 2025/26 for enforcement agencies including Trading Standards, Border Force and HM Revenue and Customs to tackle the illicit and underage sale of tobacco and vapes, supporting the implementation of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
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 30 April (HL6268), how many children were hospitalised as a result of non-therapeutic male circumcision between 2015 and 2025.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data is not available in the format requested. Data is collected on admissions with a primary diagnosis code of routine and ritual circumcision. This data is available for 2023/24, by age group, on the NHS.UK website, in an online only format.
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 have conducted an impact assessment of the planned 50 per cent staff cost reductions for NHS England this financial year; and if so, what are the implications for services and delivery at local and regional levels.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers and senior Department officials are working with the new executive team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to jointly lead the formation of a new joint centre. It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. Evidence from these ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate.
The new centre will operate in a leaner, more agile, and more efficient way and will empower staff at all levels of the health system, including local and regional, to deliver better care for patients, drive productivity up, and get waiting times down. This change will set local National Health Service providers free to innovate, develop new productive ways of working, and focus on what matters most.
The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure the public and parliamentarians are informed of the outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, what further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 27 March (HL5042), what assessment they have made of the impact on individual integrated care board (ICB) areas of the approximately 9 percent reduction in funding for cancer alliances in 2025–26, following the consolidation of Service Development Funding into core allocations; and what is the breakdown of the total cancer alliance allocation for 2025–26 for each ICB area, compared to the allocation for 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding for Cancer Alliances is set nationally by NHS England. The place-based allocation is calculated on a population basis, and is flexible funding that Alliances use to support the delivery of NHS-wide priorities for cancer in ways that reflect local circumstances.
We have set stretching targets for the National Health Service to improve cancer performance next year and taken tough decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget. These decisions have enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.
The following tables show information from the NHS Cancer Programme about the funding allocated to Cancer Alliances in 2024/25 and 2025/26, across both place based and targeted allocations; these are inclusive of NHS cost uplift factors which adjusts for inflation and other cost increases:
Funding for 2024/25 | |||
Cancer Alliance | Lead Integrated Care Board | Total place-based allocation (£ ‘000s) | Total targeted allocation (£ ‘000s) |
Cheshire and Merseyside | CHESHIRE AND MERSEYSIDE ICB | 13,417 | 8,457 |
East Midlands | NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ICB | 22,564 | 8,139 |
East of England | CAMBRIDGESHIRE AND PETERBOROUGH ICB | 30,266 | 14,598 |
Greater Manchester | GREATER MANCHESTER INTEGRATED CARE ICB | 14,789 | 17,331 |
Humber Coast and Vale | HUMBER AND NORTH YORKSHIRE ICB | 8,085 | 5,960 |
Kent and Medway | KENT AND MEDWAY ICB | 8,655 | 5.090 |
Lancashire and South Cumbria | LANCASHIRE AND SOUTH CUMBRIA ICB | 8,854 | 4,458 |
North Central London | NORTH CENTRAL LONDON ICB | 7,358 | 5,792 |
North East London | NORTH EAST LONDON ICB | 9,752 | 3,448 |
Northern | NORTH EAST AND NORTH CUMBRIA ICB | 15,465 | 10,631 |
Peninsula | DEVON ICB | 8,724 | 7,787 |
South East London | SOUTH EAST LONDON ICB | 8,845 | 2,959 |
South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw | SOUTH YORKSHIRE ICB | 6,801 | 3,993 |
Surrey and Sussex | SURREY HEARTLANDS ICB | 15,874 | 6,514 |
SWAG | BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE ICB | 14,404 | 6,390 |
Thames Valley | BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, OXFORDSHIRE AND BERKSHIRE WEST ICB | 7,661 | 3,018 |
Wessex | HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLE OF WIGHT ICB | 12,188 | 10,798 |
West London | SOUTH WEST LONDON ICB | 17,778 | 9,303 |
West Midlands | BLACK COUNTRY ICB | 29,045 | 10,802 |
West Yorkshire and Harrogate | WEST YORKSHIRE ICB | 11,679 | 2,893 |
Grand Total | 272,203 | 148,363 | |
Source: NHS Cancer Programme
Funding for 2025/26 | |||
Cancer Alliance | Lead Integrated Care Board | Total place-based allocation (£ ‘000s) | Total targeted allocation (£ ‘000s) |
Cheshire and Merseyside | CHESHIRE AND MERSEYSIDE ICB | 10,068 | 12,948 |
East Midlands | NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ICB | 17,027 | 10,366 |
East of England | CAMBRIDGESHIRE AND PETERBOROUGH ICB | 22,619 | 16,683 |
Greater Manchester | GREATER MANCHESTER INTEGRATED CARE ICB | 11,128 | 17,713 |
Humber Coast and Vale | HUMBER AND NORTH YORKSHIRE ICB | 6,015 | 5,278 |
Kent and Medway | KENT AND MEDWAY ICB | 6,451 | 2,256 |
Lancashire and South Cumbria | LANCASHIRE AND SOUTH CUMBRIA ICB | 6,666 | 4,432 |
North Central London | NORTH CENTRAL LONDON ICB | 5,597 | 4,354 |
North East London | NORTH EAST LONDON ICB | 7,481 | 3,267 |
Northern | NORTH EAST AND NORTH CUMBRIA ICB | 11,593 | 16,047 |
Peninsula | DEVON ICB | 6,460 | 11,559 |
South East London | SOUTH EAST LONDON ICB | 6,633 | 4,515 |
South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw | SOUTH YORKSHIRE ICB | 5,147 | 6,379 |
Surrey and Sussex | SURREY HEARTLANDS ICB | 11,765 | 8,336 |
SWAG | BRISTOL, NORTH SOMERSET AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE ICB | 10,681 | 8,318 |
Thames Valley | BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, OXFORDSHIRE AND BERKSHIRE WEST ICB | 5,676 | 4,173 |
Wessex | HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLE OF WIGHT ICB | 9,055 | 8,507 |
West London | SOUTH WEST LONDON ICB | 13,526 | 8,972 |
West Midlands | BLACK COUNTRY ICB | 21,906 | 16,741 |
West Yorkshire and Harrogate | WEST YORKSHIRE ICB | 8,808 | 4,096 |
Grand Total | 204,302 | 174,940 | |
Source: NHS Cancer Programme
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 carried out assessments of services provided by local authorities to people diagnosed with autism in each year since 2019; and whether the data associated with those assessments are centrally held.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care, is assessing how well local authorities in England are delivering adult social care. This means that the CQC is looking at how local authorities are performing against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including their duties relating to the provision of care and support for autistic people. Ratings and reports are published on the CQC’s website. To date, the CQC has published over twenty assessments, with ratings of Outstanding, Good, and Requires Improvement.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) and the CQC also commenced a strengthened local inspection framework in January 2023 to maintain a focus on high standards in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system across all partners. In 2023/24, approximately one in three pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan had autism as their primary need. However, it should be noted that these figures do not include children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) who are not in state funded schools or non-maintained special schools. This may be because they are in independent schools, hospital schools, are missing education, are educated somewhere other than in school, or are above compulsory school age. Data on the number of children and young people with an EHCP who are not in state funded schools or non-maintained special schools is not available. Ofsted reports are published on their website, and further information is also available on the GOV.UK website, in an online format.
Where a council does not meet its SEND-related duties, the Department for Education can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement. Ofsted and the CQC are reviewing local area SEND inspections in response to the Ofsted Big Listen consultation, which asked for views from school staff, education organisations, and parents on the inspection process.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what regulations govern practitioners who are not registered healthcare professionals performing non-therapeutic male circumcision.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no legal requirement for an individual undertaking male circumcision to be medically trained or to have proven expertise, but any registered healthcare professional carrying out non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC) cannot optout of core duties and responsibilities. Non-medically trained individuals carrying out NTMC are outside the scope of the Care Quality Commission’s regulation.
The British Medical Association has published a toolkit providing practical guidance for individuals, including on parental consent and the best interests of the patient, which includes consideration of social and cultural circumstances, and should be followed by anyone carrying out this procedure. The General Medical Council also recognises that male circumcision can be carried out for religious and cultural reasons and provides guidance for doctors on personal beliefs and medical practice.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what provision they have made for redundancy payments for the abolition of NHS England, and the reduction in size of integrated care boards.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that there may be some short-term upfront costs as we undertake changes to integrated care boards and the integration of NHS England and the Department, but these costs and more will be recouped in future years as a result of a smaller, leaner centre. By the end of the process, we estimate that these changes will save hundreds of millions of pounds a year, which will be reinvested in frontline services.