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 made any allocation to community pharmacies for the Pharmacy First service for the financial year 2025–26; and, if so, how much.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have now concluded the consultation on funding for 2024/25 and 2025/26, and have agreed with Community Pharmacy England to increase the community pharmacy contractual framework to £3.073 billion. We have also agreed to continue funding for Pharmacy First in 2025/26 to reflect the growth of the service to date, with £215 million available to be earned by contractors in 2025/26.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any senior executive of NHS England who (1) has left in the last two months, or (2) will be leaving in the next two months, will receive a severance payment; and if so how many payments have been made, and what is the total cost of those payments.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any exit payment for any senior executive that has left NHS England in the last two months, or that will be leaving over the next two months, will be in line with the individual’s contractual entitlements and subject to the necessary approvals.
The total cost at this stage would be unknown, as exit payments are based upon individual terms and conditions, in line with contracts of employment.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which cancer networks have been told by commissioners that their funding will be cut next financial year; and what is the percentage cut to their budgets.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed significant investment to improving cancer care with a focus on reducing waiting times for diagnosis and treatment. This includes approximately £1.5 billion capital funding in 2025/26 for new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners, creating capacity for over 30,000 more procedures and 1.25 million diagnostic tests. Furthermore, we have already hit our pledge early to deliver over two million more elective care appointments.
We are ensuring patients get care faster by halving the number of targets in Operational Planning Guidance and by transferring a higher proportion of funding than ever before directly to local systems with minimised ringfencing. These steps allow local leaders maximum flexibility to plan better and more efficient services.
To deliver on our priorities to diagnose and treat cancer faster, Service Development Funding will be rolled into rolled into core allocations. This means the total allocation for Cancer Alliances in 2025/26 is £379 million compared to £419 million in 2024/25, a reduction of approximately 9% as funding is transferred to different priorities. Further information is available on the revenue finance and contracting guidance for 2025/26 on NHS England’s website.
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 14 February (HL4607), how much of the capital allocated to each hospital to be built has been allocated in this funding round; and what are the provisional amounts allocated to each hospital in future rounds.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding has been agreed with HM Treasury to cover 2025/26. For 2025/26, we have approved and issued £233 million of funding to trusts. Funding beyond this will be agreed in the Spending Review in spring 2025.
Funding is issued subject to the approval of a business case. These are submitted at different stages for separate elements of a scheme. At the start of a scheme such business cases would be for enabling works, including, for example, site clearance or a land purchase, and are relatively small. Fees are also allocated to Trusts to develop plans and business cases. However, most of the funding for individual schemes in the New Hospital Programme will be subject to the approval of a Full Business Case as set out in HMT Green Book and is usual for large infrastructure projects.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in relation to section 63 of the Mental Health Act 1983, whether investigations ancillary to compulsory treatment (for example blood tests to determine precise or safe dosing for permitted compulsory treatment under section 63) are permitted as part of the overall compulsory treatment permitted under that section.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Section 63 of the Mental Health Act 1983 provides that the consent of patients falling within that part of the Act is not required for medical treatment for mental disorder, where the treatment is given by the patient’s approved clinician, or under their direction. Exceptions to this are where the treatment falls under the special procedures set out in sections 57, 58 and 58A. Medical treatment for mental disorder, mentioned under section 63, may include treatment of physical conditions where it is intended to alleviate or prevent a worsening of symptoms or a manifestation of the mental disorder. For example, a blood test for an antipsychotic drug, or where the treatment is otherwise part of, or ancillary to, treatment for mental disorder.
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 remarks by the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 1 February that the CQC has “lost its way” with inspections, what plans they have to set a date for a date for the CQC to provide the public with reliable and up-to-date information on inspections of care homes, hospitals and other facilities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been open about the fact they need to do much more to be the strong, effective regulator that people who use health and care services need and deserve. A key area for improvement is to ensure that the CQC can give the public up-to-date information about services.
It is undertaking rapid changes to the way they work to increase the number of assessments they undertake, to provide updated ratings. However, it is clear the CQC has a lot to do to improve its performance in how it undertakes assessments and provides ratings. The CQC has reported progress with reducing the number of completed assessments stuck in its IT system and some of these will result shortly in updated ratings. It is not feasible to say when all care homes, hospitals and other facilities will have up to date information because of the number of providers in each sector.
The public should continue to use the CQC’s existing ratings, together with other information on the CQC’s and the provider’s websites and should look out for updated ratings.
Between 2023 and March 2024, CQC rolled out a new IT system, as well as structural changes within the CQC that made it difficult for its inspectors to do their jobs. This has meant that, while they have continued to focus on protecting people from poor care, often in response to information from the public, the number of routine inspections that resulted in award ratings fell dramatically. A revised way of working was introduced in December 2024 to address these issues.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much of the capital allocation for the three waves of the New Hospital Programme is now guaranteed; and which of the waves are subject to future spending reviews.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has agreed a set of realistic and deliverable assumptions around the ongoing funding envelope that will enable the programme to plan sustainably for the long term and support schemes in rolling waves of investment. The exact profile of the funding will be confirmed in rolling five-year waves at regular Spending Reviews, as with all Government capital budgets in the future.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the future of funding for the Medical Doctor Degree Apprenticeship programme in England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is for individual National Health Service employers to decide on their approach to apprenticeships. The Department for Education is currently reviewing access to the Apprenticeship Levy for Level Seven apprenticeships, which Medical Doctor Degree Apprenticeships fall under. The Government is committed to widening participation in medicine and creating a medical workforce that is representative of the society around us.
We will work with partners including NHS England, the Department for Education, and the university sector to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to study medicine, regardless of their background. This summer we will also publish a refreshed workforce plan to provide the health service with much-needed stability and certainty.
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 jobs that could be lost due to increased National Insurance contributions in (1) hospices, (2) social care, and (3) community and primary health care.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have taken the necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, enabling the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.
The employer National Insurance contributions rise will be implemented from April 2025, and NHS England has set out the approach to funding providers in planning guidance for the next financial year, a copy of which is attached.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the retention rate was for NHS (1) social workers, and (2) dentists, in the financial years (a) 2022–23, (b) 2023–24, and (c) 2024–25 to date.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
For professions such as dentists, who do NHS commissioned work but who are not directly employed by NHS bodies, the Department does not hold detailed staffing information.