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 plan to bring forward legislation or guidance for non-therapeutic male circumcision.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates surgical procedures, including male circumcision for therapeutic and non-therapeutic reasons, where the procedure is carried out by a health care professional.
The CQC has developed guidance with other professional organisations entitled Additional guidance and prompts: non-therapeutic male circumcision, a copy of which is attached.
The Government has no current plans to bring forward legislation or further guidance on non-therapeutic male circumcision.
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 redundancy costs as a result of job cuts in NHS England and integrated care boards (ICB) this financial year; and whether ICB redundancy payments will come from existing ICB budgets.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as reducing integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate costs, in order to deliver value for money for the public and empower our health system to improve health and care for patients. Good progress is being made, with the Department and NHS England having announced voluntary exit or redundancy schemes.
We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement, which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day-to-day spending in real terms by 2028/29, compared to 2023/24. Ahead of asking the NHS to commence a multi-year planning round we are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs. At this stage it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while transition planning is ongoing.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26, published on 26 June, what is the specific purpose and intended use of contextual metrics for integrated care boards.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26 will not be used to score integrated care boards’ (ICBs) performance or to assign them to performance categories or segments. This is to allow them to focus on the substantial changes to their organisational function and form, alongside efforts to meet their running cost reduction plans.
However, ICB data will continue to be collected, monitored, and reported against the full suite of metrics. These will be used during NHS England’s regular performance conversations with ICBs and to inform the use of intervention powers, should NHS England deem this necessary to support improvement.
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 impact of changes to the funding provided by NHS England on the planned elective care hub at St Albans City Hospital, in particular the impact on East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, and West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Capital funding for the Hertfordshire and West Essex Surgical Centre at St Albans City Hospital remains in place, and building work is being supported through to completion.
Although there are no current plans for the patients of the East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust to use the West Essex Surgical Centre when it opens, the integrated care board intends the centre to support the Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust with their orthopaedic capacity over winter, and the centre will be used by West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals Trust patients while existing theatres at St Albans City Hospital are refurbished.
Having this high-quality new resource in the system will also give the trust the flexibility to scale up capacity in the future if needed, and will benefit patients for years to come.
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 4 June (HL8130), what is the reason for the delay in publishing the next annual LeDeR report seven months later relative to the previous annual report.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We expect the report will be published shortly, and the delay has been due to practical data issues.
NHS England commissions Kings College London and its partners to analyse data from Learning from Lives and Deaths, reviews about people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR). The LeDeR report is published by Kings College London, who are currently working on the next report, and will publish it soon. The last report was published in November 2023, a copy of which has been placed in the Library due to the size of the document.
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 20 May (HL7198), whether they have carried out an impact assessment of reducing staff costs by 50 per cent for NHS England, including on the regional impacts; and if not, when an impact assessment will be carried out and published.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and to plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions, and responsibilities
It is only right that with such significant reform, we commit to carefully assessing and understanding the potential impacts, as is due process. These ongoing assessments will inform our programme as appropriate.
The Government is committed to transparency and will consider how best to ensure that 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 whether the annual health check for people with a learning disability at their GP practice will continue to be a priority healthcare assessment for the rest of this Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that general practitioners (GPs) should offer an annual health check to all adults, children and young people with a learning disability. The Government expects integrated care boards (ICBs) and health professionals to have due regard to NICE guidelines when making commissioning decisions. NHS Operational Planning Guidance for 2025/26 requires ICBs to report on the number of people on the quality outcome framework learning disability register aged 14 years old and over who receive an annual health check during the quarter.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish the Learning from lives and deaths – people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) annual report that has been handed over to NHS England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions Kings College London and its partners to analyse data from the Learning from Lives and Deaths - people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) reports. The annual LeDeR report is published by Kings College London, who are currently working on the next annual report, and NHS England has advised that they will publish this shortly. The last report was published in November 2023 and is available on the King’s College London website.
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.