Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what quality assurance and oversight is undertaken by NHS England on learning disabilities mortality review reports before publication, and which minister or official is responsible for approval of the final report before publication.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England works with an academic partner, Kings College London, to produce the Learning from lives and deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) annual report. NHS England provides oversight in relation to LeDeR policy, process and wider National Health Service policy, and commissions the annual report.
The report is independent and provides analysis of LeDeR review data. NHS England and the Department check findings are clearly and consistently presented to ensure transparency for the public.
The 2023 report was approved by NHS England’s Chief Executive.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what learning disabilities mortality review report recommendations have been mandated for NHS or social care organisations to implement by NHS England or the Department of Health and Social Care in each year between 2018 and 2022.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Learning from lives and deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) is a service improvement programme established and led by NHS England. LeDeR is a crucial source of evidence that helps to identify the key improvements needed to tackle health disparities and prevent avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability and autistic people.
The recommendations within LeDeR reports are not mandated but are intended to inform and guide action by health and social care organisations to improve the quality of care and services for patients, locally and nationally. Alongside each LeDeR report publication, NHS England publishes its Action from Learning Report which highlights local action directly driven by LeDeR findings.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many learning disabilities mortality reviews (1) are yet to be started, and (2) have been started but not completed.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Learning from lives and deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) is a service improvement programme established and led by NHS England.
As of 1st September 2025, there were 3,836 LeDeR reviews for people with a learning disability and autistic people in the LeDeR system which had not been completed. Of these, 1,626 (42%) have not been started.
508 (13%) of the reviews that have not been completed are currently on hold awaiting the completion of statutory processes such as coroner’s investigations or safeguarding reviews. 2,155 (56%) of the reviews that have not been completed are for people who died in 2025.
1,842 (48%) of the reviews were received within the last 6 months. The LeDeR policy sets the expectation that reviews are completed within six months of them being notified to LeDeR, unless statutory processes prevent that being possible or family members of those bereaved have asked for the review to be delayed. As of August 2025, 94% of all LeDeR reviews have been completed since the start of the programme in 2017.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the LeDeR Annual Report 2023, published on 2 September, what the "unforeseen pressures" on the NHS were that resulted in fewer completed learning disabilities mortality reviews than expected.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pressure on NHS services remain high due to a combination of factors including high demand across all services; ongoing recovery efforts after the pandemic and industrial action, recruitment and retention challenges in the NHS workforce and the need to reduce running costs of Integrated Care Boards.
Integrated Care Systems are expected both to complete LeDeR reviews and to implement improvement initiatives in response to reviews to reduce health inequalities and premature and avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability and autistic people. This remains a priority despite pressures on NHS services. NHS England’s Action from Learning Report highlights improvement action being taken locally which is directly driven by LeDeR findings.
As of August 2025, 94% of all LeDeR reviews have been completed since the start of the programme in 2017.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that learning disabilities mortality reviews are completed in a timely manner following notification, and what steps they are taking to address any delays in the process.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Learning from lives and deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) is a service improvement programme established and led by NHS England. NHS England is committed to ensuring that all deaths notified to LeDeR are reviewed in a timely manner. This commitment has been maintained since a pilot scheme was introduced in 2016, nationwide in 2017. There is a national, published LeDeR policy in place clearly setting out requirements and expectations across England.
Integrated care systems are responsible for ensuring that LeDeR reviews are completed in their local area, and that actions are implemented to improve the quality of services and reduce health inequalities and premature mortality for autistic people and people with a learning disability.
The LeDeR policy sets the expectation that reviews are completed within six months of them being notified to LeDeR unless statutory processes prevent that being possible or family members of those bereaved have asked for the review to be delayed.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following reports that several NHS organisations have informed hospitals they will only finance procedures after a patient has waited more than three months, what guidance they have issued to NHS organisations regarding the use of minimum waiting times for treatment performed by hospitals.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Standard Contract 2025/26 Technical Guidance states that commissioners may choose to include minimum waiting times in Activity Planning Assumptions to ensure the delivery of targets within agreed financial allocations. A copy of the NHS Standard Contract 2025/26 Technical Guidance is attached.
We will work closely with all systems to ensure they deliver the expected level of improvement in waiting times as set out in the 2025/26 Planning Guidance, which is the first step in delivering on our commitment that by March 2029, 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment.
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 28 June (HL8464), which data areas King's College London was asked to review by NHS England or the Department of Health and Social Care in the unpublished LeDeR report, and the reasons for each request.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England works with Kings College London, the academic partner for LeDeR, to produce the LeDeR annual report. Since they submitted their draft report, NHS England has collaborated with them on further iterations with the aim to finalise as soon as possible.
The Department has provided feedback on later iterations of the report on practical data issues with the aim to ensure findings were accurately presented and could be clearly interpreted by the public. Feedback related to definition of technical language, additional context for demographic statistics, and apparent inconsistencies. A final version of the report addressing feedback was shared with the Department on 25 June 2025.
We are committed to publishing the latest report soon after Parliament returns alongside a Written Ministerial Statement.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which five integrated care systems have had deficit support funding withheld; and how much funding has been withheld from each.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The £2.2 billion of deficit support funding this year is being provided quarterly, and only to systems that deliver their plans. The five systems that have had deficit support funding withheld for quarter 2 are as follows: Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care System (ICS); North East London ICS; Cheshire and Merseyside ICS; Coventry and Warwickshire ICS; and South Yorkshire ICS. Deficit support funding will be released to these systems once progress has been made and there is confidence in the delivery of their plans, with progress and funding released reported in individual board reports throughout the year.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address comments made by Ming Tang, Chief Data and Analytics Officer for NHS England, regarding the "poor" and "inefficient" nature of many hospital computer systems; and what steps will they take to address her assertion that US-designed Electronic Patient Records were primarily intended to "maximise revenues rather than productivity or patient outcomes".
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has supported the National Health Service to invest £2 billion over the past four years to buy or upgrade computer systems to meet the baseline standard, and will continue to support investment in the next Spending Review period. NHS England has a good relationship with US Electronic Patient Record vendors and is working collaboratively with them to ensure that software is optimised for use in the NHS in England, which includes a focus on productivity and outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the LeDeR report, whose final iteration was submitted by King's College London to NHS England on 25 June, remains unpublished.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Learning from lives and deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) reports are a crucial source of evidence which help identify key improvements needed to tackle health disparities and prevent avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability and autistic people. Practical data issues have delayed the work to date and were addressed in the final iteration provided on 25 June 2025. We are committed to publishing the latest report soon after Parliament returns alongside a Written Ministerial Statement.