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 individuals have received redundancy or severance payments and been offered a new post in the NHS as part of the reduction in integrated care board staff in this financial year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate cost reductions in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy.
Good progress is being made with the Department and NHS England having announced voluntary exit and expressions of interes,t respectively. Departmental exits are expected this calendar year so number of exits can be confirmed in the next few months. NHS England is running to a later timeframe, and we do not expect to be able to confirm numbers before the next financial year. No individuals have yet received redundancy or severance payments, and no assessment of an NHS at-risk pool has been made.
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 individuals have received redundancy or severance payments and have been offered a new post in the NHS as part of the reduction in NHS England staff in this financial year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the announcement of the abolition of NHS England, we are clear on the need for a smaller centre, as well as scaling back integrated care board running costs and National Health Service provider corporate cost reductions in order to reduce waste and bureaucracy.
Good progress is being made with the Department and NHS England having announced voluntary exit and expressions of interes,t respectively. Departmental exits are expected this calendar year so number of exits can be confirmed in the next few months. NHS England is running to a later timeframe, and we do not expect to be able to confirm numbers before the next financial year. No individuals have yet received redundancy or severance payments, and no assessment of an NHS at-risk pool has been made.
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 functions of the new NHS model regions will be, including which responsibilities will be delegated from (1) the Department of Health and Social Care, (2) NHS England, and (3) integrated care boards; and whether they will publish the detail of the timescale for those new models to be in place.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The proposed core functions of the National Health Service regional teams are set out in the Model Region Blueprint which has been widely cascaded to the service. It forms one part of the wider changes to the NHS operating model. NHS regions will have three core functions:
NHS regional teams are currently a core part of NHS England and work together with national teams to discharge the functions of the organisation. There are currently no plans to delegate additional responsibilities to regional teams from the Department or the integrated care boards.
In March 2025, it was announced that NHS England would be abolished, and its duties and functions combined with the Department, pending legislation. The future organisation will continue to have seven regional teams aligned to the current NHS England regional footprints. In the future organisation, we want our seven regional teams to be leaner and more empowered, working as an integral part of the new centre. Work is underway to consider the role that regional teams should play in the future once NHS England and the Department have been brought together as a single organisation.
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 money from the Frontline Digitisation programme was allocated to the NHS App in the financial year 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s Frontline Digitisation programme was introduced in 2021 to support healthcare organisations to transition from paper-based to digital systems for patient information, clinical notes and access to data.
Its aim is to reach a core level of digitisation following minimum digital foundations, where the health service and the people who use it have digital services and access to the data that they need to effectively manage and improve health and wellbeing. NHS England is providing £2 billion to National Health Service trusts through to 2025/26 to ensure trusts meet a core level of digitisation and have electronic patient records in place.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what basis they used to calculate that it is value for money to make a performance-related bonus of up to £114,000 available for the role of Director General for Commercial and Growth.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The remuneration for senior Government Commercial Organisation (GCO) roles is set centrally to ensure a consistent, cross-government approach that allows us to attract and retain commercial leaders within the specialised skills needed to manage complex challenges and deliver value for money.
This ‘invest to save’ model includes a performance-related pay element which is not guaranteed; it is strictly contingent on meeting stretching objectives designed to deliver significant taxpayer savings. Such payment is approved by the GCO Remuneration Committee and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury as per central guidance.
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.