Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the proposed abolition of NHS England, where the Learning Disability Mortality Review programme will be based; and whether the number of staff working on the programme will be reduced.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review programme as 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.
Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions and responsibilities. We are assessing the full range of current functions across both organisations and options for future allocation. At this stage, it is too early to say what precise changes in personnel and organisational design will be.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether staff working on the Learning Disability Mortality Review programme are included in the planned 50 per cent reduction in staffing costs for integrated care boards and NHS England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) programme as 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.
Work is progressing at pace to develop the design and operating model for the new integrated organisation, and plan for the smooth transfer of people, functions and responsibilities. We are assessing the full range of current functions across both organisations and options for future allocation. At this stage, it is too early to say what precise changes in personnel and organisational design will be.
NHS England has asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health and care services and reduce duplication of responsibilities within their structure with the expectation of achieving a reduction in their running cost allowance. NHS England has circulated a draft of ‘The Model ICB – blueprint’ document to all ICBs to assist them in shaping their future plans. A copy of the document 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, in regard to the provision in the Mental Health Bill that removes learning disabilities from the definition of a mental health condition, why the new joint executive team of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England includes the post of National Priority Programme Director for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act, learning disability and autism are still classed as a 'mental disorder', as they are under the existing Mental Health Act. The Mental Health Bill also introduces a new definition of 'psychiatric disorder' under the act, which covers all mental disorders other than learning disability and autism. In future, it will only be possible to detain those people with a learning disability and/or autistic people who also have a psychiatric disorder that needs treatment under the act. This change seeks to ensure that people are only detained when they have a mental disorder that warrants hospital treatment, and which has a reasonable prospect of providing a therapeutic benefit for that disorder.
Mental health, learning disabilities, and autism are all important areas in their own right for both the Department and NHS England, and require leadership at the highest levels to ensure services in these areas meet the ambitions we have set.
Our new proposed structure incudes several senior director roles responsible for leading on particular clusters of services, one of which will include mental health, learning disabilities, and autism.
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 savings that would be made by NHS England setting up an NHS at risk pool instead of providing payments to individuals facing redundancy as a result of reductions to NHS England and 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 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 for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on jobs in life sciences and access to new medicines of Merck's decision to cancel a planned £1 billion expansion of its UK operations.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The decision by Merck, or MSD, not to progress its investment, is part of a broader effort by MSD to optimise its resources. It announced in July that it would cut $3 billion per year by 2027 and that 6,000 jobs would go worldwide. MSD continues to employ over 1,600 staff in the UK across other operations, including more than 40 collaborative working agreements with the NHS, the Our Future Health project and UK clinical trials. This decision will not impact UK access to new medicines.
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.