Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to expand protected research time for NHS clinicians contributing to research.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future highlights the opportunities for improved care and innovation that comes from research and life sciences in the National Health Service. The upcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan is considering all aspects of the NHS workforce, including the research workforce. The 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future
The Department, through the National Institute of Health and Care Research, funds protected time for research and research training as part of career development awards, allowing award holders to develop and utilise research skills alongside clinical practice. This includes Academic Clinical Fellowships and Clinical Lectureships, which are clinical academic training posts, primarily for doctors and dentists, that are undertaken alongside specialty training. The Senior Clinical and Practitioner Research Award provides funding for professionals to have protected time for research within their current practice roles. It is available to all professions, with priority given to those typically underrepresented in research.
The Department is working with key stakeholders and the devolved administrations to develop a UK Research Workforce Strategy, to be published in the coming months. The strategy sets out a 10-year vision to embed research and innovation into core practice within the NHS, social care, and public health system, aligned with the 10-Year Health Plan, Life Sciences Sector Plan, and Office for the Strategic Co-ordination of Health Research reports. The ambition is to address barriers and build research capacity across all professions, settings, and geographies to lead and deliver high-quality research, as well as to routinely implement research findings to drive improved patient outcomes along with enhanced efficiency and productivity across the health, social care, and public health system.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing (a) national guidance and (b) regulations on setting a minimum age for body piercings.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to set a national minimum age for body piercings. The Department has produced model byelaws for cosmetic piercing under the Local Government Act 2003 and Local Government (miscellaneous provisions) Act 1982. The purpose of the model byelaws is to recognise and set nationally accepted standards that reduce the spread of infectious diseases and protect public health. Further, the Tattooing and body piercing guidance toolkit, a copy of which is attached, provides local authorities and businesses with information on good standards of practice. These national models and standards help local authorities create clear and consistent byelaws, which is beneficial for both local businesses and the public.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will be responsible for commissioning gambling harm treatment services in relation to the portion of the Gambling Levy allocated for treatment; and what role his Department expects that NHS England will have in the commissioning of gambling harm treatment services in the long term.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the new statutory levy on gambling operators which came into effect in April, NHS England and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.
NHS England continues to lead work on the future design of treatment and support services in England, working closely with the other levy commissioners to ensure a co-ordinated approach to addressing gambling-related harms.
The Department of Health and Social Care will continue to work closely with NHS England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to fully consider the implications of the NHS England transformation announcement on the future statutory levy commissioning structure.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the (a) commissioning and (b) funding model for gambling harm treatment services is structured across England; and whether he plans to issue a Letter of Comfort to Providers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
At present, NHS England provides ringfenced funding to the integrated care boards for the commissioning of eight regional gambling harms services in England. The majority of other gambling harms treatment services in England, largely provided by the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector, are commissioned by GambleAware until 31 March 2026.
The new statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect in April 2025. Under the levy, NHS England, and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales, are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.
From 1 April 2026, NHS England will be taking on responsibility for the commissioning of the full gambling harms treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare. All services will be funded by the new levy, which will be ringfenced for services to reduce gambling harms. NHS England is currently working at pace to confirm future commissioning arrangements and aims to provide all stakeholders with an update in the autumn.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the contracting process to enable established providers to apply for or maintain commissioned status for the commissioning of gambling harm treatment services will be through (a) open tendering, (b) direct awards, (c) partnership agreements and (d) a spot-purchasing framework; and whether that process will (i) be the same or (ii) vary across England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect in April 2025. Under the levy, NHS England, and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales, are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.
From 1 April 2026, NHS England will take on responsibility for the commissioning of the full gambling harms treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare. NHS England continues to work at pace on the design of the future commissioning approach, however, no decisions have yet been taken. The aim is to provide all stakeholders with a further update in the coming months. All contracting arrangements and their associated funding models will subsequently be confirmed by the appropriate commissioners.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding for gambling harm treatment services will be structured through (a) block funding, (b) activity-based models or (c) outcome-based models; what his Department's timetable is for (i) implementing its funding model and (ii) providing payments to providers; and whether his Department plans to provide (A) upfront or (B) staged payments for those providers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect in April 2025. Under the levy, NHS England, and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales, are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.
From 1 April 2026, NHS England will take on responsibility for the commissioning of the full gambling harms treatment pathway in England, from referral and triage through to aftercare. NHS England continues to work at pace on the design of the future commissioning approach, however, no decisions have yet been taken. The aim is to provide all stakeholders with a further update in the coming months. All contracting arrangements and their associated funding models will subsequently be confirmed by the appropriate commissioners.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the implementation by some NHS Integrated Care Boards of minimum waiting times for elective treatment; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of this on (a) patient choice (b) the ability to meet NHS constitutional access standards.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no formal policy supporting minimum waits in the National Health Service. However, the NHS Standard Contract technical guidance for 2025/26 states that commissioners may choose to include minimum waiting times in Activity Planning Assumptions to ensure the delivery of targets within agreed financial allocations. The full guidance is available at the following link:
Patients continue to have a legal right to choose where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient.
We will work closely with all systems to ensure they deliver the expected level of improvement in waiting times set out in 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 the constitutional standard of 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the UK’s capacity to attract investment in dementia clinical trials, in the context of the availability of disease-modifying treatments in other countries that have not yet been approved for use by the NHS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No particular assessment has been made.
The Department is committed to turbocharging medical research and delivering better patient care, to make the United Kingdom a world-leading destination for clinical research. We are working to fast-track clinical trials to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes and accelerate the development of medicines and therapies of the future, including treatments for dementia.
The Department delivers dementia research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Government funders are investing in dementia research across all areas, from causes, diagnosis and prevention to treatment, care and support, including for carers.
The NIHR is investing nearly £50 million to the UK Dementia Trials Network, which will deliver a coordinated network of early phase dementia trial sites. This will be complemented by the £20 million Dementia Clinical Trials Accelerator, designed to position the UK as the destination of choice for late phase clinical trials in dementia and neurodegenerative diseases.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will introduce legislation to (a) protect and (b) guide the ambulance service on a statutory footing.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service ambulance services have already been placed on a statutory footing through existing legislation.
NHS England will publish further guidance to support integrated care boards in their commissioning of ambulance services in 2025/26, and will provide a new ambulance commissioning specification for 2026/27.
Asked by: Alex Ballinger (Labour - Halesowen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that (a) hospitals offer (i) gluten and (i) dairy free food that is not high in added sugars and (b) people with restricted diets have access to (A) healthy and (B) fresh food when in hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published their Food and Drink Standards, which set out the expectations for National Health Service trusts regarding the food they provide to patients and staff. Emphasis is placed on providing healthy, nutritious food options. The standards include requirements that hospital food has: