Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
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 potential impact of the tapered annual allowance for pensions on the level of retention of senior NHS clinicians; and whether her Department plans to consider the potential merits of changing the taper to increase NHS workforce capacity.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The annual allowance limits the amount that an individual can save in all their pension pots before they have to pay a tax charge. It aims to ensure that the incentives for pension saving, which are costly to the taxpayer, are appropriately targeted across society. Tax policy, including the level of the annual allowance, is a matter for my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Increases to the level of the standard annual allowance, the adjusted income threshold, and the minimum tapered allowance were made in 2023. These reforms aimed to encourage highly skilled National Health Service staff to remain in the workforce for longer by easing the tax burden on the highest earners, reducing incentives for early retirement and supporting consultants to take on additional work, helping to increase capacity and reduce waiting lists.
Decisions about undertaking extra work are influenced by a range of personal and professional factors, making it difficult to isolate the specific impact of pension tax policy. There is no clear evidence from national NHS payroll data that the annual allowance pension tax regime constrains consultant activity in aggregate.
Where NHS staff have pension savings that exceed their annual allowance, they can carry forward any unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years. This will increase their current year’s allowance, reducing or potentially avoiding any annual allowance tax charge that is due.
Additionally, the NHS Pension Scheme offers a Scheme Pays facility which allows impacted members to pay charges using the value of their pension. This spreads the cost of paying a tax charge over the lifetime of the pension rather than requiring an immediate outlay. For most members, the growth in their pension benefits at retirement, even net of a charge, would still represent an excellent return on their pension contributions.
Information for members is available on the NHS Pensions website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/annual-allowance
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure prisoners with severe mental health needs in Category C prisons receive timely access to appropriate care.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions comprehensive healthcare services across all prisons in England, ensuring mental health provision is delivered to the principle of equivalence with community services. The National Service Specification for Integrated Mental Health outlines expectations and ensures that individuals have access to appropriate support from the point of entry into custody and throughout their sentence.
More specifically, mental health support is available to all people in prison at any stage of their sentence; providers must deliver a full range of appointments, including urgent mental health assessments where clinically required; health needs assessments are undertaken in each establishment to understand population‑specific mental health needs; and services are trauma informed.
NHS England is currently undertaking a review of the National Integrated Prison Service Specification to ensure it remains responsive to the evolving needs of the prison population and continues to support high‑quality, trauma‑informed, and integrated mental health provision.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
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 impact of cuts to Integrated Care Board funding on cancer patients in the East Midlands.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the recently published National Cancer Plan, we set out our commitment to meet all three cancer waiting time standards to ensure that all cancer patients, including those in the East Midlands, have timely access to high quality diagnostic and treatment services.
Our commitment to meeting the cancer waiting time standards will be supported by a £6 billion capital investment into diagnostics which will increase capacity, boost productivity, and streamline diagnostic pathways. This vital investment will modernise diagnostic services and reduce the time between initial diagnosis and starting treatment.
The plan also lays out how we will increase productivity and harness innovation to make systems more efficient and effective. We will utilise new tools such as artificial intelligence and liquid biopsy testing to speed up diagnosis and treatment decisions, strengthen the cancer workforce, improve turnaround times in histopathology, and give targeted support to the most challenged trusts.
Savings on integrated care board (ICB) spending on back-office costs will be reinvested into patient care, including cancer care, which will remain the primary focus of ICB funding and investment. National Health Service regions and Cancer Alliances will jointly identify underperforming trusts and provide intensive support including leadership intervention, peer‑to‑peer mentoring, seconding senior managers from stronger trusts, and access to £200 million of ring‑fenced cancer funding in 2026/27 to improve cancer pathway performance and reduce delays.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether kidney disease will be included in the next wave of Modern Service Frameworks.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will consider long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks (MSFs). The criteria for determining other conditions for future MSFs will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. After the initial wave of MSFs is complete, the National Quality Board will determine the conditions to prioritise for new MSFs as part of its work programme.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has undertaken a review of the medical exemption criteria for prescription charges, particularly in relation to solid-organ transplant recipients.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No review of the medical exemption criteria for prescription charges has been undertaken.
There are extensive arrangements in place in England to ensure that prescriptions are affordable for everyone. Approximately 89% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge in the community in England, and there is a wide range of exemptions from prescription charges already in place for which recipients of a solid-organ transplant may be eligible. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, whether they are pregnant or have recently given birth, or whether they are in receipt of certain benefits or a war pension.
People on low incomes can apply for help with their health costs through the NHS Low Income Scheme, which provides help based on a comparison between a person’s income and requirements.
People who need to pay and need many prescription items could save money with a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC). PPCs allow people to claim as many prescriptions as needed for a set cost. An annual PPC costs £114.50 and will save money if they need 12 or more items in 12 months. To help spread the cost, people can pay for an annual PPC by 10 monthly direct debits, which works out as just over £2 per week. A three-month PPC for £32.05 is also available.
To further support patients National Health Service prescription charges in England have been frozen for the second successive year, keeping the cost for a single charge at £9.90.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
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 public health impact of removing people with Type 1 diabetes from eligibility for the NHS autumn COVID-19 booster vaccination programme; and what clinical advice informed the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s recommendation on that eligibility.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Government’s policy on groups eligible for vaccination programmes is based on the advice of the independent expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Over time, the risk from COVID-19 has reduced across the United Kingdom population, through exposure to the virus, changes in the virus and vaccination.
The JCVI carefully considered the latest evidence on the risk of illness, serious disease in specific groups, as well as cost-effectiveness analysis, to provide the Government with advice on the autumn 2025 programme. The evidence indicates that whilst the risk from COVID-19 is now much lower for most people, adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and those who are immunosuppressed are those at highest risk of serious COVID-19 disease. A more targeted vaccination programme, aimed at individuals, with a higher risk of developing serious disease, and where vaccination was considered potentially cost-effective, was advised for autumn 2025.
Whilst current COVID-19 vaccines provide good protection against hospitalisation and/or death for those at highest risk, they provide very limited protection against acquiring COVID-19 infection or mild illness, meaning any potential public health benefit of reducing transmission is much less evident.
Long term health consequences following COVID-19 infection, including post-COVID syndromes, such as long COVID, have been discussed at meetings of the JCVI. It remains uncertain whether getting extra COVID-19 vaccine doses has any effect on the chances of developing long COVID, how it progresses, or how it affects people.
The JCVI has proactively published an updated list of Research Recommendations, encouraging future investigations on the exploration of data and evidence on the benefit of vaccination amongst post-COVID syndromes, and those with underlying medical conditions who are not currently eligible.
The JCVI keeps all vaccination programmes under review. Accordingly, the Government will consider any additional advice from the JCVI in due course. Further information on the details of the modelling and analysis considered are within the 2025 and spring 2026 advice, on the GOV.UK website.
Information is collected on hospital bed occupancy and on the reason for hospital admissions. It is, however, not possible to determine which admissions associated with COVID-19 were for individuals who were eligible for vaccination in autumn 2024 but no longer eligible in autumn 2025.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2025 to Question HL4889 on Knee Replacements: Waiting Lists, what specific steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for (a) knee replacements and (b) other orthopaedic operations.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of August 2025, the waiting list for Trauma and Orthopaedics, which includes patients waiting for knee replacements and other orthopaedic operations, stood at 866,426. Performance against the 18-week referral to treatment standard was 58.8%.
The Department is taking a range of specific steps to reduce waiting times for these procedures. To continue to expand and enhance surgical capacity, we have allocated £1.65 billion in capital funding in 2025-26 to support NHS performance across secondary and emergency care. As of September 2025, 123 surgical hubs are operational across England and we are committed to ramping up the number of hubs over the next three years, so more operations can be carried out. These dedicated and protected surgical hubs focus on high volume low complexity surgeries, with the majority of hubs undertaking trauma and orthopaedics procedures.
We are improving efficiency within existing capacity. Theatre utilisation within elective surgical hubs has shown a steady improvement from around 79% in August 2024 to an average of around 81% in August 2025, enabling a greater number of procedures to be undertaken across all specialties.
As part of the Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, we are also optimising perioperative care to ensure patients are ready for surgery sooner. This includes encouraging patients waiting for surgery to engage in prevention health measures such as smoking cessation and weight management, ensuring more patients are assessed as fit to proceed to surgery, and therefore leave the waiting list faster.
This Government is committed to putting patients first and tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission. These measures have already contributed to increased elective activity. We exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra 2 million operations, scans, and appointments in our first year, having delivered 5.2 million more appointments. This marked a vital First Step to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
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 adequacy of the Ambulance Response Programme in the East Midlands Ambulance Service .
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government accepts that urgent and emergency care performance has, in recent years, been short of the standards the public rightly expect. We are determined to put things right.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Delivery Plan for 2025/26 commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. We are also tackling unacceptable ambulance handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, ensuring ambulances are released more quickly and get back on the road to treat patients.
We have already seen improvements in response times across the country, including in the East Midlands. The latest national figures for the East Midlands show that Category 2 'emergency incidents' were responded to in 32 minutes 35 seconds on average. This is faster than the 36 minutes 8 seconds seen in July 2024.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
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 reducing restrictions on recruitment to enable NHS Trusts to recruit more British doctors trained abroad.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. British doctors who obtained their medical degree abroad need to meet the requirements of the General Medical Council, the independent professional regulator of the medical profession, to practise medicine in the United Kingdom.
British doctors who have obtained a medical degree abroad are then able to apply for jobs in the National Health Service on the same basis as UK medical graduates.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing British students who obtain a medical degree abroad to be treated the same as domestic students when applying for jobs in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Subject to their registration status, British students who have obtained a medical degree abroad are able to apply for jobs in the National Health Service on the same basis as United Kingdom medical graduates.
Following completion of a medical degree, in order to be eligible for full registration with the General Medical Council (GMC), UK medical graduates must undertake and complete the first year of the UK Foundation Programme, a work-based training programme that will be their first job as a doctor in the NHS.
Some individuals who have obtained a medical degree abroad, which may include British citizens, will already hold or expect to hold full registration with the GMC due to the level of experience working in clinical settings that they have obtained. These individuals would not need to, and would not be eligible to, apply to the UK Foundation Programme, and instead can consider applying for jobs as a fully registered doctor. In these instances, they should liaise with the GMC to confirm which jobs they are eligible to apply for.