Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce (a) transitional protection and (b) retrospective corrective measures for NHS staff who took partial retirement before formal guidance on its impact on redundancy entitlement was issued.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to introduce transitional protections or retrospective corrective measures for National Health Service staff who took partial retirement before formal guidance on the impact of redundancy entitlement was issued.
Contractual redundancy provisions for staff covered by the NHS terms and conditions of service handbook, also referred to as Agenda for Change, in England were agreed and ratified in partnership by the NHS Staff Council, the collective bargaining structure made up of trade union and employer representatives.
Any future changes to the handbook, including this section, would require the department to issue a mandate to allow negotiations to be undertaken by the NHS Staff Council.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will update Section 16 of the NHS Staff Terms and Conditions Handbook to clarify the impact of partial retirement on redundancy entitlements.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Contractual redundancy provisions for staff covered by the National Health Service terms and conditions of service handbook, also referred to as Agenda for Change, in England were agreed and ratified in partnership by the NHS Staff Council, the collective bargaining structure made up of trade union and employer representatives.
There are no plans to update the handbook.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many households in (i) Fylde constituency and (ii) across Lancashire will benefit from the Disabled Facilities Grant in 2026–27.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have recently confirmed funding of £723 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) in England in 2026/27. The full list of allocations, including for Fylde and Lancashire, can be found at the following link:
We do not know how many households will benefit in Fylde and Lancashire specifically, as- people apply for the grant locally and it is up to each local authority to manage their allocation whilst meeting their statutory duties. In 2024/25, the DFG supported nearly 60,000 people nationally to make adaptations to their homes, with an average grant of approximately £10,000.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made on implementing the £500 million fair pay agreement for adult social care workers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The consultation on the design of the Fair Pay Agreement process has now closed, however the Easy Read version remains open until 6 March to ensure everyone has the opportunity to contribute. We are analysing the responses and will set out our formal response in due course.
We expect regulations establishing the negotiating body, bringing together employer and employee representatives, will be laid in 2026. We expect negotiations will be held in 2027. Once an agreement on how the funding should be spent has been reached, the Fair Pay Agreement will be implemented in 2028.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with representative organisations, including Mencap, on the adequacy of social care charging reforms.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Last year, the Prime Minister asked Baroness Louise Casey of Blackstock to chair an independent commission into adult social care to look at how to build a social care system that is fit for the future, including how best to make it fair and affordable
Baroness Casey and her team have been engaging extensively, putting the voices of people who draw on care and their families at the centre of the conversation, as well as meeting with sector organisations. Later this year, the commission will also launch a national conversation to build public consensus on what adult social care should deliver for citizens.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 risks to patient safety arising from hospital records not being fully shared between different NHS trusts.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Appropriate information sharing is essential to delivering safe and effective health care. Improving this will enable enhanced quality of care and safety for patients and better informed clinical and care decision-making empowered by access to precise and comprehensive information.
NHS England has been supporting National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts in acquiring and developing the effectiveness of their electronic patient records and supporting them to reach an optimum level of digital maturity which will further reduce barriers to the sharing of information needed to treat patients.
By 2028, a new single patient record will end the need for patients to have to repeat their medical history when interacting with the NHS. By providing a complete, real-time view of patient information across regions and care settings, it will significantly improve clinical safety and performance.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the current average waiting times are for patients to begin radiotherapy treatment following referral, broken down by region and cancer type.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The published data on cancer waiting times in England does not include average waiting times for patients to begin treatment, and the Department does not publish radiotherapy data broken down by tumour type, as we present tumour type and treatment modality breakdowns separately.
However, the Department does publish the 31-day standard performance data for radiotherapy. Whilst the publication does not directly present this data at a regional level, the published commissioner-level data can be aggregated using publicly available mapping tables.
The following table shows 31-day standard performance data for radiotherapy at the regional and national levels, for the latest month of data available at the time of production, November 2025:
Region name | Total activity | Within standard activity | Breaches | Performance |
East of England | 1,266 | 1,027 | 239 | 81.1% |
London | 1,204 | 1,129 | 75 | 93.8% |
Midlands | 2,121 | 1,918 | 203 | 90.4% |
North East and Yorkshire | 1,867 | 1,562 | 305 | 83.7% |
North West | 1,486 | 1,460 | 26 | 98.3% |
South East | 1,801 | 1,577 | 224 | 87.6% |
South West | 1,318 | 1,235 | 83 | 93.7% |
Unknown or national commissioning hub | 109 | 109 | - | 100.0% |
National | 11,172 | 10,017 | 1,155 | 89.7% |
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what oversight mechanisms were in place within NHS England and his Department to monitor the expenditure and governance of overseas medical training schemes operated by NHS trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are a variety of international postgraduate medical training schemes in operation governed by individual National Health Service trusts, medical royal colleges, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and indirectly, NHS England and the General Medical Council. These programmes must be properly governed, deliver value for money, and treat all participants fairly. We expect all NHS organisations to operate in line with these principles.
The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill was introduced to Parliament on 13 January 2026. The bill delivers the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, published in July 2025, to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates, and other doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period, for specialty training.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients when they need it. As part of that plan, we will outline strategies for improving retention, productivity, training, and reducing attrition, enhancing conditions for all staff while gradually reducing reliance on international recruitment, without diminishing the value of their contributions.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce alternative (a) training and (b) recruitment schemes for overseas doctors, in the context of changes in funding.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are a variety of international postgraduate medical training schemes in operation governed by individual National Health Service trusts, medical royal colleges, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and indirectly, NHS England and the General Medical Council. These programmes must be properly governed, deliver value for money, and treat all participants fairly. We expect all NHS organisations to operate in line with these principles.
The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill was introduced to Parliament on 13 January 2026. The bill delivers the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, published in July 2025, to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates, and other doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period, for specialty training.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients when they need it. As part of that plan, we will outline strategies for improving retention, productivity, training, and reducing attrition, enhancing conditions for all staff while gradually reducing reliance on international recruitment, without diminishing the value of their contributions.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiotherapy machines are currently in operation in NHS hospitals, and how this compares with projected clinical need over the next five and ten years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of radiotherapy treatment machines in use across the National Health Service in England is not recorded as part of a nationally mandated data collection.
The commissioning of radiotherapy services is overseen by local systems. They have the responsibility to ensure that sufficient capacity is in place for local populations, taking account of the different factors that can affect demand and capacity. The projected number of machines needed to meet future demand depends on a range of factors including clinical practice, for instance fraction protocols, patient choice, between different equivalent treatments, local working practices, for instance the hours and days of operation, as well as the technical specification of treatment machines, and the throughput per hour.