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 make an assessment of the potential impact of the closure of Milbanke care home on the availability of care home places in (a) Lancashire and (b) Fylde constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities, in this case the Lancashire County Council, are required to shape their local markets, and to ensure that people have a range of high-quality, sustainable, and person-centred care and support options available to them, such that they can access services that best meet their needs.
This reflects the fact that local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the care needs of their populations, and to make any assessment of proposals in relation to local market capacity.
Department officials maintain a range of engagement on a range of issues with directors of adult social services and their departments in local authorities across the country. Colleagues from the Lancashire County Council have been involved in these discussions.
I have agreed to meet with a number of local Members of Parliament to discuss the consultation the Lancashire County Council has launched on the future of 10 adult social care services, including the Milbanke care home.
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 discussions his Department has had with Lancashire County Council on care home provision in (a) Lancashire and (b) Fylde constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities, in this case the Lancashire County Council, are required to shape their local markets, and to ensure that people have a range of high-quality, sustainable, and person-centred care and support options available to them, such that they can access services that best meet their needs.
This reflects the fact that local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the care needs of their populations, and to make any assessment of proposals in relation to local market capacity.
Department officials maintain a range of engagement on a range of issues with directors of adult social services and their departments in local authorities across the country. Colleagues from the Lancashire County Council have been involved in these discussions.
I have agreed to meet with a number of local Members of Parliament to discuss the consultation the Lancashire County Council has launched on the future of 10 adult social care services, including the Milbanke care home.
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 discussions his Department has had with Lancashire County Council on support for unpaid carers in Fylde constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Health and Social Care regularly engages with local authorities, including Lancashire County Council, on a range of social care issues, including unpaid carers.
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 he has made of the potential impact of the NHS emergency department opt-out testing programme on early diagnosis rates for (a) HIV, (b) hepatitis B and (c) hepatitis C.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A public health evaluation of the emergency department blood-borne virus opt-out testing programme for the first 34 sites taking part showed that there were 3,667 new diagnoses of hepatitis B, 831 of hepatitis C, and 719 of HIV between April 2022 and December 2024.
Approximately 50% of all people diagnosed with hepatitis B and hepatitis C were newly diagnosed through the programme, compared to 8.3% for HIV. The vast majority, or 73.4%, of people newly diagnosed had no record of a previous bloodborne virus test, which indicates that the testing programme has been successful in accessing a population with different demographics and risk factors to testing offered in other settings and supporting the earlier diagnosis of these individuals.
The public health evaluation of the emergency department opt-out testing programme is available at the following link:
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 will review the current appeals process for NHS prescription penalty charges to ensure that reasonable discretion is applied in cases of (a) genuine mistake and (b) hardship.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to review the appeals process. The Real Time Exemption Checking Service in England (RTEC) helps pharmacy teams confirm whether a patient holds a valid exemption from National Health Service prescription charges quickly while in the pharmacy. The RTEC provides assurance to patients and pharmacy teams that exemptions are being claimed correctly.
It is also a patient’s responsibility to be aware of their entitlement and to ensure they take appropriate steps to legitimately enable them to claim exemption from charges. Further information on this is available on the NHS.UK website and the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) website, which are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/prescriptions/check-if-you-can-get-free-prescriptions/
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-help-health-costs
Patients can also use the NHS BSA eligibility checker, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/dont-get-caught-out-penalty-charges/check-you-tick
Where a patient is unsure if they are entitled to exemption from NHS prescription charges, they should pay the applicable charges and request an FP57 receipt and refund form at the point at which they pay the prescription charge. They can then claim a refund from the pharmacy within three months of paying the prescription charge once they have evidence of exemption.
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 patients in England are receiving treatment with the Optune Tumour Treating Fields device; and at which NHS Trusts such treatment is available.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) considered the use of tumour treating fields (TTF) in its guideline on brain tumours, reference code NG99, published in 2018 and recommended that the treatment should not be offered by the National Health Service for the management of newly diagnosed glioblastoma or recurrent high-grade glioma, based on an assessment of the evidence available at the time.
Decisions on whether guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by NICE’s Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE’s prioritisation board considered TTF for glioblastoma in July 2024, where they agreed the topic should not be prioritised but reconsidered when relevant key trials have completed.
At the meeting on 15 September 2025, the topic was reconsidered. The prioritisation board noted that some trials are ongoing, including a key trial that is likely to be published in 2026, and consequently agreed that the topic should still not be prioritised at this time, but revisited once those trials have been published.
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 plans his Department has to request that NICE begin an appraisal of the Optune Tumour Treating Fields device for the treatment of glioblastoma.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to request that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) appraise tumour treating fields (TTF), or to intervene in NICE’s established guidance prioritisation process.
NICE considered the use of TTF in its guideline on brain tumours, reference NG99, published in 2018, and recommended that the treatment should not be offered for the management of newly diagnosed glioblastoma or recurrent high-grade glioma, based on an assessment of the evidence available at the time.
Decisions on whether guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by NICE’s Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE’s prioritisation board considered TTF for glioblastoma in July 2024 where they agreed that the topic should not be prioritised but reconsidered when relevant key trials have completed.
At the meeting on 15 September 2025, the topic was reconsidered. The prioritisation board noted that some trials are ongoing, including a key trial that is likely to be published in 2026, and consequently agreed that the topic should still not be prioritised at this time, but revisited once those trials have been published.
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 his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the introduction of digital ID on levels of registration for the organ donors' register.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organ donation organisation for the UK responsible for the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR), which is available at the following link:
https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/register-your-decision/
For the purposes of this response, Digital ID has been assumed to refer to the potential introduction of a citizen ID as recently announced by the UK Government.
Presently, NHSBT has made no formal assessment on the potential impact of the introduction of Digital ID on levels of ODR registration. The appropriateness of this will be monitored going forward.
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 steps he is taking to ensure that the results of research funded through the Mental Health Goals programme are rapidly translated into frontline NHS mental health services.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is investing £50 million through the Mental Health Goals programme to speed up the translation of research into frontline NHS services. Funding will support a 20,000-person research cohort, improved access to mental health data, and an Industry Alliance Team to fast-track clinical trials. A new Lived Experience Partnership will ensure innovations reflect real patient needs. These steps will help deliver more effective, personalised treatments for people struggling with mental health conditions and ensure that breakthroughs reach NHS patients faster, supporting a National Health Service fit for the future.
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 he has made of the link between untreated Urinary Tract infections and (a) mental confusion and (b) aggression in patients with neurological injuries.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Department has funded and supported multiple studies investigating urinary tract infections (UTIs), with some funded studies studying the link between UTIs and cognitive outcomes. For example, NIHR has funded the ‘IntraVESical Preparations for REcurrent Urinary Tract Infection Prevention’ (VESPER) study. This study aims to determine whether in-bladder treatments are more effective and cost-efficient than second-line oral antibiotics in reducing recurrent UTIs in women who have not responded to first-line preventative antibiotics. It will connect clinical outcomes with quality-adjusted life year (QALY)-based evaluations that take cognitive changes into account.
NIHR infrastructure is also conducting relevant research that is investigating UTIs and considering cognitive outcomes. The NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, is leading the ‘DIagnoSing Care hOme UTI’ (DISCO UTI) study which is investigating new ways to accurately diagnose and treat UTIs in care homes, as UTIs can cause symptoms like confusion, resulting in difficulties when diagnosing UTIs in care home residents.