Joined House of Lords: 21st January 2026
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These initiatives were driven by Baroness Nargund, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Baroness Nargund has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Baroness Nargund has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
With over one million young people not in education, employment and training, this Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy.
This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn, including through expanded network of Youth Hubs, earlier intensive support in Jobs Centres through a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, additional work experience and training opportunities, a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant and £2,000 apprenticeship hiring payment for employers, and a fully funded six month job for long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds.
We also recognise the crisis of participation that Alan Milburn has so clearly laid out in his interim report. We will use this interim report to continue to build our reforms and look forward to final recommendations in the Autumn.
AI has potentially transformative benefits for the economy and wider society, and the Government is doing all it can to ensure that the United Kingdom is at the forefront of this technological transition. That’s why the government is taking action now to shape this transition in a way that benefits workers, including young women, and the economy. This includes:
The Government recognises that disparities exist between the private pension wealth of men and women.
The Pensions Commission will explore steps to improve pension outcomes, especially for groups at the greatest risk of under saving, including women. The Commission published their interim report on 19 May 2026, setting out key challenges facing the pension system and where it will focus its work, and will publish their final report early next year.
For those living with terminal illness, the Government believes it is compassionate and appropriate to allow access to private pension savings. Individuals with a life expectancy of less than 12 months may take a serious ill-health lump sum at any age, subject to medical evidence and scheme rules. This is tax-free below age 75 up to an allowance of £1.073 million, and otherwise taxed as income.
While the current rules intend to provide flexibility while keeping in place important safeguards to avoid risk of error and misuse, the Government recognises that the permissive nature of these rules means individuals may experience different hurdles to access depending on their scheme. The government wishes to ensure a fair and compassionate approach and will therefore be considering this issue in further detail.
Supporting perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationships are vital to the health and wellbeing of babies and their caregivers.
The Department is investing £200 million for Healthy Babies services in 75 local authority areas with high levels of deprivation, including £109 million to provide enhanced parent-infant relationship and perinatal mental health support. This forms part of a £900 million package in Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies to create a more integrated, accessible system of support for families.
All Best Start Family Hubs should provide safe and inclusive perinatal mental health support, identifying needs early, offering emotional support and help families to access appropriate support and services within their local area. Healthy Babies funded areas are expected to deliver an enhanced perinatal mental health service, with proactive identification, accessible support, and clear referral pathways. These services complement National Health Service provision for parents with moderate to severe perinatal mental health needs.
Technological innovation is central to achieving the Government’s ambitions to build a health and social care system fit for the future, and to shorten the amount of time people spend in poor health.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is continuing to enable system-wide collaboration by creating integrated frameworks that bring together National Health Service organisations, academia, and industry throughout the innovation lifecycle. This includes through United Kingdom wide access pathways such as the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway and the Innovative Devices Access Pathway, which concluded in March 2025. These pathways provide developers with an integrated platform for sustained engagement with regulators, UK Health Technology Assessment bodies, and the NHS.
The MHRA has published a statement of policy intent for developing and implementing an Early Access Service for innovative medical devices. The service is intended to accelerate safe patient access to innovative devices, supporting the Government’s ambitions in the Life Sciences Sector Plan. The MHRA also offers early-stage regulatory engagement through its Innovation Office and Innovation Accelerator function.
The NIHR, the Department’s research arm, is strengthening commercial research through the NIHR Industry Hub and by implementing recommendations from the NIHR Industry Engagement and Delivery Review. These measures are creating a more coherent, connected and responsive system for collaboration with industry. This includes unifying approaches to industry engagement across the NIHR, embedding consistent metrics for delivery performance, streamlining costing and contracting processes, and developing tailored support for small to medium enterprises to ensure that innovative biotech and medtech companies can access the UK’s research infrastructure effectively.
The NIHR’s Innovation Catalyst is designed to accelerate late-stage, high-impact innovations, linking NHS need, economic growth, and commercialisation. It will support real-world evaluation and readiness for NHS adoption of innovative treatments. Together, these measures position the UK to deliver commercial trials faster and improve access to innovation treatments, more transparently, and at global scale.
The Government is committed to turbocharging clinical research and delivering better patient care, to make the UK a world-leading destination for clinical research. We are working to fast-track clinical trials and have committed to cutting the current time it takes to get a clinical trial set up to under 150 days, to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes, and accelerate the development of medicines and therapies of the future.
The Government recognises that international collaboration is essential for clinical trials in rare cancers, where small and geographically dispersed patient populations mean that multi-country studies are necessary to generate robust clinical evidence.
The United Kingdom associated to Horizon Europe in January 2024, enabling UK entities to participate in European Union wide and international clinical trials, including on rare cancers. Through Horizon Europe, the UK participates in the EU Cancer Mission and the European Rare Diseases Research Alliance. These complementary Horizon Europe initiatives are bringing together funding, international expertise, and patient advocacy to support international clinical trials to improve survival rates and access to treatments for those affected by rare cancers globally.
The UK has strong capability to participate in EU-wide and international trials, supported by National Institute for Health and Care Research funding and its wider investments in research infrastructure, which enable the delivery of high-quality, complex studies. Rare cancer trials are being further strengthened through the National Cancer Plan for England and the implementation of the Rare Cancers Act 2026, which will support the UK’s delivery of rare cancer trials and participation in international studies.
The Government has considered evidence and undertaken an assessment on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for health information, including the King’s College London study. A more detailed assessment is now taking place, including recommendations on next steps.
We recognise that the public increasingly uses a range of tools when exploring their health, including AI-powered chatbots, many of which are underpinned by large language models that generate conversational responses based on patterns in data rather than clinical judgement. This reflects wider shifts in how people access information. However, the accuracy and reliability of responses generated by these systems can vary, and they are not a substitute for professional medical advice, particularly where symptoms are complex, uncertain, or potentially serious.
We are transforming how patients access general practice, expanding rapid remote consultations, digital triage, and out‑of‑hours provision so people can get timely, clinically appropriate support in the way that best meets their needs.
The Government recognises the mental and physical health risks of people taking physique-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids. The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever and to exploring options, through the cross-Government National Youth Strategy, to improve young people’s access to accurate health information, both online and offline. We are also taking action through the men’s health strategy to improve health literacy.
The Government hosts Talk to FRANK, a drug and alcohol information and advice service for young people, parents, and others concerned about drug use. The website includes information on the mental and physical health risks of steroid use and is updated regularly. Treatment for image and performance enhancing drug use within drug and alcohol treatment services is available, depending on local commissioning arrangements. Drug and alcohol treatment services and local authority public health teams raise awareness of the risk of drug use, including physique-enhancing drugs, through targeted campaigns with their local populations according to local need, and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities supports them in this.
The Department of Health and Social Care has worked closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on its consultation, Growing up in the online world, whose outcomes were published in June 2026. This consultation will help inform future policy to better protect children’s health and wellbeing and ensure that digital platforms play their part in promoting safe and healthy online experiences.
We are also taking a range of actions to improve men’s health literacy, as set out in the Men’s Health Strategy. These include:
ensuring health literacy improvements are embedded at community level;
building the evidence base on health literacy in men;
working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; and
identifying ways to build media literacy skills in men to help them critically assess health information and protect against misinformation that harms to health.
Our 10-Year Health Plan for England sets out a reimagined service designed to tackle health inequalities in both access and outcomes. This includes tackling conditions where there are the greatest disparities for ethnic groups.
We remain committed to reducing the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest, an ambitious commitment that shows the Government is serious about tackling health inequalities and addressing the social determinants of health. Indicators to monitor progress in health inequalities are measured in key data outcomes, such as the life expectancy estimates for England and sub-national areas, produced by the Office for National Statistics.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in available data, including the quality of ethnicity data held to support the identification of health inequalities among ethnic minority communities.
There are a number of barriers to the consistent and accurate collection and recording of ethnicity data in the National Health Service, such as outdated ethnicity codes as a result of the need for the NHS to migrate from the 2001 to the 2021 Census ethnicity classification. There is also a need for a single point of collection of ethnicity data which multiple systems could speak to. Ethnicity needing to be recorded multiple times currently increases the likelihood of inconsistencies between data collected in different settings, as does inconsistency in how staff approach ethnicity data collection and recording, and there are particular challenges in some settings such as the ambulance services and accident and emergency. These inconsistencies can mean some individual patients having multiple ethnic codes from different settings and contacts with the healthcare system. In addition, the overuse of ‘Not stated’ and ‘Unknown’ ethnicity codes leads to gaps in data, undermining robust analysis of healthcare inequalities between ethnic groups
In October 2025, NHS England published an Ethnicity Recording Improvement Plan, which includes actions to address structural and practical barriers to high quality ethnicity recording at a system level, as well as guidance to support providers and systems to implement best practice ethnicity recording, including training staff and supporting patients to understand why and how this data is used. Data quality is a feature of the NHS Oversight Framework 2026/27 via inclusion of the data quality maturity index, meaning that NHS trusts are scored on the quality of their data overall. The completeness of their ethnicity data forms part of this overall index. Work is also underway within to address some of the barriers to high quality ethnicity data, including work to support the NHS’s migration to modernised ethnicity codes.
More generally, Department will look to improve data quality and timeliness, and fill data gaps around equalities in partnership with stakeholders.
The Department is committed to supporting more young people into careers in the National Health Service as part of its wider ambition to deliver a sustainable workforce fit for the future. As the country’s largest employer, the NHS has a unique responsibility to catalyse growth and economic prosperity in the communities it serves.
We work closely with colleagues across Government, and the wider health and social care system, to improve youth participation in education, employment and training by offering a range of entry routes into NHS careers for young people, including apprenticeships, supported internships and access programmes.
Current work includes the Widening Access Demonstrators programme which has already supported more than 1,000 young people and people from deprived communities into pre-employment programmes and onward opportunities in health or care. We have extended this work for 2026/27 and are also rolling out successful, proven pre-employment models nationally over the next three years. The Department also continues to work with the King’s Trust to support 3,500 young people from diverse backgrounds into NHS and adult social care roles by 2030.
The potential impact of microplastic materials on human health has been assessed by the UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT). The most recent statement was published in 2024 and is available on COT’s website in an online-only format.
In October 2025, the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) published a ‘state of the science’ statement summarising the evidence for a potential risk to health from exposure to airborne nano and microplastics (NMP) (excluding tyre wear particles), and the uncertainty and gaps in this evidence. The statement is available on GOV.UK in an online-only format.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has taken further steps to understand the risks to health of microplastics by carrying out published research to understand if there are potential health risks from exposure to micro and nano plastics through inhalational and oral routes. This work was carried out in collaboration with Imperial College under the Health Protection Research Unit Environmental Exposures and Health that was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) until March 2025.
The Government recognises microplastics as an emerging concern and continues to assess potential risks. On 12 May 2025, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published an Option Appraisal for Intentionally Added Microplastics as part of a research scoping project, assessing impacts on the environment and human health and setting out possible policy options, available on the Department’s website in an online-only format.
The Government is supporting research and working with regulators, industry and partners to better understand impacts, while taking action to reduce plastic pollution and protect water quality.
The Government recognises that women suffering with gynaecological conditions, including polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome (PMOS), have been failed for far too long, and we acknowledge the impact it has on women’s lives, relationships, and participation in education and the workforce.
We recognise the need to improve awareness of PMOS, and welcome the renaming of this condition to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, a change that reflects the multisystemic nature of the condition.
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, published in April 2026, represents a decisive shift towards addressing longstanding failings in women’s health outcomes, experiences, and access to care. The strategy announces a new programme to improve education for girls about their menstrual health, investing an additional £1 million to support targeted work in schools and community settings to support girls’ knowledge about menstrual health and when to seek healthcare. This investment in improved information will help women and girls know when to seek healthcare, which is an important factor in the diagnosis and treatment in conditions like PMOS.
In 2025, the Department for Education published revised statutory guidance on relationships and sex education and health education in schools, covering women's health topics including menstrual health, premenstrual syndrome, heavy periods, endometriosis, PMOS, and guidance for when to seek healthcare advice.
We are also introducing an “online hospital”, NHS Online. From 2027, people on certain pathways, including menstrual problems that may be a sign of PMOS, will have the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. NHS Online will help to reduce patient waiting times, delivering the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is developing guidance on PMOS and will publish a consultation of its draft guidelines in July.
The Government acknowledges that women suffering from symptoms of menopause have been failed for far too long, and we acknowledge the impact it has on women’s lives, relationships, and participation in the workplace.
We have made strong progress in turning the commitments in the last government’s Women's Health Strategy into tangible action. Our renewed strategy will address gaps from the 2022 strategy, and go further to create a system that listens to women and tackles health inequalities across England.
Renewing the strategy will help identify and remove enduring barriers to high-quality care across England, such as long waits for diagnosis, and ensuring professionals listen and respond to women’s needs.
As announced in October, we will be asking local authorities to include menopause in the NHS Health Check later this year. This will support eligible women across England to access high quality information on the menopause, including advice on managing symptoms, where to seek support, and a diagnosis.
Menopause and menstrual problems will be among the priorities for the National Health Service’s revolutionary new online hospital when it launches next year, providing faster access to specialist care.
We recognise that for some women symptoms of menopause can have a detrimental impact on mental health. Women experiencing anxiety or depression can get support from NHS Talking Therapies. They can ask their general practitioner to refer them or they can self-refer. As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, we are expanding Talking Therapies so that 915,000 people can complete a course of treatment by March 2029.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are a shining example of how we’re shifting care out of hospitals and into the community, making life easier and more convenient for patients. As of March 2026, 170 CDCs across England are open, 108 of which offer at least one service for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning that people can fit appointments, such as diagnostics for women on gynaecology pathways, around their lives, not the other way around. NHS England is working with local NHS systems to identify the most appropriate locations for additional investment, including new CDCs. New CDCs will be positioned in a location which addresses local need and address health inequalities.
I refer the Noble Baroness to the answers I gave on this issue in response to the Lord Bishop of Gloucester's Oral Question on 30 June. At the UN Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security on 17 June, the UK also reiterated this Government's approach to supporting women's participation in peacebuilding, access to protection and reproductive health services, and efforts to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence.