Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
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 VAT on the provision of free of charge compassionate drugs.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the important role that expanded access programmes can play in enabling patients, particularly those with serious or rare conditions, to access innovative medicines outside routine commissioning arrangements.
As with other goods, the VAT treatment of medicines in the United Kingdom is governed by long-standing principles. This means that even where medicines are supplied free of charge in certain circumstances, a taxable supply may arise. There is no specific VAT exemption for medicines provided through expanded access programmes.
The Government is committed to finding a solution to the issue of companies paying VAT on medicines donated free of charge. This will be delivered either through a VAT change, or through a reimbursement scheme. This decision is subject to further policy work, and officials are working with stakeholders to explore options.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) adults and (b) children received drugs provided free of charge to the NHS for compassionate reasons in each year from 2021 to 2026.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally. Pharmaceutical companies can establish compassionate use or early access programmes through which medicines may be made available to National Health Service patients free of charge ahead of an NHS commissioning decision. Such schemes operate outside the established commissioning arrangements for medicines and neither the Department nor NHS England collects information on the number of patients receiving medicines through compassionate use schemes.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
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 impact of payments for validation on Trusts' willingness to validate waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England provided funding to support validation of waiting lists in 2025/26, as part of the Government's plans for a more productive and improved approach to elective care which is better for patients.
Effective waiting list validation means trusts have an accurate understanding of the true size of their waiting list, and helps them to reduce missed or cancelled appointments, ensure clinicians' time is focused on the patients who need it, and reduce overall waiting times.
Validation is a core part of effective waiting list management and we are still behind pre-pandemic levels. Alongside other efforts, including record levels of activity, ensuring clean waiting lists is a key part of our efforts to improve waiting list performance and build on our success in meeting the interim target of 65% referral to treatment performance by the end of March 2026.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse has been of the use of external management consultants in the planning and delivery of i) the restructuring of his Department, ii) the abolition of NHS England and iii) changes to ICBs.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Expenditure on external consultants will be reported in our Annual Accounts in the normal way.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
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 ICB clustering on patient voice and the efficacy of Local Healthwatch.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Health Bill, currently before Parliament, proposes abolition of Healthwatch arrangements nationally and locally. This follows the publication of the report by Penny Dash published in July 2025, which concluded that even though there are multiple organisations representing the voice of the user, including Local Healthwatch, patient experience has not been given the attention that it deserves.
We will make sure patients, service users and local people can influence the strategic planning of services, by placing responsibility for obtaining and actioning the views of all local people on health services with integrated care boards, including those that are clustering.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which organisations, bodies, trade unions and other stakeholders have been (a) provided with advance sight of and (b) briefed on the contents of the forthcoming Workforce Plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have undertaken an extensive programme of engagement to support the development the 10 Year Workforce Plan. This has included meeting with trade unions, education partners, Royal Colleges, think tanks, charities and system partners. This engagement has included briefing on proposed elements of the plan, where appropriate.
Advanced sight of early versions of the plan has been provided on an individual basis to support its development.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
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 reduce incidence of syphilis.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency published a national Syphilis Response Plan in March 2026, which is available at the following link:
The plan focuses on four key areas: preventing infection; improving testing; ensuring timely treatment; and eliminating congenital syphilis, where infection is passed from mother to baby during pregnancy. Actions include raising public and professional awareness, strengthening prevention activity, expanding and optimising access to testing, improving care pathways, and supporting partner notification to reduce onward transmission.
During 2025, national provision of doxycycline post exposure prophylaxis (doxyPEP) through sexual health services was implemented as a new intervention. This followed evidence of its impact on reducing syphilis incidence in clinical trials and real-world application. United Kingdom guidelines recommend doxyPEP for gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men and transgender women at elevated risk of acquiring syphilis.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answers of 1 April 2026 to Question 122780 and 25 March 2026 to Question 120988 on General Practitioners: Contracts and with reference to the oral statement of 16 April 2026 on the Women's Health Strategy, whether waiting times for patients who are offered secondary care following an Advice and Guidance (A&G) request in (a) March, (b) April, (c) May, (d) June, (e) July, (f) August, (g) September, (h) October and (i) November 2026.will be calculated from (i) the date the A&G request is received, (ii) the date the A&G request is accepted as a referral and (iii) other dates on the pathway.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As per long-standing practice, an Advice and Guidance (A&G) request itself does not begin the formal period of waiting. If a referral is then made, the waiting time is calculated from when the provider receives notice of that referral
When providers move to an elective Single Point of Access (SPoA) model, as set out in the Medium Term Planning Framework, for patients referred for secondary care treatment following an A&G request, the waiting time will be calculated from the date the request is received by the SPoA.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
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 improve early detection of placenta accreta.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Placenta Accreta Spectrum (PAS) is rare, but when it does occur it can cause bleeding that is potentially life-threatening. This is why maternity teams are trained to look for the warning signs and identify women at higher risk early in pregnancy.
In 2020, NHS England commissioned PAS networks in the United Kingdom which support local and regional screening, shared protocols and co-ordinated referral pathways to specialist PAS centres. Skilled practitioners with experience of the diagnosis have high rates of detection, which is one of the reasons we have set up specialist centres and introduced clear referral criteria.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to bring forward regulations on the (a) colour, (b) shape, (c) flavour and (d) display of (i) vaping and (ii) nicotine products.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is incredibly worrying that 25% of 11- to 15-year-olds have tried vaping. That is why we are committed to bringing about definitive and positive change to stop future generations from becoming hooked on nicotine. Evidence shows us that vapes appeal to children for many reasons, including packaging, product appearance, flavours, and vapes being easy to access.
The Tobacco and Vapes Act includes a range of new regulation-making powers for the Government. This includes powers that will enable us to introduce new restrictions on the packaging, product appearance, and display of vapes in shops.
We will soon consult on introducing restrictions on tobacco, vaping and nicotine product packaging, flavour descriptors, vape appearance, and changing where and how vapes are displayed in shops. We will listen very carefully to the views and evidence put forward by stakeholders.