Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to work with UKHSA to issue specific guidance for (a) health professionals and (b) the public, regarding the health risks to pregnant people during periods of extreme heat.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recognises that there are risks caused by exposure to extreme high temperatures which are set out in the Adverse Weather and Health Plan Equity Review and Impact Assessment 2024. This includes an assessment on stillbirth, pre-term birth, and maternal health complications.

UKHSA provides a weather-health alerting system for England, which alerts the public, including specific vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, and public sector organisations to prepare for impacts of adverse weather, including high temperatures. Risks to health are communicated via heat-health alerts.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his department plans to update NHS antenatal and maternity guidance, in the context of emerging evidence that extreme heat exposure can elevate risks to pregnant people and unborn children.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recognises that there are risks caused by exposure to extreme high temperatures which are set out in the Adverse Weather and Health Plan Equity Review and Impact Assessment 2024. This includes an assessment on stillbirth, pre-term birth, and maternal health complications.

UKHSA provides a weather-health alerting system for England, which alerts the public, including specific vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, and public sector organisations to prepare for impacts of adverse weather, including high temperatures. Risks to health are communicated via heat-health alerts.

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 support and services for patients with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England continues to work with eating disorder services and local commissioners to improve access to assessment and treatment for people with a suspected eating disorder, including those presenting with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Lessons from previous pilots commissioned to improve access to support and develop training on ARFID has contributed to this work.

Community children and young people’s eating disorder services across England provide assessment and treatment for eating disorders, including ARFID, and local areas are able to commission training and adapt care pathways to ensure services meet the needs of patients with this condition.

In January 2026, NHS England also updated guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, including ARFID, that seeks to strengthen early identification and intervention of eating disorders, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist community eating disorder services as soon as an eating disorder is suspected.

Whilst the guidance focuses on improving community pathways for children and young people, the national specialised adult service model continues to provide access to highly specialist inpatient treatment for adults with complex eating disorders, through the Specialised Adult Eating Disorder Units network. These units deliver multidisciplinary care that typically includes psychiatric assessment and treatment, psychological therapies, medical monitoring, dietetic support and structured rehabilitation, and can provide inpatient care for adults with severe and enduring eating disorders where required.

Integrated care boards are responsible for providing health and care services to meet the needs of their local populations.

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 whether the current resourcing level in the Criminal Enforcement Unit of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is sufficient to progress enforcement action in all cases where warranted.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Resourcing levels and operational demand are kept under ongoing review to ensure the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s Criminal Enforcement Unit remains able to respond effectively to evolving criminal threats. While additional capacity could facilitate additional activity, the unit delivers an effective enforcement response within the resources allocated, applying risk-based prioritisation to ensure the most serious threats to public health are addressed.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many reports were submitted by members of the public through the Yellow Card scheme, in each of the past five years, in relation to the sale of (a) counterfeit medicines, (b) unapproved medicines in the UK, and (c) medicines which are authorised for supply in the UK but supplied through unregulated channels.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Answering the question raised by the Hon. Member would require the Medicines and Healthcare Products Agency staff to go through a large volume of data manually. This is because the information is not held in such a way to be able to filter by the requested categories.

The sections (a) and (b) would require a data extraction to identify all reports received from members of the public over the last five years. Following this, a manual review would need to be undertaken of every report to cross reference the suspect drug against all active licenses at the time of reporting for each individual case and would thereby incur disproportionate cost. Section (c) is information which is not held in the Yellow Card database.

The Guide to Parliamentary Work sets here out that there is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The Guide to Parliamentary Work is published online and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many reports submitted by members of the public through the Yellow Card scheme resulted in enforcement action by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, in each of the past five years, in relation to the sale of (a) counterfeit medicines, (b) unapproved medicines in the UK and (c) medicines which are authorised for supply in the UK but supplied through unregulated channels.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 31 March 2026 to Question 122732.

The Yellow Card scheme collects reports of suspected adverse drug reactions, medical device incidents, and concerns about the safety and quality of medicines. Where appropriate, reports raising potential counterfeit, compliance, or safety issues may be referred to relevant teams within the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for consideration of regulatory or enforcement action.

However, this information is not held in a format that readily allows the MHRA to identify how many reports submitted by members of the public resulted in enforcement action in relation to counterfeit medicines, unapproved medicines in the UK, and medicines which are authorised for supply in the United Kingdom but supplied through unregulated channels. Extracting this information from Yellow Card reports would require a manual review of individual records and would incur disproportionate cost. The MHRA is therefore unable to provide the requested figures for each of the past five years.

100th anniversary of the birth of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II