Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS England’s total budget has been allocated to vaccination and immunisation programmes in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for the operational delivery of vaccination and immunisation programmes, although this does not include the procurement of vaccines. The following table shows the proportion of NHS England’s total budget allocated to the operational delivery of vaccination and immunisation programmes for the last five years, where accounts have already been published:
Financial year | Vaccination and immunisation costs (£m) | NHS England total budget (£m) | Proportion of NHE England total budget spend on vaccination and immunisation |
2019/20 | 309 | 121,334 | 0.25% |
2020/21 | 955 | 147,132 | 0.65% |
2021/22 | 1,499 | 147,973 | 1.01% |
2022/23 | 989 | 155,228 | 0.64% |
2023/24 | 852 | 165,926 | 0.51% |
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
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 adequacy of steps taken by Integrated Care Boards to address regional inequalities in access to eye care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. Integrated care boards, as commissioners of primary and secondary eye care services, are required to work with local authorities to assess the current and future health, care, and wellbeing needs of their local populations. They will then set out, in joint local health and wellbeing strategies, how they will meet those needs, and this could include addressing any identified inequalities in accessing services.
Understanding patient demographics is an essential step in identifying and tackling health inequalities. The Elective Reform Plan included a commitment to publish waiting list information broken down by demographics to allow greater visibility of potential health inequalities. The Elective Reform Plan is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/reforming-elective-care-for-patients/
This enables local health services to understand the demographics of patients on their waiting list to better tailor services to their needs. Data on demographics of the elective waiting list can be found at the following link for the week ending 26 October 2025:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/wlmds/
It shows referral to treatment waiting times from the Waiting List Minimum Data Set for Ophthalmology split by age, sex, deprivation, and ethnicity.
The Public Health Outcomes Framework Eye Health Indicator also continues to track the rate of sight loss for age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. This information is available to commissioners and can be used to drive improved local outcomes and interventions.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
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 adequacy of eye care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning primary and secondary eye care services to meet local need. We are not aware of any issues with the availability of sight testing services. The decision to commission enhanced eye care services will be determined by local ICBs following a local needs assessment.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he made of the difference in uptake rates between maternal and infant RSV immunisations when developing the national immunisation programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The policy for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) programme is based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent expert advisory committee. The JCVI considered RSV modelling that included different levels of uptake for maternal or infant immunisation. The JCVI advised that either antenatal maternal vaccination or infant monoclonal antibody immunisation strategies could be suitable for a universal United Kingdom programme and did not have a preference. Maternal vaccination became the UK programme from September 2024 following a competitive tender.
The JCVI had noted that protection of preterm infants would need to be looked at if the UK adopted a maternal vaccination programme. At the October 2024 meeting the JCVI advised that a programme to extend a potential offer of nirsevimab, a monoclonal antibody, to very and extremely premature infants could be cost effective.
Based on JCVI’s advice, the RSV selective immunisation programme for high-risk infants switched in September 2025 from using palivizumab to using nirsevimab, and was extended to include premature babies born at less than 32 weeks gestation.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed the importance of including accessible behaviour-change and drinking moderation tools, including links to digital health support, as part of the new mandatory alcohol labelling standards.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England, the Government committed to strengthening and expanding existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages.
Department officials are currently working at pace to develop the policy. We are reviewing all available evidence and engaging with stakeholders to assess the potential content of the mandatory labels.
The Government currently provides drinking moderation tools like the new NHS Healthy Choices Quiz which is designed to help people to improve their health and wellbeing. It asks a range of lifestyle questions, including those about alcohol consumption, provides an overall score out of ten, and directs people to relevant National Health Service support services such as the Drink Free Days app.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed how alcohol labelling reforms could support local public-health and community-based initiatives aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm, particularly in areas with significant health inequalities.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England, the Government committed to strengthening and expanding existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages.
Clear and consistent labelling is expected to increase awareness of the health risks and to empower consumers to make more informed choices, complementing local public health strategies and community-level interventions.
The Government also committed to supporting community level innovations where they have shown promise in reducing alcohol harm. Officials are working at pace to take forward these commitments.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
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 merits of developing a Modern Service Framework for respiratory health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery. Early priorities will include cardiovascular disease, severe mental illness, and the first ever service framework for frailty and dementia.
The Government will consider other long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks, including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future modern service frameworks will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
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 publish a modern service framework for respiratory health.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Modern service frameworks will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery. Early priorities will include cardiovascular disease, severe mental illness, and the first ever service framework for frailty and dementia.
The Government will consider other long-term conditions for future waves of modern service frameworks, including respiratory conditions. The criteria for determining other conditions for future modern service frameworks will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason NHS England has not approved abiraterone for use in high-risk, non-metastatic prostate cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Abiraterone is licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for use in the treatment of high-risk hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published final draft guidance on 30 October and has been able to recommend abiraterone (originator and generics) for treating newly diagnosed high-risk hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer. NICE reviewed its guidance to determine whether to recommend abiraterone for use in this indication following the patent expiry for the medicine.
Abiraterone is not licensed for use in the treatment of high-risk, non-metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, and as such, it has not been evaluated by NICE through its technology appraisal programme. NICE makes recommendations for the National Health Service in England on the vast majority of new medicines and significant licence indications for existing medicines but does not evaluate medicines that are used outside their marketing authorisations, also known as “off-label”.
Funding decisions for off-label medicines are the responsibility of NHS commissioners who are required to make decisions on the basis of the available evidence. For cancer medicines, NHS England is the responsible commissioner and has an established mechanism to make funding decisions on medicines that are not evaluated by NICE through its clinical prioritisation process. NHS England considered abiraterone as an off-label treatment for hormone-sensitive, non-metastatic prostate cancer through its clinical policy development process in 2024/25. Through this process, NHS England confirmed that there was sufficient supporting evidence to support the routine commissioning of abiraterone in this indication and it was ranked as the top priority for routine commissioning.
However, NHS England has not been able to identify the necessary recurrent funding to support the commissioning of abiraterone, or any other treatments within the prioritisation round. This position in being kept under review and will be progressed as soon as recurrent funding is identified.
This position takes into account the need to ensure the affordability of introducing any new routine commissioning policies, alongside maintaining existing services for patients, and meeting their legal requirement to fund all NICE approved drugs. Abiraterone for the treatment of high-risk, hormone sensitive, non-metastatic prostate cancer remains the top priority for routine commissioning.
Asked by: Danny Beales (Labour - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
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 estimate of the potential impact of prescribing abiraterone in England using the eligibility criteria used in (a) Scotland and (b) Wales on the number of premature deaths from high-risk, non-metastatic prostate cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England estimates that the number of eligible patients in England is between 7,500 and 9,500 per year. This is based on the same eligibility criteria as are used in Scotland and Wales.
NHS England has not completed any specific work to estimate the potential impact of prescribing abiraterone in England using the eligibility criteria used in Scotland and Wales on the number of premature deaths from high-risk, non-metastatic prostate cancer. However, the policy was ranked as the top priority for routine commissioning at the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group Prioritisation Meeting in 2024/25, based upon the clinical benefit, which included evidence that demonstrated statistically significantly fewer deaths with abiraterone and androgen deprivation therapy versus androgen deprivation therapy alone.