Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiographers will be trained in each year until 2030.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Later this year, we will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and will ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiographers have been in post at Warrington and Halton University Hospitals Trust in each year since 2015.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) diagnostic radiographers employed by the Warrington and Halton University Hospitals Trust in each year since 2015:
Date | FTE diagnostic radiographers |
March 2015 | 85 |
March 2016 | 82 |
March 2017 | 83 |
March 2018 | 77 |
March 2019 | 80 |
March 2020 | 83 |
March 2021 | 92 |
March 2022 | 88 |
March 2023 | 78 |
March 2024 | 82 |
March 2025 | 92 |
Source: NHS Workforce Statistics, NHS England, available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics/february-2025
The trust has not employed therapeutic radiographers for the dates shown.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many consultant posts are vacant in the each of the acute hospital trusts in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the number of consultant vacancies at hospitals in the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board. NHS England publishes regular high-level statistics on vacancies across National Health Service trusts, which are available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP vacancies there were in GP practices' in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB as of 1 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data requested is not held centrally. The Government is committed to increasing the general practice workforce. By cutting red tape and investing more into the National Health Service, we have recruited over 1,700 general practitioners into general practice to deliver more appointments since October.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Defence on increasing the number of medical reservists joining the Armed Forces.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People working in the National Health Service have many transferable skills that can be of great benefit to the Armed Forces reserve, whether they be clinicians, such as doctors and nurses, or staff working in leadership or management roles. There have been no recent ministerial discussions on this issue. However, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Defence are working with NHS Employers to ensure that NHS organisations are supportive and flexible when it comes to people joining the Armed Forces reserve, and to enable individuals to train and deploy when needed.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what percentage of nursing posts are currently being filled by Bank Nurses in each Acute Hospital in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB area.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the required domestic capacity for vaccine production in the event of a pandemic.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
As we saw in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that the United Kingdom’s population has ready access to pandemic vaccines as soon as they are available is critical to our ability to respond to and recover from any future pandemic. Whilst it is not possible to predict the cause of a pandemic in advance, the Government is investing in a range of capabilities to support the development and manufacture of pandemic vaccines when needed. These capabilities include:
¾ an advance purchase agreement with CSL Seqirus, which guarantees the UK’s population access to over 100 million doses of a pandemic influenza vaccine, entirely manufactured in the UK; and
¾ a partnership with Moderna, which aims to bring mRNA vaccine production capability to the UK and build resilience in the event of a new health emergency by investing in mRNA research and development.
In addition to these specific contractual arrangements, the Government is committed to making the UK one of the best places in the world to develop and manufacture new and innovative medicines, including vaccines. This is underpinned by broader support for the life sciences sector, including through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund, which is a capital grant fund of up to £520 million over five years, from 2025 to 2030, to support UK health resilience and help ensure a robust response to potential future health emergencies.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many vaccine doses have been purchased for this year’s Flu campaign; and where they were sourced from.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Information on the number of doses procured by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is commercially sensitive.
The UKHSA secures sufficient volumes of flu vaccines for the children’s flu programme, to ensure that eligible children aged less than 18 years old who present for vaccination can be offered an appropriate vaccine. General practitioners and community pharmacists are directly responsible for ordering flu vaccines from suppliers, which are used to deliver the national flu programme to all other eligible groups.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2025 to Question 24413 on Cardiovascular System: Health Services, for what reason his Department does not hold a breakdown of the data on vascular services for Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no patients coded as waiting on the Referral to Treatment waiting list at the Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for Vascular Surgery Service. This may be because the vascular service is being coded under a different treatment function, such as under general surgery service which would likely contain data for other services, as well as vascular. As such, the Department does not hold centrally any further breakdown of the data for the waiting time for a first appointment with vascular services at this trust.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many agency nurses were employed in each acute hospital trust in the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board area in each year since 2019; and what proportion of all nurses they were.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not available.