Edward Argar

Ministers and senior Department officials will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to determine the structure and requirements of the team required to support the creation of a new centre for health and care.

The abolition of NHS England is expected to bring savings that would amount to hundreds of millions of pounds a year. While there will be some upfront costs, we are confident that the reform to wipe out duplication and drive a smaller centre, based in a single organisation, will generate significant savings in the long run, which can then be allocated to front line services.

Ministers and senior Department officials will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to determine the structure and requirements needed to support the creation of a new centre for health and care. The transition team will work across NHS England and the Department, bringing together the expertise and experience of both organisations.

As part of these changes, we intend to reduce the headcount across the Department and NHS England by 50%, which will deliver hundreds of millions of pounds of savings. At this stage, while we are scoping the programme, it is too early to say what the precise changes in personnel and organisational design will be.

Ministers and senior Department officials will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to determine the structure and requirements needed to support the creation of a new centre for health and care. The transition team will work across NHS England and the Department, bringing together the expertise and experience of both organisations.

As part of these changes, we intend to reduce the headcount across the Department and NHS England by 50%, which will deliver hundreds of millions of pounds of savings. At this stage, while we are scoping the programme, it is too early to say what the precise changes in personnel and organisational design will be.

Ministers and senior Department officials will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to determine the structure and requirements needed to support the creation of a new centre for health and care. The transition team will work across NHS England and the Department, bringing together the expertise and experience of both organisations.

As part of these changes, we intend to reduce the headcount across the Department and NHS England by 50%, which will deliver hundreds of millions of pounds of savings. At this stage, while we are scoping the programme, it is too early to say what the precise changes in personnel and organisational design will be.

There are nine specialist mesh centres across England, ensuring that women in every region with complications of mesh inserted for urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapse get the right support. Each mesh centre is led by a multi-disciplinary team to ensure patients get access to the specialist care and treatment that they need, including pain management and psychological support. NHS England publishes data on referral to treatment waiting times. This is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/

The Department does not have information on the average waiting times specifically for mesh centres.

Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission, and we are taking steps to return to the 18-week standard. The Elective Reform Plan sets out how the National Health Service will reform elective care services and meet the 18-week referral to treatment standard by March 2029.

No assessment has been made of the East Midlands fertility policy review, at a national level. It is for local integrated care boards to decide on local health policies for their population, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence fertility guidelines.

Seven of the nine recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review were previously accepted in full, in part, or in principle. Four of these have been successfully implemented, including:

- issuing an unreserved apology on behalf of the healthcare system;

- appointing the first ever Patient Safety Commissioner in England in respect of medicines and medical devices;

- establishing nine specialist mesh centres, which are in operation across England; and

- establishing and working with a Patient Reference Group to help develop the response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) Review.

Work is ongoing in respect of the remaining recommendations, including working across Government to carefully consider the recommendations in the Patient Safety Commissioner’s Report and the Hughes Report, which looked into and provided advice on options for redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh.

The Government will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s Report at the earliest opportunity.

The following table shows the start dates for the pre-construction work, which involves business case development and critical enabling works, and the main construction work, for the schemes requested:

Note: the Charing Cross Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital are counted as one scheme under the New Hospital Programme, as are Eastbourne District General Hospital, Conquest Hospital, and Bexhill Hospital

The expected completion dates for the schemes in the New Hospital Programme will be confirmed following the approval of a Full Business Case, as set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book, and as is usual for large infrastructure projects, and they are therefore not included.

Access to National Health Service care at accident and emergency departments, and the waiting times at the point of delivery for those services, will always be based on clinical priority.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care first held discussions on winter planning with the Department ahead of the general election. The first briefing my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care received on winter preparations was on his first day in office, on 5 July 2024.

On 4 September my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care chaired a preliminary winter preparations meeting. The Minister of State for Health chaired fortnightly meetings on winter preparedness from 26 September 2024 until 2 December 2024 at which point, as planned, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, began chairing a weekly meeting.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care first held discussions on winter planning with the Department ahead of the general election. The first briefing the Secretary of State received on winter preparations was on his first day in office, on 5 July 2024. Since then, heading into winter, ministers speak regularly with staff in the department, NHS England and social care leaders to make sure we were as well prepared for this winter as we could be.

In addition, I chaired fortnightly meetings on winter preparedness from 26 September 2024 until early December 2024 at which point, as planned, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, began chairing a weekly meeting.

There is no official National Health Service data collected and validated for publication on the number of ‘critical incidents’ as these are declared locally by NHS organisations and can be stood-up and stood-down quickly.

NHS management information as of 8 January 2025 reports that that there are 18 active critical incidents. Critical incidents can be declared in response to operational pressures and for other reasons including power outages, or IT or estates issues.

We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at Autumn Budget 2024, which enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.

The employer National Insurance contributions (ENICs) rise will be implemented in April 2025. The Government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, like hospices, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning more than half of businesses with ENICs liabilities either gain or see no change next year. Businesses and charities will still be able to claim ENICs reliefs, including those for under 21 and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.

Our approach to ENIC exemptions has been consistent with the approach taken by previous governments. This does not include an exemption for independent contractors, including charities like hospices.

On 19 December, the Government announced the biggest investment in a generation for hospices in England, supporting the sector with a £100 million boost for adult and children’s hospices to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices. We will set out the details of the funding allocation and dissemination in the coming weeks.

Ministers in the Department engage with NHS England regularly on a variety of issues, including, but not limited to, winter preparedness.

The annual winter vaccination communications campaign supports the uptake of seasonal vaccinations for influenza and COVID-19 amongst eligible cohorts. This is an integrated campaign, so spend cannot be separated out by vaccine. The budget for the marketing campaign covers the Department, the National Health Service, and the UK Health Security Agency. The following table shows the allocations for winter vaccines promotion, for each of the last three years:

Each year, the campaign combines paid-for marketing and partnerships with earned national media, and social and stakeholder engagement, to raise awareness of the potential benefits of winter vaccinations and how they can be accessed by the public.

This information is not available. While NHS England collects information on the number of call handlers working in NHS 111 and 999 services, this information has not been centrally validated.

The following table shows the percentage of patients in England who waited longer than four hours in accident and emergency, in September, October, and November of 2023 and 2024:

Source: NHS England, available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/

The number of patients who were medically fit to be discharged, those who no longer met the criteria to reside, in England on 1 December 2024 was 17,646, compared to 25,896 in December 2023. The number of patients who no longer met the criteria to reside but who were not discharged from hospitals in England on 1 December 2024, was 12,086, compared to 12,989 in December 2023.

This information requested is not held centrally by the Department.

NHS England’s 2024/25 Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance set out that, with the additional funding in 2023/24 made recurrent in 2024/25, systems should maintain General and Acute beds at the level funded and agreed through the operating plans in 2023/24 as a minimum.

The latest published data is for October 2024, and shows that there was an average of 101,325 General and Acute beds available in England. This compares to 99,067 in October 2023.

The Department had a total of 2,270 written questions from the House of Commons due for answer between 5 July and 22 November 2024, the most received by any Government department in that period. These consisted of 1,761 ordinary written questions and 509 named day written questions. In the same period, the Department answered 60.0% of those named day written questions and 74.5% of those ordinary written questions within the required timescales.

It is Departmental procedure that holding answers are submitted for any named day written questions that are not answered within the required timescales; however, this is not done for ordinary written questions. In the period between 5 July and 22 November, 236 holding answers were submitted.

Named day performance has improved month-on-month since the summer recess, however we are determined to make the further improvements necessary to reach the standards expected by the Procedure Committee.

The Department had a total of 2,270 written questions from the House of Commons due for answer between 5 July and 22 November 2024, the most received by any Government department in that period. These consisted of 1,761 ordinary written questions and 509 named day written questions. In the same period, the Department answered 60.0% of those named day written questions and 74.5% of those ordinary written questions within the required timescales.

It is Departmental procedure that holding answers are submitted for any named day written questions that are not answered within the required timescales; however, this is not done for ordinary written questions. In the period between 5 July and 22 November, 236 holding answers were submitted.

Named day performance has improved month-on-month since the summer recess, however we are determined to make the further improvements necessary to reach the standards expected by the Procedure Committee.