Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to bring forward the timing of Personal Independence Payment review assessments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have launched a review of the PIP assessment as a whole, to make sure it is fair and fit for the future in a changing world and helps support disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence. I am leading the review.
We published the Terms of Reference for the Review on 30 June 2025, and will update these shortly. We have committed to co-producing the review with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, experts, Members of Parliament and other stakeholders. We will engage widely over the summer to design the process for the work of the review and consider how it can best be co-produced to ensure that expertise from a range of different perspectives is drawn upon.
We are committed to concluding the review by Autumn 2026 and will report outcomes to the House in a ministerial Oral Statement. We have committed to a general debate on this, in Government time. The legislation to implement the outcomes of the review will not be brought forward until that has happened.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of not being able to access a consistent brand of Letrozole on patient adherence.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Where a prescriber specifies a specific brand or manufacturer on the prescription, the pharmacy should provide that specific product to the patient. However, obtaining a product from a particular supplier may take the pharmacy longer to source.
Pharmacies are largely private businesses, which provide National Health Services and have their own buying arrangements. Not all manufacturers supply to all wholesalers and not all pharmacies use the same wholesalers. This can mean there may be some specific manufacturer’s products that a pharmacy may not easily be able to source.
Where a pharmacy is unable to supply a particular medicine promptly, their professional guidance states that they should talk to the patient to discuss the possible options available to them. This includes checking whether the medicine is available at another pharmacy or offering to contact the patient’s prescriber to jointly consider whether another suitable brand or medicine is available.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that patients prescribed Letrozole are able to access a brand they can tolerate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Where a prescriber specifies a specific brand or manufacturer on the prescription, the pharmacy should provide that specific product to the patient. However, obtaining a product from a particular supplier may take the pharmacy longer to source.
Pharmacies are largely private businesses, which provide National Health Services and have their own buying arrangements. Not all manufacturers supply to all wholesalers and not all pharmacies use the same wholesalers. This can mean there may be some specific manufacturer’s products that a pharmacy may not easily be able to source.
Where a pharmacy is unable to supply a particular medicine promptly, their professional guidance states that they should talk to the patient to discuss the possible options available to them. This includes checking whether the medicine is available at another pharmacy or offering to contact the patient’s prescriber to jointly consider whether another suitable brand or medicine is available.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 potential impact of merging of integrated care boards on (a) Dorset and (b) other rural areas.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No mergers involving the seven integrated care boards (ICBs) in the South West NHS England footprint have been approved.
The Dorset ICB, the Somerset ICB, and the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB are preparing to ‘cluster’ by April 2026, and this will see increased joint working across the three ICBs to achieve the running cost reductions for ICBs announced by the Department. Formal approval for the merger of ICB footprints will not be given before a comprehensive assessment of the local circumstances and rationale. Our commitment to coterminous boundaries wherever possible will be at the forefront of our decision-making.
As part of cluster preparation arrangements, every ICB will complete an Equality Impact Assessment, which will consider the footprint population and the impact of the changes to ICB working arrangements.
ICBs and regional leaders assessed potential clustering arrangements using the design criteria.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment pathways for people with temporomandibular joint disorder.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) treatment is considered as planned non-emergency care. The NHS.UK website advises that it is not usually serious and generally gets better without treatment. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/temporomandibular-disorder-tmd/
Treatment options for TMJD are:
- conservative treatments such as pain relief, physiotherapy, bite guards, and self-management advice. These are usually provided through primary care and would be considered as non-urgent but necessary care;
- specialist referral, if conservative treatment does not help, specifically referral to oral maxillofacial surgery or a specialist pain clinic may occur. These referrals are part of the routine National Health Service pathways but are prioritised on clinical need; and
- surgical treatments in severe cases, which are scheduled as planned elective procedures. In NHS terms this falls under elective care, but it is not optional in a cosmetic sense, as it is clinically indicated.
NHS England Getting It Right First Time and the Royal College of Surgeons’ Faculty of Dental Surgery have produced guidance to better manage the condition, which is available at the following link:
No assessment has been made on the adequacy of the training for general practitioners and dentists on recognising and managing TMJD. The standard of training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council and General Dental Council, which are independent statutory bodies.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 training for (a) general practitioners and (b) dentists for (i) recognising and (ii) managing temporomandibular joint disorder.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) treatment is considered as planned non-emergency care. The NHS.UK website advises that it is not usually serious and generally gets better without treatment. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/temporomandibular-disorder-tmd/
Treatment options for TMJD are:
- conservative treatments such as pain relief, physiotherapy, bite guards, and self-management advice. These are usually provided through primary care and would be considered as non-urgent but necessary care;
- specialist referral, if conservative treatment does not help, specifically referral to oral maxillofacial surgery or a specialist pain clinic may occur. These referrals are part of the routine National Health Service pathways but are prioritised on clinical need; and
- surgical treatments in severe cases, which are scheduled as planned elective procedures. In NHS terms this falls under elective care, but it is not optional in a cosmetic sense, as it is clinically indicated.
NHS England Getting It Right First Time and the Royal College of Surgeons’ Faculty of Dental Surgery have produced guidance to better manage the condition, which is available at the following link:
No assessment has been made on the adequacy of the training for general practitioners and dentists on recognising and managing TMJD. The standard of training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council and General Dental Council, which are independent statutory bodies.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to review pharmacy procurement practices for generic cancer drugs in rural areas.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no current plans to specifically review pharmacy procurement practices for generic cancer drugs in rural areas. Pharmacies are largely private businesses which provide National Health Services, and therefore have their own buying arrangements.
The Government’s policy on generic medicines is to allow suppliers freedom of pricing for their products, relying on competition between suppliers and efficient purchasing by community pharmacies to deliver value for money for the NHS.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to assess the (a) affordability and (b) accessibility of transferring people unable to access timely care on the NHS to private sector providers for temporomandibular joint disorder.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) treatment is considered as planned non-emergency care. The NHS.UK website advises that it is not usually serious and generally gets better without treatment. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/temporomandibular-disorder-tmd/
Treatment options for TMJD are:
- conservative treatments such as pain relief, physiotherapy, bite guards, and self-management advice. These are usually provided through primary care and would be considered as non-urgent but necessary care;
- specialist referral, if conservative treatment does not help, specifically referral to oral maxillofacial surgery or a specialist pain clinic may occur. These referrals are part of the routine National Health Service pathways but are prioritised on clinical need; and
- surgical treatments in severe cases, which are scheduled as planned elective procedures. In NHS terms this falls under elective care, but it is not optional in a cosmetic sense, as it is clinically indicated.
NHS England Getting It Right First Time and the Royal College of Surgeons’ Faculty of Dental Surgery have produced guidance to better manage the condition, which is available at the following link:
No assessment has been made on the adequacy of the training for general practitioners and dentists on recognising and managing TMJD. The standard of training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council and General Dental Council, which are independent statutory bodies.