Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Department for Health and Social Care's press release entitled Crack teams get patients off waiting lists at twice the speed, published on 16 March 2025, what estimate he has made of the associated impact on the reduction in waiting lists on employment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal estimate has been made of the associated impact of the reduction in waiting lists on employment. The Further Faster 20 (FF20) programme continues to support trusts within the cohort to reduce their waiting lists, helping people to return to work. An evaluation across all FF20 schemes will be undertaken and made available later this year.
However, we are clear that cutting waiting lists ensures that patients get the treatment they need quicker, supporting them to stay in or return to work wherever possible.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) average and (b) longest recorded wait time is for the issuance of death certificates since September 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms, which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Early data indicates the median time taken to register a death appears to have risen by one day, from seven days to eight days. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. The average time taken to register has increased further over the Christmas weeks, but this was expected given increases are observed during this period every year, and the average is expected to decrease again as more data becomes available for January and February 2025. The Department does not hold data on what was the longest period between a death and its registration since September 2024.
The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification. Deaths certified by a doctor, that comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, have typically had a median time to registration of seven days, though there can be variation at a local level. It’s important to note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.
The core purposes of the death certification reforms are to introduce scrutiny of the cause of death, to detect and deter malpractice, to improve reporting, and crucially to put the bereaved at the centre of the process by offering a conversation with the medical examiner about the cause of death. The expectation on doctors and medical examiners is clear, that they should complete certification as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the Government is working with all stakeholders to make sure this is the case.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the new death certification process does not cause further distress for grieving families.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms, which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Early data indicates the median time taken to register a death appears to have risen by one day, from seven days to eight days. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. The average time taken to register has increased further over the Christmas weeks, but this was expected given increases are observed during this period every year, and the average is expected to decrease again as more data becomes available for January and February 2025. The Department does not hold data on what was the longest period between a death and its registration since September 2024.
The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification. Deaths certified by a doctor, that comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, have typically had a median time to registration of seven days, though there can be variation at a local level. It’s important to note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.
The core purposes of the death certification reforms are to introduce scrutiny of the cause of death, to detect and deter malpractice, to improve reporting, and crucially to put the bereaved at the centre of the process by offering a conversation with the medical examiner about the cause of death. The expectation on doctors and medical examiners is clear, that they should complete certification as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the Government is working with all stakeholders to make sure this is the case.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce backlogs in the death certification process in the South East.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms, which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Early data indicates the median time taken to register a death appears to have risen by one day, from seven days to eight days. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. The average time taken to register has increased further over the Christmas weeks, but this was expected given increases are observed during this period every year, and the average is expected to decrease again as more data becomes available for January and February 2025. The Department does not hold data on what was the longest period between a death and its registration since September 2024.
The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification. Deaths certified by a doctor, that comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, have typically had a median time to registration of seven days, though there can be variation at a local level. It’s important to note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.
The core purposes of the death certification reforms are to introduce scrutiny of the cause of death, to detect and deter malpractice, to improve reporting, and crucially to put the bereaved at the centre of the process by offering a conversation with the medical examiner about the cause of death. The expectation on doctors and medical examiners is clear, that they should complete certification as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the Government is working with all stakeholders to make sure this is the case.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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 28 February 2025 to Question 31062 on Death Certificates, what the median time taken was to register a death at the most localised level for which data is available.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes weekly data showing the median time to register a death by certification type in England and Wales. The latest data, for deaths registered in the week ending 21 February 2025, shows that the median time to register all deaths was nine days, and the median time to register deaths certified by a doctor was eight days. The ONS is planning to extend this data to include the median time taken to register a death by region, and expect this to be available in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to review the (a) capacity and (b) efficiency of the medical examiner system in the new death certification process.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms, which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Early data indicates the median time taken to register a death appears to have risen by one day, from seven days to eight days. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. The average time taken to register has increased further over the Christmas weeks, but this was expected given increases are observed during this period every year, and the average is expected to decrease again as more data becomes available for January and February 2025. The Department does not hold data on what was the longest period between a death and its registration since September 2024.
The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification. Deaths certified by a doctor, that comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, have typically had a median time to registration of seven days, though there can be variation at a local level. It’s important to note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.
The core purposes of the death certification reforms are to introduce scrutiny of the cause of death, to detect and deter malpractice, to improve reporting, and crucially to put the bereaved at the centre of the process by offering a conversation with the medical examiner about the cause of death. The expectation on doctors and medical examiners is clear, that they should complete certification as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the Government is working with all stakeholders to make sure this is the case.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many meetings he has attended to discuss winter preparedness.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has chaired eight meetings on winter preparedness since 2 December 2024.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of recent trends in the level the social care capacity available to support discharges from hospitals in the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Comparing December 2024 to December 2023, there was a 5% decrease in the average number of patients in hospital with delayed discharge at the end of each day. In December 2024, for patients with a length of stay of at least 14 days, an average of 33% of the delays were attributed to reasons relating to the capacity for onward care and support, due to issues with adult social care services, National Health Services, or housing. This proportion has come down from 37% in June 2024, when this figure was first published.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to increase (a) hospital and (b) social care capacity for winter 2024-25.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
December 2024 saw record numbers of people attending accident and emergency, a 7.5% increase on December 2023. Despite this, there were 5% fewer delayed discharges than in December 2023.
The Government will tackle delayed discharges by developing local partnerships working between the National Health Service and social care to make sure people do not spend longer than necessary in hospital, and to free up hospital beds. In the integrated care systems that face the most discharge delays, the Department is working directly with partners across health and social care to drive improvements.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many meetings the Minister for Health (Secondary Care) has attended to review NHS performance on discharging patients from hospital.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers meet regularly with NHS England to discuss discharge and winter performance.