Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many procurement contracts exceeding £5 million have been issued by his Department in the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 1 January 2021, 118 contracts with a value of £5 million or more have been awarded by the Department.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has commissioned on (a) reproductive health outcomes and (b) other long‑term health effects of occupational exposure to hazardous medicinal products among nursing staff; and what assessment his Department has made of the costs to the NHS of sickness absence related to such exposure.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has not commissioned any research on the reproductive health outcomes or long-term health effects of the occupational exposure of nursing staff to hazardous medicinal products. No assessment has been made of the cost to the National Health Service of sickness absence related to this.
Sickness absence is managed at an organisational level across the NHS. NHS organisations have their own policies and procedures in place to manage and reduce sickness absence, including any reasonable adjustments to allow people to return to work and/or prevent future absence. It is important that employers across the NHS take a preventative and proactive approach to supporting their staff and keeping them healthy.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on how many occasions his Department has withheld information due to the risk of prejudicing private commercial interest under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in this Parliament.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 5 July 2024 the Department has withheld information under section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on 120 occasions. We do not differentiate in our reporting whether information has been withheld specifically under section 43(1), 43(2), or 43(3) of the act, nor is it detailed whose commercial interests the exemption relates to. Statistics on the number of times specific Freedom of Information exemptions are used by the Department are published by Cabinet Office on a quarterly and annual basis, and are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what due diligence his Department undertakes before the selection of contract delivery partners for major programmes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department must comply with the legal requirements under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and, since February 2025, the Procurement Act 2023 in taking forward all procurement exercises leading to the award of a contract to a supplier. Compliance is managed by a professional procurement official within the Department’s Commercial Directorate who is assigned to each procurement exercise.
Business cases following the Government’s standard five-case model, setting out the strategic, economic/value for money, financial, commercial, and management case, are required for all procurements over £5 million. The Department’s Commercial Assurance Board (CAB) considers and approves high value, from £10 million to £30 million of capital or £50 million in revenue, business cases or high-risk commercial cases across the Department and its Arms’ Length Bodies. In addition, the CAB acts as commercial ‘keyholders’ for the business cases presented to the committees below, ensuring that commercial factors are considered when recommendations are made by:
Suppliers are invited to bid for contracts using the standard contract terms and conditions in use by the Department and across the Government. These include intellectual property (IP) clauses which grant the buyer a licence to use the supplier’s IP in the context of receiving and benefiting from the deliverables being bought. These typically allow sub-licensing under certain conditions and restrictions designed to avoid unfair exploitation of supplier IP. Standard terms and conditions are available on the GOV.UK website. By submitting a bid, suppliers are accepting the Department’s standard terms and conditions as set out above.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many private delivery partners have declined to deliver a contract for his Department on the basis of concern for protection of intellectual property or private commercial interest in the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department must comply with the legal requirements under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and, since February 2025, the Procurement Act 2023 in taking forward all procurement exercises leading to the award of a contract to a supplier. Compliance is managed by a professional procurement official within the Department’s Commercial Directorate who is assigned to each procurement exercise.
Business cases following the Government’s standard five-case model, setting out the strategic, economic/value for money, financial, commercial, and management case, are required for all procurements over £5 million. The Department’s Commercial Assurance Board (CAB) considers and approves high value, from £10 million to £30 million of capital or £50 million in revenue, business cases or high-risk commercial cases across the Department and its Arms’ Length Bodies. In addition, the CAB acts as commercial ‘keyholders’ for the business cases presented to the committees below, ensuring that commercial factors are considered when recommendations are made by:
Suppliers are invited to bid for contracts using the standard contract terms and conditions in use by the Department and across the Government. These include intellectual property (IP) clauses which grant the buyer a licence to use the supplier’s IP in the context of receiving and benefiting from the deliverables being bought. These typically allow sub-licensing under certain conditions and restrictions designed to avoid unfair exploitation of supplier IP. Standard terms and conditions are available on the GOV.UK website. By submitting a bid, suppliers are accepting the Department’s standard terms and conditions as set out above.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the accuracy of data provided by (a) NHS England Estate Return Information Collection and (b) Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Estate Return Information Collection (ERIC) and Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) collections are undertaken by NHS England.
ERIC collects data on the size, cost, and quality of the National Health Service estate. The 2024/25 ERIC data collection underwent a detailed validation process before its publication on the 16 October 2025.
The 2025 PLACE collection is currently underway. It provides an assessment of the quality of the NHS patient environment from the patient’s perspective. It is undertaken by independent assessors who should, as far as possible, reflect the patient population. Teams should be a mix of people who use the building/site and should broadly reflect the local population using the service.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 16 June 2025 to Question 58827 on Trandolapril, for what reason does Trandolapril continue to be unavailable to patients.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Trandolapril capsules are supplied by two suppliers in the United Kingdom, who are both continuing to experience manufacturing issues. We are unable to confirm a resupply date currently due to these ongoing issues. The Department has issued comprehensive management plans to the National Health Service, which we continue to review. These include advice on alternatives, and how to manage affected patients.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department required any private commercial suppliers or delivery partners previously contracted to work on the New Hospital Programme to be excluded from working on the New Hospital Programme Review.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The review of the New Hospital Programme (NHP) was led by a Director from the NHP Sponsor team in the Department. They were supported by a number of officials from the NHP Sponsor team in the Department along with officials from NHS England, with input from the NHP’s interim commercial and delivery partners and officials in HM Treasury. The NHP developed the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis tool with support from its interim commercial and delivery partners.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of sexual violence were referred to the NHS by (a) charities and (b) local support organisations in 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides support for victims and survivors of sexual violence through a range of services which can be accessed via self-referral or referral from other organisations. This includes mental health services and sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) which provide crisis care, medical and forensic examinations and onward referral to other support services. SARCs had a total of 27,738 referrals in the year 2024/25 and of those, 65 came via the voluntary sector.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
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 support the provision of emergency co-responders in (a) rural and (b) coastal areas.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the important contribution of co-responders in improving response times, particularly in hard-to-reach rural and coastal communities.
The Department supports the provision of emergency co-responders in rural and coastal areas through the Community First Responders (CFR) programme, where volunteers are trained by the ambulance service to attend certain types of emergency calls in the area where they live or work.
Ambulance trusts are responsible, on an individual basis, for taking decisions on the capacity and support needed to deliver their services in their local areas.