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 assessment his Department has made of the potential severity of winter pressures on the NHS during winter 2025-2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We continue to monitor the impact of winter pressures on the National Health Service over the winter months.
The Department is continuing to take key steps to ensure the health service is prepared for the colder months. This includes taking actions to try and reduce demand pressure on accident and emergency departments, increasing vaccination rates, and offering health checks to the most vulnerable, as well as stress-testing integrated care boards and trust winter plans to ensure they are able to meet demand and ensure patient flow.
Flu is a recurring pressure that the NHS faces every winter. There is particular risk of severe illness for older people, the very young, pregnant people, and those with certain underlying health conditions. The flu vaccine remains the best form of defense against influenza, particularly for the most vulnerable, and continues to be highly effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation.
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 estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) nurses and (b) other healthcare professionals currently exposed to hazardous medicinal products; and if he will publish an estimate of how many and what proportion of healthcare workers would be affected by the introduction of a definition of hazardous medicinal products.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made an estimate of the number of nurses and other healthcare professionals exposed to hazardous medicinal products. The Department has not made an estimate of how many and what proportion of healthcare workers would be affected by the introduction of a definition of hazardous medicinal products.
Any incidents involving staff exposure to hazardous medical products are reported and handled through local National Health Service body reporting procedures. Risk assessments should be undertaken routinely and mitigations put in place to minimise any environmental exposure to health care professionals, and others, relating to hazardous medicinal products.
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 plans the Department has to ensure continuity of funding for Early Support Hubs beyond March 2026; and how will they be integrated into the introduction of Young Futures Hubs from next year.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The early support hubs were originally funded by the Shared Outcomes Fund, which provided £8 million of top-up funding to expand open-access, community services and to build the evidence base for early intervention services for children and young people's mental health. The project was initially funded in 2024/25 for one year and we were able to extend the programme for an additional year to 2025/26.
In addition to expanding access to support, early support hubs have played a key role building an evidence base to support the introduction of young futures hubs next year. The evaluation findings are directly informing our young futures hubs programme. Young futures hubs will bring services together to support young people with emerging needs, including early mental health advice and wellbeing interventions. As we launch the first 50 young futures hubs, we will work with local areas and partners to build on learning from the early support hubs pilot.
Our aim is to set up 50 hubs where they will have the most impact over the next four years. The design and implementation of the programme in future years will be informed by our work with early adopters. We will set out more details in due course.
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.