Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 those with coeliac disease with rising costs of gluten-free products.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Government recognises the financial burden that a strict gluten‑free diet can place on people with coeliac disease.
NHS England’s guidance on prescribing gluten-free foods sets out a national framework for primary care, and integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning arrangements in their areas and for supporting general practices to prescribe in line with that framework, taking account of local population needs.
The national position in England remains that gluten-free bread and mixes can be prescribed on the National Health Service for eligible people diagnosed with coeliac disease. However, ICBs can restrict or end the prescribing of gluten-free food.
Gluten-free foods have become more accessible in some supermarkets and online. However, food prices are determined by commercial suppliers and depend on a range of factors including import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, and exchange rates. It is not for the Government to set retail food prices or to comment on day-to-day commercial decisions taken by businesses.
More broadly, the Government is taking action to support households with the cost of living, and we will continue to work with the NHS and stakeholders to ensure people with coeliac disease receive appropriate support and advice to manage their condition effectively.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, a) what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the needs of women are reflected in national and local HIV strategies, policies and decision-making structures, b) what action his Department is taking to address evidence and data gaps relating to HIV in women, including disparities in access to HIV prevention, testing and diagnosis, and c) what measures his Department is taking to increase awareness and understanding of HIV among women.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The HIV Action Plan for England, 2025 to 2030, sets out five core priorities needed to reach our ambition to end new HIV transmissions within England by 2030. One of these priorities is to address stigma and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV, including a national action to ensure the needs of women living with HIV are considered and addressed in future work. The plan also includes an action for local partners to embed HIV awareness into wider women’s health strategies.
Furthermore, the Department is committed to increasing the awareness and understanding of HIV. We are investing £4.8 million from 2026 to 2029 in the newly procured National HIV Prevention England Programme. This programme aims to increase awareness and understanding of HIV and reduce levels of HIV related stigma, particularly for communities disproportionately affected by HIV, such as Black African heterosexual women.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will continue to publish HIV surveillance data, new HIV diagnoses, prevention, and outcome indicators, for all populations, including for women. The UKHSA has also committed to work with the voluntary and community sector to publish a specific report on HIV in women that will focus on key trends in HIV diagnoses in women, and highlight any disparities for women in relation to access to testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis, and treatment and care.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his department tracks current levels of NHS app usage across different patient groups.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
We track current levels of NHS App usage through the NHS App Management Information monthly publication. This is broken down by integrated care board and region, rather than demographic or patient group.
Future work will explore how to get more detailed data from the NHS App and use it to support decision-making.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to support research and funding for treatments for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government is committed to funding high-quality research to understand the causes, consequences, and treatment of myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation, are working together to address the actions for research outlined in the ME/CFS Final Delivery Plan. Two projects have recently received funding to investigate the feasibility of a new clinical trial that tests multiple interventions for the treatment of post-acute infection syndromes, including Long Covid and ME/CFS. In addition, £4.75 million of Government funding has been provided to SequenceME, which will create the first high-resolution genetic map of the condition, paving the way to future diagnostics and treatments. To support research capacity building, the MRC has provided £845,000 to researchers at the University of Edinburgh towards PRIME, a new partnership award that aims to build infrastructure to enable ME/CFS biomedical research, and support is available to researchers to develop competitive funding applications from the NIHR’s Research Support Service.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is his department taking to support new graduate dieticians into work.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers, and educators to improve transition into the workforce.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 help increase use of the NHS app.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The National Health Service is taking a coordinated approach to increase NHS App use by supporting frontline promotion, and is addressing barriers particularly in deprived communities. Although 29% of people over 13 years old in England access the NHS App every month and over 52% did so in the last year, this is not evenly distributed across all places and communities.
To address this, new funding and plans have been put in place following the Spending Review and publication of the NHS Medium Term Planning Framework. This includes setting clear national and local adoption targets for national delivery teams, regions, and providers, investing in training and local delivery support, and working with community partners and regional networks to help people who face digital exclusion.
Improved data, insights, and governance are being used to identify effective approaches and scale them nationally, ensuring more consistent benefits from digital access for patients. A few examples of local level adoption support include growing the 3,000 strong App Ambassadors across National Health Service organisations, expanding the Public Libraries Partnership that is currently in place across 1,400 sites, and establishing a new partnership with the 15 health innovation networks to support delivery of targeted NHS App adoption plans within each local area.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the reported withdrawal of the original formulation of Questran from the UK market on patients with bile acid malabsorption.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Department is aware of the discontinuation of the original formulation of Questran (colestyramine 4g oral powder) sachets. Decisions to discontinue medicines are commercial decisions for manufacturers, and the Department does not have powers to require companies to continue to supply a product.
The supplier of Questran has confirmed that Questran sugar free sachets remain available and can be used to manage increased demand from the discontinuation of Questran sachets. As an alternative, generic colestyramine four-gram oral powder sachets also remain available from a different supplier. As such, patients with bile acid malabsorption should still be able to access alternative products despite the discontinuation of Questran.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 nursing associates.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the employment of nursing associates are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers, and educators to improve transition into the workforce.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the updated NHS workforce plan will include measures to improve access to permanent NHS employment for newly qualified nurses and nursing associates.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will not pre-empt the publication of the plan which will be published shortly and will set out how the National Health Service workforce will be put on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The plan will not simply be a numbers exercise, it will focus on skills, deployment, and productivity, enabling the delivery of better care for patients and better jobs for staff.
We are improving workforce planning to align job vacancies with the anticipated supply of graduating students through a student movement dashboard enabling regional NHS England teams, universities, and employers to understand where future vacancies will arise and signpost newly graduated students towards these roles.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 ensure that prisoners with mobility impairments can access appropriate mobility aids, including wheelchairs, within the prison estate.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
NHS England commissions prison health care services into every prison in England to the equivalence of the community, to include range, access and quality of service. Access to specialist consultants and referrals into specialised support is available in all prisons; this includes access to allied health professionals and speech and language services as well as physiotherapy.
HM Prison and Probation Service enables access to all healthcare appointments, internal and external to the prison. The responsibility for social care support which this patient cohort may require due to the progressive nature of neuromuscular conditions is the responsibility of local authorities. The responsibility for reasonable adjustments lies with HM Prison and Probation Service rather than NHS England, and the Ministry of Justice recognises that the age of the prison estate presents challenges. In addition to making reasonable adjustments in older prisons, new-build prisons include accessible cells, low mobility cells, and lift access in all buildings.