Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Integrated Care Boards will be required to demonstrate alignment with the renewed Women's Health Strategy in annual delivery plans; and what consequences will apply where they do not comply.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan set out our ambition for high autonomy to be the norm across every part of the country. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services that meet the healthcare needs of their local population and have the freedom to do so, including women’s health. The Government is backing ICBs to do this through record funding.
Whilst we have moved away from endless central targets through the planning guidance, we have been very clear with ICBs that we expect them to continue their prioritisation of women’s health services.
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy commits to using insights from what women are saying to improve how services respond. With patient power payments, an innovative pilot approach that will focus on specific gynaecology services as a first step, patients will be contacted after care and given a say on whether the full payment for the costs of their care should be released to the providers. Prioritising specific gynaecology services will provide a new mechanism to ensure providers are responsive to women’s voices.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 integration of NHS England functions into his Department on ring-fenced women's health funding being absorbed into wider NHS budgets; and what steps he is taking to mitigate that risk.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The integration of NHS England functions into the Department of Health and Social Care is intended to strengthen accountability and reduce duplication, supporting clearer ways of working across the health system.
The transformation does not involve reductions to frontline services, and no investment will be cut to the National Health Service frontline.
During this transformation, the Department will continue to evaluate impacts and work collaboratively to ensure continuity of care and to identify and minimise any risks to patient safety. The future Department will have a dedicated National Priority Director whose portfolio will include women’s health and maternity to ensure girls’ and women’s health is effectively prioritised.
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, published on 15 April 2026, commits to new investments of around £2.5m and is supported by significant investment already committed through the NHS, public health and wider government programmes. This includes funding for gynaecology recovery and maternity estates which will deliver tangible improvements in the areas that matter most to women. The funding announced for the new policies in the Strategy will not be affected by the integration of NHS England functions into the Department.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) start and (b) target completion date are for the redesign of clinical pathways for heavy menstrual bleeding, urogynaecology and menopause; and which body will be responsible for reporting progress.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, published in April 2026, committed to redesigning clinical pathways for heavy menstrual bleeding, urogynaecology and menopause.
These redesigned pathways will create roadmaps for health systems to use and adapt for local needs that will enable women to move more quickly through the system and reach the level of care they need with fewer appointments.
They will also help systems to transform services, plan their workforce and consider where capacity is most usefully deployed so that hospitals can provide the specialist care they are designed to, and move more care where appropriate into the community.
The redesigned pathways will be published in the summer.
Progress will reported and monitored by the local integrated care boards by way of Improvement Plans to NHS England Women’s Health National Programme Board.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria will govern allocation of the FemTech Challenge Fund; whether successful innovations will be required to demonstrate a clear adoption pathway into NHS services beyond pilot sites before receiving funding; and which organisation will administer the fund and be responsible for evaluating outcomes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy commits to investing £1.5m into a FemTech healthcare challenge. This investment will accelerate the deployment and spread of innovations that benefit women’s health, with a focus on community service models that address health inequalities. It will enable systems and developers to buy products, and critically to free up clinical and management capacity to transform pathways and ways of working to ensure innovations can be adopted to benefit women and support National Health Service activity. The Department is now developing the detailed delivery arrangements for the funding and will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which Minister or senior official holds named personal accountability for delivery of each of the four core commitments in the renewed Women's Health Strategy; and whether those accountability arrangements will be published.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, published on the 15 April 2026, sets out 117 actions across four core commitments:
acting on women’s voices and choices;
transforming National Health Service performance in services that matter most to women;
supporting all women to lead healthier lives; and
creating an approach to research and development that works for and empowers women.
The renewed strategy contains a summary of the actions associated with each commitment, and which organisation(s) will be responsible for delivery of each one.
The Minister for Women’s Health and Mental Health (Baroness Merron) and the Department will have overall responsibility for implementing the renewed strategy.
Change will be immediate and ongoing. Some actions are already underway or funded this year, others will be delivered over the next two to five years, and more fundamental reforms will be phased over the next decade, aligned with the 10-Year Health Plan. The renewed strategy sets out clear milestones and accountability to ensure progress continues.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 the renewed Women’s Health Strategy is supported by clear implementation plans, timelines and measurable outcomes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, published on 15 April 2026, is designed to be implemented through clear actions with defined timelines, responsible delivery organisations and success measures.
The summary of actions tables found throughout the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy highlights clearly the responsible delivery organisation, and the planned timeframe, for all 117 actions to which the Department has committed. Change will be immediate and ongoing. Some actions are already underway or funded this year, others will be delivered over the next two to five years, and more fundamental reforms will be phased over the next decade, aligned with the 10-Year Health Plan. The renewed strategy sets out clear milestones and accountability to ensure progress continues.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 ensure that dental practices are subject to effective regulation.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates all health and social care services, including dental services in England. The commission ensures quality and safety across a range of sectors that deliver health and care to people in England.
The CQC carries out assessments of primary dental services to determine if they are compliant with regulations. The CQC does not rate dental practices in the same way that it rates other healthcare services. The inspections focus on compliance with regulations and result in a ‘regulations met’ or ‘regulations not met’ judgement. Further information can be found at the following link:
The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentistry in the UK, with the primary role of protecting patient safety and maintaining public confidence. It fulfils this role by registering qualified dental professionals, setting standards for education, training, and conduct, and investigating serious complaints regarding professionals’ fitness to practise. The GDC’s Standards for the Dental Team set out professional standards of conduct, performance, and ethics, including principles for honest and transparent business practices.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation last reviewed the cost-effectiveness model for providing the Meningitis B vaccine to teenagers; and whether his Department plans to commission an updated model.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
In 2013, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that the cost-effectiveness of an adolescent Meningitis B (MenB) vaccination programme would be dependent on the impact of the vaccine on protection against meningococcal carriage, which was uncertain at the time. Since this advice was published, the JCVI has continued to review the MenB vaccination programme. Recent evidence, discussed by the JCVI meningococcal sub-committee in March 2025, indicated that MenB vaccination in adolescents has little to no effect on meningococcal carriage.
The sub-committee noted that when available, they would like to review a model evaluating the impact of MenB vaccine when given in a teenage programme in a two-dose schedule, including impact on meningococcal disease and gonorrhoea.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending routine NHS vaccination against Meningitis B to teenagers and first-year university students.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
Policy regarding vaccination programmes is based on advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI keeps all vaccination programmes under review, and the meningococcal sub-committee have met a number of times over the past year to discuss the meningococcal vaccination programme. The minutes of all JCVI meetings are available at the following link:
In 2013, the JCVI advised that the cost-effectiveness of an adolescent Meningitis B (MenB) vaccination programme would be dependent on the impact of the vaccine on protection against meningococcal carriage, which was uncertain at the time. Recent evidence considered by the meningococcal sub-committee indicates that MenB vaccines do not protect against carriage of meningococcus serogroup B in adolescents.
The sub-committee noted that when available, they would like to review a model evaluating the impact of the MenB vaccine when given in a teenage programme in a two-dose schedule, including the impact on meningococcal disease and gonorrhoea.
Adolescents remain eligible for the MenACWY vaccine until their 25th birthday.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
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 trends in the level of Meningitis B cases among teenagers and university students; and what steps he is taking to help reduce that level.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The UK Health Security Agency continually monitors the incidence and profile of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in England across all age groups to provide information to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to help inform policy decisions.
The United Kingdom has a world-leading meningococcal vaccine programme, and we were the first country to introduce a national Meningitis C (MenC) vaccine programme in 1999 and an infant programme targeting Meningitis B (MenB) disease in 2015, the year in which the teenage MenACWY vaccination was also introduced.
Cases of IMD in England have fallen from over 2,500 in 1998/99, before the first routine meningococcal vaccination against MenC, was introduced, to 378 cases in 2024/225. The MenACWY vaccine also stops carriage and transmission. With this high population-level control of MenACWY disease, MenB disease accounted for 313 of the 378, or 83% of, cases in 2024/25.
MenB remains rare but is now the leading cause of meningococcal disease in all age groups in England, including teenagers and young adults. Further information for the 2024 to 2025 epidemiological year, running from July 2024 to June 2025, is available at the following link: