Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made on trends of indoor air pollution.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Air Quality Expert Group state that there is a challenge of establishing overall trends in indoor air pollution due to limited monitoring and heterogeneity of indoor environments.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is actively addressing this evidence gap through its involvement in two research hubs, headed by UK Research and Innovation and the Medical Research Council, the Child and Adolescent Health Impacts of Learning Indoor Environments under Net Zero Hub, also known as the CHILI, Hub, and the Indoor HABItability during the Transition to Net Zero Housing Hub, also known as the INHABIT, Hub. In addition, the UKHSA contributes to the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Health Protection Research Unit on Climate Change and Health Security Theme on Healthy Indoor Environments. Collectively these projects aim to strengthen the evidence base on the impact of climate change policies on indoor exposure to air pollution and will include monitoring of indoor environments.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to encourage more women to get smear tests.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to eliminating cervical cancer by 2040 through improved uptake of cervical screening and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, as set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England.
From early 2026, under-screened women will be offered a home testing kit, starting with those who are the most overdue for screening. This will help tackle deeply entrenched barriers that keep some away from life-saving screening.
New digital services will support screening participants to manage their screening appointments via the NHS App as well as delivering new, artificial intelligence ready services for staff, freeing up their time to focus on care.
NHS England is launching its first ever cervical cancer elimination creative campaign and communications toolkit for Cervical Screening Awareness Week.
We are delivering screening in any primary care setting, including sexual health clinics, rather than just at general practices. This includes evenings and on weekends.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to ensure that there is adequate funding of sexual health services.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department provides funding for sexual health services through the Public Health Grant, which is allocated to local authorities in England. Sexual health is one of a number of public health services funded through the Public Health Grant, and the Department does not specify how much is spent on sexual health specifically. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning sexual health services to meet the needs of their populations.
In 2025/26 the Public Health Grant, which funds Sexual and Reproductive Health services, rose to £3.884 billion. This was a cash increase of £224 million compared to 24/25, providing local authorities with an average 6.1% cash increase.
We will continue to invest in local authorities' vital public health work, providing over £13.4 billion over the next three years through a consolidated ringfenced Public Health Grant. This will support vital local health services, including sexual health services.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 parents whose children have been diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Planning for a large-scale trial across the National Health Service is underway, where hundreds of thousands of babies will be screened for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) from next year to help build the evidence base needed to support a national screening programme.
My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has asked the Department to look at whether this evaluation can start sooner, and whether it can be expanded to involve all babies, rather than two thirds as currently planned and will be reporting back to the SMA community on this.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding he plans to provide for the NHS in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
At the 2025 Spending Review, HM Treasury announced that the National Health Service would receive £204.9 billion in 2026/27, £215.4 billion in 2027/28, and £226.1 billion in 2028/29. Further information on the 2025 Spending Review is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people under the age of 25 are currently seeking treatment for alcohol and drug addiction.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Adult Substance Misuse Treatment Statistics 2024 to 2025 report and the Children’s Substance Misuse Treatment Statistics 2024 to 2025 report, both published in December 2025, show that in England between April 2024 and March 2025 there were 37,117 people under the age of 25 years old receiving drug and alcohol treatment in the community.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 trends in the level of attacks on healthcare workers in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Everyone working in the National Health Service has a fundamental right to be safe at work. Trends in violence towards NHS staff have generally stayed at the same levels in recent years.
Individual employers are responsible for the health and safety of their staff, and they put in place measures, including security, training, and emotional support, for staff affected by violence. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has been clear that there is zero tolerance of violence and harassment against NHS staff, and in April 2025 accepted all the Social Partnership Forum’s recommendations on tackling and reducing violence, part of the 2023 Agenda for Change pay deal. These measures will be strengthened by the introduction of a new set of staff standards, as detailed in the 10-Year Health Plan. These are likely to focus on areas such as improving staff health and wellbeing and dealing with violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the NHS workplace.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to improve the time taken for red flag referrals for breast cancer to be seen.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including breast cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes for all patients across England.
The Department is responsible for healthcare in England and therefore has not made a formal assessment on the timescales for red flag referrals for breast cancer across the whole of the United Kingdom.
As the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and treatment in England, NHS England has delivered an extra 100,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week since the start of this administration. This is supported by an increase in capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The Department recognises that there is more to be done to ensure that patients have timely access to diagnosis, and remains committed to diagnosing all cancer types earlier, including breast cancer. To tackle late diagnoses, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type.
Reducing variation in cancer care in England, including the movement of patients through breast cancer care pathways, is a priority for the Government. To address this, NHS England funded audits into primary and metastatic breast cancer. Using routine data collected on patients diagnosed with breast cancer in an NHS setting, the audits bring together information to look at what is being done well, where it is being done well, and what needs to be done better. On 11 September 2025, the second State of the Nation report for primary and metastatic breast cancer was published by the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre, and officials in the Department and NHS England are acting on the findings where appropriate.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made on the timescales for red flag referrals for breast cancer across the UK.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including breast cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes for all patients across England.
The Department is responsible for healthcare in England and therefore has not made a formal assessment on the timescales for red flag referrals for breast cancer across the whole of the United Kingdom.
As the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and treatment in England, NHS England has delivered an extra 100,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week since the start of this administration. This is supported by an increase in capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The Department recognises that there is more to be done to ensure that patients have timely access to diagnosis, and remains committed to diagnosing all cancer types earlier, including breast cancer. To tackle late diagnoses, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type.
Reducing variation in cancer care in England, including the movement of patients through breast cancer care pathways, is a priority for the Government. To address this, NHS England funded audits into primary and metastatic breast cancer. Using routine data collected on patients diagnosed with breast cancer in an NHS setting, the audits bring together information to look at what is being done well, where it is being done well, and what needs to be done better. On 11 September 2025, the second State of the Nation report for primary and metastatic breast cancer was published by the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre, and officials in the Department and NHS England are acting on the findings where appropriate.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department plans to provide for sexual health clinics in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department provides funding for sexual health services through the Public Health Grant, which is allocated to local authorities in England. Sexual health is one of a number of public health services funded through the Public Health Grant. The Department does not specify how much is spent on sexual health specifically; local authorities are responsible for commissioning sexual health services to meet the needs of their populations.
We will continue to invest in local authorities' vital public health work, providing over £13.4 billion over the next three years through a consolidated ringfenced Public Health Grant. This will support a number of vital local health services, including sexual health services.