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, if he will take steps to update dental professional healthcare regulation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to modernising the regulatory frameworks for all healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom.
As a first step, we aim to consult on secondary legislation to modernise the General Medical Council’s regulatory framework in late 2025 and to lay this legislation before Parliament in 2026. This will be followed by further legislation which will modernise the governing legislation for the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and for the Health and Care Professions Council, within the current Parliamentary session.
The Department will continue to work with regulators, the devolved governments and other key partners as we develop more consistent, efficient and effective regulatory frameworks.
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, whether his Department funds research on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obesity.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, has awarded £133 million into obesity research grants over the last five years. It has awarded £78 million into research grants exploring chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the last five years.
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 proportion of Mounjaro (a) prescribing and (b) medication management services his Department plans to carry out digitally.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are not currently any specific targets for the proportions of prescribing and medication management activity of tirzepatide, also known as Mounjaro, including monitoring, follow-up, and review for tirzepatide that will be carried out digitally.
The National Health Service is in the process of making tirzepatide available for weight management in primary care, including developing and testing new models of care, like community-based services and digital technologies. NHS England is working with the Office for Life Sciences and other partners to develop digitally enabled care pathways, supported by behavioural interventions, with patient safety and clinical oversight at their core. These innovative pathways are being designed to bring together remote prescribing, personalised behavioural support, and ongoing clinical supervision, allowing patients to access high-quality care in a way that is convenient and tailored to their individual needs.
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 recent progress he has made in addressing increasing clinical negligence costs.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last ten years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan, David Lock KC will be providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs and how we can improve patients’ experience of clinical negligence claims, ahead of a review by the Department in the autumn. The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area.
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, whether his Department is taking steps to encourage the installation of defibrillators in all shopping centre entrances.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve patients' survival rates following out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, the Government committed to improving access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public spaces and reducing inequalities in access to these life-saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED fund, launched in in September 2023, the Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the fund.
Funding was allocated where there was the greatest need, for example: remote communities with extended ambulance response times; places with high footfall and high population densities; hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people; and deprived areas.
There are no plans to undertake further work on improving access or provide additional support for AEDs, in light of the rapid expansion of AEDs across the United Kingdom. According to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), there are now over 110,000 defibrillators in the UK registered on The Circuit, the independently operated national AED database.
We recognise the important work the BHF has undertaken in identifying communities with limited access to a defibrillator. The BHF undertook this work as part of its 2025 community defibrillator fund programme.
The BHF is urgently encouraging areas eligible to apply to its 2025 scheme to do so. Further information is available at the following link:
Like the BHF, several other UK charities provide and support access to AEDs, and in some cases provide support for their maintenance and running costs. London Hearts, AED Donate, and Community Heartbeat Trust are prominent examples working to increase the availability of AEDs.
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 he is taking to improve levels of early diagnoses of dementia.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate (DDR) to the national ambition of 66.7%. The estimated DDR for patients aged 65 years old and over at the end of July 2025 was 66.1%. The rate is an increase of 0.3% compared to the 65.8% in June 2025. This is an overall increase from March 2020 due to sustained recovery efforts.
The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme has already invested £13 million into a range of biomarker innovation projects which include a broad range of biomarker technologies, ranging from an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve the accuracy of blood tests for dementia, to using retinal scans to detect early-onset dementia decades before symptoms. Some of these innovations could support improved diagnosis in the future, if validated for clinical use.
We will also deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia, in order to deliver rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.
The Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia and will also set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
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 information his Department holds on the childhood cancer survival rate in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows age and gender standardised overall one-year and five-year survival rates for children between the ages of zero and 14 years old in England, with the latest data being from 2020:
One-year overall survival data | ||||||
Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|
Patients | 1,415 | 1,428 | 1,307 | 1,381 | 1,319 |
|
Overall Survival (%) | 94.3 | 92.9 | 93.0 | 93.6 | 93.3 |
|
Source: Department of Health and Social Care
Five-year overall survival data | ||||||
Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|
Patients | 1,415 | 1,422 | 1,383 | 1,383 | 1,370 |
|
Overall Survival (%) | 85.8 | 86.3 | 86.1 | 86.2 | 86.2 |
|
Source: Department of Health and Social Care
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 his Department has made of the potential impact of obesity on cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is evidence that adults living with obesity have a higher risk of developing several types of cancer, according to research from Cancer Research UK, which is available at the following link:
Adults living with obesity are at a higher risk of many cancer types. This increased risk arises from excess weight causing mechanical changes to our bodies and complex changes to our hormones and metabolism. More information is available at the following links:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0029-6
Data suggests that 6% of cancer cases in the United Kingdom are attributable to obesity and overweight, including: 34% of uterine cancer cases, or 3,000 out of 9,000; 24% of kidney cancer cases, or 2,900 out of 12,400; 17% of upper gastrointestinal cancer cases, or 5,600 out of 32,400; 11% of colorectal cancer cases, or 4,800 out of 41,800; and 8% of breast cancer cases, or 4,600 out of 55,100. More information is available at the following link:
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 seek payment from foreign nationals for NHS treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, the National Health Service is a residency-based system. Only people who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom or otherwise exempt from charges under the NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015, are eligible for NHS healthcare without charge. Overseas visitors who use the NHS in England are charged upfront at 150% of the cost of treatment. Health is a devolved matter and there may be other arrangements in Northern Ireland.
The Department sets the policy, guidance and legislation through the NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015, and the NHS recovers treatment costs from charge liable patients.
Costs for NHS treatment provided to overseas visitors and other people who are not ordinarily resident in the UK are recovered through NHS direct charging, the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and reciprocal healthcare arrangements. Individuals coming to the UK for six months or more are expected to pay the IHS as part of their visa application. Once their application is granted, they are entitled to receive treatment on broadly the same basis as someone who is ordinarily resident in the UK. People coming to the UK for six months or less are expected to have adequate funds or insurance to cover any healthcare needs whilst in England. The UK is also party to several reciprocal healthcare agreements. Patients who are from countries covered by a reciprocal healthcare agreement may be entitled to some NHS services without charge.
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 he is taking to improve fracture screening.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NICE) has published a clinical knowledge summary on osteoporosis and the prevention of fragility fractures, which is available at the following link:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/osteoporosis-prevention-of-fragility-fractures/management/assessment/
If a doctor suspects that a patient has osteoporosis, they can calculate the probability of that individual having a fracture using the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool or the Q-Fracture risk calculator. Further tests, including bone density scans, otherwise known as DEXA scans, can be performed to diagnose or assess risk of osteoporosis.
Fracture liaison services are commissioned by integrated care boards, which are well-placed to make decisions according to local needs. Our 10-Year Health Plan is committed to rolling out fracture liaison services across every part of the country by 2030.