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 plans to expand community-based rehabilitation services for people recovering from long-term respiratory illnesses.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) services that meet the needs of their local populations, including delivery in community settings. To improve referral rates for PR, NHS England has issued guidance to ICBs on strengthening PR workforce capacity, ensuring safe staffing levels, and developing accessible service models to reduce health inequalities. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/pulmonary-rehabilitation-workforce/
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 help ensure that primary care staff delivering the Steps to Safety domestic abuse project are supported with effective referral routes to (a) other parts of the NHS and (b) specialist domestic abuse voluntary sector organisations.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, the Department has committed to roll-out a domestic abuse and sexual violence referral service, Steps to Safety, across integrated care boards. This will ensure that general practices (GPs) in every area of England can connect victims and survivors with specialist services. The ambition is that by 2029 there will be national provision of Steps to Safety which will include:
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 provide network of support to GPs for enquiring about domestic abuse.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, the Department has committed to roll-out a domestic abuse and sexual violence referral service, Steps to Safety, across integrated care boards. This will ensure that general practices (GPs) in every area of England can connect victims and survivors with specialist services. The ambition is that by 2029 there will be national provision of Steps to Safety which will include:
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 he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the availability of specialist nurses for neurological conditions in rural areas.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Workforce planning, including decisions about the number and type of specialist nurses needed locally, is the responsibility of individual employers and their integrated care boards, which are best placed to assess the needs of their populations.
We continue to work with NHS England through programmes like Getting It Right First Time to support improvements in access to specialist care for patients with neurological conditions. We have also set up the United Kingdom‑wide Neuro Forum, which brings together the Department, NHS England, the devolved administrations, and the health services and Neurological Alliances of all four nations, to share best practice and address system-wide challenges, including neurology workforce challenges.
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. We are working through how the plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups.
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that victims of domestic abuse presenting in the NHS outside of primary care get the responses they need.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Victims of domestic abuse may present in any part of the National Health Service. All NHS staff receive national mandatory safeguarding training that is being strengthened for launch in December 2026. This will reinforce to staff their safeguarding responsibilities and support them in identifying and responding to victims of abuse.
The risk of domestic abuse can increase during pregnancy, which is why midwives and health visitors are trained to spot the signs and to provide support.
From April 2026, sexual assault referral centres will be asking victims and survivors about domestic abuse. This will improve outcomes by ensuring that the correct referral pathways are accessed in a timely and appropriate manner.
As well as rolling out a domestic abuse and sexual violence referral service across integrated care boards, which will include training general practice staff to spot the signs of violence and abuse, the Department will be investing a further £5 million each year for the next three years into support services for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
To go further, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has appointed the Hon. Member for Lowestoft, Jess Asato as his advisor on violence against women and girls to drive further transformation across the health system.
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 admissions there were in each mental health inpatient unit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not available in the format requested, as NHS England does not publish information at mental health inpatient unit level. The attached table has been provided by NHS England and shows admissions by mental health provider from 2020/21 to 2024/25.
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 (a) travel expenses and (b) other financial support are available to nursing students.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Education provides the primary funding support package for English domiciled students in higher education through the student loans system.
We want to remove the barriers to training in clinical roles like nursing, which is why in addition to student loans, the Department of Health and Social Care provides supplementary non-repayable grants via the NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF). Eligible nursing students receive a minimum of £5,000 in each academic year, with an additional £1,000 per academic year available for priority areas such as mental health nursing or learning disabilities nursing. Further financial support is also available for childcare, dual accommodation costs, and travel.
These funding arrangements are reviewed annually ahead of the start of each academic year.
The 10-Year Health Plan, published in July 2025, set out that we will help students overcome financial obstacles to learning. We are working with the NHS Business Services Authority to reform and modernise the process of supporting students with their placement expenses, including reducing delays to reimbursement of their placement travel and accommodation costs.
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 improve audiology waiting times for adults with age-related hearing loss.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity, including for audiology services for adults with age-related hearing loss.
NHS England is supporting provider organisations and integrated care boards (ICBs), who are the commissioners of audiology services, to improve performance and reduce waiting lists for appointments and assessments for hearing services. This includes capital investment to upgrade audiology facilities in NHS trusts, expanding audiology testing capacity via community diagnostic centres (CDCs), and direct support through a national audiology improvement collaborative.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and modernisation efforts needed to return to the 18-week constitutional standard by the end of this Parliament. The plan commits to transform and expand diagnostic services and speed up waiting times for tests, a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the RTT 18-week standard. This includes expanding existing CDCs, as well as building up to five new ones in 2025/26, and commits to CDCs opening 12 hours per day, seven days a week, delivering more same-day tests and consultations and an expanded range of tests.
For the first time, we have set a clear target through the Medium Term Planning Framework, for systems to work to reduce long waits. By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks. This includes community audiology 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 increase access to Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography scans for cancer diagnosis.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to increasing access to Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) scans and other nuclear medicine for cancer diagnosis, primarily by boosting overall diagnostic capacity.
As part of the diagnostic capital allocation from the Spending Reviews between 2021 and 2026, five schemes have been funded to replace aged computed tomography or SPECT-CT scanners with new SPECT-CT scanners for a total investment of £6.2 million. The benefits include increased throughput of patients, lower radiation doses, faster scans, reduced sedation of patients, and improved image quality.
SPECT-CT bids are also within the scope of the 2026 Spending Review multi-year diagnostic capital process, which is ongoing.
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 plans to introduce a community-based audiology service for adults to improve access to assessment and treatment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community health services are a fundamental part of the health and care system and an essential building block in developing a neighbourhood health service. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of community health services, including audiology, to meet the needs of their local populations.
However, we know people are waiting too long to access audiology services. For the first time, we have set a clear target through the Medium Term Planning Framework, for systems to work to, in order to reduce long waits for community health services. By 2028/29 at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks. This includes community audiology services. This will be a key part of the shift from hospital to community.
In 2025, we published, for the first time, an overview of the core community health services, Standardising Community Health Services, that ICBs should consider when planning for their local populations to support improved commissioning and delivery of community health services, a vital part of neighbourhood health. It provides a baseline standard to ensure consistent delivery of community services, including audiology services, supporting effective commissioning and improved patient access. Further guidance was published in February 2026, providing more detailed descriptions of community audiology services for ICBs.
We are also committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity, including for audiology services for adults with age-related hearing loss.
NHS England is supporting provider organisations and ICBs who are the commissioners of audiology services to improve performance and reduce waiting lists for appointments and assessments for hearing services. This includes capital investment to upgrade audiology facilities in NHS trusts, expanding audiology testing capacity via community diagnostic centres, and direct support through a national audiology improvement collaborative.