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 is taking steps to raise awareness of grief awareness week.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government understands the importance and significance of National Grief Awareness Week. Grief is something we will all encounter during our lives, and it’s important that grieving families and friends who have lost loved ones have access to the support they need, when they need it.
As part of National Grief Awareness Week 2025, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health met with the UK Commission on Bereavement. This was highlighted on social media, with further information available at the following link:
Furthermore, the Department chairs the cross-Government Bereavement Working Group, with representatives from over 10 departments, to consider options to improve bereavement support and 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 he is taking to improve early diagnosis of COPD.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To enable faster diagnosis and earlier access to treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), access to spirometry tests in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is growing and will continue to do so as more sites come online. The first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.
As of November 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks in 170 sites across the country. 101 CDCs across the country now offer out of hours services, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around their busy working lives.
Diagnosis times for COPD from spirometry tests are not routinely collected or available in a centralised dataset.
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 the adequacy of diagnosis times for COPD.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To enable faster diagnosis and earlier access to treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), access to spirometry tests in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is growing and will continue to do so as more sites come online. The first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.
As of November 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks in 170 sites across the country. 101 CDCs across the country now offer out of hours services, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around their busy working lives.
Diagnosis times for COPD from spirometry tests are not routinely collected or available in a centralised dataset.
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 diagnoses have been made for diabetes so far in 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is available from the National Diabetes Audit which provides a count of the number of people with a general practice record of diabetes. The latest published data from the audit for April 2024 to March 2025 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, how many people are currently being treated for Mesothelioma.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest data for England from Cancer Waiting Times shows that for the month of September 2025 the number of people that started first or subsequent treatment for Mesothelioma after a decision to treat was 168, and the number of people that started their first treatment for Mesothelioma following referral was 107.
We have now launched our first Men’s Health Strategy which includes targeted support to address health inequalities in ex-mining and industrial communities, who often face persistent respiratory and cardiovascular disease burdens. We will expand the existing Respiratory Pathways Transformation Fund initiative by investing an additional £1 million to develop targeted case-finding initiatives in former coalfield areas to help us to identify the individuals who need support to access appropriate local 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, how many children under the age of 10 have been diagnosed as deaf across the UK.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 21 October 2025 to Question 77507.
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 workplace catering and break facilities for healthcare workers.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Good physical working environments are important for staff wellbeing and retention. Staff need to be given the time and space to rest and recover from their work, particularly when working on-call or overnight. This is recognised as a priority in the NHS People Promise which sets out the importance of employers prioritising spaces for staff to rest and recuperate, and ensuring access to hot food and drinks.
In May 2024, NHS England and NHS Charities Together launched a £10 million Workforce Wellbeing Programme to support National Health Service staff in England. It will provide tailored health and wellbeing support to NHS staff, including grants to improve facilities. A three-year programme of work named Great Food, Good Health, led by NHS England, aims to improve the experience and quality of nutritious food that patients, staff, and visitors receive in hospital. As part of this, the NHS made clear that NHS organisations must be able to demonstrate they have suitable 24/7 food service provision.
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 reduce regional inequalities in the (a) access to and (b) quality of palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
This further clarified in the recently published Strategic Commissioning Framework and Medium Term Planning Guidance, which makes clear the expectation that ICBs should understand current and projected service utilisation and costs, creating an overall plan to more effectively meet these needs through neighbourhood health.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Members to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence.
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 update healthcare professional 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 early 2026 and to lay this legislation before Parliament in the same year. We also plan to update the governing legislation of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Health and Care Professions Council, as well as introducing a statutory barring system for National Health Service managers in England, within the current parliamentary period.
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 address the rising legal costs of clinical negligence.
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 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office’s report.
The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point, and the Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps, in due course.