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 promote heart awareness month.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We welcome heart awareness month, which raises awareness about heart disease, promoting lifestyle changes for a healthy heart. The Department and NHS England regularly run health-related media campaigns targeting audiences to take preventative action.
Throughout January and February, we will be running the Healthy Choices Quiz campaign which supports people to prioritise health improvements and take proactive action on a range of behaviours, many of which support heart health.
The National Health Service website includes a Better Health section, offering advice and support to make small, achievable lifestyle changes, for example, increasing physical activity, losing weight, and help to quit smoking, all of which can significantly improve long-term health, including your heart health.
To accelerate progress towards the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease modern service framework (CVD MSF) this year. The CVD MSF will support consistent, high quality and equitable care whilst fostering innovation across the CVD pathway.
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 have been referred to Weightloss clinics within the last year.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service and local government provide a range of services to help people living with overweight and obesity to manage their weight.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning health services within their area in line with local population need and taking account of relevant guidance. This includes specialist weight management services, or weight loss clinics, for those living with severe obesity and associated health conditions.
The National Obesity Audit (NOA) aims to bring together existing comparable data from the different types of weight management services across England in order to drive improvement for the benefit of those living with overweight and obesity. Responsibility for the management and collection of referral data sits at a local system level, and not all providers of weight management services are submitting data into the NOA at present. It is therefore not possible to state how many people have been referred to weight loss clinics within the last year.
NHS England continues to develop the NOA with the aim of ensuring it will provide a comprehensive picture of activity, access to services, and health outcomes of patients using weight management services across England.
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 dentists are on the NHS register that specialise in treating children with special needs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community dental services (CDS) are commissioned on a local basis by integrated care boards and provide care to adults and children who may have difficulty accessing high street dental services due to their social, medical, or dental needs. This may include children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
NHS England published findings from its December 2024 dental workforce data collection on 17 July 2025, including a community dental subset. Approximately 640 dentists working within CDS services in England submitted a return. However, not all CDS provision is covered by the General Dental Services contracts or Personal Dental Services agreements in scope of the data collection. Consequently, this does not constitute a full picture of staff providing CDS in the National Health Service in England.
Children and young people with SEND may not require care in CDS and some will instead be seen in high street dental practices.
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 NHS dentists per capita are there in England; and how many there were in January 2021.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2024/25, there were 41.9 dentists per 100,000 people in England who performed some National Health Service work. This equates to 0.00042 dentists per person, or per capita. For January 2021, there were 42.1 dentists per 100,000 people who performed some NHS work, which also rounds to 0.00042 dentists per person, or per capita.
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 women in England and Wales are awaiting specialised endometriosis care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not centrally hold data on the number of women in England and Wales awaiting specialised endometriosis care. In England, the waiting list for gynaecology care stands at 575,986. This is a reduction of 19,979 since the Government came into office.
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health, including endometriosis care. Action to improve endometriosis care includes commissioning researching focussed on endometriosis diagnosis, treatment, and pain, and expanding the number of dedicated and protected surgical hubs, of which gynaecology procedures are a key offering. From 2027, a new “online hospital”, NHS Online, will also offer patients the choice to access specialist care from home. Menstrual problems potentially indicating endometriosis or fibroids from home will be among the conditions NHS Online initially focuses on, providing additional appointments to cut waiting times.
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, pursuant to the answer of 22 December 2025 to question 99733, whether his Department has conducted analysis of the drivers for the 121,506 hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2024-25; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of improved outpatient and secondary care management on reducing avoidable admissions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not conducted a specific assessment of the drivers of hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for 2024/25. In general, COPD is commonly worsened by smoking, occupational exposure, and poor air quality, and exacerbations are often triggered by respiratory infections including flu, pneumococcal disease, and COVID‑19.
There are a range of measures in place to help reduce preventable COPD admissions. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill represents the most significant public health intervention since the 2007 indoor smoking ban and will support our ambition for a smokefree United Kingdom. The Department is also working across Government to tackle air pollution and address poor housing conditions including damp and mould. The National Health Service is running winter vaccination campaigns against key respiratory infections including COVID-19, flu and pneumococcal disease, which can trigger COPD. Further, pulmonary rehabilitation is a proven intervention that improves symptoms and reduces hospital admissions for people with COPD. NHS England’s commissioning standards ensure services are high quality, equitable, and reduce health inequalities.
More broadly, our 10-Year Health plan sets out the new neighbourhood health model to expand urgent care at home and in the community, which will reduce unnecessary hospital visits and admissions, thereby improving patient experience. To enable this, and deliver faster diagnosis and earlier access to treatment, 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.
Regarding readmissions, the information is not publicly available in the format requested. NHS England publishes annual data on the total number of readmissions in England within 30 days for 2024/25, but this is not broken down by diagnosis. This information can be found 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, pursuant to the answer of 22 December 2025 to question 99733, how many of those admissions were readmissions within (a) 30 and (b) 90 days of initial hospitalisation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not conducted a specific assessment of the drivers of hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for 2024/25. In general, COPD is commonly worsened by smoking, occupational exposure, and poor air quality, and exacerbations are often triggered by respiratory infections including flu, pneumococcal disease, and COVID‑19.
There are a range of measures in place to help reduce preventable COPD admissions. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill represents the most significant public health intervention since the 2007 indoor smoking ban and will support our ambition for a smokefree United Kingdom. The Department is also working across Government to tackle air pollution and address poor housing conditions including damp and mould. The National Health Service is running winter vaccination campaigns against key respiratory infections including COVID-19, flu and pneumococcal disease, which can trigger COPD. Further, pulmonary rehabilitation is a proven intervention that improves symptoms and reduces hospital admissions for people with COPD. NHS England’s commissioning standards ensure services are high quality, equitable, and reduce health inequalities.
More broadly, our 10-Year Health plan sets out the new neighbourhood health model to expand urgent care at home and in the community, which will reduce unnecessary hospital visits and admissions, thereby improving patient experience. To enable this, and deliver faster diagnosis and earlier access to treatment, 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.
Regarding readmissions, the information is not publicly available in the format requested. NHS England publishes annual data on the total number of readmissions in England within 30 days for 2024/25, but this is not broken down by diagnosis. This information can be found 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, when he plans to announce the next phase of modern service frameworks.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early priorities for Modern Service Frameworks will include cardiovascular disease, sepsis, severe mental illness and the first ever service framework for frailty and dementia. As advised by the National Quality Board, the Government will consider other conditions for future phases of MSFs and has recently announced an MSF on palliative and end-of-life 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 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.