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 access to social care services for the elderly.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
In England, under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to meet the eligible needs of the people in their area including the elderly.
Local authorities in England are also tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes commissioning a diverse range of care and support services that enable people to access quality care.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is assessing how well local authorities in England are delivering adult social care, specifically how local authorities are performing against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. All reports and ratings are published on the CQC’s website.
The Government is making over £4.6 billion of additional funding available in England for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26, to support the sector in making improvements.
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 strengthen follow up support for self-harm patients once they leave emergency services care.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
NHS England expects all patients presenting to emergency departments following self-harm or suicidal ideation to receive a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment by appropriately trained mental health professionals prior to discharge in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance. This guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng225
The NHS Medium Term Planning Framework states that in 2026/27, mental health practitioners across all providers should undertake training and deliver care in line with Staying safe from suicide: Best practice guidance for safety assessment, formulation and management, which states that all care should be undertaken using the biopsychosocial approach.
Through the national mental health liaison programme, all Type 1 Emergency Departments now have access to 24/7 liaison mental health services, supporting timely assessment, safety planning, and onward care. Responsibility for clinical governance and safe discharge arrangements rests with local providers and integrated care systems, which are expected to have policies in place covering risk assessment, follow-up, and patient safety.
NHS England is also supporting systems to strengthen community based mental health support and wider urgent and emergency mental health pathways, including through Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres, crisis alternatives, NHS 111 option 2, and the rollout of Mental Health Emergency Departments. These developments aim to ensure people who self-harm or experience suicidal distress can access timely, compassionate, and therapeutic support both during and following a mental health crisis.
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 mental health support for prisoners.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
NHS England commissions prison health care services into every prison in England to the equivalence of the community. NHS England’s Service Specification for integrated mental health services in prisons states that patients within secure settings should receive the same level of healthcare as those people in the community, both in terms of the range of interventions available to them which meet their needs, and the quality and standards of those interventions. The specification is available at the following link:
Access to mental health provision is available to every person in prison at any stage of their sentence, this begins at the point of entry. NHS England commissions first night reception screening to review patients’ medical history by a registered nurse or practitioner, with the following purposes: to address immediate health needs and risks; to ensure medication is made available as soon as possible; and to ensure onward referrals to onsite healthcare teams, including mental health services, for both urgent face to face appointments within 24 hours, and routine face to face appointments within five working days, are made. Outside of reception screening, people in prison can be referred or self-refer to mental health services, within those timeframes.
To improve mental health services in prison, NHS England is revising the National Integrated Prison Service Specification to ensure it continues to meet the needs of the prison population.
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 international partners to help reduce the presence of harmful contaminants in international food production.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The United Kingdom works closely with international partners through the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the joint Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the World Health Organisation programme to reduce harmful contaminants in the global food supply. The Food Standards Agency is an active member of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene, contributing to the development of science- and risk-based international standards, guidelines, and codes of practice.
The UK chaired the revision of the Codex Principles of Food Hygiene and continues to play a leading role in international work on reducing contaminants, including co-chairing Codes of Practice on lead, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and ochratoxin A.
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 assessment she has made of levels of compliance with UK food hygiene standards.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for food safety and hygiene in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The FSA also monitors and oversees the inspections undertaken by local authorities.
The FSA publishes an annual review of food standards across the United Kingdom, with Our Food 2024 being the most recently published report, which is available at the following link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69d91488eb7e7bc565170248/Our-Food-2024.pdf
Further information can also be found in the FSA’s Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts (2024-25) at the following link:
The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, which applies in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, is an FSA and local authority partnership initiative, providing consumers with information about hygiene standards found in food business establishments at the time of local authority inspections. Of those businesses in-scope of the scheme, as of the end of March 2026, 96.9% have a rating of 3, generally satisfactory, or better, and 77.5% of businesses have achieved the top rating of 5, very good.
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 reduce waiting times for diagnosis and treatment of common gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Government recognises that women suffering with gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis and polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), have been failed for far too long, and we acknowledge the impact it has on women’s lives, relationships, and participation in education and the workforce.
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy commits to speeding up diagnosis and access to treatment for conditions including endometriosis and PMOS.
Clinical pathways for heavy periods and pelvic pain, which can be a sign of endometriosis, will be redesigned to reduce repeat appointments, unnecessary referrals, and long waits.
The strategy also announces a new programme to improve education for girls about their menstrual health, investing an additional £1 million to support targeted work in schools and community settings to support girls’ knowledge about menstrual health and when to seek healthcare. This is an important factor in delays in diagnosis and treatment for endometriosis and PMOS.
We are also introducing an “online hospital”, NHS Online. From 2027, people on certain pathways, including menstrual problems that may be a sign of PMOS or endometriosis, will have the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. NHS Online will help to reduce patient waiting times, delivering the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is developing a guideline on PMOS, which is expected to be published in December this year, with the draft guideline published for consultation in July.
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 adequacy of access to specialist gynaecological services for women.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
We know that women deserve better, which is why we are delivering our commitment that women’s health will never be neglected again. We are committed to improving waiting times for diagnosis and treatment so women can get the care they need sooner, including specialist gynaecological care.
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, published in April 2026, committed to several actions to improve access to care for gynaecological conditions including menopause and endometriosis. These include commitments to redesign clinical pathways for the most common clinical pathways such as heavy periods, menopause, and uro-gynaecology. These redesigned pathways will create roadmaps for health systems to use and adapt for local needs that will enable women to move more quickly through the system and reach the level of care they need with fewer appointments, and will support integrated care boards to introduce a single point of access for all non-urgent referrals to gynaecology and women’s health services to speed up access to better treatment.
Menstrual problems, including those caused by endometriosis and menopause, are prioritised as the first pathways to be delivered through community-based services and the new virtual hospital, NHS Online. NHS Online will give people on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. It will connect patients with clinicians across the country through secure, online appointments accessed through the NHS App.
For women with severe endometriosis, NHS England commissions specialised services through 61 accredited hospitals contracted to deliver care in line with the current service specification. These are accredited by the British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy. A revised specification is progressing through NHS governance and commissioning processes, ahead of consideration by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group in 2026/27. The revised specification will introduce a networked model of care to ensure all patients with endometriosis have access to clinicians with appropriate expertise, including through primary care, community services, and secondary care settings.
This will improve the standards of care for women with severe endometriosis by ensuring specialist endometriosis services have access to the most up-to-date evidence and advice.
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 publish (a) guidance to health professionals on and (b) a strategy for expediting diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
It is unacceptable that women can wait so long for an endometriosis diagnosis and the Government is taking action to address this.
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, published in April, identifies endometriosis as a priority condition, where women experience unacceptably long delays to diagnosis, pain being dismissed, and fragmented care. The strategy commits to speeding up diagnosis and access to treatment for conditions including endometriosis by announcing the investment of an additional £1 million for a new programme to improve education for girls about their menstrual health, and helping them know when to seek treatment, by redesigning clinical pathways for heavy periods and pelvic pain, including endometriosis, to reduce repeat appointments, unnecessary referrals and long waits, supporting integrated care boards to introduce single points of access for gynaecology referrals and a shift away from hospital only care towards neighbourhood community settings.
Menstrual problems, including those caused by endometriosis, will be among the first nine conditions available for referral to NHS Online from 2027, which will help to reduce patient waiting times.
Surgical hubs are helping endometriosis patients get quicker treatment. There are currently 125 operational elective surgical hubs in England. Approximately half of the 125 operational surgical hubs provide gynaecology services, with laparoscopies, which are used to diagnose and treat endometriosis, being a key part of this offering.
The Government also acknowledges the importance of ensuring healthcare professionals are adequately trained and educated on women’s health conditions, including endometriosis, and we have taken action to address this.
The General Medical Council has introduced the Medical Licensing Assessment, and the content for this assessment includes several topics relating to women’s health, including endometriosis.
Women's health is included the Royal College of General Practitioners’ (RCGP) curriculum for trainee general practitioners and the RCGP has also published a Women’s Health Library which brings together educational resources and guidelines on women’s health from the RCGP, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the College of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare. This resource is continually updated to ensure general practitioners and other primary healthcare professionals have the most up-to-date advice to provide the best care for their patients.
Generally, employers in the health system are responsible for ensuring that their staff are trained to the required standards to deliver appropriate treatment for patients.
General practitioners are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development.
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 ensure that administrative removals from waiting lists do not count towards the official waiting list numbers.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important that official waiting list data accurately reflects the true number of patient pathways that are waiting. Official figures should reflect all changes in the list including those which come about through administrative processes such as validation.
Validation is a well-established component of effective list management. By enabling trusts to have an accurate understanding of the true size of their waiting list, which in turn helps them to reduce missed or cancelled appointments, validation supports best use of clinicians’ time, ensures patients are on the best pathway for their needs, and reduces overall waiting times.
Reasons for removals through validation can be strictly administrative, such as the removal of duplicative records. However, validation also includes removals where a patient no longer needed their appointment or that a patient’s record had not been appropriately updated following treatment or other clinical decision. Importantly, any patient removed from the waiting list should be notified alongside their general practice.
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, in reference to the ongoing reform of Part IX of the Drug Tariff, a) what the objective is of introducing renewed product clusters for products listed on Part IX of the Drug Tariff, b) how his Department plans to ensure all products are placed into clinically interchangeable categories with no unintended consequences to patient care and c) how his Department aims to i) assess and ii) differentiate a product’s value through the categorisation process and enhanced assessment framework.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The ongoing reform of Part IX of the Drug Tariff is intended to ensure that the system remains clinically appropriate, delivers value for money for the National Health Service, and supports patient access to high-quality medical devices.
Previous arrangements were resulting in a long list of devices and chemical reagents on Part IX, in many cases grouped by manufacturer, rather than in comparable categories. The department, led by input from clinical panels, is updating Part IX of the Drug Tariff to group products together where appropriate and make the tariff easier to navigate.
The aim is to create comparable categories. However, products within a category will not necessarily be clinically interchangeable. The updated categories do not replace clinical judgment and is not prescribing guidance. Clinicians should continue to choose the product that best meets the need for each patient. The department recognises that patients have differing needs. These categories of devices are not generally made to technical standards however they do have comparable functions.
New clusters are not created for every distinguishing feature but may be created where features add value to the NHS. The Enhanced Assessment Framework considers quality, including broader value, social and price together to support value for money for the NHS. Quality, beyond the minimum requirements, may include evidence of product effectiveness, supporting self-care, supporting system savings and reducing inequalities.
In the circumstance a product is delisted either as a result of the process or a company choosing not to apply, we will give at least six months’ notice supported by communications to stakeholders.