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 provide an update into his Department's research efforts into Motor Neurone Disease.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering motor neurone disease (MND) research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), primarily through the Medical Research Council for MND.
The Government is investing in MND research across a range of areas, including an £8 million investment via the NIHR into the EXPERTS-ALS, a pre-clinical study which is designed to accelerate the identification and testing of the most promising treatment candidates for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of MND.
The MND Translational Accelerator, supported by £6 million of Government funding, is connecting the UK Dementia Research Institute, the UK MND Research Institute, and Dementias Platform UK. Twelve projects have been funded through the Accelerator, and all are aimed at speeding up the development of treatments for MND.
In August 2025, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency approved Tofersen to treat SOD1-ALS, a rare form of MND. Research into Tofersen was supported by NIHR’s Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre, and all three trial phases were delivered by the NIHR’s Research Delivery Network, demonstrating tangible impact of NIHR funded research into MND.
The NIHR and UKRI continue to welcome funding applications for research into MND. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
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 increase access to weight loss jabs for more long-term conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19 November 2025 to Question 89687.
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 progress his Department has made on meeting the 18-week treatment targets set out in the Elective Reform Plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to returning, by March 2029, to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment (RTT).
NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance for 2025/26 set a target that 65% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.
To achieve this interim March 2026 target, we expect the size of the total waiting list to reduce. We have already made significant progress on this. As of October 2025, the waiting list had reduced by over 225,000 since the Government came into office, and performance against the RTT standard has improved by 2.9%, reaching 61.8%.
This has been supported by the delivery of 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025 compared to the previous year, more than double the Government’s pledge of two million. This marks a vital First Step towards delivering the constitutional standard.
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 tackle (a) elective care and (b) joint replacement waiting times.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Rushcliffe on 19 November to Question 89685.
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 ban the blanket use of body mass index thresholds as a means of determining eligibility for joint replacement surgery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Rushcliffe on 20 November 2025 to Question 89688.
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 diagnosed with malaria in the last 12 months.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has been a total of 1,812 cases of malaria reported in the United Kingdom in the twelve months between January and December 2024. The UK Health Security Agency publishes annual malaria statistics in an annual report, titled Malaria in the UK. The statistics for the twelve months between January and December 2025 will be published in 2026.
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 the proportion of patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease receiving annual reviews.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Annual reviews, including reviews of medication, play a key role in the ongoing management of people with respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, as part of its guidance for the diagnosis and management of asthma and COPD
The majority of patients with COPD and asthma are managed by general practitioners and members of the primary care team. The provision of annual reviews is incentivised in primary care through the Quality and Outcomes Framework. There are indicators for annual reviews for both COPD, namely COPD010,and asthma, namely AST007, within this framework.
Further details on these indicators are available in the QOF guidance 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 referrals have been made for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as part of the Targeted Lung Health Checks programme; and what regional variation there has been in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease diagnoses arising from that programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data requested is not available centrally. To enable faster diagnosis and earlier access to treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 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.
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 uptake of the Flu Jab in Autumn 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
For England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes provisional vaccine uptake data throughout the flu season. Weekly national level data for general practice (GP) patients is available from October to January and can be found at the following link:
Provisional monthly national, regional, and local level data for GP patients, school-aged children, and frontline healthcare workers is available throughout the season. The first monthly data for the 2025 to 2026 season includes all vaccinations given between 1 September to 31 October 2025 and is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/vaccine-uptake#seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake:-figures
Compared with the equivalent time period last season, 2024 to 2025, influenza vaccine uptake is higher in two and three years olds, school-aged children, pregnant women, and frontline healthcare worker, and for those aged 65 years old and over and those in clinical at-risk groups, uptake is comparable, with less than a 1% difference. Final end of season data is published in the annual reports in late spring, at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/vaccine-uptake#seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake:-figures.
Annual reports contain final end-of-season data from multiple previous seasons.
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 prevent the spread of measles in schools.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Vaccination is the safest and most effective way to protect children and staff against measles. In England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works closely with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to improve uptake of the routine childhood immunisation programme, including the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The UKHSA also works closely with the Department for Education and a broad range of stakeholders and partners at the national, regional, and local level to communicate the importance of the MMR vaccine and the risk of measles, across media, social media, and through engagement with local communities.
The UKHSA Health Protection Teams work closely with local partners and schools to respond to measles outbreaks when they arise. Guidance for educational settings on preventing and managing infectious disease like measles is available at the following link:
Information for parents whose children have contracted measles can be found at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/measles/
From 1 January 2026, general practices will offer eligible children a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella instead of MMR, as part of the routine infant vaccination schedule. Further information is available at the following link: