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 tackle alcohol misuse in people under 25.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are responsible for commissioning alcohol treatment and recovery services as part of their public health responsibilities and can invest in interventions that strengthen the support available to children and young people affected by alcohol, according to a local assessment of need. £13.4 billion will be invested over the next three years, a 5.6% cash increase, in local authorities’ vital public health work through a consolidated Public Health Grant. This includes the overall £1 billion Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Improvement Grant over the next three years.
The Government also has an alcohol and drug information and advice service called Talk to FRANK, which aims to reduce alcohol and drug use and its harms by providing awareness to young people, parents, and concerned others.
In addition, in Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England, the Government committed to strengthen and expand on existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages.
The Government has committed to tackling harmful levels of alcohol consumption through exploring options to encourage consumers to reduce their alcohol intake by substituting standard strength drinks with no- and low-alcohol alternatives. The Government will explore measures to regulate access to no- and low-alcohol products in line with other alcoholic beverages, including prohibiting sales to individuals under the age of 18 years old.
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 Covid Booster Jab in Autumn 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
COVID-19 vaccination uptake figures are published regularly during the spring and winter campaigns, as part of the national flu and COVID-19 surveillance report, which 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, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the opt-in consent model used in fertility preservation services to the storage and future use of brain tissue and other tissue samples removed during neurosurgery.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a standardised consent process for National Health Service neurosurgical procedures involving tissue resection with specific consent for storage, disposal, and future use of the tissue removed, or extending the opt-in consent model used in fertility preservation services to the storage and future use of brain tissue and other tissue samples removed during neurosurgery.
However, it is a general legal and ethical principle that valid consent must be obtained from an individual before starting a treatment or physical intervention, including neurosurgical procedures. The Department recognises the importance of ensuring patients, and their families after the patient has died, are fully informed about their rights, options, and choices regarding the storage and future use of their tissue samples and that their wishes are respected.
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 potential merits of introducing a standardised consent process for NHS neurosurgical procedures involving tissue resection with specific consent for storage, disposal and future use of tissue removed.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a standardised consent process for National Health Service neurosurgical procedures involving tissue resection with specific consent for storage, disposal, and future use of the tissue removed, or extending the opt-in consent model used in fertility preservation services to the storage and future use of brain tissue and other tissue samples removed during neurosurgery.
However, it is a general legal and ethical principle that valid consent must be obtained from an individual before starting a treatment or physical intervention, including neurosurgical procedures. The Department recognises the importance of ensuring patients, and their families after the patient has died, are fully informed about their rights, options, and choices regarding the storage and future use of their tissue samples and that their wishes are respected.
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 review the arrangements governing families of patients' access to stored brain tumour tissue after the patient has died.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a standardised consent process for National Health Service neurosurgical procedures involving tissue resection with specific consent for storage, disposal, and future use of the tissue removed, or extending the opt-in consent model used in fertility preservation services to the storage and future use of brain tissue and other tissue samples removed during neurosurgery.
However, it is a general legal and ethical principle that valid consent must be obtained from an individual before starting a treatment or physical intervention, including neurosurgical procedures. The Department recognises the importance of ensuring patients, and their families after the patient has died, are fully informed about their rights, options, and choices regarding the storage and future use of their tissue samples and that their wishes are respected.
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 under 30s have been prescribed medication for depression.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) does not collect data on the clinical indication of a prescription. Given this, it is not possible to deduce which prescriptions were prescribed for depression. Many drugs have multiple uses, for example, some drugs that are classified as antidepressants can be issued to treat migraine, chronic pain, myalgic encephalomyelitis, and a range of other conditions.
The NHS BSA publishes statistics on mental health, which includes British National Formulary section 4.3 ‘Antidepressants drugs’, prescribed in England that are then dispensed in the community in England, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.
The following table shows the number of ‘unique patients’ in the latest quarterly statistics July-September 2025, aged 29 years old and under that were prescribed and dispensed antidepressants:
Time period | Total number of unique patients |
July to September 2025 | 768,961 |
Source: Medicines Used in Mental Health – England, published by NHS England, available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/medicines-used-mental-health-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, what information his Department holds on the number of people currently on a waiting list for a kidney transplant.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for organ donation in the United Kingdom. It also manages the NHS Organ Donor Register and national transplant waiting list.
As of 17 December 2025, there were 7,119 patients registered as active on the kidney transplant list. Of the 7,119 registered patients, 6,734 were registered as requiring kidney only, as the other 385 patients were registered as requiring kidney and another organ.
NHSBT publishes weekly updates on the transplant waiting list at the following link:
https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/about-organ-donation/statistics-about-organ-donation/
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 admitted into hospitals with Flu A in the last 14 days.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not available in the format requested, as NHS England does not publish short-term counts of hospital admissions for Flu A specifically.
The UK Health Security Agency does publish the national weekly hospital admission rate for influenza hospitalisations. In the week commencing 1 December 2025, the national weekly hospital admission rate for influenza hospitalisations was 10.05 per 100,000, an increase from 8.09 per 100,000 in the previous week. This information 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, whether his Department has made an assessment of (a) trends in the level of variation in access to NICE-recommended biologic medicines for severe asthma.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. NHS England is working with the health innovation networks and has formed the Respiratory Transformation Partnership. Focusing on improving the outcomes of people living with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), this programme seeks to find scalable ways to decrease premature mortality and bed occupancy from respiratory diseases. Initiatives will seek to improve disease recognition, optimise delivery of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved approaches at neighbourhood level, and uptake of existing and emerging biologic therapies.
The current NHS England severe asthma service specification is being revised by the Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group. The current service specification is available at the following link:
The revised specification will support the management of patients who require further investigation and treatments including biological medicines. The specification will also be updated to reference the most recent clinical guidelines such as the British Thoracic Society, NICE, and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network asthma guideline covering diagnosing, monitoring, and managing asthma in adults, young people, and children, and which is expected to improve outcomes for people with asthma and identify early those who require further investigation and treatments including biologic medicines. This guideline is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng245
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 has reviewed the rate of uptake of biologic medicines for severe asthma relative to the eligible population.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not conducted any such review, but this information is available via the NHS England Innovation Scorecard, which is published bi-annually.
Across all disease areas, though the 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan, the Government has commitment to reducing friction in the system to optimise access and uptake of new medicines so the most clinically and cost-effective can reach patients faster. These actions will speed up market access for new medicines and reduce local unwarranted variation in medicine use.