Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to ensure a patients right of choice is not impacted by the proposed 2025-26 NHS payment scheme.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

A patients’ right to choose is set out in legislation, and the proposed 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme (NHSPS) makes no changes to this right. As required by the Health and Care Act 2022, NHS England has conducted an assessment of the impact of the proposed NHSPS. This is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/25-26-NHSPS-Consultation-notice-C-impact-assessment.pdf.

This impact assessment includes consideration of the impact on patient choice, as well as an assessment of the impact on patients, in line with NHS England’s public sector equality duty.

The Government is committed to patients having the right to choose their provider when referred to consultant-led treatment, or to a mental health professional, for their first appointment as an outpatient. Further information on the choices available for patients can be found on the NHS Choice Framework, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed 2025-26 NHS Payment Scheme on a patients right to choose.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

A patients’ right to choose is set out in legislation, and the proposed 2025/26 NHS Payment Scheme (NHSPS) makes no changes to this right. As required by the Health and Care Act 2022, NHS England has conducted an assessment of the impact of the proposed NHSPS. This is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/25-26-NHSPS-Consultation-notice-C-impact-assessment.pdf.

This impact assessment includes consideration of the impact on patient choice, as well as an assessment of the impact on patients, in line with NHS England’s public sector equality duty.

The Government is committed to patients having the right to choose their provider when referred to consultant-led treatment, or to a mental health professional, for their first appointment as an outpatient. Further information on the choices available for patients can be found on the NHS Choice Framework, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-choice-framework

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 30 January 2025 to Question 26770 on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Health Services, whether the results from the NHS England stocktake will be published.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England’s long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, stocktake aimed to collate information about service commissioning, activity, and delivery, to provide a national overview of the services commissioned by integrated care boards as part of their core activity. The stocktake was completed for an internal NHS England committee and, therefore, there are no plans to publish the findings. However, those findings did confirm the widely recognised challenges of significant variation in care delivery across England, and a lack of comprehensive activity data.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's consultation on the implementation of the new subscription contract regime under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposals on cooling-off rights on the (a) film and (b) television sectors.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Consultation on the implementation of the new subscriptions contract regime closed on 10 February 2025. We are analysing the responses, including submissions from the film and television sectors. Officials have also met with relevant trade associations and individual businesses in those sectors to hear their views.

The impact assessment for subscriptions chapter in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act can be found here: Subscription traps: annex 2 impact assessment. Together the subscription measures are anticipated to provide £400m of consumer benefits per year and the estimated net cost to businesses is £171m per year.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his Department's consultation on the implementation of the new subscription contract regime under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposals on cooling-off rights on the (a) film and (b) television sectors.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Consultation on the implementation of the new subscriptions contract regime closed on 10 February 2025. We are analysing the responses, including submissions from the film and television sectors. Officials have also met with relevant trade associations and individual businesses in those sectors to hear their views.

The impact assessment for subscriptions chapter in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act can be found here: Subscription traps: annex 2 impact assessment. Together the subscription measures are anticipated to provide £400m of consumer benefits per year and the estimated net cost to businesses is £171m per year.

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 supporting people with Long Covid in the context of the closure of Long Covid clinics.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Across the National Health Service in England there are services supporting people with post-COVID syndrome, also known as long COVID. These services offer physical, cognitive, and psychological assessment, and, where appropriate, refer patients onto existing services for treatment and rehabilitation. Further information can be found on NHS England’s website, at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/post-covid-syndrome-long-covid/

The commissioning of post-COVID services transitioned from the long COVID national programme to local integrated care boards (ICBs) at the end of March 2024. Funding for post-COVID services in 2024/25 was expected to be allocated based on the previous distribution for 2023/24, to minimise disruption to funding flows and maintain services.

NHS England has published commissioning guidance for post-COVID services which sets out the commissioning and service requirements and the oversight of post-COVID services by the ICBs in England for adults, and children and young people (CYP). It outlines the elements that post-COVID services should comprise of and the principles of care for long COVID, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-guidance-for-post-covid-services-for-adults-children-and-young-people/

There is specific advice for general practitioners to manage long COVID. Patients should be managed according to current clinical guidance, such as that published and updated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, and the Royal College of General Practitioners, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG188

Primary care plays a key role in the long COVID clinical pathway, in considering and excluding potential other causes of symptoms and in determining the appropriate management of symptoms and the timing of onward referral to post-COVID services, if appropriate. A post-COVID-19 syndrome diagnostic pathway, the criteria for referral to post-COVID services, and separate adult and CYP pathways are outlined in the commissioning guidance to help provide consistency of delivery and to improve patient experience.

Not all people who report long COVID symptoms will require assessment in a post-COVID assessment service. For example, some of the most common symptoms may still not warrant a specialist assessment as people can benefit from self-management advice, including from the NHS website. Some people may be seen in other disease-specific pathways, depending on their individual circumstances.

NHS England has recently completed a long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), stocktake, which aimed to provide a nationwide overview of service delivery in commissioning and contracting, assessing access, activity, and outcomes. The findings confirmed widely recognised challenges, specifically significant variation in care delivery across England, and a lack of comprehensive activity data.

Executive NHS England board members were updated on the current provision of long COVID and ME/CFS services, noting those challenges. Discussions considered service prioritisation and potential COVID Inquiry recommendations. It was agreed that long COVID and ME/CFS services are rightly commissioned by ICBs, which have responsibility for ensuring coverage for their population.

Furthermore, to support clinical leadership in this area, NHS England has worked in partnership with the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine to develop a new Clinical Post-COVID Society to facilitate the ongoing sharing of best practice, to support people affected by long COVID. Further information about the society is available at the following link:

https://www.clinicalpcs.org.uk

Coalfields Regeneration Trust funding

Found: Kyrke-Smith, Gordon McKee, Chris Law, Ellie Chowns, Liz Saville Roberts, Tonia Antoniazzi and Jo Platt

Submit Evidence (by 9 May 2025)

One of the most frequently raised areas of interests during the committee’s call for views has been accessibility.