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 improve the provision of care for people with ME.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

No assessment has been made on the adequacy of the implementation of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance NG206 on myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). NICE guidelines are not mandatory, but the Government does expect healthcare commissioners to take the guidelines fully into account in designing services to meet the needs of their local population, and to work towards their implementation over time.

There are steps that the Government is taking to improve care for patients with ME/CFS. It is a priority for the Department to publish the final ME/CFS delivery plan. We cannot comment on the exact content of the final delivery plan at this time, but it will be shaped by the consultation responses, along with continued close engagement with stakeholders, with three broad themes of attitudes and education, research, and living with ME/CFS. We aim to publish it at the end of March 2025.

The Department is also currently working with NHS England to develop an e-learning course on ME/CFS for healthcare professionals, with the aim of supporting staff to be able to provide better care and improve patient outcomes.

Additionally, the Government funds research into ME/CFS through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), through UK Research and Innovation. In 2020, the NIHR and the MRC came together to fund the world’s largest genome-wide association study of ME/CFS. This £3.2 million study, termed DecodeME, will analyse samples from 25,000 people with ME/CFS to search for genetic differences that may indicate underlying causes or an increased risk of developing the condition. Further details of the study are available at the following link:

www.decodeme.org.uk

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 implementation of NICE guideline NG206 on myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

No assessment has been made on the adequacy of the implementation of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance NG206 on myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). NICE guidelines are not mandatory, but the Government does expect healthcare commissioners to take the guidelines fully into account in designing services to meet the needs of their local population, and to work towards their implementation over time.

There are steps that the Government is taking to improve care for patients with ME/CFS. It is a priority for the Department to publish the final ME/CFS delivery plan. We cannot comment on the exact content of the final delivery plan at this time, but it will be shaped by the consultation responses, along with continued close engagement with stakeholders, with three broad themes of attitudes and education, research, and living with ME/CFS. We aim to publish it at the end of March 2025.

The Department is also currently working with NHS England to develop an e-learning course on ME/CFS for healthcare professionals, with the aim of supporting staff to be able to provide better care and improve patient outcomes.

Additionally, the Government funds research into ME/CFS through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), through UK Research and Innovation. In 2020, the NIHR and the MRC came together to fund the world’s largest genome-wide association study of ME/CFS. This £3.2 million study, termed DecodeME, will analyse samples from 25,000 people with ME/CFS to search for genetic differences that may indicate underlying causes or an increased risk of developing the condition. Further details of the study are available at the following link:

www.decodeme.org.uk

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to (a) monitor and (b) reduce the average call waiting time for the Child Maintenance Service helpline.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Child Maintenance Service is committed to delivering the best possible service to all customers within our growing caseload. We continuously monitor telephony performance and through this we fully recognise that call waiting times are, at times, longer than we would like. To address this, we are working to improve the efficiency of our customer interactions through both telephone and digital channels.

In September, we introduced the Digital Assist Telephony Service, which has been a significant step forward in our mission to support and encourage customers to use our online services. In October, we restructured our call routing to make more caseworkers available to answer telephone calls. By promoting self-service options online and efficient call routing, we have freed up valuable resources to deliver a more responsive service and allow caseworkers more time to better assist customers who need to reach out to us via telephone.

Additionally, we have extended the hours of the telephony service to 6pm on weekdays in order to meet demand, and our online services are available to all customers 24/7. This has been extremely successful with just over 1 million customers logging on to their online My Child Maintenance Case account in November. As a result, we have seen a reduction in call volumes, as well as improved customer service delivery through the combination of telephone and digital channels.

We will continue to review, evaluate, and enhance our telephony service to meet demand and deliver a quality customer service.

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 potential impact of the rise in employer National Insurance Contributions on (a) local carer support organisations and (b) their ability to provide support to unpaid carers in their area.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

To enable local authorities to support key services such as adult social care, the Government will make up to £3.7 billion of additional funding available for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.

The Government is also committed to ensuring that families have the support that they need. To support unpaid carers, from April 2025 the Government will increase the Carer's Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196. This means carers can earn up to £10,000 a year whilst still retaining Carer's Allowance, which is approximately an additional £2,000 a year.

Found: Bayo Alaba; Zöe Franklin; Mr James Frith; Damian Hinds; Dr Rupa Huq; Natasha Irons; Liz Jarvis; Jo Platt

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is to examine the importance of built heritage in the UK and the barriers to its preservation.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee wants to give everyone across the world of culture, media and sport the chance to suggest themes or sectors that we should look into for a series of one-off sessions each year.