Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS dentists were employed in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data for how many NHS dentists were employed in each of the last ten years in Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board, which includes South Holland and The Deepings constituency, is published annually. The latest 2024/25 data is published by the NHS Business Services Authority and is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202425
Figures prior to 2019/20 were published by NHS Digital and are available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-dental-statistics
We do not hold data on how many NHS dentists are employed at constituency level.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 access to specialist wheelchairs for children in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services.
The Lincolnshire ICB and Lincolnshire County Council jointly commission an all-age wheelchair service. To support access to specialist wheelchairs, the Lincolnshire wheelchair service has a close working relationship with bespoke seating services who support with wheelchair fittings and assessments. In addition, the service also operates a personal wheelchair budget option that supports the provision of equipment outside of the standard service and that helps assess the equipment sourced to make sure it is appropriate and meets the patient’s needs.
NHS England is taking steps to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of National Health Service wheelchairs, and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving intervention and equipment. This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on the 9 April 2025 which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs, such as offering personal wheelchair budgets. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department which regulates medicine, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion in the United Kingdom, with responsibility for ensuring medicines meet appropriate standards of safety, quality, and efficacy. The following table shows how much the MHRA has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years:
Year | Translation | Sign language | Total |
2020/21 | £521.86 | £1,554.00 | £2,075.86 |
2021/22 | £9,725.01 | £648.00 | £10,373.01 |
2022/23 | £796.24 | £1,050.00 | £1,846.24 |
2023/24 | - | £3,138.00 | £3,138.00 |
2024/25 | £355.60 | £2,275.20 | £2,630.80 |
Total | £11,398.71 | £8,665.20 | £20,063.91 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 support people with ME in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Service is a specialist service which provides assessment and advice on myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), management strategies.
This service is available to adults and children. The ME/CFS service team consists of a wide range of skilled staff, including consultant clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists, specialist occupational therapists, and rehabilitation staff.
At a national level, the ME/CFS Final Delivery Plan, which the Department published in July, includes an action for the Department and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for very severe ME/CFS. Officials from the Department have commenced discussions with NHS England on how best to take forward this action.
NHS England has also started its work on co-designing resources for systems to improve services for mild and moderate ME/CFS. It will meet a group of key stakeholders to progress this in the coming weeks.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the Food Standards Agency has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table show how much the Food Standards Agency spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years:
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Expenditure on translation and interpretation services | £8,000 | £5,000 | £4,000 | Nil | Nil |
Data in the table relates to the Food Standards Agency’s Westminster budget. Expenditure in Wales and Northern Ireland, funded by the respective devolved administrations, has been excluded. Figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to train more GPs in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 30 September 2025, there were 115 full-time equivalent general practitioners (GPs) in training grade in practices in Lincolnshire county. The Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) reports that it has a very good track record of training GPs. This includes:
The Lincolnshire Training Hub, working alongside the ICB’s primary care team, has developed a comprehensive recruitment and retention programme, which has delivered projects including the Future Doctor Programme, an entry level pipeline schools’ initiative across Lincolnshire.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will list the titles of all the events organised by Civil Service networks in his Department since 2017.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not held centrally by the Department and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) single sex and (b) gender neutral bathroom facilities his Department provides in its premises.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department’s premises have 187 single sex cubicles, 62 urinals, and 11 non-gendered universal toilets which are individual self-contained lockable toilet rooms which contain a toilet, a washbasin, and hand-drying facilities. This is in addition to 34 wheelchair accessible toilets.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 increasing funding for palliative care services in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission, including the NHS Lincolnshire ICB, which covers the South Holland and The Deepings constituency. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative care and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.
The statutory guidance states that ICBs must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of palliative care and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. I am pleased to confirm the continuation of circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, for the next three financial years, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive, to be distributed again via ICBs. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
More widely, the Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
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 men treated for prostate cancer in (a) South Holland and the Deeping constituency and (b) Lincolnshire in 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department holds information on the number of patients treated for prostate cancer broken down into trusts rather than constituencies. However, using data from the three main trusts in South Holland and the Deeping constituency and Lincolnshire, it is possible to provide the number of patients treated for prostate cancer in 2024 at these trusts.
The three trusts that the data comes from are the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, and the United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The number of patients treated for prostate cancer at each trust was 1,170, 532, and 1,333 respectively.