Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to grant local authorities powers to apply local means-testing policies to the Disabled Facilities Grant budget.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, we continue to fund the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) which is administered by local authorities. This grant helps eligible older and disabled people on low incomes to adapt their homes to make them safe and suitable for their needs. Practical changes include installing stairlifts, level-access showers, and ramps.
Local authorities already have a significant amount of flexibility in how they deliver the DFG, including removing means testing for grants costing under a certain amount. Local authorities have flexibility on determining the level below which they wish to remove the means test.
We have provided an additional £172 million over two years to uplift the DFG, which could fund approximately 15,000 extra home adaptations. This brings total funding for the DFG to £711 million in each of 2024/25 and 2025/26.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
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 impact of the Food Standard Agency’s official control charges on the viability of small and medium sized abattoirs.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on the 2025/26 charge rates for official controls, or inspections, conducted in meat premises is available on the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA’s) website at the following link:
https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/charges-for-controls-in-meat-premises
As in previous years, the impact of charges will be offset by a discount which provides the greatest proportional support to smaller businesses. The impact of the discount on different sized food businesses in England and Wales for 2025/26 is set out in the Cost Data Slides the FSA has published.
The FSA has conducted an evaluation of the current discount scheme which began with a Call for Evidence in autumn 2024. Extensive stakeholder engagement and consideration by the FSA Board in its public meetings has followed which has informed proposals for a revised scheme. At its public meeting on 10 December, the FSA Board agreed to a full public consultation on proposals for a scheme that would direct more targeted support towards smaller abattoirs. The consultation is planned for spring 2026 and will be accompanied by an assessment of impact.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will include a target in a future Rare Disease Action Plan on proportionate access to multi-indication medicines for (a) rare and (b) ultra-rare disease patients.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving access to specialist care, treatments, and drugs is a priority under the UK Rare Diseases Framework. The 2025 England Rare Diseases Action Plan was published in February 2025 and reports on progress against existing actions under this priority. This included reviewing the effectiveness of the Early Access to Medicines Scheme, the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway, and the Innovative Medicines Fund, which are key access initiatives aimed at facilitating earlier availability of innovative treatments. Our review specifically assessed how effective these pathways are in supporting timely access to therapies for individuals living with rare diseases.
As set out in the Life Sciences Sector plan, we will be introducing a new and proportionate approach to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) appraisals and NHS indication-specific based pricing agreements for medicines with large numbers of indications, strong long-term outcome data, and low affordability risk. This will support treatments for rare diseases. There are currently no plans to introduce an access target, as it is essential to review the available evidence on a case-by-case basis. However, the Government remains committed to improving access to medicines for rare and ultra-rare diseases.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department have made of potential savings of the implementation of Fixed Recoverable Costs for clinical negligence claims valued up to (a) £25,000, (b) £100,000 and (c) £250,000.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC will be providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs and how we can improve patients’ experience of clinical negligence claims, ahead of a review by the Department in the autumn. The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point. The Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps, in due course.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
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 impact of repealing S2(4) of the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948 on NHS costs.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC will be providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs and how we can improve patients’ experience of clinical negligence claims, ahead of a review by the Department in the autumn. The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point. The Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps, in due course.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) organisations and (b) individuals has David Lock KC had discussions with as part of his review into the legal costs of clinical negligence.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC will be providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs and how we can improve patients’ experience of clinical negligence claims, ahead of a review by the Department in the autumn. The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point. The Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps, in due course.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether David Lock KC’s review of the legal costs of clinical negligence will be published.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC will be providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs and how we can improve patients’ experience of clinical negligence claims, ahead of a review by the Department in the autumn. The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point. The Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps, in due course.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
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 claims for clinical negligence in each NHS Trust in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Resolution (NHSR) manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England. The table attached shows the number of clinical claims and incidents received in the 2024/25 financial year, broken down by NHS trust.
The table provided sets out the number of clinical negligence claims and incidents notified to NHSR by NHS trusts in the most recent period for which data is available. It should be noted that these figures are based on the financial year in which a claim or incident was notified to NHSR, however, the incident may have occurred in previous financial years.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the men’s health strategy; and whether it will include funding to help prevent (a) suicide and (b) premature death for men.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are developing a Men's Health Strategy which will seek to improve the health and wellbeing of all men in England. This includes finding the right ways to promote healthier behaviours, improving outcomes for health conditions that hit men harder, and improving engagement with healthcare. The strategy will be informed by the Call for Evidence which closed on 17 July 2025. We aim to launch the Men’s Health Strategy later this year.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
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 effectiveness of utilising shareable health data to help (a) fire and rescues services and (b) local authorities identify vulnerable residents.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made a formal assessment of using health data in this way but is aware of exploratory work underway in the National Health Service, including in Greater Manchester. This year the Department is working to tackle the underlying barriers to linking health and non-health data to improve outcomes and is supporting a small number of priority projects.