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Written Question
NHS: Negligence
Thursday 5th June 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

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 merits of increasing the use of the current mediation scheme for medical negligence disputes.

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

NHS Resolution manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England. NHS Resolution is committed to the use of dispute resolution, including the use of mediation and is working with claimant lawyers and its own lawyers on innovative approaches. This includes running pilots exploring which dispute resolution techniques work best in particular types of cases and introducing several into routine claim- handling. This approach is being developed further under NHS Resolution’s published 2025-28 strategy.

Increasingly higher numbers of NHS Resolution’s cases are now resolved pre-action using a wide range of dispute resolution techniques. These approaches can improve the experience for patients and healthcare staff through a less adversarial approach and can also reduce legal costs for both sides. In 2023/24, 81% of all clinical claims handled by NHS Resolution were resolved without court proceedings.


Written Question
Health Services: Rural Areas
Tuesday 27th May 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

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 provide mobile health services to support rural agricultural communities where (a) committing and (b) travelling to appointments at set times can be a challenge.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning healthcare services that meet the needs of their local populations. When ICBs exercise their functions, they have a duty to reduce inequalities between persons with respect to their ability to access health services, and to reduce inequalities between patients with respect to the outcomes achieved for them by the provision of health services.

The Department recognises that providing services in rural areas comes with significant additional costs, for example, in travel and staff time. That is why the funding formula used by NHS England to allocate funds to ICBs includes an element to better reflect the needs in some rural, coastal, and remote areas.

The Department also wants ICBs to ensure that travel is not a prohibitive factor. There is a longstanding policy in the National Health Service that if you are eligible, you may be able to claim a refund for reasonable travel costs to receive services that are not primary medical, dental, or ophthalmic, following a referral by a healthcare professional. That scheme, the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme, continues to apply.

Furthermore, NHS England strives for digital services to improve healthcare access. NHS England published the Inclusive digital healthcare: a framework for NHS action on digital inclusion in September 2023, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/inclusive-digital-healthcare-a-framework-for-nhs-action-on-digital-inclusion/

This framework highlights that certain groups, including people living in areas with inadequate broadband and mobile data coverage, especially rural and coastal areas, face higher risks of both digital exclusion and health inequalities. The framework is designed to ensure NHS services are accessible to people who are digitally excluded.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Access
Tuesday 27th May 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

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 encourage GP practices to provide walk-in appointments for (a) farmers and (b) other occupations where attending at a set time can be a challenge.

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

General practices are independent businesses contracted to provide National Health Services, and have autonomy to manage appointments in the way that best suits their patient population, including determining what services are available on a walk-in basis. To accommodate patients who may not be able to access general practices during core opening hours, integrated care boards in England are required to provide general practice out of hours services from 18:30 to 08:00 on weekdays, all weekends, and on bank holidays.

Walk-in patients can also access care in other settings. Under Pharmacy First, community pharmacists can provide advice for minor illnesses and supply some prescription-only medicines without a prescription from a general practitioner, either following a referral or a walk-in. Patients with urgent but not life-threatening medical needs can also visit urgent treatment centres without an appointment.


Written Question
Pharmacy: Rural Areas
Thursday 8th May 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

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 provide sustainable funding for rural pharmacies.

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

We have increased the core funding for community pharmacy to £3.1billon pounds in 2025/26 and increased the commissioning of additional services like Pharmacy First.
We have maintained the Pharmacy Access scheme that provides £19m to support pharmacies in areas where there are fewer pharmacies, including in rural areas.
Written Question
Breast Cancer: Research
Friday 21st March 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet with the Lobular Moon Shot Project to discuss funding for lobular breast cancer research.

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

The Department invests £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24 reflecting its high priority.

We are proud to have invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre in 2022, supporting their efforts to strengthen research into cancer, including lobular breast cancer. Wider investments into breast cancer research include a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, including lobular breast cancer.

On 4 February 2025 the Department announced that almost 700,000 women across the country will take part in a world-leading trial to test how cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tools can be used to catch breast cancer cases earlier. The Early Detection using Information Technology in Health (EDITH) trial is backed by £11 million of Government support via the NIHR.

The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including lobular breast cancer. Improving outcomes for people with cancer is a priority for the Government.


Written Question
Drugs: Internet
Wednesday 12th February 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with internet service providers and with national and international partners on steps taken to prevent unlicensed medicines from entering the UK.

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

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), acting on behalf of my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is responsible for the regulation of all medicines and medical devices in the United Kingdom, by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe. This includes applying the legal controls on the retail sale, supply, and advertising of medicines, which are set out in the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. These regulations apply equally to medicines advertised, sold, or supplied through the internet.

Public safety is the number one priority for the MHRA, and its Criminal Enforcement Unit works hard to prevent, detect, and investigate illegal activity involving medicines and medical devices.

The MHRA works closely with e-commerce and the internet industry to identify, remove, and block online content promoting the illegal sale of medicines and medical devices. It also seeks to identify and, where appropriate, prosecute online sellers responsible for putting public health at risk. Working with national and international partners, the MHRA successfully seizes millions of doses of illegally traded medicines each year.

The MHRA’s #FakeMeds campaign provides advice to people in the UK who are considering buying medication online, outlining how products can be accessed from safe and legitimate sources. It also encourages people to report suspicious medicinal products and adverse side effects via its Yellow Card scheme, which is available at the following link:

https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/


Written Question
Lead: Contamination
Thursday 6th February 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

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 14 November 2024 to Question 13215 on Lead: Contamination, when the review of lead in food (a) commenced and (b) plans to report.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is reviewing dietary lead as part of its ongoing risk analysis of environmental contaminants in food, including in areas with higher exposure. Scoping work has begun to identify the additional evidence needed, including plans to gather data on lead levels in food from high geochemical lead areas. The detailed schedule and plan for this work is not yet finalised. Updates on its progress will be made available on the FSA’s website.


Written Question
Hormone Treatments: Sales
Tuesday 4th February 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to prevent health companies based overseas from selling hormone treatments online to people living in the UK.

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

In response to recommendations by the Commission on Human Medicines, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced an indefinite ban on gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues for new patients with gender dysphoria and/or incongruence. This legislation came into effect on 1 January 2025 as the previous section 62 emergency order expired, and is available at the following link:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/1319/made

This indefinite order continues to prohibit the sale or supply of GnRH analogues prescribed by private United Kingdom-registered prescribers, for gender dysphoria or gender incongruence, to under 18 year olds not already taking them, and the sale and supply of the drugs against prescriptions from prescribers registered in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, for any purposes, to anyone under 18 years old.

Regarding other hormone treatments, we would always recommend patients use services and clinical practitioners registered in the UK so they can be assured of the safety and quality of the services they receive. Medicines bought outside the legal supply chain do not have a UK marketing authorisation and may be harmful. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency works with national and international partners to prevent unlicensed medicines from entering the UK.


Written Question
Vaccination: Children
Monday 20th January 2025

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to allow children who are (a) out of school and (b) in alternative provision to receive seasonal vaccinations that are otherwise provided on school premises.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

The Government is committed to protecting those most at risk from vaccine preventable diseases through vaccination, as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. This includes the offer of a seasonal flu vaccine to children aged two or three years old, primary school aged children, from Reception to Year 6, secondary school aged children, from Year 7 to Year 11, and children in clinical risk groups aged from six months old to less than 18 years old.

NHS England is responsible for the commissioning of school age immunisation programmes that are delivered as part of the routine vaccination schedule. NHS England has confirmed that dedicated Immunisation Team providers are commissioned to deliver a 100% offer to all eligible school aged children, from Reception to Year 11, to get their flu vaccine at school. This is a mainly school-based model, with additional opportunities offered in community clinics for those who miss the school opportunity or who are not in mainstream education, for instance if they are home schooled. General practices are also commissioned by NHS England to deliver catchups for school aged children and young people on an opportunistic basis to maximise uptake. This information can be found at the National Health Service website, and is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/child-flu-vaccine/


Written Question
Lead: Contamination
Thursday 14th November 2024

Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate the Food Standards Agency has made of the risk of lead contamination in (a) silage and (b) animal feed produced on floodplains downstream of historical lead mining sites.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is planning to review dietary lead as part of its rolling programme of risk analysis of environmental contaminants in food. This will include consideration of areas where exposure is likely to be higher. Scoping work has started, including considering what, if any, additional evidence and data may be required.

The FSA has not undertaken a specific estimation of the risk of lead contamination in silage or animal feed. However, in conjunction with the National Farmers Union, the FSA has provided advice to farmers to mitigate against lead entering the food chain, and how to avoid lead contamination. In addition, maximum levels for undesirable substances in products intended for animal feed have been established in Schedule 4 of the Animal Feed (Composition, Marketing and Use) (England) Regulations 2015, with further information on the regulations available at the following link:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/255/schedule/4

This includes levels for lead in feed materials and forage, which includes hay and silage. Any product which exceeds these limits is not permitted to be placed on the market. These regulations are enforced by local authorities. Under animal feed legislation, feed businesses, which include farmers, are responsible for making sure the feed they produce is safe for the animals it is intended for.

The impact of flooding on areas of land with historical levels of lead contamination is a matter for local councils to consider under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. They have the duty to inspect their areas to identify contaminated land. This would cover situations where lead is washed from rivers or sediments onto floodplains or where existing lead contamination on land is impacted by flooding. Lead may be discharged into rivers from abandoned metal mines and the Environment Agency is working with the Coal Authority under the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ Water and Abandoned Metal Mines Programme to identify and tackle the priority discharges.