Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
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 reduce avoidable emergency admissions for people with neurological conditions; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including a target to reduce avoidable emergency admissions for such people in the Modern Service Framework.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Government is committed to reducing avoidable emergency admissions for people with neurological conditions by improving earlier diagnosis, strengthening community-based care, and ensuring better coordination between services.
NHS England is encouraging systems to adopt personalised care and support planning, including anticipatory care approaches for people at higher risk of admission. This can involve the use of care plans, rapid access to community teams, and closer monitoring to ensure issues such as infections are identified and treated promptly, reducing the need for hospital admission. National programmes such as Getting It Right First Time and NHS RightCare support systems to identify unwarranted variation and adopt best practice in managing long-term conditions, including for neurological conditions.
NHS England’s service specification for specialised adult neurology services sets out clear expectations for proactive, coordinated care to reduce the risk of avoidable complications. It emphasises early identification of clinical risks, personalised care planning, and timely access to multidisciplinary support, including specialist nurses, therapists, and community services. By promoting regular monitoring, effective management of common complications like swallowing, mobility, and bladder function, and close coordination between primary, community, and specialist care, the specification supports early intervention and continuity of care. This approach helps to minimise preventable deterioration, reduce unplanned hospital admissions, and improve outcomes and quality of life for people.
Proposals for new modern service frameworks (MSFs) will be assessed by the National Quality Board against a clear set of criteria, including: the strength of the case for change; the presence of relative consensus around a genuinely ambitious, long term outcome goal; the existence of a strong cross system partnership coalition; and the potential for digital by default models of care and service transformation. This is essential in ensuring that MSFs have a high impact and remain credible, and that development capacity is focused where the approach can add the greatest value. The process for assessing applications for future MSFs is currently being developed.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
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 establish a targeted, ambitious and measurable Modern Service Framework for neurological conditions.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Government is committed to reducing avoidable emergency admissions for people with neurological conditions by improving earlier diagnosis, strengthening community-based care, and ensuring better coordination between services.
NHS England is encouraging systems to adopt personalised care and support planning, including anticipatory care approaches for people at higher risk of admission. This can involve the use of care plans, rapid access to community teams, and closer monitoring to ensure issues such as infections are identified and treated promptly, reducing the need for hospital admission. National programmes such as Getting It Right First Time and NHS RightCare support systems to identify unwarranted variation and adopt best practice in managing long-term conditions, including for neurological conditions.
NHS England’s service specification for specialised adult neurology services sets out clear expectations for proactive, coordinated care to reduce the risk of avoidable complications. It emphasises early identification of clinical risks, personalised care planning, and timely access to multidisciplinary support, including specialist nurses, therapists, and community services. By promoting regular monitoring, effective management of common complications like swallowing, mobility, and bladder function, and close coordination between primary, community, and specialist care, the specification supports early intervention and continuity of care. This approach helps to minimise preventable deterioration, reduce unplanned hospital admissions, and improve outcomes and quality of life for people.
Proposals for new modern service frameworks (MSFs) will be assessed by the National Quality Board against a clear set of criteria, including: the strength of the case for change; the presence of relative consensus around a genuinely ambitious, long term outcome goal; the existence of a strong cross system partnership coalition; and the potential for digital by default models of care and service transformation. This is essential in ensuring that MSFs have a high impact and remain credible, and that development capacity is focused where the approach can add the greatest value. The process for assessing applications for future MSFs is currently being developed.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
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 security and data privacy impact of so-called smart vapes and other internet-connected vaping devices.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Department is aware of the increasing role of technology in vapes. That is why the Tobacco and Vapes Act includes broad powers to regulate the technological features of vapes and associated software. In October 2025, we launched a call for evidence to inform potential policy proposals for future vape regulations, including in relation to the role of technology in vapes.
The Government, working with the devolved administrations where appropriate, is committed to consulting on how we will make use of new powers. We have already consulted on measures relating to introducing vape-free places and are planning to consult on introducing restrictions on vaping and nicotine product packaging, vape appearance, and changing where and how vapes are displayed in shops soon. These measures will help to reduce the appeal of vapes to young people whilst still enabling them to be accessed and used by adult smokers seeking to quit.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
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 implications for his policies of the clinical trial at Mount Sinai Health System, New York, published on 2 October 2024, on treating invasive bladder cancer which avoids removal of the bladder.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has not made a formal assessment of the policy implications following this clinical trial. The adoption of new treatments into the National Health Service in England is generally the result of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance and commissioner decisions.
The recommended treatment plan for muscle-invasive bladder cancer depends on how far the cancer has spread. All hospitals use multidisciplinary teams to treat bladder cancer. These are teams of specialists that work together to make decisions about the best way to proceed with treatment.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were unable to achieve a successful set of mammograms because (a) they were unable to hold the required position for sufficient time and (b) the mammogram machine was not accessible to wheelchair users in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
NHS England does not hold this information centrally. However, NHS England is fully committed to modernising the breast screening programme and removing barriers to accessing screening.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many breast screening centres in England are (a) static sites and (b) mobile units.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
NHS England does not centrally hold the numbers of static and mobile screening units, or those that have wheelchair accessible X-ray machines. However, NHS England is fully committed to modernising the breast screening programme and removing barriers to accessing screening.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many static breast screening centres have wheelchair accessible mammogram machines.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
NHS England does not centrally hold the numbers of static and mobile screening units, or those that have wheelchair accessible X-ray machines. However, NHS England is fully committed to modernising the breast screening programme and removing barriers to accessing screening.
Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many mobile breast screening units have wheelchair accessible mammogram machines.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
NHS England does not centrally hold the numbers of static and mobile screening units, or those that have wheelchair accessible X-ray machines. However, NHS England is fully committed to modernising the breast screening programme and removing barriers to accessing screening.