Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 promote the use of sunscreen to reduce exposure to ultraviolet radiation; and whether he plans to expand public awareness campaigns on sun protection.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Government's current approach to promoting sunscreen use is part of the sun protection measures recommended to reduce exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This aligns with the World Health Organization’s guidance, which is available at the following link:
https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-protecting-against-skin-cancer
The public health guidance is primarily through the National Health Service, the UK Health Security Agency, and the Met Office rather than through dedicated national sunscreen-awareness campaigns.
NHS England and other NHS organisations regularly share social media messages during periods of sunny weather to remind the public about the importance of sun safety and using sunscreen to protect against harmful UV exposure.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 help ensure the growth of the learning disability workforce, including addressing the reduction in the number of learning disability nurses, as part of the Government's reforms for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision for children and young people.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government wants every child to have the best start in life, with help available earlier and locally when families need it. As set out in the King’s Speech, the Government is committed to raising standards in schools and introducing generational reform to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. These reforms will be brought forward in legislation through the upcoming Education for All Bill.
The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have worked closely with the Department for Education on the reforms. Continued close partnership between health, social care, and education will be needed to realise the opportunity created by these crucial reforms.
To supplement the student loans which are the main support for all students in England, the Department of Health and Social Care provides eligible healthcare students with a non-repayable grant of at least £5,000 per academic year via the NHS Learning Support Fund. Students undertaking priority specialisms such as mental health nursing and learning disability nursing can receive an additional incentive payment.
The Government is also investing over £40 million in the specialist workforce to support children and young people with SEND, including learning disability. This includes £26 million to train more educational psychologists and £15 million to enable more speech and language therapists to work in education settings.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 reduce the number of missed GP appointments in i) Broxtowe ii) Nottinghamshire and iii) England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
Missed appointments, recorded as did not attends (DNAs), are collected through General Practice Appointment Data. Nationally, there were 1.27 million DNAs out of 31 million booked appointments, representing 4.1% of all appointments.
In Nottinghamshire, there were approximately 320,000 DNAs from 8.3 million booked appointments, the equivalent to 3.85% of appointments, which is below the national average. In Broxtowe, there were 21,450 DNAs out of 727,000 booked appointments, representing 3% of appointments, lower than both the Nottinghamshire and national rates.
NHS England currently advises that local National Health Service organisations and general practices make their own arrangements for preventing and dealing with missed appointments. Practices already proactively try to reduce rates of missed appointments by sending text message or email reminders, improving their processes for cancelling or rebooking via their online systems, and by providing flexibility in scheduling, for example by allowing last-minute changes from in-person appointments to remote sessions.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 dementia care for patients in (a) Broxtowe constituency, (b) Nottingham, (c) Nottinghamshire and (d) England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs) and may include creative therapies. We expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
We will deliver the first ever Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, which is expected this year. The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.
The Government is committed to improving dementia care. That is why we have published the D100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool to help simplify best practice.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial and advisory support is available for independent charitable emergency services, such as the Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, to assist with increased fuel and operating costs arising as a consequence of the Iran War.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government recognises the contribution of the longstanding and successful independent air ambulance charities model, which enables close partnership working with local National Health Service trusts to provide medical guidance, supplies, and training.
The Government continues to take action to support the charitable sector, which includes the increase in the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This reduces the impact on the sector from the increase in employer National Insurance contributions.
There are no current plans to provide further funding to the sector which operates through a successful charitable model.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which speciality training programmes allow Less Than Full Time trainees to progress on the basis of competency rather than requiring extensions to the duration of training before the award of a Certificate of Completion of Training; and whether his Department has considered adopting this approach as standard across speciality training.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the regulator of all medical doctors, physician assistants (PAs) and physician assistants in anaesthesia (PAAs), still legally known as physician associates and anaesthesia associates, practising in the United Kingdom. It sets and enforces the standards all doctors, PAs and PAAs must adhere to. The GMC is independent of Government, directly accountable to Parliament and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties.
Progression through all specialty training is outcomes-based, whether a doctor is Less Than Full Time (LTFT) or not. The Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans (COPMeD) Gold Guide states that ‘All postgraduate doctors in training, full-time or LTFT, need to meet the requirements for progression in training as set out in the relevant GMC-approved curriculum.’
However, the exposure and experiences needed to meet learning outcomes will likely take longer to achieve if training LTFT. Further detail can be found at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and COPMeD. As such, when a doctor moves to LTFT, their Certificate of Completion of Training date would typically be recalculated and many of the royal colleges and statutory education bodies offer guidance around this, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 merits of providing support to veterans in obtaining NHS dental care once they have left the armed forces.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We are working to improve access to National Health Service dentistry, which will also benefit members of the Armed Forces community, including our respected veterans who have spent their careers defending our country.
We are also supporting more than 1,500 children in British military families overseas through our supervised toothbrushing programme.
Free NHS dental care is available to people who meet the following criteria:
aged under 18 years old, or aged under 19 years old and in full-time education;
pregnant or have had a baby in the previous 12 months;
being treated in an NHS hospital and the treatment is carried out by the hospital dentist (patients may have to pay for any dentures or bridges);
receiving low-income benefits, or aged under 20 years old and a dependant of someone receiving low-income benefits; and
receiving War Pension Scheme payments, or Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments and the treatment is for your accepted disability.
From April 2026, we began introducing a package of reforms to address some of the most pressing issues that dentists and dental teams have been experiencing. These reforms will prioritise those with the greatest need, shifting care away from clinically unnecessary check-ups.
We are committed to fundamentally reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many cases of Hansen's Disease have been diagnosed in the last ten years; and what steps his Department is taking to support people infected by this disease.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Hansen's Disease, or leprosy, is a statutorily notifiable disease in England and Wales. Data supplied by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is available at the following link:
https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/number-of-new-leprosy-cases.
There were 56 cases of Hansen's Disease diagnosed between 2015 and 2024 in the United Kingdom. Annual case numbers ranged from two to 12 cases per year. UK Data for 2025 is due to be published on the WHO website in the coming months. There has been no documented transmission of leprosy in the UK in the last 10 years.
Direct patient care is provided by the National Health Service, by specialist clinical leprosy advisors based in London, Liverpool, and Birmingham, and this is in line with UKHSA's Leprosy Memorandum, which covers diagnosis, treatment with multi-drug therapy, and long-term support for those living with disability caused by the disease. The memorandum is available at the following link:
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 support patients with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (A1AT).
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (A1AT) is a rare inherited condition which can affect the lungs and liver. The Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, including work to improve diagnosis and the use of genomics in rare disease care. NHS England’s National Genomic Test Directory includes testing for A1AT, where clinically appropriate.
The Government also supports patients with A1AT through wider action to improve care for people living with rare conditions and long-term respiratory disease.
NHS England’s respiratory disease programme is focused on earlier and more accurate diagnosis, reducing inequalities, and improving treatment and support. This includes support for diagnostic testing such as spirometry, expansion of pulmonary rehabilitation, and improvements in medicines optimisation and personalised care. NHS England has also published commissioning standards for spirometry, and community diagnostic centres are providing respiratory diagnostic tests to improve access closer to home.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Respiratory registrars and Consultants are currently working in the NHS, and what steps his Department is taking to increase their number.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes monthly information on the composition of the workforce employed by National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards in England. This includes information on doctors grouped by their grade and the specialty area they are working in. The information is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
The relevant data can be found in worksheet 4 of the file NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data tables, in the link above.
We set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England that over the next three years we will create 1,000 new specialty training posts, with a focus on specialties where there is greatest need. We will set out next steps in due course.
The Government is committed to training the staff we need, including doctors, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed services set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.