Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how lipoedema is classified within NICE guidance and NHS commissioning frameworks; and whether he plans to review the categorisation of lipoedema-related interventions to ensure they reflect clinical need.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Lipoedema services in England are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs), which are responsible for assessing the needs of their local populations and determining the most appropriate services to support people with long‑term conditions such as lipoedema.

There is no single national specification for lipoedema services. Instead, ICBs draw on a range of national guidance and best‑practice resources when designing care pathways. These include guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and best‑practice frameworks produced by bodies such as Wounds UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners. This helps ensure that services are safe, effective, and based on the best available evidence.

Most people with lipoedema are supported through primary and community care services, including assessment by local lymphoedema teams, compression therapy, advice on skin care and movement, and support with self‑management. These services aim to help people manage symptoms and maintain mobility and quality of life.

NICE classifies lipoedema within its interventional procedures guidance on the use of liposuction for chronic lipoedema, reference code HTG618, as a chronic, often painful, and progressive condition characterised by the abnormal, symmetrical accumulation of fat in the legs, hips, buttocks, and sometimes arms. In this guidance, NICE concluded that current evidence on both safety and effectiveness is limited and, therefore, recommends that liposuction should only be undertaken within the context of research or under rigorous governance arrangements. This guidance informs, but does not mandate, local commissioning decisions. NICE will review this guidance once the full results of the ongoing LIPLEG clinical trial are available, and will update its recommendations if new evidence supports doing so.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what training and guidance is provided to GPs and other frontline clinicians on recognising and managing lipoedema; and whether he plans to review undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development provision relating to that condition.

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

Doctors are responsible for maintaining their clinical knowledge, including on lipoedema, throughout their careers, and are responsible for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development.

All doctors registered in the United Kingdom are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Good Medical Practice. In 2012, the GMC introduced revalidation, which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice, giving patients confidence that doctors are up to date with their practice, and promoting improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance.

The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors are set by the relevant medical royal college and have to meet the standards set by the GMC. Whilst curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they do emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.

Resources for frontline health professionals are available from a number of professional and patient organisations to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients presenting with lipoedema.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what data her Department holds on the number of prosecutions under the Vagrancy Act 1824 in the last five years.

Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information which shows the number of offences charged by way of the Vagrancy Act 1824 in which a prosecution commenced. The table below shows the number of these offences from 1^st April 2020 to 30^th September 2025.

The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants prosecuted. It can be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data are held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

Volumes provided for the financial year 2020-2021 have been impacted due to court closures and recovery during Covid-19 from Mid-March to the end of June 2020.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to release an impact assessment for changes to the NICE cost-effectiveness threshold.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

There are no plans to publish an impact assessment or details of the modelling in relation to changes to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence cost-effectiveness threshold. Information included in the impact assessment is commercially sensitive.

The United Kingdom and United States’ pharmaceutical deal is a vital investment that builds on the strength of our National Health Service and world leading life sciences sector.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether a letter of comfort or other formal assurance has been given to allow Thames Water to issue debt to finance South East Strategic Reservoir Option.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

No letter of comfort or formal assurance has been provided by Defra to Thames Water on the financing of the White Horse Reservoir (formerly SESRO).

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether lipoedema has a diagnostic code within NHS data systems; what steps he is taking to improve the collection of data on prevalence, diagnosis and outcomes for people with lipoedema; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of improved data collection on future commissioning and service planning.

Answered by Ashley Dalton

Lipoedema does not currently have a unique standalone diagnostic code within the National Health Service’s primary coding systems. In clinical practice, it is often recorded under broader World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision categories relating to disorders of subcutaneous tissue or lymphatic disease.

NHS England is taking forward a wide programme of work to improve how data is recorded and coded across the health service by expanding the use of modern electronic patient record systems, strengthening national coding standards, and supporting staff to record information consistently and accurately. This includes better use of SNOMED CT in primary care, clearer guidance for hospitals, and investment in shared care records so that patient information is captured once and used safely across services. These improvements are helping to ensure that clinical data is more reliable, more complete, and better able to support high‑quality care, earlier diagnosis, and effective service planning.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what oversight mechanisms are in place to ensure that national governing bodies receiving funding from Sport England assess and mitigate safeguarding risks for transgender participants arising from their eligibility policies.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government remains committed to ensuring that sport is a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. Under the Code for Sports Governance, all National Governing Bodies (NGBs) receiving public funding must have robust inclusion policies in place. NGBs are responsible for setting their own policies, taking into account the specific requirements of their sport. They are supported in this through guidance developed by our Sports Councils, who are currently considering the implications of the Supreme Court ruling on this guidance.

The Government continues to work closely with Sport England to monitor how NGBs deliver on their inclusion targets, ensuring that grassroots sport remains a safe space for everyone to stay active.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department requires sports bodies in receipt of public funding to demonstrate how their participation policies promote inclusion and safe access to grassroots sport for transgender people.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government remains committed to ensuring that sport is a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. Under the Code for Sports Governance, all National Governing Bodies (NGBs) receiving public funding must have robust inclusion policies in place. NGBs are responsible for setting their own policies, taking into account the specific requirements of their sport. They are supported in this through guidance developed by our Sports Councils, who are currently considering the implications of the Supreme Court ruling on this guidance.

The Government continues to work closely with Sport England to monitor how NGBs deliver on their inclusion targets, ensuring that grassroots sport remains a safe space for everyone to stay active.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of local government reorganisation on the (a) implementation of transport infrastructure projects and (b) strategic planning.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is the lead department for the planning system, and the Department for Transport works with it closely on the impacts of local government reorganisation.

Existing district councils have responsibilities for taxi licencing and spatial planning, but transport infrastructure is generally delivered by county and unitary authorities. New unitary authorities formed by local government reorganisation should have appropriate scale to effectively deliver transport infrastructure projects and, outside of Strategic Authorities, to undertake their local transport authority responsibilities.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the disaggregation of local authority responsibilities in the context of local government reorganisation on (a) flood management and (b) resilience planning.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Lead Local Flood Authorities are required, under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, to develop and maintain a strategy for managing local flood risk. They also have a duty to collaborate with other flood risk management authorities and to keep a register of flood risk management assets.

During the local government reorganisation process, councils continue to deliver their business‑as‑usual services and duties, which remain unchanged until reorganisation is complete. Commitments undertaken by existing councils will become the responsibility of any new unitary authorities, the exact details of which will be worked out and planned for in the transition period jointly with the new and predecessor councils.

Local government reorganisation remains a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create stronger local councils empowered across local services, equipped to drive economic growth, improve local public services, and empower their communities.

Student finance system reform

State visits to the US

Delay Repay scheme

Airport drop-off charges

New US sanctions on Cuba

90th anniversary of the Spitfire

Dolphin hunting in the Faroe Islands

Health and Care Worker visas

Palantir and the NHS

Community spaces

Situation in Iran

Securing the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme

British couple detained in Iran

Found: Email: hsccom@parliament.uk Website: www.parliament.uk/hsccom Twitter: @CommonsHealth From Layla Moran

Found: Yours sincerely, Layla Moran Chair, Health and Social Care Committee

Found: ’ Association | PO Box 2650, Watford, WD18 1NB | office@thecca.org.uk www.thecca.org.uk Ms Layla Moran

Found: Professor of Vaccine Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Questions from Layla Moran

Found: Layla Moran MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA 9 February 2026 Dear Ms Moran

Found: Yours sincerely Layla Moran Chair, Health and Social Care Committee

Found: Yours sincerely, House of Commons Palace of Westminster London SW1A 0AA Layla Moran MP

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Layla Moran (Chair); Danny Beales; Ben Coleman; Dr Beccy Cooper;

Found: Matt Western IV: Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi V: Lewis Atkinson, Mr Clive Betts and Matt Bishop VI: Layla Moran

Found: Current membership Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat; Oxford West and Abingdon) (Chair) Danny Beales (Labour

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Layla Moran (Chair); Danny Beales; Ben Coleman; Dr Beccy Cooper;

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Layla Moran (Chair); Danny Beales; Ben Coleman; Dr Beccy Cooper;