Asked by: Llinos Medi (Plaid Cymru - Ynys Môn)
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 with the Welsh Government of the effectiveness of (a) death certification reforms and (b) the statutory medical examiner system; and if he will undertake a review of their implementation.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Overall, the implementation of the reforms has been effective and medical examiners are conducting scrutiny of the causes of death in every case that is not investigated by a coroner. Medical examiners were introduced to provide additional safeguards in death certification, and they are obliged by law to make all the enquiries they consider necessary to conduct their scrutiny and to ensure there has been an opportunity for the bereaved to ask questions and raise concerns in every case. Feedback from bereaved people about the support provided by medical examiner offices is overwhelmingly positive.
Since the introduction of the reforms, the median time taken to register a death in England and Wales appears to have risen by two days, from seven days to nine days, though there is regional variation. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification, and deaths certified through the medical examiner route, which comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, typically had a shorter period between death and registration compared to all deaths. It’s important to note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.
To improve the implementation of the reforms, the Welsh administration has implemented short-term fortnightly oversight meetings to engage all partners along the death certification pathway, including health boards, medical examiner services, coroners, funeral directors, registrars, primary care associations, and patient voice organisations, to monitor, improve, and learn lessons from the implementation through the 2024/2025 winter period.
Asked by: Llinos Medi (Plaid Cymru - Ynys Môn)
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 impact of the abolition of NHS England on cross-border healthcare.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The abolition of NHS England will strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy and cut the duplication that comes from having two organisations doing the same job; we will empower staff to focus on delivering better care for patients, driving productivity up and getting waiting times down.
Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England and any impact on delivery, including cross border healthcare, will be closely monitored.
Asked by: Llinos Medi (Plaid Cymru - Ynys Môn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention published on 11th March 2025, how many people living in Wales were impacted by the missed invitations for routine screening.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No one who lives in Wales has missed a screening invitation due to this incident.