Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS 10 Year Health Plan, what steps his Department is taking to support dispensing general practices.

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

We recognise that the services of dispensing practices play an important role in meeting the needs of rural communities, by ensuring patients receive their medicines promptly and conveniently.

Every year, the Department and NHS England consult with the British Medical Association (BMA) regarding the services general practices will provide, and the funding they will receive in return for these services. This includes the services, and relevant remuneration, of dispensing practices.

We have committed to substantive General Practice (GP) contract reform within this Parliament following acceptance of the 2025/26 contract by the England General Practitioners Committee of the BMA. As part of this, we expect to consider a breadth of topics, including dispensing practices.

On 3 July 2025, we published the 10-Year Health Plan, which announced the plan to introduce two new contracts, for neighbourhood providers and multi-neighbourhood providers, which will encourage GPs to work over larger geographies. We will begin to make these new contracts available in 2026, and more details will be provided in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to p.15 of the 10 Year Health Plan for England, what his Department's timetable is for publishing further details on the national maternity and neonatal taskforce; and whether that taskforce will focus on multiple pregnancies.

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

The National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce will be chaired by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and will take forward the recommendations from the independent investigation into maternity and neonatal care to develop a national plan to drive improvements.

The taskforce will be made up of a breadth of independent clinical and international expertise, including those who can speak to the inequalities within maternal health, as well as family and staff representatives, charities and campaigners.

Once the independent investigation is underway, my Rt. Hon. Friend will work with families and external partners to set up the taskforce including its terms of reference and membership. These will be published in due course.

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 improve patient safety for people with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism.

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

The Government is taking a range of actions to improve patient safety for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

We are rolling out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism across the health and adult social care workforce. This will help to ensure that staff have the right knowledge and skills to provide safe and informed care.

NHS England’s Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Inpatient Quality Transformation Programme works to tackle the root causes of unsafe and poor-quality inpatient care, supporting the cultural changes needed to create environments where people can flourish.

The Mental Health Bill, which is currently in Parliament, will limit the scope to detain people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals. and put existing NHS England policies on a statutory footing to improve community support. There is funding in integrated care board baselines during 2025/26 to improve community support provision and reduce reliance on inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people, in line with the NHS Operational Planning Guidance.

More widely, the Government is committed to advancing patient safety and fostering a learning culture across the National Health Service. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will usher in a new era of transparency, a rigorous focus on high-quality care for all and a renewed emphasis on patient and staff voice.