Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with (a) NHS England and (b) the National Institute for Health and Care Research on the role of women's hubs in supporting the (i) diagnosis, (ii) care and (iii) treatment of endometriosis.

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

The Government is committed to improving the diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care for gynaecological conditions including endometriosis.

Women’s health hubs bring together healthcare professionals and existing services to provide integrated women’s health services in the community, centred on meeting women’s needs across the life course. Women’s health hubs have a key role in shifting care out of hospitals and reducing gynaecology waiting lists. The assessment and treatment of menstrual problems is a core service for women’s health hubs. This includes care for heavy, painful or irregular menstrual bleeding, and for conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome. The Government is committed to encouraging integrated care boards (ICBs) to further expand the coverage of women’s health hubs and to support ICBs to use the learning from the existing women’s health hubs to improve local delivery of services to women.

The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). There are two active research projects which are exploring the role of women’s health hubs in England. The first project is led by the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Reproductive Health and focuses on identifying the mechanisms for commissioning women’s health services in England, how approaches vary and what works, including women’s health hubs commissioning. The second project is led by the NIHR Policy Innovation and Evaluation Policy Research Unit and is an examination of women’s experience and access to health services for reproductive health care.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2025 to Question 42805 on Private Education, on what date she last visited a private school.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education prioritises visits to state schools, which serve 93% of pupils in England. The Secretary of State for Education and the wider Ministerial team visit a wide variety of education settings, including to private schools.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to produce an impact assessment of the planned 50% reduction in integrated care board running costs.

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

NHS England has asked the integrated care boards (ICBs) to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health and care services and to reduce the duplication of responsibilities within their structure to achieve a 50% cost reduction in their running cost allowance. NHS England provided additional guidance to ICBs, National Health Service trusts, and NHS foundation trusts on 1 April 2025, where ICBs were tasked with developing plans by the end of May setting out how they will manage their resources to deliver across their priorities.

NHS England will be working closely with the ICBs to support the development of these plans, ensuring that their implementation reduces duplication and supports patient care. Further details are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/

In his letter to ICBs, Sir Jim Mackey committed to greater transparency and moving back to a fair shares allocation policy over time. The Department has not conducted an impact assessment of NHS decision to reduce ICB running costs.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to support integrated care boards through the closure of NHS England.

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

The Prime Minister announced that NHS England will be brought back into the Department. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health and care services. Detailed guidance has been provided to ICBs, National Health Service trusts, and NHS foundation trusts on 1 April 2025, where ICBs were tasked with developing plans by the end of May setting out how they will manage their resources to deliver across their priorities. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to implement the recommendations of his Department's report entitled Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, published on 22 September 2021.

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

The National Health Service and its partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021. There are currently no plans to undertake a further review. Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:

- implementing the national medicines optimisation opportunities for integrated care boards (ICBs), or recommendations three and 13;

- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines, or recommendations eight and nine;

- delivering structured medication reviews, or recommendation eight; and

- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes, or recommendation seven.

Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.

We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance. It is not possible to quantify the overall cost of overprescribing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of overprescribing.

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

The National Health Service and its partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021. There are currently no plans to undertake a further review. Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:

- implementing the national medicines optimisation opportunities for integrated care boards (ICBs), or recommendations three and 13;

- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines, or recommendations eight and nine;

- delivering structured medication reviews, or recommendation eight; and

- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes, or recommendation seven.

Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.

We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance. It is not possible to quantify the overall cost of overprescribing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to reduce overprescribing.

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

The National Health Service and its partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021. There are currently no plans to undertake a further review. Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:

- implementing the national medicines optimisation opportunities for integrated care boards (ICBs), or recommendations three and 13;

- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines, or recommendations eight and nine;

- delivering structured medication reviews, or recommendation eight; and

- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes, or recommendation seven.

Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.

We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance. It is not possible to quantify the overall cost of overprescribing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will undertake a review of overprescribing.

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

The National Health Service and its partner organisations are responding to the challenge of overprescribing, as set out in the Government’s review of overprescribing, Good for you, good for us, good for everybody, in September 2021. There are currently no plans to undertake a further review. Progress has been made to implement the recommendations of that review, for example:

- implementing the national medicines optimisation opportunities for integrated care boards (ICBs), or recommendations three and 13;

- addressing problematic polypharmacy, when there is potential harm associated with taking multiple medicines, or recommendations eight and nine;

- delivering structured medication reviews, or recommendation eight; and

- publication of a repeat prescribing toolkit and oversupply dashboard to support general practices to identify oversupply and improve repeat prescribing processes, or recommendation seven.

Offering treatments that are not medicines is also key to addressing overprescribing. Many other initiatives delivered across the NHS contribute towards this. These include delivery of personalised care and shared decision-making, NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression, and social prescribing.

We are continuing to address issues with the prescribing of medicines in line with the NHS’ 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance. It is not possible to quantify the overall cost of overprescribing.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, If he would make an assessment of the potential merits of a licensing scheme for (a) hairdressers and (b) barbers.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Hairdressing salons and barbers, like other employers, are subject to normal business regulations such as health and safety requirements, employer and public liability insurance. The Hairdressers Registration Act of 1964 already provides for a UK register of qualified hairdressers and HMRC will investigate evidence suggesting businesses have misclassified individuals for tax purposes and Government collaborates closely with law enforcement to monitor criminal behaviour.

The Government has no current plans to introduce further regulation of the hair industry, but we will always remain open to considering.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to FOI 02629, if he will undertake a review into the work of (a) Capita and (b) NHS Business Service Authority.

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

Capita operates the Primary Care Support England (PCSE) service under contract to NHS England. NHS England tracks PCSE’s performance on a monthly basis against contractual performance targets. NHS England works with PCSE, the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), and general practice (GP) representative bodies to rectify historical gaps in GP records. The Department, NHS England, and the NHSBSA are working together to facilitate GP updates to records at the earliest opportunity.

The NHSBSA underwent an independent review in 2023 as part of the Cabinet Office-led Public Body Review programme and was assessed as ‘a high performing arm's length body’. The review is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-business-services-authority-review-report/independent-review-of-the-nhs-business-services-authority-final-report-and-recommendations#:~:text=NHSBSA%20meets%20the%20Cabinet%20Office,brought%20into%20the%20department

As a Special Health Authority and arm’s-length body of the Department, the NHSBSA’s performance is also reviewed regularly by departmental policy teams who sponsor individual services, and a quarterly accountability meeting is held to assess the NHSBSA’s performance across all its services.

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 Department’s policies of the findings of FOI 02629 on the (a) number and (b) percentage of GPs with up to date pension records.

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

The Department, NHS England, and NHS Pensions (NHSP) are working together to improve the processing of general practitioners’ (GPs) pensions and to identify solutions to resolve gaps in records. A total of 21,601 missing years have been resolved in the past year, as a result of the targeted work with GPs. NHS England has also recently written directly to affected NHS Pension Scheme members to make them aware of this, and to inform GPs of what they need to do.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to increase the number of GPs with up-to-date pension records.

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

NHS England is working with NHS Pensions and Primary Care Support England (PCSE) to support general practitioners (GPs) to reduce the number of missing records. For the 2025/26 financial year, PCSE is maintaining a dedicated team to support GPs to resolve missing years. The Department and NHS England are also working with NHS Pensions and the British Medical Association to use their networks to encourage GPs to submit missing certificates.

PCSE is reliant on GPs submitting the required forms to enable PCSE to update their pension record. NHS England will continue to work with PCSE to ensure they are undertaking their obligations upon receipt of the forms, and to support joint working with stakeholders to ensure pension record gaps are promptly resolved.

PCSE is also working with those GPs who need to provide certificates to resolve missing years in their pension records, as GP’s pension records must be updated in sequential order, and if one year of data is missing all future years will also show as missing from the GPs annual pension statement issued by NHS Pensions. Any received information remains on the PCSE system until the missing year is received, at which point all information is then recorded on Pensions Online, which updates the NHS Pension record.

PCSE has contacted GPs with missing certificates detailing the action they need to take to bring their pension record up to date. Webinars with supporting communications have been regularly organised by PCSE to ensure GPs are supported in how to access and resolve missing information and how to submit certificates at the end of each financial year.

The NHS Pensions has also recently written directly to NHS Pension Scheme members affected by the public sector pensions remedy, McCloud, to highlight the need to ensure that PCSE records are up to date.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to FOI-02629, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) Capita and (b) the NHS Business Services Authority on GPs’ pensions records.

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

Every six weeks the Department meets with NHS England, the NHS Business Services Authority, Primary Care Support England, and the British Medical Association to review general practice (GP) pensions administration, discuss the current challenges and opportunities, track progress on key priorities, and ensure a co-ordinated approach to supporting GPs to submit records as required to ensure their pension records are up to date.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the adequate running cost of integrated care boards per head of population.

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

Sir Jim Mackey wrote to the National Health Service on 1 April 2025 setting out that in the future, integrated care boards (ICBs) should reduce their running costs by 50%.

Analysis undertaken by NHS England shows the variation in the costs of commissioning in ICBs ranges from £51 to £26 per head of population. It is that variation that is being targeted, alongside the move to ICBs acting as strategic commissioners.

A national target per head of weighted population of £18.76 has been set. There will be some flexibility to vary this for individual ICBs to reflect local circumstances, and NHS England will be providing further information on expectations of how the reduction should be delivered.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to FOI 02629, if he will undertake a review into the difference in figures between GPs and General Dental Practitioners.

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

General practitioners (GPs) use Primary Care Support England to report earnings via a Type 1 GPs certificate, and are dependent on their tax return. Dentists use a system called Compass to report their earnings through the NHS Business Services Authority. Dentists’ pensionable earnings are not dependent on their tax return, and they also complete an annual reconciliation report via the Compass system.

Since GPs and dentists report earnings in very different ways, a comparative review is not possible.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what resources have been provided to Baroness Casey to support (a) the independent commission into adult social care and (b) associated costs.

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

The terms of reference set out that Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB will lead the commission’s work fully independently, with the Department of Health and Social Care as the lead sponsor department. All relevant Government departments will cooperate fully, be transparent, and will provide all data and analysis needed to support the commission. The commission will report on its financial expenditure in due course. The terms of reference are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-commission-into-adult-social-care-terms-of-reference/independent-commission-into-adult-social-care-terms-of-reference

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Baroness Casey has begun the independent commission into adult social care.

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

The independent commission into adult social care, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey of Blackstock DBE CB, formally launched on 29 April 2025 with a meeting with people who draw on social care. On 2 May 2025, the Government published the terms of reference, outlining the scope of the commission’s work, which are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-commission-into-adult-social-care-terms-of-reference/independent-commission-into-adult-social-care-terms-of-reference

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 Department’s policies of the Care Quality Commission’s Community mental health survey 2024, published on 3 April 2025.

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

We welcome the Care Quality Commission’s survey. The evidence from this survey will feed into our plans to improve community mental health services through the 10 year plan. Too many people with mental health issues are not getting the care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are too long. As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many new mental health staff have been recruited to the NHS since 1 July 2024.

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

Mental Health workforce data is published quarterly by NHS England as part of their NHS Workforce statistics, and is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics#past-publications