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 changes to the number of hyperbaric chamber on divers based in the Midlands.

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

NHS England is committed to ensuring equitably accessible, high-quality services, for anyone who requires hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). We will meet our obligations to do so through implementing plans to deliver the commissioning intentions set out during the public consultation which took place last year. Further information on the public consultation is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/reviewing-hyperbaric-oxygen-services-consultation-guide/#:~:text=Background-,Background,Manual%20of%20Prescribed%20Specialised%20Services

It is proposed that the number of commissioned HBOT centres in England is reduced from eight centres to six centres. The geographical scope of these services will ensure that there is no more than four hours travelling time, by road, from coastal locations, the furthest borders, or between neighbouring commissioned HBOT centres, which is in line with good practice guidelines.

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 reducing the number of hyperbaric chambers on accessibility for patients.

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

NHS England is committed to ensuring equitably accessible, high-quality services, for anyone who requires hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). We will meet our obligations to do so through implementing plans to deliver the commissioning intentions set out during the public consultation which took place last year. Further information on the public consultation is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/reviewing-hyperbaric-oxygen-services-consultation-guide/#:~:text=Background-,Background,Manual%20of%20Prescribed%20Specialised%20Services

It is proposed that the number of commissioned HBOT centres in England is reduced from eight centres to six centres. The geographical scope of these services will ensure that there is no more than four hours travelling time, by road, from coastal locations, the furthest borders, or between neighbouring commissioned HBOT centres, which is in line with good practice guidelines.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the Royal Pharmaceutical society on reducing overprescribing.

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

The Department has had no recent discussions with either the Royal Pharmaceutical Society or the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on reducing overprescribing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with NICE on reducing overprescribing.

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

The Department has had no recent discussions with either the Royal Pharmaceutical Society or the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on reducing overprescribing.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the recovery pathways for the care of sudden cardiac arrest survivors.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In December 2024, to support local systems to commission high quality cardiac rehabilitation, NHS England published the document, Commissioning standards for cardiac rehabilitation, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-standards-for-cardiovascular-rehabilitation/

These standards of care complement the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document, published in 2023, to support the delivery of high-quality care and adherence to evidenced-based practice.

The NHS Long Term Plan committed to improve community first response and build defibrillator networks to help save 4,000 lives by 2028. This is being supported by educating the public, including young people of school age, about how to recognise and respond to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

NHS England is also working with partners such as the British Heart Foundation to harness new technology and ensure the public and emergency services can rapidly locate this life saving equipment in an emergency.

Patients who survive cardiac arrest and their families are supported through referral to local services within the National Health Service; this will include rehabilitation such as cardiac and neurological rehabilitation and mental health services for psychological support.

There are different pathways for cardiac arrest survivors, depending on the severity of the damage caused by the cardiac arrest. For people being discharged from secondary care and those with ischemic heart disease, namely myocardial infarction, cardiac rehabilitation services are available in every region.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what organisations he has had discussions with on including objectives to tackle melanoma skin cancer in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

To address barriers and reduce the levels of melanoma skin cancer cases, the Department continues to advise patients to follow National Health Service guidance on reducing the risk of skin cancer. This advice is available publicly on the NHS website, at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/melanoma-skin-cancer/

NHS England run Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address the barriers to acting on them, and to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers, including melanoma, at an earlier point.

The Department and NHS England are committed to working closely with partners and patient groups to shape the long-term vision for cancer. The call for evidence for the National Cancer Plan closed on 29 April 2025, with over 11,000 responses from individuals, professionals, and organisations, sharing their views on how the Government can continue to improve cancer care in England.

Alongside the call for evidence, the Department regularly engages with many cancer partners, including charities and those within the cancer community, to ensure we are hearing from a range of different voices.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the Government will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The National Cancer Plan for England is planned for publication in the second half of this year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which bodies he has had recent discussions with on tackling melanoma skin cancer as part of the national cancer plan.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

To address barriers and reduce the levels of melanoma skin cancer cases, the Department continues to advise patients to follow National Health Service guidance on reducing the risk of skin cancer. This advice is available publicly on the NHS website, at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/melanoma-skin-cancer/

NHS England run Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address the barriers to acting on them, and to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers, including melanoma, at an earlier point.

The Department and NHS England are committed to working closely with partners and patient groups to shape the long-term vision for cancer. The call for evidence for the National Cancer Plan closed on 29 April 2025, with over 11,000 responses from individuals, professionals, and organisations, sharing their views on how the Government can continue to improve cancer care in England.

Alongside the call for evidence, the Department regularly engages with many cancer partners, including charities and those within the cancer community, to ensure we are hearing from a range of different voices.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the Government will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The National Cancer Plan for England is planned for publication in the second half of this year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential barriers to reducing levels of of melanoma skin cancer cases.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

To address barriers and reduce the levels of melanoma skin cancer cases, the Department continues to advise patients to follow National Health Service guidance on reducing the risk of skin cancer. This advice is available publicly on the NHS website, at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/melanoma-skin-cancer/

NHS England run Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address the barriers to acting on them, and to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers, including melanoma, at an earlier point.

The Department and NHS England are committed to working closely with partners and patient groups to shape the long-term vision for cancer. The call for evidence for the National Cancer Plan closed on 29 April 2025, with over 11,000 responses from individuals, professionals, and organisations, sharing their views on how the Government can continue to improve cancer care in England.

Alongside the call for evidence, the Department regularly engages with many cancer partners, including charities and those within the cancer community, to ensure we are hearing from a range of different voices.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the Government will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The National Cancer Plan for England is planned for publication in the second half of this year.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2025 to Question 57372 on Chagos Islands: Sovereignty, what the costs to his Department were of the Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The payments to Mauritius will be split between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Ministry of Defence. They will be published in the normal manner alongside other departmental spend in the annual accounts.

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 the quality of dementia diagnosis data.

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

To support recovery of the dementia diagnosis rates and implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, we have developed a memory service dashboard for management information purposes. The aim is to support commissioners and providers with appropriate data and enable targeted support where needed.

Commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership and funded by NHS England and the Welsh administration, the National Audit of Dementia Memory Service Spotlight reports include data on aspects of the diagnostic process, including waiting times and variation in service delivery in terms of diagnosis speed, neuroimaging use, and post-diagnostic support. The aim is to aid commissioners and providers in planning and targeting improvement where appropriate.

To enhance dementia diagnosis rate data further, dementia sub types have been included in the Core GP Contract data collection from April 2023 onwards. This plays an important role in improving diagnosis accuracy and care planning, enabling clinicians to refine diagnostic criteria and tailor treatments more effectively.

To help address and reduce variation in dementia diagnosis rates, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network developed a data tool for local systems, which includes an assessment of population characteristics such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. This enables systems to investigate local variation in diagnosis and take informed action to enhance their diagnosis rates.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a list of meetings held by the Casey Commission.

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

Given that the commission is independent, the Department will not publish a list of its meetings. It is for the commission to determine its approach, but we expect it will engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including people with lived experience and unpaid carers, as well as building cross-party consensus.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2025 to Question 47803 on Mental Health Services: Recruitment, what his planned timetable is for recruiting 8,500 mental health workers.

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

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, we are recruiting 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services to help ease the pressure on busy services.

We continue to work with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment alongside publishing a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade. There are a wide range of factors that will affect this future growth of the NHS mental health workforce, and we will provide an update in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has with representative bodies to ensure that plans to provide protection from assault to front-line retail workers include (a) bank and (b) building society staff.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Through our Crime and Policing Bill, this Government has introduced a standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.

My officials have met with UK Finance and Barclays Bank to discuss the issue of assaults on bank and building society staff, which is an issue we also take extremely seriously.

Assaults against workers in the bank and building society sectors are already an offence (common assault) under the Criminal Justice Act 1988, and are covered under other legislation such as the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which also covers more serious violence, including actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm.

Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 creates a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing cases of assault against public facing workers. It applies where an assault is committed against those providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing a service to the public, including public-facing roles in banks and building societies.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54607 on Anti-social Behaviour: North East Somerset and Hanham, whether she has had recent discussions with police forces on initiating the recruitment of a dedicated lead officer to develop local anti-social behaviour action plans.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

On 10 April, the Prime Minister announced the details of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.

Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the harm it causes is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, £200 million has been allocated to forces for 2025/26 to support the Government’s commitment to deliver additional personnel into neighbourhood policing.

This includes ensuring that every force area will have a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour who will work with communities to develop an action plan to reduce and prevent ASB. I am closely monitoring the delivery of this commitment across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

Forces are expected to engage with communities to develop their action plan which should cover the entire force area. Larger forces may decide to have more than one Action Plan if they consider it appropriate for different geographical areas within the force.

We will continue to work closely with forces once the dedicated lead officers commence their roles from July 2025, setting out further detail on expectations of their ASB Action Plans, including how they will ensure they work across force boundaries where necessary.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54607 on Anti-social Behaviour: North East Somerset and Hanham, what steps she is taking to help ensure that intelligence gained by the dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour is not lost if the perpetrators of anti-social behaviour move between force areas.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

On 10 April, the Prime Minister announced the details of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.

Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the harm it causes is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, £200 million has been allocated to forces for 2025/26 to support the Government’s commitment to deliver additional personnel into neighbourhood policing.

This includes ensuring that every force area will have a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour who will work with communities to develop an action plan to reduce and prevent ASB. I am closely monitoring the delivery of this commitment across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

Forces are expected to engage with communities to develop their action plan which should cover the entire force area. Larger forces may decide to have more than one Action Plan if they consider it appropriate for different geographical areas within the force.

We will continue to work closely with forces once the dedicated lead officers commence their roles from July 2025, setting out further detail on expectations of their ASB Action Plans, including how they will ensure they work across force boundaries where necessary.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 54607 on Anti-social Behaviour: North East Somerset and Hanham, what geographical area would be covered by a local anti-social behaviour action plan.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

On 10 April, the Prime Minister announced the details of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.

Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the harm it causes is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, £200 million has been allocated to forces for 2025/26 to support the Government’s commitment to deliver additional personnel into neighbourhood policing.

This includes ensuring that every force area will have a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour who will work with communities to develop an action plan to reduce and prevent ASB. I am closely monitoring the delivery of this commitment across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

Forces are expected to engage with communities to develop their action plan which should cover the entire force area. Larger forces may decide to have more than one Action Plan if they consider it appropriate for different geographical areas within the force.

We will continue to work closely with forces once the dedicated lead officers commence their roles from July 2025, setting out further detail on expectations of their ASB Action Plans, including how they will ensure they work across force boundaries where necessary.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2025 to Question 3431 on Parking: Pedestrian Areas, what aims and objectives her Department is considering in relation to its response to the pavement parking consultation.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Secretary of State has not had discussions with local councils or other local government bodies on the issue of pavement parking. The Department held a consultation in 2020 and has been considering the responses to the consultation and working through the policy options and the appropriate means of delivering them. In so doing, the Department has been seeking to find an optimal solution to this complex issue which is consistent with the Government’s wider aims and objectives. We will announce the next steps and publish our formal response shortly.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had recent discussions with (a) local councils and (b) other local government bodies on using existing powers to (i) restrict and (ii) enforce restrictions on pavement parking.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Secretary of State has not had discussions with local councils or other local government bodies on the issue of pavement parking. The Department held a consultation in 2020 and has been considering the responses to the consultation and working through the policy options and the appropriate means of delivering them. In so doing, the Department has been seeking to find an optimal solution to this complex issue which is consistent with the Government’s wider aims and objectives. We will announce the next steps and publish our formal response shortly.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2025 to Question 43598 on Mental Health Services: Out of Area Treatment, what his planned timetable is for the reduction of at least 580 out-of-area placements.

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

NHS England has advised that it expects the reduction of at least 580 placements which are out of area, far from home, or outside of natural clinical flow for adult forensic, and children and young people’s mental health inpatient services to be achieved over the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years.

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 publish a national carers strategy.

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

The Government is committed to ensuring that families have the support that they need. The Government has heard the calls for a National Carers Strategy. This must be addressed in the wider context of the urgent need for a renewed vision for adult social care.

We have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service. The commission will start a national conversation about what care and support working age adults, older people, and their families expect from adult social care, including exploring the needs of unpaid carers, who provide vital care and support.

I also chair a cross-Government meeting, made up of ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Education, to consider how we can provide unpaid carers with the recognition and support they deserve.

Found: Not called_45 Dr Luke Evans .

Found: _NC11 Dr Luke Evans .

Found: _NC11 Dr Luke Evans .

Found: which treatment takes place. 11 COMMITTEE STAGE Thursday 19 June 2025 Negatived on division_44 Dr Luke Evans

Found: _46 Dr Luke Evans .

Found: