Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take legislative steps to ensure that food outlets must display their Food Standards Agency food hygiene rating.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 support the (a) development and (b) expansion of women’s health hubs across the country.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting integrated care boards (ICBs) to continue improving their delivery of women’s health hubs, in line with their responsibility to commission services that meet the needs of their local populations.
We have heard from ICBs on the positive impacts that women’s health hubs have on both women’s access to care in the community and their experience. The Government is committed to encouraging ICBs to further expand the coverage of women’s health hubs and to support ICBs to use the learning from the women’s health hub pilots to improve local delivery of services to women and girls.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are committed to moving towards a neighbourhood health service, with more care delivered in local communities, to identify and address problems earlier and closer to home. Women’s health hubs are an example of this approach and can play a key role in delivering the government’s manifesto commitments on tackling long NHS waiting lists, as well as shifting care into the community.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 ensure equitable access to Mounjaro for people with bile acid malabsorption.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the United Kingdom, medicines need to have a licence before they can be marketed, and these are granted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). To get a licence, the manufacturer of the medicine has to provide evidence which shows that the medicine is safe and effective enough to be used for a specific condition and for a specific group of patients, and that they can manufacture the medicine to the required quality.
Most newly licensed medicines are then evaluated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to see if they can be recommended for routine use on the National Health Service, based on an assessment of their clinical and cost-effectiveness. Mounjaro is not currently licensed for the treatment of bile acid malabsorption and therefore has not been evaluated by NICE for routine NHS use in this indication.
Clinicians can however prescribe medicines outside their licensed indication (known as ‘off-label’ use) where they consider it to be the best treatment option for their patient, and subject to funding by the NHS locally. In the absence of NICE guidance on the use of a medicine, including where it is used off-label, NHS organisations are expected to make decisions on funding based on an assessment of the available evidence.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to reduce the average time taken to diagnose postural tachycardia syndrome.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are investing in additional capacity to deliver appointments to help bring waiting lists and times down. The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the specific productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the constitutional standard, that 92% of patients to wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, by March 2029.
Additionally, the shifts outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan will free up hospital-based consultants’ time by shifting care from hospitals to communities, utilising digital technology to reduce administrative burdens, and promoting prevention to reduce the onset and severity of conditions that lead to hospital admissions. This includes expanding community-based services, employing artificial intelligence for productivity, developing integrated neighbourhood health teams, and investing in digital tools and data. These shifts will allow specialists to focus on more complex cases of postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS), enabling earlier identification and management, and improved patient outcomes.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to help improve (a) clinical understanding, (b) diagnosis, and (c) treatment pathways for people with bile acid malabsorption.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The United Kingdom has a well-developed network of clinicians interested in bile acid disorders, namely the UK Bile Acid Related Diarrhoea Network, which is working with the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) on a major clinical trial.
The current treatment is mainly with “bile acid sequestrants” that bind the bile acids in the gut, but there is a recognised need to further develop new treatments. In 2025, the NIHR announced a £2 million investment in a research study to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of treatments for bile acid malabsorption (BAM). Further information is available at the following link:
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR160696
In addition, BAM has been highlighted in national guidance on managing chronic diarrhoea by the British Society of Gastroenterology, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued public-facing guidance on their website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/advice/esuom22/ifp/chapter/What-is-bile-acid-malabsorption
The standard diagnostic test for BAM is a SeHCAT study, pronounced “see cat” and named after the tauroselcholc [75 selenium] acid used in the procedure, and its use in the United Kingdom has rapidly expanded over the last 10 to 15 years, although there are limited research findings internationally, and consequently NICE has recently recommended further research in this area.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 measures outlined in the document entitled Reforming elective care for patients, published on 6 January 2025, on waiting lists for gynaecology treatment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission. We have now exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra 2 million operations, scans, and appointments, having now delivered 5.2 million more appointments. This marks a vital First Step to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment – in line with the National Health Service constitutional standard – by March 2029.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the constitutional standard. Since our plan was published we have seen improvements in gynaecology, with average waits reducing from 15.9 weeks in January 2025 to 15.2 weeks in August 2025, and the number of patients waiting 18 weeks or less from referral to treatment increasing from 55.2% in January 2025 to 56.4% in August 2025. But we know there is still much more to do, and we will continue to support NHS trusts to deliver our targets through innovation, sharing best practice to increase productivity and efficiency, and ensuring the best value is delivered.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allocate capital funding for maternity and neonatal services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that repairing and rebuilding our healthcare estate is a vital part of the Government's ambition to create a National Health Service that is fit for the future. As a first step towards improving our maternity and neonatal estate, we are investing £131 million through the 2025-26 Estates Safety Fund to address critical safety risks on the maternity estate, enabling better care for mothers and their newborns. The funded works will deliver vital safety improvements, enhance patient and staff environments, and support NHS productivity by reducing disruptions across NHS clinical services.
In addition, the Government is backing the NHS with over £4 billion in operational capital in 2025-26, enabling systems to allocate funding to maternity and neonatal services where this is a local priority.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 impact of workforce pressures on levels of (a) burnout and (b) staff attrition in maternity services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The health and wellbeing of all NHS staff is a top priority. NHS organisations have a responsibility to create supportive working environments for staff and to ensure they have the conditions they need to thrive, including access to high quality health and wellbeing support.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will roll out Staff Treatment hubs to ensure all staff have access to high quality occupational health support, including for mental health. To further support this ambition, we will work with the Social Partnership Forum to introduce a new set of staff standards for modern employment, covering issues such as access to healthy meals, support to work healthily and flexibly, and tackling violence, racism and sexual harassment in the workplace.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will include targets to improve diagnosis times for myeloma in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancers such as myeloma, as well as other unstageable cancers, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, in order to improve outcomes.
To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancer earlier and treating it faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will include targets to improve diagnosis times for myeloma in the National Cancer Plan for England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancers such as myeloma, as well as other unstageable cancers, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, in order to improve outcomes.
To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancer earlier and treating it faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.