Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 vapes have a minimum number of refill options to be defined as reusable.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs introduced a ban on single use vapes on 1 June, which ensures that all products must be designed and intended to be reused. To be refillable, a product should have a replaceable pod or a tank that a user can add liquid to.
To compliment this and tackle youth vaping, the Department for Health and Social Care is also taking powers through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to enable regulation of many features of the design of a vape. This may include regulations on the size of a tank or refill container, the amount of liquid that can be included, as well as powers to standardise the size and shape of vapes, and to further restrict liquid availability.
The Government will consider this issue further as part of its secondary legislation programme following Royal Assent of the bill.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework funding settlement for 2024-25 and 2025-26 on future levels of pharmacy closures.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework funding settlement for 2024/25 and 2025/26 provides the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service representing a 19.7% increase, with the total of £3.073 billion committed to community pharmacies.
The individual financial positions of pharmacy contractors are not visible to the Government. It is therefore not possible for the impact on pharmacy closures to be quantified. However, we expect that this significant increase in funding will support contractors and begin to stabilise a sector that has been neglected for too long. This settlement was agreed with Community Pharmacy England as the representatives for the community pharmacy sector.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has for supporting community pharmacy, in the context of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For 2025/26, funding for the core community pharmacy contractual framework has been increased to £3.073 billion. This represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26.
The Government is clear that it wants to make full use of the skill sets of both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to help patients, which is why the Government has laid legislation that enables all pharmacies to use hub and spoke dispensing and will shortly lay legislation to enable the better use of people with mixed skills. This builds on the legislation to allow pharmacies to dispense in original packs and for pharmacy technicians to supply medicines. All of these measures support pharmacists to provide more care in the communities they serve and supports the Government’s ambition to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting close to home.
We have also improved and continue to work on the digital transfer of information between settings, allowing pharmacies to have access to patient records and to record the outcomes of the care they provide, supporting another of our ambitions to move from analogue to digital. The 10 year plan will build on these foundations and set out how we will build a health service fit for the future.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to ensure annual health checks for all adults with cerebral palsy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on care and support for adults with cerebral palsy, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng119
The guidance recommends that people with cerebral palsy should have an annual review of their clinical and functional needs, carried out by a healthcare professional with expertise in neurodisabilities.
Whilst NICE guidelines represent best practice, they are not mandatory, although the Government expects healthcare commissioners to take the guidelines fully into account in designing services that meet the needs of their local population, and to work towards their implementation over time.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to increase funding for community pharmacies.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding for the core community pharmacy contractual framework has increased to £3.073 billion for 2025/26. This represented the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26.
Decisions on funding for community pharmacies beyond 2025/26 are subject to the current Spending Review. As is custom and practice, the Department will consult Community Pharmacy England on any proposed changes to the reimbursement and remuneration of pharmacy contractors later this year.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the NHS-commissioned report on community pharmacy funding to be published.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissioned Frontier Economics to undertake an independent economic analysis of National Health Service pharmacy funding in 2024. This work is nearing completion and will be published.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 merits of standardising of NHS IT systems to help increase levels of efficiency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Interoperability between IT systems would improve the quality of care and safety for patients, as well as enabling better informed clinical and care decision-making, by allowing for information to be shared easily, in real time, between organisations that use different systems.
Information standards relating to information technology would enable such interoperability. The Government will shortly commence section 95 of the Health and Care Act 2022 and introduce regulations, which will, with Parliament’s approval, set out the procedure for preparing and publishing mandatory information standards for public and private health and adult social care providers.
The Data (Use and Access) (DUA) Bill will, Parliament permitting, subsequently make standards mandatory for IT providers in the health and care system, and make provision for ensuring compliance.
The impact assessment for these measures in the DUA Bill estimates benefits in terms of efficiencies of over £100 million over ten years. This is available at the following link:
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 potential merits of introducing a hardship fund for parents of children who have been diagnosed with chronic illnesses and have been hospitalised for more than 2 months.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Building the Right Support Action Plan, published in 2022, contains commitments which have not yet passed their delivery dates, including the commitment to reform the Mental Health Act.
We do not plan to create new actions in a new action plan while the bill is before Parliament. However, we recognise that this is a vitally important area, and we are considering how to ensure that more people with a learning disability and autistic people are supported well in the community, ahead of the commencement of the Mental Health Act reforms.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of levels of carers pay.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Adult social care is a historically low paid sector, as most care workers are paid at or just above the National Living Wage. The recently introduced Employment Rights Bill aims to address this by establishing a framework for Fair Pay Agreements, through which an agreement on pay and other terms and conditions for the adult social care sector can be negotiated and reached by employers, worker representatives, and others in partnership.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of an NHS-funded salaried training route to becoming a school counsellor.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have no plans to do so, as there is already an existing National Health Service-funded salaried training route for education based mental health practitioners, which enables them to work across education and healthcare to provide mental health support for children and young people in schools and colleges.