Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 patients with pulmonary fibrosis in Devon.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Royal Devon University Hospital provides a regional interstitial lung disease service covering Devon. The team provides clinical care, support, and access to services such as pulmonary rehabilitation. Patients with pulmonary fibrosis may attend pulmonary rehabilitation services in Exeter, North Devon, Torbay, and Plymouth.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 move funding away from being centered in the London and the Home Counties and towards research projects in (a) Devon and (b) other areas of the UK.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds health and care research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research infrastructure spans England in order to build research capacity, including in Devon.
The NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN) is the main vehicle for clinical research delivery and will introduce a new national funding model in 2026/27 to ensure fair, transparent, and consistent funding across all regions, reducing variation, and supporting underserved areas.
Devon hosts four NIHR-funded infrastructure: the Regional Research Delivery Network South West Peninsula; the Exeter Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility; the HealthTech Research Centre for Sustainable Innovation; and the Applied Research Collaboration for the South West Peninsula, which supports the whole of Devon. In line with prior commitments, the Department has increased funding for infrastructure developing and delivering research outside the greater South East.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care from across England and the United Kingdom. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Additionally, by investing in career development initiatives through the NIHR Academy, NIHR Infrastructure, and the RDN, the NIHR continues to fund high quality applied health and care research and training across England.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 increase funding for research for pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds clinical, public health, and social care research and works in partnership with the National Health Service, universities, local government, other research funders, patients, and the public. The NIHR welcomes applications for research on any aspect of human health and care, including pulmonary fibrosis. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Since April 2020, the NIHR has spent £4.8 million on research projects and programmes relating to pulmonary fibrosis.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 research funding for pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds clinical, public health, and social care research and works in partnership with the National Health Service, universities, local government, other research funders, patients, and the public. The NIHR welcomes applications for research on any aspect of human health and care, including pulmonary fibrosis. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Since April 2020, the NIHR has spent £4.8 million on research projects and programmes relating to pulmonary fibrosis.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the level of pay of NHS staff in Newton Abbot constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pay for most staff employed by National Health Service organisations is set at a national level. The Government has remitted the independent NHS Pay Review Body and the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration to make recommendations on headline pay for NHS staff. Within their reports they make an assessment of the level of pay to recommend, with regard to various factors such as recruitment and retention. The process for the 2026/27 pay round is already underway, with the Department publishing its evidence to the Pay Review Bodies on 30 October.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the NHS is taking to improve preventative measures for pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The causes of pulmonary fibrosis can be uncertain. However, measures exist to prevent the industrial exposure related causes of pulmonary fibrosis such as The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Smoking can also cause pulmonary fibrosis. To support current smokers to quit, an additional £70 million will be provided in 2025/26 to support local authority-led Stop Smoking Services in England.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 potential merits of increasing the availability of medicinal cannabis for epilepsy patients in Devon.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The licenced cannabis-based medicine Epidyolex is available on the National Health Service in England for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis complex. This follows approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
NICE has assessed the available evidence, and concluded that there is a clear need for more evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions of unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use. NHS funding decisions follow established procedures that ensure equitable distribution of funding, prioritising those medicines that have proved their safety, quality, and clinical and cost effectiveness.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 NHS staff working in Newton Abbot constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The health and wellbeing of all National Health Service staff is a top priority. Local employers across the NHS have in place arrangements for supporting staff including occupational health provision, employee support programmes, and a focus on healthy working environments. At a national level, NHS staff have access to the SHOUT helpline for crisis support alongside the Practitioner Health service for more complex mental health and wellbeing support, including trauma and addiction.
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: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to ensure retired NHS staff do not suffer financial hardship due to late pension payments.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly meets with the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), which is responsible for administering the NHS Pension Scheme, to discuss performance levels. These discussions include the current increase in processing times for initial pension payments to retired National Health Service staff.
The NHSBSA is working in partnership with the Department to ensure robust measures are in place to improve performance as a matter of urgency. The NHSBSA has reallocated internal resources, is actively recruiting and training new staff, and has enhanced communications with members and employers to help them plan accordingly. The Department is committed to supporting the NHSBSA in taking all necessary steps to ensure pension benefits return to being paid on-time.
To minimise the risk of financial hardship, the NHSBSA is proactively contacting and prioritising cases involving vulnerable members and those experiencing ill health. A member whose first pension payment is delayed beyond 30 days will automatically receive interest on the overdue amount. Up-to-date information on processing times is made available to members via the NHSBSA website which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/current-processing-times-nhs-pensions.
The NHSBSA remains dedicated to providing the highest possible standard of service to retiring and retired NHS staff and will continue to keep members updated on progress.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 July to Question 65984 on NHS Databases, what assessment he has made of the challenges of hosting the NHS Federated Data Platform on cloud services.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) Programme Team in NHS England have conducted a comprehensive assessment of the technical, operational, regulatory, and public trust considerations associated with hosting the platform on cloud services.
It is a contractual requirement that all processing and storage of patient information take place within the United Kingdom. Data within the FDP and NHS Privacy Enhancing Technology cannot be accessed by provider personnel or contractors based outside the UK. This is stipulated in the overarching FDP Data Protection Impact Assessment and enforced through technical controls. All data is protected through strong encryption, access controls, and audit trails, in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. These measures ensure that National Health Service data remains fully under UK jurisdiction.
Robust security measures are in place, including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, regular penetration testing, and vulnerability scanning. Live service teams continuously monitor the platform to identify and address any issues promptly.
The FDP has been designed to be modular and standards-based, enabling integration with multiple systems and avoiding over-reliance on any single cloud provider.
Following national guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre, the NHS has adopted the 14 cloud security principles as its core means of aligning of cloud and internet security throughout the NHS and healthcare providers. All NHS data stored on cloud services in the UK is encrypted, at rest and in transit, using the highest encryption standards.