Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment has been made on the relationship between ADHD and Substance Use Disorders.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Studies have shown that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk of alcohol use disorder. One study found that impulsive decision making was causal, and that ADHD was present in up to 20% of people seeking treatment for alcohol use disorder. The recently published Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment set out several steps that treatment providers should take to assist those with ADHD to access alcohol treatment and tailor treatment interventions, including discussing and making reasonable adjustments based on each person's individual needs, offering flexibility, providing information in the most appropriate way, and collaborative personalised care plans.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards in England to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to ADHD assessment and support, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
NHS England established an ADHD Taskforce which brought together those with lived experience with experts from the National Health Service, education, charity, and justice sectors to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing services and support. The final report was published on 6 November 2025. The work of the independent ADHD Taskforce highlighted the need for coordinated action across health, education, and public services to reform ADHD services and support.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced on 4 December 2025 the launch of an Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism.
The independent review will build directly on the evidence and recommendations of the ADHD Taskforce. The taskforce’s report provides a strong, evidence‑based foundation, and the review will consider its findings in full to ensure conclusions are aligned and complementary. In the meantime, we are working with NHS England to deliver some of the taskforce’s recommendations such as on data improvement, enhancing Mental Health Support Teams in Schools, improved commissioning, and better collaboration between mental health and primary care services.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 made to address the health needs of those classified with severe ME/CFS while exploring the specialised very severe ME/CFS service.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The decision will be announced in due course. At this stage, officials from the Department and NHS England have been working carefully through the steps needed to make a decision on the prescription of a specialised service for very severe myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is responsible for a decision on the prescribing of specialised services, which requires consultation with NHS England.
The Department is also developing a template service specification for mild and moderate ME/CFS, which also contains references to severe ME/CFS. Further work will need to be undertaken to strengthen support for people with severe ME/CFS, reflecting that people may move between moderate and severe. Future iterations of this document will build on these ongoing considerations and emerging insights.
To support healthcare professionals in the diagnosis and management of ME/CFS, the Department has worked with NHS England to develop an e-learning programme on ME/CFS for healthcare professionals, with the aim of supporting staff to be able to provide better care and improve patient outcomes. The final module of this e-learning programme is focussed on improving understanding of severe ME/CFS in particular. All three sessions of the e-learning programme are now available at the following link:
https://learninghub.nhs.uk/catalogue/mecfselearning?nodeId=7288
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department's proposed timeline is for announcing its decision on the prescription of a specialised service for Very Severe ME/CFS.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The decision will be announced in due course. At this stage, officials from the Department and NHS England have been working carefully through the steps needed to make a decision on the prescription of a specialised service for very severe myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is responsible for a decision on the prescribing of specialised services, which requires consultation with NHS England.
The Department is also developing a template service specification for mild and moderate ME/CFS, which also contains references to severe ME/CFS. Further work will need to be undertaken to strengthen support for people with severe ME/CFS, reflecting that people may move between moderate and severe. Future iterations of this document will build on these ongoing considerations and emerging insights.
To support healthcare professionals in the diagnosis and management of ME/CFS, the Department has worked with NHS England to develop an e-learning programme on ME/CFS for healthcare professionals, with the aim of supporting staff to be able to provide better care and improve patient outcomes. The final module of this e-learning programme is focussed on improving understanding of severe ME/CFS in particular. All three sessions of the e-learning programme are now available at the following link:
https://learninghub.nhs.uk/catalogue/mecfselearning?nodeId=7288
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the (i) number and (ii) adequacy of provision of paediatric post-mortem specialists in (a) Gloucestershire, (b) the South West and (c) England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the number of paediatric post mortem specialists either across England or in the South West or Gloucestershire regions.
NHS England does publish monthly information on the number of staff employed in the National Health Service in England, including information on the grade and specialty of NHS doctors. This includes information on the number of doctors working in the specialty of pathology as well as the sub-specialty of paediatric and perinatal pathology. This is not though the same as those able to provide paediatric post mortems. The relevant information can be found in the file ‘NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data tables’ in each monthly publication, at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
NHS England established a national programme in late 2022 to address paediatric and perinatal pathologist workforce challenges and has undertaken significant work in relation to workforce funding, training, and incentives. This has included making additional funding available to support training posts in areas where there have been interested candidates but no training post available and changes to the national training course and examination structure. The number of training posts has increased across several recruitment rounds and the perinatal and paediatric training pathway will be at a full complement of 16 training posts from February 2026.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy that integrated care board boundaries should match mayoral combined authority boundaries.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It remains the Government’s ambition for integrated care boards (ICBs) to be coterminous with one or more strategic authorities wherever feasible, a commitment made in the English devolution white paper and reaffirmed in our 10-Year Health Plan.
This summer as local government reform progresses, the Department of Health and Social Care will work closely with NHS England and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to decide any further ICB mergers and boundary changes.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the MRS has made in delivering mechanistic research into ME/CFS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not know what ‘MRS’ refers to in this context. The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). A limited amount of mechanistic research is funded through the NIHR, but the majority of mechanistic research is funded through the Medical Research Council (MRC), a UK Research and Innovation Council sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Mechanistic research into myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, is within the remit of the MRC.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 including medication for the treatment of Parkinson's disease in the medical exemption scheme.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Broxtowe on 20 January 2026 to Question 106198.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has his department made of the potential impact of access targets on continuity of care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government values continuity in general practice, but this is not inconsistent with efforts to improve access, such as via the 24-hour access target where urgent treatment is required.
In the 2025/26 contract, one of the domains of the Capacity and Access Improvement Payment, worth £29.2 million, incentivises primary care networks to risk stratify their patients in accordance with need for continuity. This allows general practitioners (GPs) to deliver care to meet the specific needs of their patients.
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, which is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP Contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the National Health Service budget as a whole.
Over ten million more GP appointments have been delivered in the 12 months to September 2025 compared to the same period last year, building capacity for continuity of care and improving access so that patients can be seen when they need to be in primary care. Patient satisfaction with access has improved significantly, rising from 61% in July 2024 to 74% in July 2025, marking a 13-percentage-point increase over the last year.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether access metrics will be reviewed to ensure they support relationship-based care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This Government values continuity in general practice (GP) and there is an incentive to identify those who would benefit from continuity in the GP contract, but this isn't inconsistent with efforts to improve access, such as via the 24 hour access target where urgent treatment is required.
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practice to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest cash increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole.
Over ten million more GP appointments have been delivered in the 12 months to September 2025 compared to the same period last year, building capacity for continuity of care and improving access so that patients can be seen when they need to be in primary care.
In the 2025/26 GP contract, a new domain was introduced into the Capacity and Access Improvement Payment which incentivises primary care networks to risk stratify their patients in accordance with need including to identify those that would benefit most from continuity of care.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which department is responsible for making decisions and research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) as part of the Final Delivery Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The Department of Health and Social Care is responsible for the overall delivery of the final delivery plan on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
To address the breadth of the ME/CFS research challenge, the NIHR and the Medical Research Council (MRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, play complementary roles in the United Kingdom landscape by funding research across the research system, with MRC funding aetiological and early-stage translational science and NIHR funding later stage translational and applied clinical work.
The NIHR and MRC are working together to deliver the research actions outlined in the ME/CFS final delivery plan that we published in July.