Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of inactivity, defined as less than 30 minutes activity per day, on the mental health of 11 to 16 year olds in England.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While no such assessment has been made by the Department, Sport England has published data indicating that mental wellbeing is lower for children aged seven to 16 years old who are less active when compared to more active children.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of eligible individuals who have undertaken an NHS Health Check in (a) 2024, (b) 2025 and (c) 2026 to date.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Available data on the uptake of the NHS Health Check programme is published routinely and is available at the following link:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/nhs-health-check-detailed
On the wider performance of the programme, I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided in the House of Lords on 1 October in response to Question HL3638.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions her department has had on building (a) surgical and (b) medical readiness within the NHS as part of plans for improving national resilience, including mass casualty response.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England play an active and ongoing role in all contingency planning, coordinated by the Cabinet Office, to prepare for major crises and emergencies, and to feed into the UK Government Resilience Action Plan, available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-government-resilience-action-plan
Further information on NHS England’s Emergency Preparedness response function is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/eprr/
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when her Department intends to publish the outcome of the Reforming the General Medical Council legislative framework consultation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is currently analysing the responses to the consultation.
The Government intends to undertake a further, targeted consultation in the autumn on certain aspects of the draft General Medical Council Order. This will include proposals relating to Lord Mann’s review of antisemitism and other forms of racism in the National Health Service and healthcare regulatory system.
A Government response covering both consultations will be published in due course.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of years spent with and without disability at age 65 for (a) men and (b) women by local authority area in England.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The requested data is not centrally held by the Department.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has held discussions with social media companies on content promoting anabolic steroid use and extreme body image ideals to young men.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The Department has not held discussions with social media companies on content promoting anabolic steroid use and extreme body image ideals to young men.
However, in November 2025, the Department launched England’s first ever Men’s Health Strategy which sets out a bold vision to improve the health and wellbeing of all men and boys. The strategy recognises the role that the media plays in shaping how men interpret health information and commits to identify ways to build media literacy skills in men to help them critically assess health information and protect against misinformation that harms health.
More broadly, under the Online Safety Act, providers must take proportionate steps to reduce the risk of their services being used to facilitate illegal activity, including the unlawful supply of controlled drugs such as anabolic steroids.
The Government also supports clean competition in sport. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport supports UK Anti-Doping and UK Sport in their efforts to protect clean sport and educate athletes on the risks of performance-enhancing drugs.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms are used by his Department to monitor the prevalence of anabolic steroid and other image and performance enhancing drug use in England.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Department collects data, through the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), on the number of people in structured substance misuse treatment, including those reporting a problem with anabolic steroids and other image and performance enhancing drug (IPED) use. However, people seeking help solely for steroid misuse, and not for alcohol or other drug misuse, may not be in structured treatment, depending on local commissioning arrangements, and would therefore not be captured in NDTMS. Where steroid misuse is linked to broader substance misuse, it would be recorded in NDTMS. As a result, NDTMS does not provide data on the prevalence of steroid or IPED use.
Data on anabolic steroid use is collected through the Crime Survey for England and Wales, published by the Office for National Statistics. The latest release provides an overview of the extent of, and trends in, illicit drug use in the year ending March 2025, and is available at the following link:
Anabolic steroid use is not recognised as a distinct diagnostic category in current classification systems, which limits health services’ ability to identify, record, and monitor cases in hospital data. Although some diagnostic codes relating to steroid misuse do exist, they are broad and do not reliably capture anabolic steroid use or its associated complications. As a result, data on hospital admissions linked to anabolic steroid use and related complications is not held.
Enforcement against the illegal online sale of anabolic steroids is a matter for the Home Office under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Officials in the Department of Health and Social Care work closely with the Home Office to tackle the harms that all illicit drugs cause.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department maintains data on the number of hospital admissions linked to anabolic steroid use and related complications.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Department collects data, through the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), on the number of people in structured substance misuse treatment, including those reporting a problem with anabolic steroids and other image and performance enhancing drug (IPED) use. However, people seeking help solely for steroid misuse, and not for alcohol or other drug misuse, may not be in structured treatment, depending on local commissioning arrangements, and would therefore not be captured in NDTMS. Where steroid misuse is linked to broader substance misuse, it would be recorded in NDTMS. As a result, NDTMS does not provide data on the prevalence of steroid or IPED use.
Data on anabolic steroid use is collected through the Crime Survey for England and Wales, published by the Office for National Statistics. The latest release provides an overview of the extent of, and trends in, illicit drug use in the year ending March 2025, and is available at the following link:
Anabolic steroid use is not recognised as a distinct diagnostic category in current classification systems, which limits health services’ ability to identify, record, and monitor cases in hospital data. Although some diagnostic codes relating to steroid misuse do exist, they are broad and do not reliably capture anabolic steroid use or its associated complications. As a result, data on hospital admissions linked to anabolic steroid use and related complications is not held.
Enforcement against the illegal online sale of anabolic steroids is a matter for the Home Office under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Officials in the Department of Health and Social Care work closely with the Home Office to tackle the harms that all illicit drugs cause.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with the Home Office on enforcement against the illegal online sale of anabolic steroids.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Department collects data, through the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS), on the number of people in structured substance misuse treatment, including those reporting a problem with anabolic steroids and other image and performance enhancing drug (IPED) use. However, people seeking help solely for steroid misuse, and not for alcohol or other drug misuse, may not be in structured treatment, depending on local commissioning arrangements, and would therefore not be captured in NDTMS. Where steroid misuse is linked to broader substance misuse, it would be recorded in NDTMS. As a result, NDTMS does not provide data on the prevalence of steroid or IPED use.
Data on anabolic steroid use is collected through the Crime Survey for England and Wales, published by the Office for National Statistics. The latest release provides an overview of the extent of, and trends in, illicit drug use in the year ending March 2025, and is available at the following link:
Anabolic steroid use is not recognised as a distinct diagnostic category in current classification systems, which limits health services’ ability to identify, record, and monitor cases in hospital data. Although some diagnostic codes relating to steroid misuse do exist, they are broad and do not reliably capture anabolic steroid use or its associated complications. As a result, data on hospital admissions linked to anabolic steroid use and related complications is not held.
Enforcement against the illegal online sale of anabolic steroids is a matter for the Home Office under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Officials in the Department of Health and Social Care work closely with the Home Office to tackle the harms that all illicit drugs cause.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to fulfil its oversight responsibilities for NHS Continuing Healthcare as set out in paragraph 23 of the National Framework.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
NHS England operates an assurance regime to promote accurate assessment, equal access, standardisation, and consistency within NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC). This involves regional assurance meetings every two months, with a focus on reducing unwarranted variation in CHC. It will continue working with local systems to ensure appropriate application of the National Framework for CHC.
The NHS Performance and Assessment Framework for 2026/27 includes a standard for integrated care boards to monitor the percentage of Standard CHC referrals completed within 28 days.