Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release entitled New services for patients under record pharmacy funding deal, published on 31 March 2025, what types of mental health support will community pharmacies offer to patients.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The New Medicine Service (NMS) is an advanced service offered by community pharmacies, providing patients with advice to address any possible side effects, issues, or questions that patients who are prescribed a new medicine may have. The service focuses on treatments for long-term conditions, including asthma and hypertension.

Early interventions of this type can improve medication adherence, patient outcomes, and can reduce pressure on the wider National Health Service. From October 2025, the NMS will expand to introduce depression as a further therapeutic area for which patients can receive support.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, from what date patients who are prescribed antidepressants will be able to access mental health support from community pharmacies.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The New Medicine Service (NMS) is an advanced service offered by community pharmacies, providing patients with advice to address any possible side effects, issues, or questions that patients who are prescribed a new medicine may have. The service focuses on treatments for long-term conditions, including asthma and hypertension.

Early interventions of this type can improve medication adherence, patient outcomes, and can reduce pressure on the wider National Health Service. From October 2025, the NMS will expand to introduce depression as a further therapeutic area for which patients can receive support.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many family law cases required a qualified legal representative broken down by individual court in the most recent year for which data is available.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Data on the number of family law cases involving cross-examination by litigants in person where there were allegations of abuse is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Data is not held on the number of qualified legal representatives required by individual court.

The Legal Aid Agency publishes data on the number of Qualified Legal Representatives who submit a claim for payment under the QLR Scheme. This information is published on a quarterly basis and can be accessed via the following link. The relevant data can be found in Table 10.1 at column M. Claims for payment are submitted and paid in arrears so the claim may not necessarily be reflective of the period in which work was undertaken.

Data is not held on the number of family law cases which were (a) adjourned and (b) delayed due to no qualified legal representative being available in the most recent 12 month period.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many family law cases were (a) adjourned and (b) delayed due to no qualified legal representative being available in the most recent 12 month period for which data is available.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Data on the number of family law cases involving cross-examination by litigants in person where there were allegations of abuse is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Data is not held on the number of qualified legal representatives required by individual court.

The Legal Aid Agency publishes data on the number of Qualified Legal Representatives who submit a claim for payment under the QLR Scheme. This information is published on a quarterly basis and can be accessed via the following link. The relevant data can be found in Table 10.1 at column M. Claims for payment are submitted and paid in arrears so the claim may not necessarily be reflective of the period in which work was undertaken.

Data is not held on the number of family law cases which were (a) adjourned and (b) delayed due to no qualified legal representative being available in the most recent 12 month period.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many family law cases involving cross-examination by litigants in person where there were allegations of abuse were there in the most recent year for which data is available.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Data on the number of family law cases involving cross-examination by litigants in person where there were allegations of abuse is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Data is not held on the number of qualified legal representatives required by individual court.

The Legal Aid Agency publishes data on the number of Qualified Legal Representatives who submit a claim for payment under the QLR Scheme. This information is published on a quarterly basis and can be accessed via the following link. The relevant data can be found in Table 10.1 at column M. Claims for payment are submitted and paid in arrears so the claim may not necessarily be reflective of the period in which work was undertaken.

Data is not held on the number of family law cases which were (a) adjourned and (b) delayed due to no qualified legal representative being available in the most recent 12 month period.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many qualified legal representatives are there by (a) solicitor and (b) barrister for which the latest data is available.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the number of solicitors on the roll was 209,200 in February 2025, an increase from 202,524 at the end of July 2024. More information can be found via the SRA’s website: https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/research-publications/regulated-community-statistics/data/population_solicitors.

The most recent figures from the Bar Standards Board from 2024 suggest that there were 18,141 practising barristers in England and Wales. More information on the number of practicing barristers in the UK can be accessed via their website: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/for-the-public/search-a-barristers-record/the-barristers-register.html.

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 31 March 2025 to Question 40741 on Health Services: Public Consultation, how much his Department has spent on the Change NHS portal to support the development of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Following an invitation to tender competition process, we appointed Thinks Insight, Kaleidoscope Health and Care, and IPPR to support us in running the engagement exercise for the 10-Year Health Plan. The awarded value of the contract is up to £2,961,595.50, with an option to vary to £3,500,000 in the event that the scope of the contract evolves. This includes running in-person deliberative engagement events with members of the public and health and care staff, further online and in-person engagement activities, the Change NHS online portal, and the analysis of the insight received.

The details of this award and redacted contracts can be found on the 10 Year Health Plan Engagement Exercise Contracts Finder on the GOV.UK website. Information regarding the breakdown of the overall costs can be found from page 118 of the contract. However, this information is exempt under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which exempts from the general duty to release information which would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any entity, including the public authority holding the information.

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 31 March 2025 to Question 40741 on Health Services: Public Consultation, how much his Department has spent on in-person engagement activities to inform the development of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Following an invitation to tender competition process, we appointed Thinks Insight, Kaleidoscope Health and Care, and IPPR to support us in running the engagement exercise for the 10-Year Health Plan. The awarded value of the contract is up to £2,961,595.50, with an option to vary to £3,500,000 in the event that the scope of the contract evolves. This includes running in-person deliberative engagement events with members of the public and health and care staff, further online and in-person engagement activities, the Change NHS online portal, and the analysis of the insight received.

The details of this award and redacted contracts can be found on the 10 Year Health Plan Engagement Exercise Contracts Finder on the GOV.UK website. Information regarding the breakdown of the overall costs can be found from page 118 of the contract. However, this information is exempt under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which exempts from the general duty to release information which would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any entity, including the public authority holding the information.

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 31 March 2025 to Question 40741 on Health Services: Public Consultation, how many people his Department has recruited to support (a) consultation and (b) engagement on the 10-Year Health Plan.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has not recruited new staff, but has redeployed 14 people from within the organisation, to support both the 10-Year Health Plan consultation and engagement.

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 31 March 2025 to Question 40741 on Health Services: Public Consultation, what was the cost to the public purse of (a) travel and (b) accommodation for the 11 working groups supporting the development of the 10-Year Health Plan.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has met the costs of travel and accommodation for a small number of working group members. The total cost to date is £912.25, which is made up of £750.35 of travel expenses, and £162.00 for accommodation.

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 1 April 2025 to Question 40738 on Cancer: Health Services, if he will publish the National Cancer Plan before the Spending Review.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Cancer Plan for England will be published in the second half of this year, following the publication of the 10-Year Health Plan and the 2025 Spending Review. We will review cancer funding as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people served in the Armed Forces (a) in total and (b) by service between 2003 to 2023.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

The requested information is shown in the attached spreadsheet. UK service personnel statistics on strengths, requirements, intake, applications and outflow is published quarterly on GOV.UK here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-index

Found: Cox Linsey Farnsworth Sir Ashley Fox Warinder Juss Tessa Munt Sarah Russell Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst