Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
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 (a) the effectiveness of the monitoring of early foetal development in patients by trusts and (b) trends in the level of variations in that monitoring by those trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Monitoring and reviewing Foetal Growth Restriction is a key safety component of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle (Care Bundle) which includes the Foetal Growth standard. NHS Resolution monitors this through the Maternity Incentive Scheme as part of the financial incentive for National Health Service trusts to improve safety in maternity and neonatal services. We are expecting the final evaluation of Maternity Incentive Scheme this year.
In December 2025, NHS England wrote to NHS trusts advising them to stop using intergrowth growth charts to estimate foetal weight and move to other alternatives by 31 March 2026. This is supported in guidance from the Royal College of Gynaecologists and implementation of this change will be monitored locally.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what national guidance is in place for cases of aspirin-allergic women at high risk of placental complications.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s guidance states that there are a few absolute contraindications, that being, conditions that mean a certain treatment should not be used, to aspirin therapy. Pregnant women with a history of aspirin allergy, for example urticaria, or hypersensitivity to other salicylates are at risk of anaphylaxis and should not receive aspirin. Clinicians should undertake a personalised risk assessment and agree appropriate care and surveillance of maternal and foetal health in line with national guidance, local protocols, and the woman’s circumstances. NHS England’s guidance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of children aged 12-16 who are vaping.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes estimates of the prevalence of vaping in children in the Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England Survey. This survey covers children in years 7 to 11 in secondary school, the majority of whom will be aged 12 to 16 years old, although some 11 year olds will also be included.
The latest figures for England are from the 2023 survey, which showed that 5% of children were regular vapers, 4% were occasional vapers, and 25% reported having ever tried vaping. The report is available at the following link:
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children aged between 12 and 16 years inclusive that have taken illegal drugs.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are two official national surveys on illicit drug use among children. NHS England’s Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People surveys pupils aged between 11 and 15 years old in England. In 2023, 13% of pupils reported that they had taken drugs.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales, published by the Office for National Statistics, reported that in the year ending March 2024, 15% of young people aged 16 to 19 years old reported using any drugs in the past 12 months.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the proportion of boys and men aged between 10 and 50 that have suffered from mental health issues.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the percentage of male children and young people with a probable disorder, sorted by age group:
Age group in years | 8 to 16 | 17 to 19 | 20 to 25 |
Male children and young people with a probable disorder | 20.8% | 15.4% | 13.4% |
Source: Mental Health of Children and Young People in England Survey 2023.
In addition, the following table shows the percentage of male adults with a common mental health condition, sorted by age group:
Age group in years | 16 to 24 | 25 to 34 | 35 to 44 | 45 to 55 |
Male adults with a common mental health condition | 13.5% | 20.8% | 14.9% | 18.4% |
Source: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/24.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 7 May 2024 to Question 24352 on Dietetics: Prescriptions, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the findings of the report by the University of Surrey entitled Innovation in the Allied Health Professions: Evaluation of supplementary prescribing by dietitians and independent prescribing by therapeutic radiographers, published in December 2024, on the (a) safety and (b) efficacy of dietitians prescribing; and whether he plans to extend independent prescribing rights to dietitians.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department remains committed to exploring the extension of medicines responsibilities for non-medical professionals. This will support the aim that patients are cared for, and treated by, the most appropriate healthcare professional to meet their needs, where it is safe and appropriate to do so. Many regulated healthcare professionals have already received extended medicines responsibilities and prescribing rights, and the Department is committed to assessing the impact that these changes have had on patient care.
Regarding the extension of prescribing rights to dietitians, there is a process in place for making changes to prescribing responsibilities to ensure proposals are safe and beneficial for patients. Officials are carefully considering proposals relating to a range of healthcare professionals, including dietitians, as part of wider work concerning non-medical prescribing. This will include consideration of literature relevant to the profession being assessed.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that mental health patients who could pose a risk to the wider public have their cases managed appropriately.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Mental Health Act 1983, now and when reformed, has the necessary powers to enable clinicians to manage high risk mental health patients. The planned reforms will not change the fundamental powers and purpose of the Act, which is to detain and treat people when they are so unwell they become a risk to themselves or others. However, when the very serious decision is taken to detain someone, the reforms will ensure there is a modern framework for the use of these powers, to ensure patients are treated with dignity and respect and that they receive care and treatment which supports recovery.
The Mental Health Bill will seek to improve the management of risk within the Act. This Government has made additional changes to the bill published in draft in 2022 to achieve this, including the introduction of a new requirement for the patient’s responsible clinician to consult another person who has been professionally concerned with the patient’s care when they are deciding about whether to discharge a patient.
NHS England included a requirement in the 2024/25 NHS Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance that all integrated care boards (ICBs) “review their community services by Q2 2024/25 to ensure that they have clear policies and practice in place for patients with serious mental illness, who require intensive community treatment and follow-up but where engagement is a challenge”.
The outcome of these reviews and local action plans will be presented at ICB’s public boards to ensure the outcome of the review is transparent and locally led.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what he is taking to ensure effective intelligence sharing between mental health services and (a) the police and (b) other relevant services when a patient is deemed to pose a risk to the wider public.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Mental health services work and engage with a range of services to manage patients identified as a potential risk. The nature of this engagement will vary depending on the nature and level of the risk. For example, this may be through formal processes such as multi-agency public protection arrangements.
In matters of national security, health services work with Counter Terrorism policing and the wider security sector to ensure that information is shared appropriately, to provide a complete picture of any risk, and to provide the right interventions and care for patients.
Local level arrangements will also be in place, as police forces are operationally independent. Whilst the roll out of the Right Care, Right Person approach has reduced the involvement of police in mental health incidents, they will continue to engage where there is a serious risk of harm, and local level arrangements have been put in place to support safe roll out between police, and health and social care services.
We intend to use the Code of Practice following the Mental Health Bill to further underline good practice for how mental health services should work with other services, including the police, to keep people safe, particularly regarding consideration of discharge.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) NHS England and (b) Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust respond to Sir Adrian Fulford's prevention of future deaths report following the Forbury Garden terrorist incident in June 2020.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
It is the responsibility of the individual organisations named within a Report to Prevent Future Deaths to take action to address any identified failures. Following Sir Adrian Fulford's report, each organisation, including NHS England and the trusts, has written to the Judge Coroner, setting out what action they have taken to address the points he has made.
As a first step, NHS England included a requirement in the National Health Services’ 2024/25 priorities and operational planning guidance that all integrated care boards (ICBs) ‘review their community services by Q2 2024/25 to ensure that they have clear policies and practice in place for patients with serious mental illness, who require intensive community treatment and follow-up but where engagement is a challenge’. Further information on the 2024/25 priorities and operational planning guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/operational-planning-and-contracting/
The outcome of these reviews and local action plans will be presented at the ICBs’ Public Boards, to ensure the outcome of the review is transparent and locally led.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence entitled Integrated health and social care for people experiencing homelessness, published on 16 March 2022, what steps his Department is taking to implement these guidelines in health and social care settings.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department recognises the importance of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines, and is working across the Government and the health system, and with local government, commissioners, and the voluntary sector, to continue to review and support implementation of the guidance Integrated health and social care for people experience homelessness (NG214), both nationally and locally. With the aim to include setting priority areas of focus and identifying and sharing best practice for implementation.