Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment of the clinical and administrative workload required to deliver QOF indicators in (a) practices serving highly deprived populations and (b) other practices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department consults with the profession to ensure that the Quality and Outcomes Framework’s (QOF) proposals are reasonable and deliverable for practices in England, using the relevant available performance data to inform the setting of achievement thresholds.
There are high achievement rates in the majority of practices, for instance in the 2024/25 contract year, 83.2% of practices achieved over 90% of the available QOF points.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 help improve outcomes for people with pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established 13 respiratory clinical networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.
NHS Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) clinics offer expert care from specialist respiratory doctors and nurses for pulmonary fibrosis and other ILDs, often with access to additional services like lung function testing and research facilities.
The National Health Service also provides pulmonary rehabilitation, which plays an important role in the management of patients with pulmonary fibrosis and which should be made available to all patients who would benefit from this intervention.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 ensure equitable geographic access to hyperbaric treatment for decompression illness following changes to the national contract.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The contract for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) services was reviewed in 2024, as existing contract terms expired. This included an update of the service specification using the published full methods process, and a public consultation on the proposal to reduce the number of commissioned providers in England from eight to six centres. Further information on the service specification, the published full methods process, and the consultation is available, respectively, at the following three links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/methods-national-service-specifications/
The updates to the specification seek to ensure timely access to treatment for the most acutely unwell patients, with the specification requiring:
The geographical scope of the six services will ensure that there are no more than four hours travelling time by road from coastal locations, from the furthest borders, or between neighbouring commissioned HBOT centres, which is in line with good practice guidelines.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to allow pharmacies to independently proscribe medication.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no legislative barriers for pharmacists who are appropriately trained to independently prescribe. The 10-Year Health Plan set out how we will transition community pharmacy from being focused largely on dispensing medicines to becoming integral to the Neighbourhood Health Service, which will include making prescribing part of the National Health Services delivered by community pharmacists.
Earlier this year, we laid legislation to modernise legislation governing the supervision of activities by a pharmacist in a pharmacy. This legislation, which will come into effect following a transition period, is intended to make greater use of the wider pharmacy workforce, such as registered pharmacy technicians, in dispensing therefore freeing up pharmacists to deliver more clinical services.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 improve managerial support for GPs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Regarding the oversight of general practices (GPs), GPs are independent businesses, providing primary care services based on a National Health Service GP Contract to their local populations. Most commonly, GPs are run by GP partners who, alongside other GPs and healthcare staff, are responsible for running their own practice.
NHS England has delegated its responsibilities for the direct commissioning of primary care services, for instance primary medical, dental, ophthalmic, and community pharmacy services, to integrated care boards (ICBs).
The responsibilities delegated are set out in the standard delegation agreement between NHS England and each ICB. This includes contractual management and supporting the improvement and transformation of services. Further information on the delegation agreement is available at the following link:
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS, 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 and reflects this government’s commitment to improve support for general practice and ease pressure on general practitioners.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 pay awards for NHS staff are reflected in general practice settings.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government looks to the independent pay review bodies for a pay recommendation for NHS staff, including both contractor and salaried general practitioners (GPs). They consider a range of evidence from organisations, including the Government, the National Health Service and trade unions to reach their recommendations.
The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) has recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with last year, we accepted the DDRB’s pay recommendation. We have provided an increase to core funding for practices to allow this 4% pay uplift, on top of the provisional 2.8% uplift already provided, to be passed on to salaried and contractor GPs. The additional funding will also allow for pay uplifts for other salaried general practice staff. Information on the funding increase was communicated to practices on 31 July 2025. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/implementing-the-2025-26-gp-contract/
The Government has written to GP Committee England to set out its expectations regarding the extra funding being used to fund uplifts for all staff and a letter to ICBs was published on 31 July, available at the following link:
We expect GP contractors to implement pay rises to other practice staff in line with the uplift in funding they have received. As self-employed contractors to the NHS, it is up to general practices how they distribute pay and benefits to their staff.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 improve service provision for people with sarcoma in Cornwall.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published a national service specification, covering both bone and soft tissue sarcomas. The specification requires close working between sarcoma services and other National Health Service partners, co-ordinated by Sarcoma Advisory Groups, to improve care pathways.
Work is underway across both bone and soft tissue sarcoma provision to ensure that cancer care providers meet national service standards and improve care to patients across the country, including in Cornwall.
The Government welcomes the recent publication of Sarcoma UK’s sarcoma state of the nation report as it highlights the importance of early diagnosis, care co-ordination across complex pathways, research into new treatments, and survivorship. Our forthcoming National Cancer Plan will set out how we will improve outcomes for all cancers, including sarcoma.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help support pharmacies to increase their productivity.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has recently implemented several reforms to help pharmacy contractors to improve dispensing efficiencies and productivity. Since January 2025, pharmacies have been allowed to dispense medicines in the original manufacturers package if the quantity in the package is 10% higher or lower than the quantity ordered on prescription. This removes the need to open and split the package in a pharmacy and increases the number of orders that can be processed through automated dispensing facilities. From 1 October 2025, pharmacies can make arrangements with a pharmacy owned by a different legal entity to undertake routine assembly of medicines on their behalf. This is known as hub and spoke arrangements and enables smaller pharmacies to utilise automated dispensing hubs to free up time for the pharmacist in the spoke pharmacy to focus on patient facing tasks.
On 17 July, draft regulations were laid with the aim to modernise the rules concerning who must supervise the dispensing of medicines in pharmacies. The Government is working to make the National Patient Prescription Tracking Service available in each pharmacy to help patients track their prescriptions online through the NHS App. This will reduce the burden on busy general practitioners and pharmacy teams and will avoid patients queuing at a pharmacy only to find that their prescription is not ready. The Government has also launched a public consultation on giving pharmacists increased flexibilities to supply an alternative product against a prescription, if the prescribed item is not available.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 increase the numbers of walk-in consultation services at pharmacies.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community pharmacies already provide a range of walk-in consultation services, including blood pressure checks, contraception consultations, and Pharmacy First. They also provide health advice and sell over the counter medicines for minor illnesses.
The Government is committed to expanding the role of pharmacies and better utilising the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. For example, on 29 October the Pharmacy Contraception Service was expanded so that pharmacies can supply emergency contraception free of charge, to ensure women have access to a consistent offer across England.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
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 improve outcomes for patients with peripheral arterial disease in Camborne and Redruth constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve outcomes for patients with coronary heart disease, including those in the Camborne and Redruth constituency, the Government will publish a cardiovascular disease modern service framework. This will identify and set standards for the best evidenced interventions, drive innovation in cardiovascular disease prevention and management, and reduce unwarranted variation in healthcare.