Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce a policy similar to those in NHS Scotland and NHS Wales to support the regrading of specialty doctors to the specialist grade where appropriate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While there are no specific plans to introduce a separate regrading policy similar to those in Scotland or Wales at this time, we are considering how best to support appropriate career progression for specialty doctors in England, including through ongoing conversations with the British Medical Association.
The specialist grade was introduced in England in 2021 as part of reforms to improve career progression opportunities for Specialty, Associate Specialist, and Specialist (SAS) doctors. Employers are able to create specialist posts where there is a service need, and individuals, including speciality doctors, should be able to apply for these roles through open, competitive recruitment.
As set out in the National Health Service 10-Year Health Plan, the Department is committed to supporting the continued expansion of the specialist grade where appropriate, to ensure SAS doctors have clear and fair pathways for progression.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues to local authorities to on conducting consultations with recognised care provider associations when setting adult social care fee rates.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Act 2014 places a statutory duty on local authorities, under Section 5, to promote a sustainable and high-quality adult social care market. This includes ensuring that care providers can operate effectively and that fee structures support the delivery of high-quality services. While the Care Act does not prescribe specific methods of engagement, such as recognised provider associations, it sets the overarching requirement for local authorities to understand local market conditions and the costs of care. In practice, this means local authorities are expected to draw on appropriate evidence, which may include information from providers, when setting fees.
On 18 December 2025, the Department published its new annual local authority priority-setting document. This sets out a list of priority outcomes and expectations for local authorities in 2026/27, and one of these is for local authorities to “set fee rates at a sustainable level, in line with commissioning priorities, to help shape markets and enable adult social care providers to recruit a skilled workforce and stabilise and improvement workforce capacity, and in preparation for employment rights reforms, starting from financial year 2026 and the fair pair agreement starting in financial year 2028”.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what implementation metrics have been set for the introduction of Staff Treatment Hubs under the 10 Year Plan, including the number of hubs operational by the end of 2026, the regional coverage targets in England and Wales, and the specific performance measures used to evaluate improvements in clinician wellbeing.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan committed to the roll out of Staff Treatment Hubs, to provide a high-quality wellbeing and occupational health service for all National Health Service staff. Work is underway to develop implementation and operational plans for the Staff Treatments Hubs. This will determine factors such as location, budgets, timeframes, capacity, and processes for monitoring progress and performance.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government holds data on the average resident doctor study budget in England compared with that available in (a) Scotland and (b) Wales.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For the 2025/26 financial year, the total study budget allocated for doctors and dentists in postgraduate training in England is £54.5 million. The levels of spend by individual trainees are not collected centrally.
We do not hold comparable data for Scotland and Wales.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average annual study budget available for resident doctors in England who are undertaking training or professional development is.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For the 2025/26 financial year, the total study budget allocated for doctors and dentists in postgraduate training in England is £54.5 million. The levels of spend by individual trainees are not collected centrally.
We do not hold comparable data for Scotland and Wales.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of plans to reform the immigration settlement system on the number of anaesthetists working in the health service.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential impact of plans to reform the immigration settlement system on the number of anaesthetists working in the health service.
The Government has launched a consultation on proposals to reform the current settlement rules in favour of an “earned settlement” model, that considers factors such as contribution, integration, and conduct. The consultation, which runs until February 2026, seeks views on how these reforms should apply to different groups, including health and care workers.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to ensure patients who receive care at a surgical hub outside of their local area have access to follow-up treatment such as rehab in their locality.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to putting patients first. This means making sure that patients are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.
The responsibility for ensuring that patients receive the right ongoing care sits with the trust whose care the patient is under. In addition, the Getting It Right First Time programme has set clear expectations that all surgical hubs should provide patients with information on how and where to access rehabilitation services post discharge, and this includes for patients returning home to a different system.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle elective care waiting times including joint replacement surgery in (a) Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket and (b) nationally.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to putting patients first, nationally and in Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket. This means making sure that patients, including those waiting for joint replacement surgery, are seen on time and ensuring that people have the best possible experience during their care.
Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket is predominantly served by the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. Over half, or 50.9%, of patients on the trauma and orthopaedic waiting list, which includes joint replacement surgery, were waiting within 18 weeks, an improvement of 7.9% since July 2024, and the number waiting more than 52 weeks has also fallen by over 70%.
Nationally, the number of patients on trauma and orthopaedic waiting lists waiting within 18 weeks has improved by 3.6% and the number waiting more than 52 weeks has fallen by over 16,000 in the same period.
We set out in the 2025 Elective Reform Plan the productivity and reform efforts needed to reach the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. The plan outlines actions that will help to ensure care is delivered in the right place, and includes £1.65 billion of capital funding in 2025/26 to deliver new surgical hubs, diagnostic scanners, and beds to increase capacity for elective and emergency care.
Currently, there are 123 surgical hubs operational across England, including two in the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System, and we are committed to expanding the number of hubs over the next three years to increase surgical capacity and deliver faster access to common procedures, including trauma and orthopaedic procedures.
In December 2024, we opened the Newmarket Community Diagnostic Centre which increased diagnostic capacity, with over 34,000 scans conducted for more than 21,000 patients, and which led to a 53% reduction in the magnetic resonance imaging waiting list between December 2024 and October 2025. As of September 2025, community diagnostic centres are now delivering additional tests and checks in 170 sites. We have also confirmed 13 new state-of-the-art DEXA scanners to support better bone care, delivering on this Government’s commitment in the Elective Reform Plan. These will allow for an extra 29,000 bone scans per year, benefitting tens of thousands of patients.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will implement a formal mentoring programme for doctors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no plans for a central mentoring programme for doctors. Such programmes are provided by some National Health Service trusts, integrated care boards and Royal Colleges.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 support early interventions in maternity care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are rolling out several measures to support early interventions in maternity care.
These include implementing the Saving Babies’ Lives ‘Bundle’, which provides evidence-based guidance for providers of maternity care to help reduce adverse outcomes and optimise care; rolling out 14 Maternal Medicine Networks across England to ensure that women with chronic and acute medical problems around pregnancy have access to specialist care; and piloting Martha’s Rule in maternity and neonatal units in 14 Trusts in six regions.
In addition, we are developing a Maternal Care Bundle that will tackle the main causes of maternal death and harm, expected to be published this autumn. We are also launching a £50 million National Institute for Health Research challenge fund to task researchers with finding new ways to tackle maternity disparities and poor pregnancy outcomes.