Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 improve access to reproductive healthcare services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is prioritising women’s health as we reform the National Health Service, to ensure that all women can access the care they need. We are committed to the Women’s Health Strategy and are continuing work to deliver it. Our longer-term priorities for implementing the Women’s Health Strategy will be aligned with the 10-Year Health Plan and our missions.
The Department and NHS England have taken urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan. In gynaecology, the plan supports innovative models offering patients care closer to home, as well as the piloting of gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres for patients with post-menopausal bleeding.
Public health services, such as sexual and reproductive health services, including contraception, are commissioned by local authorities in England through a ring-fenced Public Health Grant. In 2025/26, the Government is increasing funding through the ringfenced Public Health Grant to £3.858 billion. This is a cash increase of £198 million compared to 2024/25, providing local authorities with an average 5.4% cash increase and 3.0% real terms increase. This represents a significant turning point for improving access to local health services, marking the biggest real-terms increase after nearly a decade of reduced spending, between 2016 and 2024.
Contraception is also available from a range of other settings, including direct from pharmacies, both prescribed and over the counter, from general practices, online, and through other health care services.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of implementing recommendation 6 of the NHS Race & Health Observatory's report entitled Review of NHS health communications with (and for) the Jewish community, published in December 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The merits of including Jewish or Sikh as an option when recording ethnicity in National Health Service data, and other issues relating to how the NHS records information on protected characteristics, are being considered by the Unified Information Standard for Protected Characteristics programme. This programme will help inform a view on next steps.
Information is not held centrally on the number of NHS services which allow patients to identify as Jewish or Sikh under ethnicity questions, or to record Judaism or Sikhism as their religion. There are SNOMED CT codes, the terminology used for recording patient information consistently across the NHS, for Judaism and Sikhism under religion.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 recent assessment of the potential merits of updating the national mandatory standard for the (a) collection and (b) analysis of ethnicity to include (i) Jewish, (ii) Sikh and (iii) other options.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The merits of including Jewish or Sikh as an option when recording ethnicity in National Health Service data, and other issues relating to how the NHS records information on protected characteristics, are being considered by the Unified Information Standard for Protected Characteristics programme. This programme will help inform a view on next steps.
Information is not held centrally on the number of NHS services which allow patients to identify as Jewish or Sikh under ethnicity questions, or to record Judaism or Sikhism as their religion. There are SNOMED CT codes, the terminology used for recording patient information consistently across the NHS, for Judaism and Sikhism under religion.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS services allow patients to identify as (a) Sikh under ethnicity questions and (b) Sikhism as their religion.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The merits of including Jewish or Sikh as an option when recording ethnicity in National Health Service data, and other issues relating to how the NHS records information on protected characteristics, are being considered by the Unified Information Standard for Protected Characteristics programme. This programme will help inform a view on next steps.
Information is not held centrally on the number of NHS services which allow patients to identify as Jewish or Sikh under ethnicity questions, or to record Judaism or Sikhism as their religion. There are SNOMED CT codes, the terminology used for recording patient information consistently across the NHS, for Judaism and Sikhism under religion.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS services allow patients to identify as (a) Jewish under ethnicity questions and (b) Judaism as their religion.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The merits of including Jewish or Sikh as an option when recording ethnicity in National Health Service data, and other issues relating to how the NHS records information on protected characteristics, are being considered by the Unified Information Standard for Protected Characteristics programme. This programme will help inform a view on next steps.
Information is not held centrally on the number of NHS services which allow patients to identify as Jewish or Sikh under ethnicity questions, or to record Judaism or Sikhism as their religion. There are SNOMED CT codes, the terminology used for recording patient information consistently across the NHS, for Judaism and Sikhism under religion.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the use of artificial intelligence in NHS diagnostics.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in the National Health Service is still at a relatively early stage, with the majority of AI technologies, including diagnostic tools, being deployed in a research capacity. To address this, the Department is carrying out work to assess the barriers of effective adoption and improve the way AI tools are deployed across the NHS. The NHS AI Lab’s Ethics Initiative invests in research and practical interventions that could strengthen the ethical adoption of AI within health and care and addresses risks and concerns over its use.
Additionally, the Department has supported the launch of regulatory projects such as the AI and Digital Regulation Service (AIDRS) and the AI Airlock. The AIDRS, in partnership with healthcare regulators, gives innovators and health and care providers a one-stop-shop for support, information, and guidance on the regulation and evaluation of AI technologies. The AI Airlock is a Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency-led initiative, supported by the NHS AI Lab, designed to create a controlled testing environment where developers can rigorously validate AI tools in real-world clinical settings before full-scale deployment, ensuring they meet NHS standards for safety, efficacy, and integration into existing healthcare workflows.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 number of (a) hospitalisations and (b) deaths from people using nitazenes in Birmingham; and what steps he is taking to reduce these numbers.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The number of hospital admissions in Birmingham due to the use of nitazenes is not collected.
On 3 October 2024, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) published the research report, Deaths linked to potent synthetic opioids, providing information on deaths due to potent synthetic opioids that have been recorded by OHID and the National Crime Agency as of 19 September 2024 and which occurred between 1 June 2023 and 31 May 2024 after toxicology tests were completed. This report presents the data broken down into regions and shows that the number of deaths due to nitazenes in the West Midlands region were 21. We are continuing to work closely with other government departments to enhance surveillance and early warning in response to the threat of synthetic opioids. The report is available at the following link:
Any death from illicit drug use is a tragedy, and it is clear that more needs to be done to prevent this from happening. The department is working to expand access to naloxone, a life-saving medicine that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, including synthetic opioids. The Government laid legislation covering the United Kingdom on 29 July 2024, which, subject to passage through Parliament, will enable more services and organisations to provide take-home supplies of naloxone without a prescription. These changes will make it easier for naloxone to be given to a family member or friend of a person who is known to be using opiates, and to professionals working with people who use these drugs, to save lives in the event of an overdose.
To improve surveillance, OHID has been working with partners in Government to create a new, enhanced Drugs Early Warning System. This collates information from a wider range of sources, including for example ambulance callout data, and will produce regular reports for local areas on current threats.
Information on the dangers of synthetic opioids and the dangers they pose is available from the helpline and website (talktofrank.com) provided by FRANK, the national drug information and advice service supported by government. Education on drug use is also a statutory component of relationships and sex education and health education in England. Lesson plans target primary and secondary students, teaching them how to manage influences and pressure, and keep themselves healthy and safe. These plans, and resources to support teachers, are in the process of being updated, including with information on synthetic drugs.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the performance of for-profit providers of sexual assault referral centres.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
All Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) services are commissioned through an open and transparent procurement process. The quality of the service provision is a key consideration in any contract award
All SARC services are subject to Care Quality Commission regulations, and within NHS England, each region has a commissioning and contracting team that oversees all SARC contracts to ensure the performance and quality of the service provision meets National Health Service standards. From October 2025, SARC services will also be required to be accredited under forensic services regulations, which will provide an additional level of assurance.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether him Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of using voluntary organisations to support victims of sexual assault.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Voluntary organisations are important providers of specialist services to adults and children who have experienced sexual assault or abuse. They are major providers of specialist advocacy, sexual trauma counselling, pre-trial therapy, and support services.
Sexual Assault Referral Centres are expected to develop and maintain referral pathways and working relationships with relevant voluntary sector services in each NHS England region. A core principle of the enhanced mental health pathway is to build delivery partnerships between the National Health Service and specialist sexual violence and abuse voluntary sector organisations, tailored to meet needs in relation to complex trauma.
The majority of services funded by the Ministry of Justice for victims and survivors of sexual violence are delivered by voluntary organisations.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 9 April 2024 to Question 19659 on NHS 111: Dental Health, if she will provide breakdown of calls by symptom group by region.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
It has not proved possible to reply to the hon Member in the time available before Dissolution.