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 ensure a sufficient number of Designated Prescribing Practitioners to mentor all new non-medical prescribers.

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

NHS England is investing in training for independent prescribers, as well as initiatives to support the development and safe practice of designated prescribing practitioners (DPPs) and educational supervisors. A DPP is a healthcare professional with legal independent prescribing rights who will mentor and supervise the pharmacist during the period of learning in practice. This will ensure the National Health Service is ready to support and mentor foundation trainee pharmacists from the 2025/26 academic year, alongside training existing pharmacists that are learning to be independent prescribers.

Reforms to pharmacist education and training will allow for the development of prescriber pharmacists from the point of registration from 2026. This will enable a career-long focus on prescriber services and an associated expansion of the DPP workforce, to support multi-professional teams and the expansion of cross-sector prescribing services.

NHS England has funded 3,000 training places for existing pharmacists to become independent prescribers, and is training 1,000 DPP and educational supervisors to support the training of pharmacist independent prescribers.

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 (a) hospitalisations and (b) deaths that have been prevented by RSV vaccines administered through the early adopter community pharmacy sites.

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

People are eligible for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination if they are pregnant, from 28 weeks onwards, or if they are aged 75 to 79 years old.

Some people aged 75 to 79 years old have been able to receive the RSV vaccine from a small number of community pharmacy pilot sites in the East of England. Approximately 8,000 individuals received their RSV vaccine in these community pharmacies between October and November 2024. The majority of the programme was delivered in general practice.

Overall, the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) findings indicate that there were 30% fewer hospital admissions in 75 to 79 year olds, who are eligible for the vaccine under the new programme, than there would have been without vaccination. This was seen after approximately 40% of eligible older people took up the vaccine this winter, and the impact is expected to increase with further vaccine uptake.

A UKHSA-led evaluation of the expansion of the community pharmacy RSV vaccination pilot is underway, covering a further 200 sites.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to include (a) financial and (b) other citizenship education in the school syllabus.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

The national curriculum for citizenship equips pupils to manage their money effectively and provides a framework to explore a range of important concepts to prepare pupils for adulthood, such as democracy, human rights, justice, media literacy, the law, and the need for mutual respect.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. During their public consultation, the Review Group heard consistently from parents and children that they want more focus on the applied knowledge and skills that will equip them for later life and work, such as financial education. The Review is considering whether there is sufficient coverage of these skills within subjects, and how content can remain relevant and support young people to thrive in a fast-changing world.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans his Department has to introduce a national animal welfare labelling scheme.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Rotheram, Sarah Champion, on 3 July 2025, PQ 62951.

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 18 June 2025 to Question 54542 on Drug Prices, how many of the commercial arrangements involving indications-specific pricing were for indications for (a) rare and (b) ultra-rare cancers.

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

Between January 2020 and March 2025, NHS England entered into 62 commercial agreements involving indication-specific pricing for cancer indications. Of these:

• 60 were for indications classified as rare; and
• of those 60, two were for indications classified as ultra-rare.

NHS England determines whether a cancer indication is considered rare or ultra-rare based on the incidence of the eligible patient population for a given National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Technology Appraisal, rather than the overall incidence of the broader cancer type. The following definitions have been applied:

• rare, with fewer than six cases per 100,000 population per year; and
• ultra-rare, with one case per 1,000,000 population per year or fewer.

Found: transparency about what substances are used and how they are stored, prescribed and delivered”.34 Sadik Al-Hassan

Found: transparency about what substances are used and how they are stored, prescribed and delivered”.34 Sadik Al-Hassan

Found: Pinkerton Susan Murray Clive Jones Dr Simon Opher Anna Gelderd Clive Lewis Sarah Edwards Sadik Al-Hassan