Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 the final statutory guidance under the Down Syndrome Act 2022 provides clear expectations on Down syndrome-specific training for professionals working with people with Down syndrome.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
Under the Down Syndrome Act, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is required to give guidance to relevant authorities in health, social care, education, and housing services on what they should be doing to meet the needs of people with Down syndrome. The public consultation on the draft guidance closed on 30 March 2026, and the Government is carefully considering the responses received to inform the final guidance to be published.
Relevant authorities, as defined in the schedule to the act, have a duty to have due regard to the final guidance once it is published. The act does not create any new functions beyond this duty. Rather, it brings together existing statutory requirements and guidance that relevant authorities must and/or should already be complying with to support people with Down syndrome and people with other conditions and/or a learning disability who have similar needs.
Under existing legislation, Care Quality Commission registered providers must ensure that staff receive appropriate professional development which is necessary for them to carry out their duties. They must receive specific training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role, as per Section 20 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, Section 181(7) of the Health and Care Act 2022, and Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. We expect that providers should be considering whether specific training on Down syndrome is required for their staff, and the draft guidance under the Down Syndrome Act sets out that some staff who work frequently with people with Down syndrome may require additional training on Down syndrome.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Government recognises the importance of women and girls being able to access the care they need for their reproductive health, including period products. That is why there are several Government schemes across England which ensure that those who are most vulnerable can access the products they need. The Department for Education’s period products scheme launched in 2020 and provides free period products to girls and women in their place of study so that nobody misses out on education because of their period. Similarly, all women and girls being cared for by the National Health Service are entitled to be given, upon request, appropriate period products free of charge. All women in prison have access to menstrual products, which are typically stored in locations that allow women to collect items themselves as needed.
We are also taking steps to ensure that products are as affordable as possible. The tax on period products has been zero-rated since 2021 and, in 2023, this was extended to include reusable period underwear.
The Department will be exploring the effectiveness of the legal duty to provide free period products under the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the final statutory guidance under the Down Syndrome Act 2022.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
Under the Down Syndrome Act, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is required to give statutory guidance to relevant authorities in health, social care, education, and housing services on what they should be doing to meet the needs of people with Down syndrome. The public consultation on the draft guidance was launched on 5 November 2025.
The consultation on draft guidance closed on 30 March 2026, and the Government is carefully considering the responses received to inform the final guidance to be published.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 an assessment of the adequacy of support available to people with brain tumours through health and social care services.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The Department recognises the significant impact that rare cancers, such as brain tumours, can have on people. The Department is committed to improving people’s experience with brain tumours across the system, from diagnosis to treatment and beyond.
NHS England aims to empower individuals with choice and control over their health and care through personalised care, focusing on promoting independence, good health, and well-being.
Where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan, and health and wellbeing information and support. This includes provision of information, empowering people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer. Personalised care ensures that each person’s care is planned holistically, covering mental and physical health as well as any practical or financial concerns, with support increasingly delivered through neighbourhood services and accessible digitally through the NHS App.
In addition, the recently published National Cancer Plan aims to redesign cancer services around people’s lives, not just around hospitals, recognising that more people are living for longer with and beyond cancer and need ongoing, coordinated support. The Department will ensure patients have a named neighbourhood lead to help coordinate their care locally, working alongside hospital specialists to provide continuity, reduce fragmentation, and make it easier for people to navigate services.
The plan also recognises that living well with cancer goes beyond healthcare alone. The Department will work with employers, charities, community services, and other partners to help people stay in work, maintain independence, and access trusted advice and support from the point of diagnosis.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that infant feeding advice provided in healthcare settings is independent of commercial influence.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Infant feeding is critical to a baby’s healthy growth and development. The Government is committed to giving every child the best start in life and that includes helping families to access support to feed their baby.
The Department has policy responsibility for infant formula regulations in England. Legislation covers the composition, labelling, and standards, including marketing, to ensure infant formulas provide all the nutrients a healthy baby needs for development and growth and to ensure consumers are informed correctly about their contents so that families receive clear, accurate, and non-misleading information about their use. The legislation makes clear that any infant formula used in health care settings must be provided without any form of commercial promotion. Labels or information supplied to healthcare professionals must be strictly factual and scientific, with no marketing claims.
The majority of maternity services are either accredited under or are working towards the quality standards of UNICEF-UK’s Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI). The BFI sets out quality standards for complying with the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. This includes requiring maternity services to avoid commercial influence and prohibit promotion of substitutes to families.
The Department is also taking action to ensure parents and carers receive proactive information on the nutritional sufficiency of infant formula, regardless of its price. In response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s recommendations on the infant and follow-on formula market, the four governments of the United Kingdom will work with the National Health Service in England, Scotland, and Wales, the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland, and other relevant bodies to develop and test clear, impartial messaging on the nutritional sufficiency of infant formula. This will include reviewing existing channels used in healthcare settings, such as online content and supporting materials provided to parents, to ensure messaging is delivered effectively and consistently.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 access to specialist care and support for people living with motor neurone disease.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
NHS England commissions the specialised elements of motor neurone disease (MND) care that patients may receive from 27 specialised neurology centres across England. Within these specialised centres, neurological multidisciplinary teams ensure patients can access a range of health professionals and specialised treatment and support, according to their needs.
At the national level, there are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with MND, including the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit.
In August 2025, NHS England updated its service specification for specialised adult neurology services. It outlines a number of minimum service requirements for key specialties, including neuromuscular disorders like MND.
Baroness Casey has set out that the Government must take immediate action on motor neurone disease. Where someone has a severe, reasonably predictable, and life-limiting condition, it is essential that we provide rapid access to the support they need, and we will take forward immediate work to develop a fast-track process, or “passport”, that speeds up assessments and access to care for people diagnosed with MND. We will consider how best to safely implement a process that expedites assessments and gets people with MND the care and support they need more quickly.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 access to specialist stroke rehabilitation and community-based support services for stroke survivors in England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan, we are committed to improving services for patients locally by increasing the provision of services outside of a hospital setting that are delivered closer to home in the community.
The National Stroke Service Model provides best practice for stroke care, including post-discharge, which should include comprehensive rehabilitation and personalised care and support.
The National Stroke Quality Improvement in Rehabilitation programme is helping to transform community-based care by increasing access to specialist stroke rehabilitation at home.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) prevalence and (b) potential impact of the use of hospital corridors and other non-designated spaces for patient care in NHS hospitals.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the challenges facing the health service and are serious about tackling them. The Government is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the National Health Service constitution by the end of this Parliament.
Corridor care refers to care delivered in non-designated clinical areas and is not an acceptable standard of care. We are committed to eliminating this practice in the National Health Service and ensure all patients receive high quality safe care, and we are taking serious, sustained action to achieve this. It is one of the most visible and distressing symptoms of a broken NHS, fixing it will require fixing several of the systems and processes that sit across the whole of the pathway, all of which we are working on.
NHS England has been working with trusts since 2024 to monitor corridor care, implementing new reporting arrangements and providing targeted support to the most challenged hospitals. In March, we published a clear definition of corridor care. As committed to in the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, we will publish data on the prevalence of corridor care for the first time. This new definition will enable us to start publishing clear validated data on its prevalence to drive improvement and transparency.
Where corridor care cannot be avoided, we have published updated guidance to support trusts to deliver it safely, ensuring dignity and privacy is maintained to reduce impacts on patients and staff. This means that corridor care areas must uphold the same high standards of care for patients as those in planned clinical settings. Patients are seen based on how urgent their needs are, not where they are. All patients being considered for corridor care should be appropriately risk assessed by senior clinical teams during triage with their condition monitored by named nurses.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children from Gaza have been admitted to NHS hospitals under the UK medical evacuation scheme since its launch.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The Prime Minister announced at the end of July 2025 that the United Kingdom will medically evacuate Gazan children for treatment in the UK. The UK has successfully evacuated 50 child patients who are being treated in National Health Service hospitals as part of the Gaza medevac process.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
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 disabled people receive essential medical and mobility equipment, such as wheelchairs and hoists, in a timely manner.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population, and responsibility for providing equipment and wheelchairs to disabled people typically falls to local authorities and the National Health Service.
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty to make arrangements for the provision of community equipment for disabled people in their area. Responsibility for managing the market for these services, including commissioning and oversight of delivery, rests with local authorities. The NHS is responsible for providing wheelchairs for people with longer-term, complex needs.
The Medium Term Planning Framework, published in October 2025, requires that from 2026/27 all ICBs and community health services must actively manage and reduce the proportion of waits across all community health services over 18 weeks and develop a plan to eliminate all 52-week waits. These targets will guide systems to reduce longest waits.
NHS England is supporting ICBs to reduce delays and regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs. Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from clinical commissioning groups, now ICBs, on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, to enable targeted action if improvement is required.