Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will estimate how many four year-olds live in families that would be eligible for Healthy Start vouchers had their child not become ineligible on their fourth birthday.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Healthy Start scheme helps to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from low-income households. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. The NHSBSA does not hold data relating to children aged four years old and over.
Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the annual cost to the public purse of the Healthy Start scheme; and what proportion of this cost is attributed to (a) administration and (b) payments to families.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Healthy Start is a demand led scheme, and therefore, the cost of the scheme differs from year to year. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) delivers the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. In the financial year 2023/24, the cost to the public purse for the NHSBSA to administer the scheme was £9,620,000.
In the same financial year, the cost to the public purse for payments made to families in receipt of Healthy Start was £86,382,173.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children live in families eligible for Healthy Start vouchers; and how many and what proportion of those children are in receipt of those vouchers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
In April 2025 there were 361,122 people on the digital scheme, and of these there were 328,798 claims supporting children under four years old.
The NHSBSA does not currently hold data on the number of children living in families that are eligible for Healthy Start.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many pressurised metered dose inhalers were prescribed by the NHS in the last year for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information provided by the NHS Business Services Authority gives the quantities of each medicine dispensed in the community in England. The total number of pressurised inhalers that were dispensed in England from October 2023 to September 2024 was 42.3 million.
Asked by: Sarah Russell (Labour - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of pressurised metered dose inhalers were manufactured in pharmaceutical production facilities (a) in the UK and (b) overseas in the last year for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held.