Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of levels of epilepsy medication availability on patient safety.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Medicine supply issues are global in their nature and, whilst not wholly preventable, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage and mitigate risks to patients. The Department has worked hard with industry to help resolve intermittent supply issues with some epilepsy medications. As a result of ongoing activity and intensive work, including asking manufacturers to expedite deliveries, most issues have been resolved.

The Department is currently aware of supply issues affecting some suppliers of clobazam 10 milligram tablets, all strengths of topiramate tablets, clonazepam 2 milligram tablets, and phenobarbital 15 milligram tablets, used in the management of epilepsy.

The supply issue with clonazepam 2mg tablets from one manufacturer is expected to resolve late January 2026. The affected suppliers of topiramate 25 milligram and 50 milligram tablets, and clobazam 10 milligram tablets, are expected to resupply these products by early December 2025. The resupply date from the other affected manufacturers for topiramate 50 milligram, 100 milligram and 200 milligram tablets and phenobarbital 15 milligram tablets is yet to be confirmed. Stock remains available from alternative manufacturers of these products to meet patient demand, and we have issued comprehensive management guidance to the National Health Service.

We have issued guidance for the discontinuation of sodium valproate (Epilim Chronosphere) 750 milligram and 1000 milligram modified release (MR) granules sachets. Alternative strengths of sodium valproate MR granules sachets remain available.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the clarity of escalation pathways for parents of children with complex medical needs.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) in England are responsible for commissioning services to meet the health needs of their local population. ICBs are expected to follow guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). In 2022, NICE published guidance on Disabled children and young people up to 25 with severe complex needs. This is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng213/chapter/Recommendations-on-service-organisation-integration-and-commissioning

NHS England is rolling out Martha’s Rule in acute provider sites, which gives in-patients and their families or carers who are concerned about physiological deterioration the ability to initiate a rapid review of their case from someone outside of their immediate care team. When requested, this rapid review will inform whether any new or additional action needs to be taken to ensure patients receive the most appropriate care and treatment, which may include escalation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that tenants and leaseholders have access to legal remedies if housing management companies fail to act on antisocial behaviour complaints.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

When tenants commit anti-social behaviour (ASB) it can cause misery for housemates, neighbours, and the wider community. The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 introduced specific measures designed to give victims and communities a say in the way that complaints of ASB are dealt with. As well as trying to resolve issues through housing management companies, depending on circumstances, tenants are able to contact their local authority or the police for support. It is also open for individuals to take legal action against the people behaving anti-socially and for an individual, or a freeholder to apply to the First-tier Residential Property Tribunal for forfeiture of the lease.

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 implementation of national early-detection programmes for Type 1 Diabetes in England compared to other countries such as Italy, in the context of around a third of people experiencing life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis at diagnosis.

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

A national Task and Finish Group has been established by NHS England which brings together key experts from across the health system, including academia/research and leading national clinicians, to jointly assess the opportunities and challenges that are associated with a national screening programme for diabetes and to inform the national direction of travel with regard to the development of national policy in this area.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what action the Government is taking to end regional disparities in access to insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors.

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

To reduce variation and health inequalities, data on the uptake of continuous glucose monitors (CGM) for diabetics is collected as part of the National Diabetes Audit (NDA).

NHS England plans to routinely publish this data in the NDA Core Quarterly dashboard in 2025/26, which will provide the data insights integrated care boards require to deliver CGM to their populations.

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 prevent the misdiagnosis of adults over 30 with Type 1 Diabetes as Type 2 within the NHS.

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

To coincide with World Diabetes Day on 14 November 2025, NHS England, in partnership with other key national stakeholders, launched a national awareness campaign to promote health care professionals in their identification and diagnosis of type 1 diabetes and reduce the risk of misdiagnosis.

This included a call to action to healthcare professionals, signposting to information, and action to take if a person is displaying any of the symptoms of type 1 diabetes, as well as supportive resources.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of a Type 1 Diabetes screening programme.

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

In the United Kingdom, new screening programmes and modifications to existing screening programmes are recommended by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific advisory committee.

The UK NSC received a submission via its 2024 open call process to consider screening for autoimmune type 1 diabetes through blood testing. Once the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published its recommendation on the drug teplizumab, the UK NSC will look again at this open call submission and consider whether a fresh review of the evidence for type 1 diabetes screening should be undertaken.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of piloting a national early-detection scheme for Type 1 Diabetes, in the context of seeking to deliver long-term savings and reducing unplanned hospital admissions.

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

NHS England has published a RightCare toolkit which sets out what good quality diabetes care looks like for children and young adults and which includes guidance on timely and accurate diagnosis.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published clinical guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of children and young people with type 1 diabetes.

Through our National Institute for Health and Care Research, we have supported the establishment of the Early Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes, or the “ELSA” study. This study is exploring the feasibility and benefits of screening for type 1 diabetes.

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