Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 reduce the waiting time for children to access an autism spectrum disorder assessment.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes quarterly Autism Waiting Time Statistics, which are available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/autism-statistics
These set out the waiting times for children to access an autism spectrum disorder assessment for each integrated care board (ICB) in England. These are statistics in development and do not yet represent a complete picture of waiting times for autism assessments in England. Work to determine which provider organisations should be submitting data for autistic people is ongoing.
The Government has recognised that, nationally, demand for assessments for autism has grown significantly in recent years and that people of all ages are experiencing severe delays for accessing such assessments. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will make the National Health Service fit for the future, and reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities focus on improving early intervention and support.
ICBs are responsible for planning and commissioning services to meet the needs of their local populations, including making decisions about how best to manage demand and capacity within available resources. The Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October 2025, was explicit that ICBs and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for autism assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing existing and new guidance, as published.
In April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/autism-diagnosis-and-operational-guidance/
This guidance intends to help the NHS improve autism assessment services and improve the experience for those referred to a service.
In December 2025, we launched an independent review into the Prevalence and Support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. The review’s interim report, published at the end of March, sets out the evidence reviewed so far on prevalence, describes the impact of rising demand for diagnosis and support, identifies where the evidence is uncertain, and outlines the key questions for the next phase. It does not offer final conclusions or recommendations. The final report, due in the summer, will make recommendations on how the Government, the health system, and wider public services can respond to increasing demand for support more fairly and effectively so that people receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the average waiting time for children to access an autism spectrum disorder assessment in each ICB area.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes quarterly Autism Waiting Time Statistics, which are available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/autism-statistics
These set out the waiting times for children to access an autism spectrum disorder assessment for each integrated care board (ICB) in England. These are statistics in development and do not yet represent a complete picture of waiting times for autism assessments in England. Work to determine which provider organisations should be submitting data for autistic people is ongoing.
The Government has recognised that, nationally, demand for assessments for autism has grown significantly in recent years and that people of all ages are experiencing severe delays for accessing such assessments. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will make the National Health Service fit for the future, and reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities focus on improving early intervention and support.
ICBs are responsible for planning and commissioning services to meet the needs of their local populations, including making decisions about how best to manage demand and capacity within available resources. The Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October 2025, was explicit that ICBs and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for autism assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing existing and new guidance, as published.
In April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/autism-diagnosis-and-operational-guidance/
This guidance intends to help the NHS improve autism assessment services and improve the experience for those referred to a service.
In December 2025, we launched an independent review into the Prevalence and Support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. The review’s interim report, published at the end of March, sets out the evidence reviewed so far on prevalence, describes the impact of rising demand for diagnosis and support, identifies where the evidence is uncertain, and outlines the key questions for the next phase. It does not offer final conclusions or recommendations. The final report, due in the summer, will make recommendations on how the Government, the health system, and wider public services can respond to increasing demand for support more fairly and effectively so that people receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how he plans to enforce new minimum NHS staff standards, and measure them at ward level.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Staff Standards will be mandatory. Trust performance against them will be measured via the NHS National Oversight Framework.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will introduce a statutory duty in England to calculate and take reasonable steps to maintain safe nurse staffing on adult acute wards, with ward-level public reporting and mandatory escalation when recognised staffing risk indicators are breached.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on access to fampridine for people with multiple sclerosis in England.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
Health is a devolved matter and decisions on the availability of medicines in the devolved administrations are a matter for their own governments.
Ministers and Department officials have had no recent discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about access to fampridine. NICE’s updated guideline on the diagnosis and management of multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults, published in June 2022, recommends that fampridine should not be offered to treat mobility issues in people with MS as it is not found to be a cost-effective treatment at the current list price. NICE keeps its guidance under active surveillance and decisions on whether published guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by the NICE Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE has indicated that it has no current plans to review its recommendations on fampridine.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the adequacy of availability of fampridine (fampyra) for patients across the four nations of the UK.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
Health is a devolved matter and decisions on the availability of medicines in the devolved administrations are a matter for their own governments.
Ministers and Department officials have had no recent discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about access to fampridine. NICE’s updated guideline on the diagnosis and management of multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults, published in June 2022, recommends that fampridine should not be offered to treat mobility issues in people with MS as it is not found to be a cost-effective treatment at the current list price. NICE keeps its guidance under active surveillance and decisions on whether published guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by the NICE Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE has indicated that it has no current plans to review its recommendations on fampridine.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 adequacy of wheelchair provision services in Derbyshire.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, and NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services.
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.
NHS England is taking steps to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs, and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment. This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025 which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs, such as offering personal wheelchair budgets. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty under various legislations, including the Care Act 2014, and the Children and Families Act 2014, to make arrangements for the provision of disability aids and community equipment, including wheelchair provision, to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident in their area. Some local authorities deliver this themselves, but a significant number have external contracts for an integrated community equipment service.
On 1 April 2025, the NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB appointed Blatchford Ltd to run wheelchair services.
The NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB provided additional funding to address the most clinically urgent, long-standing patients that are waiting for a wheelchair and is monitoring with Blatchford on a weekly basis. There are, however, still 1,000 long-standing patients currently waiting for a wheelchair.
The NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB has put in place a clinical priority plan developed jointly between the NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB and Blatchford Ltd to address long-standing patients. As of Mid-November 2025, with regard to long-standing patients waiting for a wheelchair, there has been a 56% deduction in adults and a 54% reduction in children and young people. The ICB continues to work through the remaining patients.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 specific challenges that face adults with learning difficulties in accessing health services; and what actions he is taking to ensure that they receive an acceptable level of service.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
A learning difficulty is a reduced ability for a specific form of learning and includes conditions such as dyslexia and dyspraxia. These are life-long conditions.
Under the Equality Act 2010, public sector organisations are required to make changes in their approach or provision to ensure that services are accessible to disabled people as well as to everybody else.
Reasonable adjustments can make a real difference to people’s care and are based on physical or mental impairment, not on diagnosis. The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag is being rolled out across health and care services to ensure that disabled people’s reasonable adjustments are recorded and shared, enabling support to be tailored appropriately. This is supported by e-learning for all health and social care staff. All organisations that provide National Health Service care or adult social care must also follow the Accessible Information Standard.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population. Further information on specific learning difficulties can be found on the NHS website.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 through the Modern Service Framework for cardiovascular health to reduce premature deaths from cardiovascular disease.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The cardiovascular disease modern service framework will help accelerate progress towards the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade.
The Government is prioritising ambitious, evidence-led, and clinically informed approaches to prevention, treatment, and care. At the heart of this is engagement with people and communities, so that the modern service framework is shaped by and meets their needs. We will say more on these plans in due course.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 that weight loss drugs are available on the NHS for (a) women with (i) polycystic ovary syndrome and (ii) other fertility issues and (b) everyone.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended a number of weight-loss medicines for use on the National Health Service, which the NHS is now required to fund for eligible patients in line with NICE’s recommendations, including for women with polycystic ovary syndrome and fertility problems.
The product information for weight loss medicines state that all individuals of child-bearing potential, who are able to become pregnant, using GLP-1 medications should take steps to ensure they do not become pregnant. GLP-1 medicines should not be taken during pregnancy or just before trying to get pregnant.
The NHS is currently rolling out tirzepatide for obesity in primary care, using a phased approach based on clinical need to manage NHS resources. Around 220,000 individuals are expected to be eligible over the next three years. NHS England worked with clinical experts, integrated care boards, patient and public representatives, healthcare professionals, charities and royal colleges on its prioritisation approach, which it set out in its interim commissioning guidance, available at the following link:
At the current time, patients will be eligible for treatment in primary care if they have a body mass index of at least forty, and four or more out of five ‘qualifying' conditions. The qualifying conditions are cardiovascular disease, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, obstructive sleep apnoea, and type 2 diabetes mellitus.