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Written Question
Eyes: Prosthetics
Monday 14th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

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 ensure that there is a wide range of customisations available to patients at all providers when procuring prosthetic eyes through the National Artificial Eye Service.

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

Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning artificial eye services. The National Artificial Eye Service supplies one artificial eye free of charge. Customised bespoke artificial eyes can be provided to patients at the time of the supply of a National Health Service prosthesis at a small cost. Further information, including examples of customisations provided to patients, can be found on the National Artificial Eye Service website, at the following link:

https://www.naes.nhs.uk/custom-eyes


Written Question
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Greater Manchester
Monday 14th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

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 reduce wait times for (a) assessment and (b) diagnosis of ADHD in Greater Manchester.

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

NHS England has established an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) taskforce which is bringing together those with lived experience with experts from the National Health Service, education, charity, and justice sectors to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing services and support. An interim report was published on 20 June 2025, with the final report expected to be published later in the year.

For the first time, NHS England published management information on ADHD waits at a national level on 29 May 2025 as part of its ADHD data improvement plan. NHS England has also released technical guidance to integrated care boards (ICBs) to improve the recording of ADHD data, with a view to improving the quality of ADHD waits data and publishing more localised data in future. NHS England has also captured examples from ICBs who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services and is using this information to support systems to tackle ADHD waiting lists and provide support to address people’s needs.

The Greater Manchester ICB has recently conducted reviews of both children and young people’s and adult ADHD pathways. The ICB has been working with people with lived experience and has developed new service models which aim to provide earlier, fairer, and more effective ADHD support locally. The ICB expects to begin implementing these pathway changes in the coming months.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Private Sector
Tuesday 8th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps hi Department has taken to support GP practices who have taking on patients coming from private healthcare backgrounds.

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

The National Health Service and general practices (GPs) are free at the point of use, and anyone is entitled to register with an NHS GP regardless of whether they have had private healthcare before.

Under the GP Contract, a contractor must not host private paid-for GP services that fall within the scope of NHS funded primary medical services, and must not themselves, or through another person, advertise the provision of private services using the same written or electronic means used to advertise the NHS funded primary medical services they provide.

This does not prevent individual GPs from offering purely private GP services to non-registered patients, although these services must be outside the agreed medical services and separate to the services provided to their NHS patient list and on alternative premises which are not NHS-funded. This is intended to safeguard the model of comprehensive NHS primary medical care and ensure that the line between NHS and private practice does not become blurred.

The British Medical Association provides guidance to GPs on its website for their responsibility in responding to private health care.


Written Question
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Health Services
Tuesday 8th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing additional support to people on waiting lists for an ADHD diagnosis who show clear symptoms.

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

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including assessments and support for people suspected or confirmed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Lord Darzi’s independent review of the National Health Service, published September 2024, highlighted that the demand for assessments for ADHD has grown significantly in recent years and that there are severe delays for accessing ADHD assessments.

The independent ADHD taskforce, commissioned by NHS England to consider these issues and how to address them, recently published its interim report. The report recommends the need for timely access to needs-based support, including practical help for people showing signs of ADHD, such as coaching, classroom tools, and parenting advice. The taskforce's final report is expected to be published later this year, and we will carefully consider its recommendations.

The Government is also supporting earlier intervention for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) through the Early Language Support for Every Child and the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programmes. The Government will be investing in support for pupils with SEND more widely, enabling transformation of the SEND system to make mainstream schools more inclusive and to improve outcomes.


Written Question
Household Support Fund
Tuesday 8th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of decreases in levels of spending welfare on the capacity of the Household Support Fund.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Social security spending is forecast to increase. We are providing £742 million in England to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) by a further year, from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026. And we secured the first ever multi-year settlement for the HSF – now the Crisis & Resistance Fund - until 2029 to give councils certainty over funding. This will ensure vulnerable households in the most need can continue to access support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food. We have shared guidance and documentation ahead of the launch of the scheme, arranged and facilitated a series of Delivery Plan Drop-in and LA Knowledge Share sessions, to support LAs with completing Delivery Plans and with planning for the new scheme. No further assessment has been made.


Written Question
Refugees
Tuesday 8th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to support the integration of refugees that have been granted leave to remain.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 26 June to Question 61436.


Written Question
Social Rented Housing: Housing Supply
Tuesday 8th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to increase social housing supply.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made on 2 July 2025 (HCWS771).


Written Question
Eyes: Prosthetics
Monday 7th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

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 regulatory frameworks at (a) Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and (b) other hospitals do not inhibit patients in obtaining (i) prosthetic eyes and (ii) novelty prosthetics through the National Artificial Eye Service.

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

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for the development and implementation of regulations for medical devices placed on the United Kingdom’s market, irrespective of the specific hospital in which they are used. All devices, including prosthetic eyes, must meet the relevant requirements of the UK Medical Devices Regulations 2002 (MDR 2002).

The MHRA is developing a future regulatory framework for medical devices that will ensure patients have access to the safe and effective medical devices they need, including prosthetic eyes and other custom-made devices. The first step is the introduction of new Post-Market Surveillance regulations, which came into force in June, putting in place strengthened legal requirements for how manufacturers monitor and report on their devices once they are being used in the real world. We intend to follow this with updates to the MDR 2002, which will enter into force next year, bringing further risk-proportionate improvements to ensure device traceability and patient safety. This will include additional measures that must be taken before a product can be placed on the market, including enhanced requirements for custom-made devices. To support patient access to medical technologies, the MHRA recently consulted on proposals to introduce an international reliance scheme to enable swifter market access for certain devices that have already been approved in a comparable regulator country. The agency will publish a response to that consultation in due course.


Written Question
Furniture: Poverty
Monday 7th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with social housing providers on the (a) Decent Homes Standard and (b) the provision of furnished tenancies in social housing, in the context of levels of furniture poverty.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

My Department engages actively with registered providers of social housing on all issues facing social housing tenants and with a range of stakeholders on issues facing residents and has engaged with groups such as End Furniture Poverty to understand their research on this issue.

On 2 July, we opened a consultation on a reformed Decent Homes Standard (DHS) for the social and private rented sectors. It can be found on gov.uk here.

People in need may be able to get support from their local authorities via the ‘Household Support Fund’ and other services available locally.

The Deputy Prime Minister is also part of the ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce, which is considering the impacts of living in poor quality housing on children.


Written Question
Furniture: Poverty
Monday 7th July 2025

Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department monitors trends in levels of furniture poverty in (a) England and (b) the UK.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

My Department engages actively with registered providers of social housing on all issues facing social housing tenants and with a range of stakeholders on issues facing residents and has engaged with groups such as End Furniture Poverty to understand their research on this issue.

On 2 July, we opened a consultation on a reformed Decent Homes Standard (DHS) for the social and private rented sectors. It can be found on gov.uk here.

People in need may be able to get support from their local authorities via the ‘Household Support Fund’ and other services available locally.

The Deputy Prime Minister is also part of the ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce, which is considering the impacts of living in poor quality housing on children.