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 potential merits of introducing a standardised Parkinson’s Passport to support people with Parkinson’s in (a) NHS hospital settings and (b) workplace settings.

The Government is committed to improving health outcomes for people with neurological conditions, including Parkinsons disease. The Parky Charter, supported by the three big Parkinson’s charities, includes a call for Parkinson’s passports. These passports would grant automatic entitlement to certain benefits.

The Department for Work and Pensions offers Personal Independence Payments (PIP) to individuals with health conditions or disabilities. However, there is currently no automatic entitlement to PIP in relation to a specific health condition, except in cases of people nearing the end of life.

The Government recently brought forward a Green Paper on the health and disability benefits system and the support we offer, entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working. Within that, we consider how to improve the system for those with very severe health conditions and disabilities. This includes exploring ways to reduce the need for some people with very severe health conditions to undergo a full PIP functional assessment.