Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps his Department is taking to ensure women in Northern Ireland with suspected or confirmed deep endometriosis involving the bowel, bladder or ureter are able to attend a BSGE specialist centre in accordance with NICE guidance.

The provision of specialist BSGE care in Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland Department of Health and a future Northern Ireland Executive. This is one of many examples of how the absence of a functioning Executive could delay action being taken to address pre-existing problems with healthcare in Northern Ireland.

The Government is acutely aware of the broader pressures facing the health service. A programme of reform at the devolved level is needed to tackle long-standing and systemic problems. Consecutive Executive Ministers have failed to adequately address this issue.

In the absence of an Executive, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has introduced a Bill that clarifies the powers for Northern Ireland Departments to maintain delivery of public services but these powers are limited. The Secretary of State has also set a Budget for this financial year. This Budget for Health provides £7.28bn in funding which is an increase of £228m above 2021/22 spending which included significant COVID-19 funding, or £786m if we compare to last year’s funding excluding the one-off COVID-19 funding. This will protect spending to address the critical health pressures in Northern Ireland.

The Government’s immediate priority remains facilitating the restoration of a fully functioning Executive that can progress long-term solutions to transform healthcare in Northern Ireland.