Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's report entitled Review into the Organisation, Performance and Transformation of the Permanent Civil Service, published on 1 July 2026, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on (a) the review and (b) its terms of reference.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
There are regular discussions with colleagues on a range of issues, including how to ensure the government is best equipped to deliver the Prime Minister’s priorities.
The Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service will lead a wide-ranging, fundamental review into the constitution, organisation and performance of the permanent Civil Service, with the aim of setting out a vision for its future as a world class institution serving the duly elected government of the day, building on its existing strengths.
The review will report before summer 2027 and the final report will be made available to the public.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 30 June 2026 to Question 13166 on Government Departments: Aviation, what the cost was of each of the 32 flights commissioned through the Central Travel Contract since July 2024.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
In accordance with the Ministerial Code, departments publish costs related to all overseas Ministerial travel as part of their Quarterly Transparency Returns.
Asked by: Baroness Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have to meet rare disease patient groups to discuss indication-specific pricing for multi-indication medicines as part of its work in the forthcoming Commercial Framework consultation.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has not entered into any commercial agreements involving indication-specific pricing for kidney conditions, or for rare kidney conditions, between June 2021 and July 2026. However, during this period, NHS England has entered into three commercial agreements involving indication-specific pricing for kidney cancer indications, including renal cell carcinoma indications.
NHS England regularly engages with patient groups, including the Charity Medicines Access Coalition, Genetic Alliance UK, and the Neurological Alliance, whose members represent people living with a wide range of rare conditions. More recent engagement has included patient groups representing people with conditions such as spinal muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy, and motor neurone disease, where National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisals have been undertaken or are ongoing.
As part of the upcoming consultation on updates to the NHS Commercial Framework for New Medicines, NHS England will seek views from a broad range of patient organisations, including those representing people with rare diseases.
Asked by: Baroness Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the commercial engagements made by NHS England between June 2021 and July 2026 involving indication-specific pricing were for indications for (1) kidney conditions, and (2) rare kidney conditions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has not entered into any commercial agreements involving indication-specific pricing for kidney conditions, or for rare kidney conditions, between June 2021 and July 2026. However, during this period, NHS England has entered into three commercial agreements involving indication-specific pricing for kidney cancer indications, including renal cell carcinoma indications.
NHS England regularly engages with patient groups, including the Charity Medicines Access Coalition, Genetic Alliance UK, and the Neurological Alliance, whose members represent people living with a wide range of rare conditions. More recent engagement has included patient groups representing people with conditions such as spinal muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy, and motor neurone disease, where National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisals have been undertaken or are ongoing.
As part of the upcoming consultation on updates to the NHS Commercial Framework for New Medicines, NHS England will seek views from a broad range of patient organisations, including those representing people with rare diseases.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the success of the MedTech funding mandate since its launch.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2024, NHS England reviewed the MedTech Funding Mandate (MTFM) with key stakeholders. The review found that the MTFM had helped to move the dial on the adoption of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended technologies, improving patient access and testing new approaches to embedding proven innovation across the National Health Service. It also generated valuable learning to strengthen future policy, particularly around consistent implementation, local funding and commissioning, workforce and pathway readiness, stakeholder understanding, and adoption data.
A further review of the policy is underway as part of the broader development of the national health technology delivery plan, to determine how it can continue to best support wider efforts to increase the uptake and spread of promising and proven health technologies.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2026 to Question 8052 on Permanent Secretary: Pay, for what reason is the DHSC Permanent Secretary salary of £310,000 to £314,999 set above the SSRB pay range of £155,000 to £220,000.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The salary of the DHSC Permanent Secretary was approved in line with the senior pay control process.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to measure, monitor, and publish national statistics on the life expectancy gap for people with a learning disability following the conclusion of the national LeDeR annual report; and through what formal mechanism future evidence-based national recommendations will be made to address avoidable early mortality.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the conclusion of the national Learning from Lives and Deaths – People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People (LeDeR) annual report, data will be incorporated into a new patient-level dataset. This will bring together data on the health outcomes of people with a learning disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Down syndrome and autistic people in England. Using the General Practice Extraction Service, it will aim to address limitations of current data sources and link with wider datasets such as hospital episodes and mental health activity. This will provide a more comprehensive picture of disparities and inform targeted local and national solutions. We are committed to publication of this dataset and will share next steps in due course.
There are clear expectations of local systems to improve outcomes for people with a learning disability and governance through existing frameworks, including to ensure they consider and act on LeDeR findings. Each integrated care board (ICB) has a duty to reduce health inequalities, including addressing avoidable and premature mortality. Each ICB is also expected to have an executive lead for learning disability and autism, who supports the board in addressing health inequalities, as well as an executive lead on LeDeR, who oversees prioritisation of LeDeR reviews and produces local annual reports. Existing expectations on local health and care systems to review deaths, act on LeDeR findings and address health inequalities remain the same.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the value of co-producing recommendations derived from national patient-level health outcomes datasets for people with a learning disability with experts by experience, in line with the Kingston University Intellectual Disability research group model.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the value of bringing together people with lived experience, clinicians, and other experts when developing initiatives to improve health and care services, including for people with a learning disability.
NHS England employs people with lived experience of learning disability within the national Mental Health, Learning Disability and Neurodevelopmental Conditions programme. It has also published resources to support co-production in health, including a Co-production resource toolkit, which is an approach supported by NHS England regional teams.
Over the past year, NHS England has worked with people with lived experience, charities, clinicians, and integrated care boards to evaluate and improve the Learning from Lives and Deaths of people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) review process, including the future of LeDeR beyond the publication of the 2024 report.
Co-production is also central to a number of nationally supported initiatives. For example, mandatory training on learning disability and autism, introduced by the Health and Care Act 2022, is required under the Code of Practice to be co-produced and co-delivered with people with lived experience. NHS England has also been working with people with lived experience, clinical professionals, and commissioners to produce guidance to improve the identification of people with a learning disability on general practice learning disability registers.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to commission an independent, external audit of the deliverables and data security under the Federated Data Platform contract with Palantir.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England continually assesses performance against the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) contract, and performance of the programme as a whole. NHS England regularly publishes data on uptake and benefits each quarter, in the interest of full transparency and to help the public understand the difference it is making to patients’ lives. The NHS FDP is delivering for the National Health Service, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently.
NHS England has commissioned an academic partner, Imperial College London, to conduct an independent evaluation of the impact, processes, and value for money of the NHS FDP. This evaluation is currently in progress.
In addition, the National Audit Office has also begun a study examining how the Department and the NHS in England are working to integrate patient data, and whether they are on track to secure the expected improvements from their investments.
Asked by: Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Merron on 6 July (HL Deb col 2), how many Fracture Liaison Services are there between the 23 reconfigured Integrated Care Boards which have these services; how many of those services were operating before July 2024; and how many have opened since then.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Analysis of 2025 data shows that the number of Fracture Liaison Services in England has increased since 2024, from 80 to 83.