Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 improve (a) maternity and (b) neonatal care in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Frimley Integrated Care System (ICS), which covers the Surrey Heath constituency, has implemented several measures to improve maternity and neonatal care. These include the full implementation of the Saving Babies’ Lives care bundle, including an in-house stop smoking service, and the PREM7+ care bundle to improve care for preterm babies.
The Frimley ICS has also launched a new antenatal education offer, is implementing the Maternity Incentive Scheme, a financial incentive that encourages trusts towards actions that improve maternity safety, and is working with the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership to provide birth boxes to improve women’s experience.
At a national level, Baroness Amos is leading a rapid, national, independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal services to help us to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies, and families experience unacceptable care. The Government is also setting up a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The taskforce will take forward the recommendations of the investigation to develop a new national action plan to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason tobacco duty increased above the rate of inflation in the Autumn Budget 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government renewed the commitment to a tobacco duty escalator, which increases duty by 2 percent above RPI inflation at each Budget, until the end of the current Parliament. At Autumn Budget 2025, the duty on all tobacco products was increased in line with this commitment. The government also confirmed further increases of 2% above RPI plus an additional £2.20 per 100 cigarettes and per 50g of other tobacco products to take effect from 1 October 2026, alongside the introduction of Vaping Duty. This is part of the Government’s focus on health prevention and to continue our drive to reduce smoking prevalence.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many deaths in (a) England, (b) Northern Ireland, (c) Scotland and (d) Wales were attributable to (i) alcoholism, (ii) obesity, (iii) air pollution and (iv) smoking in the latest year for which data is available.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 18th November is attached.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a recent assessment on the potential merits of allowing the use of prescribed medical cannabis within NHS buildings.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service trusts have a duty of care to both staff and patients, as outlined in the NHS constitution, to ensure a safe working and care environment. This will include local policies concerning the use and administration of a patient’s own medicines.
The law was amended in 2018 to permit specialist doctors to prescribe unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use. While smoking these medicines is banned, vaping and other forms of administration are not prohibited. Regardless of the form of administration, it is always advisable for patients to declare any medicines prescribed, whether on the NHS or privately, and discuss them with their clinical team upon admission.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 expand preventative health programmes in communities with high chronic-disease prevalence.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our mission is to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between rich and poor, through the 10-Year Health Plan. Our 10-Year Health Plan sets out how a shift to prevention will deliver healthier, more prosperous lives for all, but particularly for those suffering the consequences of widening levels of health inequality. We are committed to taking action to tackle both the chronic diseases themselves and the modifiable risk factors that contribute to them, including:
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 reduce the 130,000 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospital admissions made each year.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is the number one preventable cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be the biggest public health intervention since the indoor smoking ban in 2007 and will help deliver our ambition for a smoke-free United Kingdom.
Poor air quality can exacerbate COPD. To address this, the Department of Health and Social Care is working across the Government with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to tackle air pollution, and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to fix housing and reduce damp and mould. Infections can also exacerbate COPD, so the National Health Service is running winter vaccine campaigns against respiratory infections including COVID-19, flu, and pneumococcal disease.
To enable faster diagnosis and earlier access to treatment, access to spirometry tests in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is growing and will continue to do so as more sites come online. The first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.
Pulmonary rehabilitation is a key intervention to improve the health of people with COPD and reduce pressure on NHS hospitals. NHS England has published commissioning standards for pulmonary rehabilitation, setting out the benchmarks that high-quality services should aim for. This includes reducing health inequalities and ensuring equitable access.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on the banning of cigarette filters, in the context of the upcoming eleventh Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are confident that the best way to tackle tobacco litter and to protect people’s health is to reduce the prevalence of smoking. That is why we are taking decisive action through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to create a smoke-free generation alongside continuing with evidence-based approaches to supporting smokers to quit. We therefore have no current plans to ban cigarette filters.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the NHS is taking to improve preventative measures for pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The causes of pulmonary fibrosis can be uncertain. However, measures exist to prevent the industrial exposure related causes of pulmonary fibrosis such as The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Smoking can also cause pulmonary fibrosis. To support current smokers to quit, an additional £70 million will be provided in 2025/26 to support local authority-led Stop Smoking Services in England.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill, what is the policy rationale for legislating for byelaws which can ban vaping outside bus stops.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to tackling anti-social behaviour on the bus network. The Bus Services Act 2025 provides Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) with the power to create byelaws, should they wish to do so, and deploy officers who can deal with low level anti-social behaviour and fare evasion on buses.
These measures give LTAs greater flexibility to ensure that passengers feel safe and will make it easier for LTAs to prevent behaviours such as vaping, smoking and causing a nuisance on their bus networks. It will be up to LTAs to decide which behaviours they most need to target with these powers and the Government will be publishing guidance for LTAs which will emphasise the need for
Asked by: Jim Dickson (Labour - Dartford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring regulation on packaging of cigars and cigarillos in line with that for cigarettes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the November 2024 Government response to the consultation 'Mandating quit information messages inside tobacco packs', we are considering introducing more stringent packaging requirements for all tobacco products, including cigars and cigarillos, tobacco related devices, cigarette papers, and herbal smoking products.
We ran a call for evidence on standardising packaging for all tobacco products between November 2024 and January 2025. We will publish a consultation next year on future regulations. We will listen very carefully to the views and evidence put forward by stakeholders.