Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
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 ensure that hospice contracts reflect the cost of the services they provide and the needs of their local populations.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect the first staff treatment hubs, announced in the NHS 10-year plan, will be established; how many they expect to be operational between 2026 and 2029; and what criteria will guide their location.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan outlines plans to pilot Staff Treatment Hubs, to provide a high-quality, wellbeing and occupational health service for all National Health Service staff. Work is underway to develop implementation and operational plans for the Staff Treatments Hubs. This will determine factors such as location, budgets, timeframes and capacity. The Staff Treatment Hubs were designed to be inclusive of primary care workers delivering NHS contracts including general practitioners and NHS dentists.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether (1) GPs, and (2) dentists holding NHS dental contracts, will be eligible for treatment in the staff treatment hubs announced in the NHS 10-year plan.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan outlines plans to pilot Staff Treatment Hubs, to provide a high-quality, wellbeing and occupational health service for all National Health Service staff. Work is underway to develop implementation and operational plans for the Staff Treatments Hubs. This will determine factors such as location, budgets, timeframes and capacity. The Staff Treatment Hubs were designed to be inclusive of primary care workers delivering NHS contracts including general practitioners and NHS dentists.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2025 to Question 77546 on NHS: Strikes, whether NHS staff who are on strike may be paid by another NHS trust for undertaking (a) agency and (b) locum during the strike.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Regulation 7 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 stipulates that striking National Health Service staff can work for another NHS trust on days of industrial action as long as they do not do so via an employment business to cover the work of striking workers. Some employment contracts may require employees to either declare to or seek permission from their primary employer before working with another employer, and further guidance for employers can be found on the NHS Employers website. In addition, doctors should refer to the Good Medical Practice Guide issued by the General Medical Council (GMC) when making decisions about working during periods of strike action. The GMC advises that doctors who are due to work but are not attending because of strike action should remain prepared and available during their scheduled hours in case circumstances change.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
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 renegotiating current private finance debt to fund neighbourhood health centres with any potential savings.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Private finance initiative contracts are not held by the Department. Contracts are held between the local National Health Service trust and their respective private finance company.
The Department’s Private Finance Centre of Best Practice (CoBP) team, together with the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, provides expert support and advice to public authorities with private finance initiative contracts, to improve the performance of existing contracts and manage their expiry.
The Department focuses on supporting trusts to assess the costs and performance of their contracts, to help maximise support for frontline services and make every penny of our NHS funding count. The Department supports trusts on a case-by-case basis considering all options available whilst maintaining contractual compliance. The contracts were let for a prescribed period of time, with the terms set at the outset with limited areas for renegotiation. The CoPB team, however, continues to assess opportunities to refinance debt where possible and where it would provide value for money.
As set out in the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy (the Strategy) and the 10-Year Health Plan, in addition to significant capital investment, the Government would explore the feasibility of using new Public Private Partnership (PPP) Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHCs).
The Budget, published on 26 November 2025, builds on the Strategy and the 10-Year Health Plan by confirming that the NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme will deliver new NHCs through upgrading and repurposing existing buildings and building new facilities through a combination of public sector investment and a new model of PPPs.
To ensure the NHC PPPs are managed transparently and are fiscally sustainable, these partnerships will be budgeted for as if they are on a balance sheet.
Delivering new NHCs through a combination of public investment and PPPs will also allow, for the first time, for evidence to be built and compared between different delivery models.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
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 ensure that hospice contracts reflect the (a) cost of the services they provide and (b) needs of their local populations.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning palliative care services to meet the reasonable needs of their population, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and a service specification.
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England, due to be published in Spring 2026. I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
Additionally, we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. St Michael’s Hospice in Hereford is receiving £667,020 from this funding. We are also committing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
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 making the NHS the preferred provider for commissioned healthcare services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s ambition, as set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, is to increasingly put power into patients’ hands themselves so they can personalise their National Health Service care to their individual needs, choices, and preferences.
More broadly, the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 provide a proportionate framework under which NHS commissioners consider the most appropriate approach in awarding contracts to healthcare providers. The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 are available at the following link:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/1348/contents/made
Further information on the selection processes is available at the following link:
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the total staff remuneration through bank staff arrangements paid otherwise than through NHS Professionals Bank staff contracts in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Bank staffing allows the National Health Service to meet workforce demand fluctuations without the need to increase capacity above that which is required on a sustained basis. NHS England publishes the total bank and agency spend for providers on a quarterly basis. This includes NHS Professionals as NHS England does not hold a split of spend by companies. The information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publications/financial-performance-reports/
NHS Professionals’ annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025 shows that remuneration paid through NHS Professionals Bank staff contracts for 2024/25 was approximately £1.1 billion. This information is available at the following link:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06704614/filing-history
However, definitions used in the two publications may vary so the data is not necessarily comparable.
Asked by: Rachel Gilmour (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Minehead)
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 ensure that NHS contracts with hospices reflect the (a) cost of the services provided and (b) the needs of local populations.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. NHS England has also developed a palliative care and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place.
Whilst the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations also play.
The amount of funding charitable hospices receive varies by ICB area, and will, in part, be dependent on the breadth of palliative care, including specialist palliative care, and end of life care provision within each ICB catchment area.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust facilities there are in each region of England; and what proportion of those contracts are due to expire before 2030.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
From 2029, the leases on 308 NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) buildings will begin to expire. The Department has initiated a national programme, Securing the Future, to manage these lease expiries through a structured, phased approach, and has determine which buildings should be retained to meet future health requirements.
Securing the Future will be led by Community Health Partnerships (CHP), a Department owned company that manages the LIFT estate. A business case is being developed to determine how best to secure the required estate after LIFT contract expiry, and this will assess the financial impact of different commercial approaches.
The Securing the Future programme will be informed by CHP’s expertise in managing Public Private Partnership assets. The business case will ensure that commercial arrangements to manage LIFT expiry are robust, and that any wider lessons from managing private finance initiatives are taken on board.
The number of NHS LIFT buildings in each region of England and the percentage of those contracts due to expire before the end of the 2029/30 financial year are as follows: