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 ensure that cancer patients have effective radiotherapy treatment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Radiotherapy is vital in cancer care, and it remains a key priority for the Government to provide the highest quality of treatment available. This is why the Government has invested £70 million of central funding on 28 new LINAC radiotherapy machines across the country to replace older, less efficient radiotherapy machines.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what formal arrangements exist between (a) the Home Office, (b) the NHS and (c) Braintree Community Hospital for (i) scanning and (ii) x-rays of asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airbase.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Asylum seekers have access to health and social care services from point of arrival in the UK and the Home Office work closely with the NHS, local authorities and contractors to ensure that asylum seekers can access the support they need. In relation to Wethersfield, financial support is being provided to the NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board.
There are varying entitlements to secondary healthcare services across England and the devolved governments. Specific examples can be found on NHS entitlements: migrant health guide - GOV.UK.
Extensive work has been undertaken with local and national health partners including the Multi Agency Forum (MAF) to work through the specifics of healthcare provision being provided at Wethersfield. The health and social care subgroup of the MAF was set up specifically to look at how we minimise the impact on local health services and facilitate primary healthcare on site, However, in specific circumstances, residents can be required to use local NHS facilities.
Asked by: Laura Kyrke-Smith (Labour - Aylesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of palliative care services in Aylesbury constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance states that ICBs, including the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB, must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of care services to meet the needs of their local populations. NHS England has also developed a palliative care and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative care and end of life care needs of their local population.
The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
We will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
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. The Hospice of the St Francis and Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care, which both serve people in the Aylesbury constituency, are receiving £486,476 and £1,114,316 from this funding respectively.
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 help increase the number of children who have been seen by an NHS dentist in Surrey in line with the national average.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Epsom and Ewell constituency, this is the Surrey Heartlands ICB.
We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. The Surrey Heartlands ICB is expected to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August 2025. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course.
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.
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 help increase the number of adults who have been seen by an NHS dentist in Surrey in line with the national average.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Epsom and Ewell constituency, this is the Surrey Heartlands ICB.
We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. The Surrey Heartlands ICB is expected to deliver 6,585 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of, NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August 2025. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response in due course.
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability. The Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
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 levels of malnutrition in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling malnutrition, including in the Fylde constituency and Lancashire. In the United Kingdom, the primary causes of malnutrition are clinical. Most cases will be secondary to another health condition which may impact on nutritional needs or impact on a person’s ability to eat and drink. As such, poor or inadequate dietary intake is unlikely to be the primary cause.
The Department does not hold malnutrition data at the constituency or local authority level. While NHS England has previously published information on malnutrition from National Health Service providers at the Government Office Region of Treatment, this is a primary or secondary diagnosis and is a count of admissions not people; the same person may have had more than one admission episode within same time period. The most recent malnutrition data published by NHS England in October 2024 is available by NHS hospital trusts.
Diagnosis and detection are key, and health staff are trained to spot the early warning signs of malnutrition so effective individual treatment can be put in place. All NHS services are recommended to adhere to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical guideline CG32, Nutrition support for adults: oral nutrition support, enteral tube feeding and parenteral nutrition. NHS England’s Nursing Directorate is also leading on a review and refresh of the National Nutrition and Hydration guidance.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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 support Integrated Care Boards to reduce waiting times for (a) speech and language therapy, (b) physiotherapy, (a) community paediatrics and (d) other community health services for children.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community health services are an essential building block in developing a neighbourhood health service, working closely with primary care, social care, and other community services to provide more care in the community to spot problems early.
We are committed to reducing long waits and improving timely access to community health services, including for children’s services. We are working closely with NHS England to improve access to community health services and on actions to reduce waiting times for these services.
NHS England continues to monitor community services waiting times via the Community Health Services (CHS) SitRep data collection which collects monthly data on waiting lists and waiting times for community health services, to assess the number of people on them and the length of time they wait for services. Data is published monthly, and is available at the following link:
A metric on waits of over 52 weeks for CHS is included in the 2025/26 National Oversight Framework, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-oversight-framework-2025-26/
As part of our work to improve access to children’s CHS, NHS England commissioned NHS Benchmarking to undertake an analysis of provider data on Community Paediatrics to develop a detailed understanding of activity and the opportunities for improvement and transformation. The report is available at the following link:
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of waiting times for children’s community health services; and what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for those services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community health services are an essential building block in developing a neighbourhood health service, working closely with primary care, social care, and other community services to provide more care in the community to spot problems early.
We are committed to reducing long waits and improving timely access to community health services, including for children’s services. We are working closely with NHS England to improve access to community health services and on actions to reduce waiting times for these services.
NHS England continues to monitor community services waiting times via the Community Health Services (CHS) SitRep data collection which collects monthly data on waiting lists and waiting times for community health services, to assess the number of people on them and the length of time they wait for services. Data is published monthly, and is available at the following link:
A metric on waits of over 52 weeks for CHS is included in the 2025/26 National Oversight Framework, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-oversight-framework-2025-26/
As part of our work to improve access to children’s CHS, NHS England commissioned NHS Benchmarking to undertake an analysis of provider data on Community Paediatrics to develop a detailed understanding of activity and the opportunities for improvement and transformation. The report is available at the following link:
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to introduce a maximum waiting time target for children’s community health services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community health services are an essential building block in developing a neighbourhood health service, working closely with primary care, social care, and other community services to provide more care in the community to spot problems early.
We are committed to reducing long waits and improving timely access to community health services, including for children’s services. We are working closely with NHS England to improve access to community health services and on actions to reduce waiting times for these services.
NHS England continues to monitor community services waiting times via the Community Health Services (CHS) SitRep data collection which collects monthly data on waiting lists and waiting times for community health services, to assess the number of people on them and the length of time they wait for services. Data is published monthly, and is available at the following link:
A metric on waits of over 52 weeks for CHS is included in the 2025/26 National Oversight Framework, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-oversight-framework-2025-26/
As part of our work to improve access to children’s CHS, NHS England commissioned NHS Benchmarking to undertake an analysis of provider data on Community Paediatrics to develop a detailed understanding of activity and the opportunities for improvement and transformation. The report is available at the following link:
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take legislative steps to ensure that food outlets must display their Food Standards Agency food hygiene rating.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.