Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 tackle sex-selective abortion and infanticide.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to work with providers to ensure abortions are only performed in accordance with the legal grounds set out by the Abortion Act. Sex is not itself a lawful ground for termination of pregnancy in England and Wales and it is illegal for a practitioner to carry out an abortion for that reason alone.
Under section 1 of the Infanticide Act 1938, it is infanticide rather than murder if a woman causes the death of her child under 12 months in age and at the time of the act the balance of her mind was disturbed by not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth. The infanticide offence is currently being considered by the Law Commission as part of their review of homicide offences and sentencing for murder.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the level of staff required to provide specialist women’s health services through the NHS online hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Analysis shows that, in the first three years, the anticipated workforce available is sufficient to meet the demand for the National Health Service online hospital, including for women’s health services. Across all specialities, only a small percentage, approximately 4%, of consultants will need to contribute fewer than six hours per week to meet the 8.5 million forecasted appointments and assessments in the first three years.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
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 ambulance response times in (a) Leicester and (b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that in recent years ambulance response times have not met the high standards patients should expect.
We are determined to turn things around. Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan 2025/26, is backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, and commits to reducing category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes on average this year. The East Midlands Ambulance Service is investing over £4 million for additional clinicians in its control rooms to help patients with urgent care needs who call 999 to get signposted to the right care at the right time in the right place.
The latest data from December 2025 for ambulance response times for East Midlands Ambulance Service shows progress, with category 2 incidents responded to in 44 minutes 19 seconds on average, which is 21 minutes and 56 seconds faster than the same period last year.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
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 potential impact of the number of ICU beds on trends in the level of cancellations of scheduled and vital surgeries; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that surgeries that have been rescheduled for this reason are not cancelled.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made on the specific impact of intensive care unit (ICU) bed unavailability on levels of cancelled surgeries. However, tackling waiting lists is a top priority for the Government, and this includes ensuring that patients requiring inpatient treatment will have access to high quality post-operative care.
Between July and September 2025, 0.91% of elective admissions were cancelled last minute by the provider for non-clinical reasons, with 20,189 last minute cancellations, an improvement of 0.06% from the same period the previous year when 0.97% of elective admissions were cancelled last minute, with 21,249 last minute cancellations.
The Department does not hold data broken down by the reason for cancellation, but the rescheduling rate has also improved. If an NHS hospital cancels a patient's operation for non-clinical reasons on the day of admission or day of surgery, the NHS Constitution states it must be rescheduled within 28 days. Between July and September 2025, 21.2% of cancelled elective operations which were not treated within 28 days, so, whilst there is still work to do, this is an improvement from 22.7% in the previous year.
This winter, local systems have been asked to place a particular focus on reducing bed occupancy and improving patient flow. More broadly for 2025/26, we have asked NHS trusts to focus on eliminating discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by issues within the hospital, and to work with local authorities to eliminate the longest delays, starting with those of over 21 days. This will mitigate against the risk of cancelled or rescheduled operations due to intensive care bed unavailability. Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, also set out actions to enhance perioperative care, which can shorten patients’ length of hospital stay and minimise postoperative complications, freeing up hospital beds for those who need them.
Wider elective care reforms will also help make the best use of clinical capacity, so that if a patient’s surgery is cancelled on the day due to ICU bed unavailability, they can be offered a new date for their procedure without delay. This includes new and expanded dedicated surgical hubs to deliver common procedures, thereby freeing up capacity for more complex patients, tackle missed appointments, introduce more straight-to-test pathways, and reduce unnecessary follow up appointments through widening remote monitoring and patient-initiated follow-ups.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what actions he is taking to reduce the length of time older people spend on trolleys in Accident and Emergency departments, including cases where patients wait many hours or days; and what assessment he has made of the impact of such waits on dignity, safety and health outcomes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that urgent and emergency care performance has fallen short in recent years and is taking action to improve services for patients. We are committed to restoring accident and emergency waiting times to the National Health Service constitutional standard and to reducing long waits that can result in patients receiving care in inappropriate settings. To support this, we are investing £450 million to expand same-day and urgent care services and to improve hospital flow, with a focus on addressing the longest waits and improving patient experience.
As committed to in the Urgent and Emergency Care plan, we will publish data on the prevalence of corridor care for the first time. NHS England has been working with trusts since 2024 to put in place, new reporting arrangements to drive improvement. The data quality is currently being reviewed, and we expect to publish the information shortly.
Where corridor care cannot be avoided, we have published updated guidance to support trusts to deliver it safely, ensuring dignity and privacy is maintained to reduce impacts on patients and staff.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets out clear actions to deliver improvements, reducing the proportion of patients waiting more than 12 hours for admission or discharge to less than 10% of the time. This includes expanding urgent community care, such as urgent community response, neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams, and virtual wards, to reduce avoidable emergency department attendances and hospital admissions. We have asked NHS trusts to focus on eliminating discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by issues within the hospital, and to work with local authorities on eliminating the longest delays. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework sets out a year-on-year trajectory to improve performance towards the constitutional standard, reduce long waits, and improve safety and efficiency in emergency departments.
We have also introduced new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care to support better hospital flow. These set minimum expectations for timely review, availability of advice, and coordinated care when multiple specialist teams are involved, to improve patient care and flow through the hospital.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce the number of women waiting for gynaecological treatment in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients are treated within 18 weeks of referral to consultant-led care, including in gynaecology, by March 2029.
The Department only holds data at a trust and integrated care board level. Newcastle-under-Lyme is served by the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNB), and Staffordshire is served by the NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (SSOT ICB). Performance against this standard at the UHNB’s gynaecology service has improved by 7.6% since the Government came into office, to 55.5%, with a 16% reduction in the waiting list. At the SSOT ICB, performance for gynaecology services has improved by 6.9% to 55.2% over the same period, with a 15% reduction in waiting list size.
Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the reforms we are making to improve gynaecology waiting times, across England. This includes innovative models of care that offer care closer to home and in the community, piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres for patients with post-menopausal bleeding, and increasing the relative funding available to incentivise providers to take on more gynaecology procedures.
Wider elective reforms will help cut waiting times for gynaecology services in Staffordshire and across England. These include more consistent clinical triage, tackling missed appointments, delivering new and expanded surgical hubs, and scaling up remote monitoring and use of patient-initiated follow ups.
We also provided new funding for general practices (GPs) to expand Advice and Guidance (A&G) services. A&G helps to keep patients out of hospital and delivers more care closer to home, saving time, protecting capacity, and improving care experience. A&G for gynaecology is available in all GPs within the SSOT ICB.
We are also introducing an “online hospital” via NHS Online. From 2027, people on certain pathways, including severe menopause symptoms and menstrual problems that may be a sign of endometriosis or fibroids, will have the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home, providing additional appointments to cut waiting times.
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 guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on setting adult social care fee uplifts in financial year 2026-27.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes negotiating fees individually with care providers to achieve a sustainable balance of quality, effectiveness, and value for money.
The Department recognises that sustainable fee rates play a crucial role in improving the quality of care. Appropriate fee rates enable providers to recruit and retain a skilled workforce, ultimately supporting more stable, higher quality services for people who draw on care.
In December 2025, the Department launched a new publication, Adult social care priorities for local authorities: 2026 to 2027. The publication lists expectations for local authorities to help drive their delivery of the Government’s overall priorities for adult social care. It states that local authorities should, ‘set fee rates at a sustainable level, in line with commissioning priorities, to help shape markets and enable adult social care providers to recruit a skilled workforce and stabilise and improve workforce capacity, and in preparation for employment rights reforms, starting from financial year 2026, and the fair pay agreement, starting in financial year 2028’. Further information on the fair pay agreement is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fair-pay-agreement-process-in-adult-social-care
The publication is not statutory guidance, nor is it a replacement for local authorities’ existing statutory duties under the Care Act 2014, rather the expectations outlined in the publication are designed to help support local authorities in delivering their current statutory duties.
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 assessment he has made of trends in the level of geographic variation in access to tissue-freezing services; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure equitable access to advanced treatments, accurate genome sequencing and research participation.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pathology services in England are delivered through 27 regional pathology networks, and offer a comprehensive range of tests, including the analysis of brain tissues.
Individual pathology services maintain their own standard operating procedures (SOPs) for fresh, or the snap-freezing of, tissue samples. These SOPs outline local capabilities and practices.
It is important that everyone, regardless of where they live, can access the latest innovations in the health and care system through research. The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year in research through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR's investments for capital equipment, technology, and modular buildings supports NHS trusts across England to deliver high-quality research to improve the health of the population. This investment includes cutting edge research equipment and fixed assets such as ultra-low and cryogenic freezers, to strengthen research capacity and improve access to samples for research.
The Government also supports the Rare Cancers Private Members Bill. The bill will make it easier for clinical trials to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Epping Forest)
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 improve access to routine tissue freezing for brain cancer patients in a) Epping Forest and b) England for even access to advanced treatments, diagnostics and research.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fresh-freezing, also referred to as snap-freezing, is a standard technique used by pathology networks to preserve tissue architecture without chemical fixatives, allowing for subsequent molecular or histological analysis, typically supporting research or advanced diagnostic applications.
No recent assessment has been made on the adequacy, extent, or capacity of procedures for freezing brain cancer and general cancer tissue samples across National Health Service trusts in Epping Forest or England.
It is important that everyone, regardless of where they live, can access the latest innovations in the health and care system through research. The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year in research through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR’s investments for capital equipment, technology, and modular buildings support NHS trusts across England to deliver high-quality research to improve the health of the population. This investment includes cutting edge research equipment and fixed assets such as ultra-low and cryogenic freezers, to strengthen research capacity and improve access to samples for research.
The Department is exploring options to expand brain tissue freezing capacity.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
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 impact of limited fresh-freezing capacity on patients’ access to emerging cancer (a) testing and (b) treatments.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fresh-freezing, also referred to as snap-freezing, is a standard technique used by pathology networks to preserve tissue architecture without chemical fixatives, allowing for subsequent molecular or histological analysis, typically supporting research or advanced diagnostic applications.
Pathology services in England are delivered through 27 regional pathology networks, and offer a comprehensive range of tests, including the analysis of brain tissues.
Individual pathology services maintain their own standard operating procedures (SOPs) for fresh tissue samples and for the snap-freezing of tissue samples. These SOPs outline local capabilities and practices.
It is important that everyone, regardless of where they live, can access the latest innovations in the health and care system through research. The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year in research through the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR’s investments for capital equipment, technology, and modular buildings support NHS trusts across England to deliver high-quality research to improve the health of the population. This investment includes cutting edge research equipment and fixed assets such as ultra-low and cryogenic freezers, to strengthen research capacity and improve access to samples for research.
The Department is exploring options to expand brain tissue freezing capacity.