Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of introducing Sectioning Support Officers to the NHS to reduce police officer time spent in hospitals.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Any decisions relating to staffing in the NHS is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
The Right Care Right Person approach is an approach designed to end inappropriate and avoidable police involvement in cases where people have health and/or social care needs and help ensure that people receive support from the right person, with the right skills, training, and experience to best meet their needs.
The National Partnership Agreement (NPA), signed in July 2023 by Government, NHS England and national policing bodies, sets out the principles of Right Care Right Person and how they can jointly deliver the best care to communities. The NPA sets out that local areas should work towards handovers of care between the police and mental health services taking place within one hour as specified in local plans. This one hour handover will reduce the amount of time spent by police officers with mental health patients in hospital.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 help ensure that the 18-week treatment target for elective care is in all NHS trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England regularly monitor regional and trust level variation in National Health Service waiting lists to address variation in performance, so patients can expect to receive high quality care in a timely way, wherever they live.
We are committed to returning by March 2029 to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment. Our Reforming elective care for patients plan, published in January, sets out how the NHS will reform elective care services equitably across all trusts and regions.
As an interim goal, NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance 2025/26 has set the national ambition for 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement in performance.
To support this improvement across all trusts, there is a robust performance management process in place. The new NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26 ensures that there is public accountability for performance and NHS England’s national and regional teams work with systems and providers to support improvement.
There is a specific process in place to identify, intervene, and support the providers whose performance on elective waiting lists is most challenged, led by NHS England’s national and regional teams.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on ensuring that improvements in waiting times are consistent across all regions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England regularly monitor regional and trust level variation in National Health Service waiting lists to address variation in performance, so patients can expect to receive high quality care in a timely way, wherever they live.
We are committed to returning by March 2029 to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment. Our Reforming elective care for patients plan, published in January, sets out how the NHS will reform elective care services equitably across all trusts and regions.
As an interim goal, NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance 2025/26 has set the national ambition for 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks for treatment, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement in performance.
To support this improvement across all trusts, there is a robust performance management process in place. The new NHS Oversight Framework 2025/26 ensures that there is public accountability for performance and NHS England’s national and regional teams work with systems and providers to support improvement.
There is a specific process in place to identify, intervene, and support the providers whose performance on elective waiting lists is most challenged, led by NHS England’s national and regional teams.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the progress made by his Department on (a) reducing the NHS care waiting list and (b) meeting the 18 week referral to treatment standard.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Plan for Change, the Government is committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029.
NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.
To achieve this interim March 2026 target, we expect the size of the total waiting list to reduce. We have already made significant progress on this. As of August 2025, the waiting list had reduced by over 206,000 compared to the start of July 2024 and the proportion of waits under 18 weeks has improved by 2.2%, to 61% as of August 2025.
This has been supported by the delivery of 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025 compared to the previous year, more than double the Government’s pledge of two million. This marks a vital first step in delivering the constitutional standard.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
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 Learning Disability Nursing is adequately supported within the new NHS workforce plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it. We are working through how the plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups, including by engaging with a wide range of partners and valued stakeholders.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will complete the review into NHS Pensions' ability to meet the revised deadlines for issuing Remediable Service Statements set by the government on 31 March 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises the importance of providing NHS Pension Scheme members certainty about when they will receive their McCloud Remediable Service Statements.
An independent review of the NHS Business Service Authority’s (NHSBSA) revised plans for the delivery of the McCloud remedy for NHS Pension Scheme members is underway. This will provide an additional level of scrutiny and assurance of the NHSBSA’s delivery plan and the timetable for the remaining statements.
I expect to be able to update the House on the review’s progress and the remedy delivery timetable before Christmas recess.
In the meantime, the NHSBSA continues to provide Remediable Service Statements to affected members, prioritising those who may be experiencing immediate financial hardship due to the discrimination highlighted by the McCloud judgment. Additionally, members who meet specific criteria can request to receive a prioritised Remediable Service Statement. Further information is available at the following link:
https://faq.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/knowledgebase/article/KA-29429/en-us.
The Government is committed to ensuring that affected members are not subject to financial disadvantage due to these delays. Pension arrears arising from the McCloud remedy are paid with 8% interest, and a compensation scheme is available for members who have experienced other direct financial losses.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of nurses and other healthcare professionals currently exposed to hazardous medicinal products.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for St Ives on 5 November 2025 to Question 84136.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to ICBs to ensure that patients are informed of local IVF eligibility criteria at the point of referral to fertility services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs), and we expect ICBs to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. No guidance has been provided by the Department to the ICBs regarding the information provided to patients at the point of referral to fertility services.
As part of the Women’s Health Strategy for England, we published data showing how many in vitro fertilisation cycles are funded by the NHS in each area of England, to promote more transparency about what services commissioners are offering. This data is reviewed and updated periodically and was last updated on 11 September 2025. Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what engagement his Department has had with (a) universities and (b) higher education providers in developing the new NHS workforce plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
We have engaged with a range of partners on shaping the upcoming workforce plan, including universities and higher education providers.
We welcome the fact that so many valued stakeholders are keen to engage in the plan’s development. On 26 September 2025, we launched a formal call for evidence, which provides stakeholders the opportunity to contribute directly to the plan’s development. This closed on 7 November 2025.
The Department of Health and Social Care engages closely with the Department for Education on a wide range of matters, including the upcoming workforce plan.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
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 with the Department for Education to support the delivery of the NHS workforce plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
We have engaged with a range of partners on shaping the upcoming workforce plan, including universities and higher education providers.
We welcome the fact that so many valued stakeholders are keen to engage in the plan’s development. On 26 September 2025, we launched a formal call for evidence, which provides stakeholders the opportunity to contribute directly to the plan’s development. This closed on 7 November 2025.
The Department of Health and Social Care engages closely with the Department for Education on a wide range of matters, including the upcoming workforce plan.