Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) additional funding and (b) operational support his Department will provide to Integrated Care Systems in (i) rural areas and (ii) West Dorset in winter 2025-2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for determining funding allocations to integrated care boards (ICBs), including those covering rural areas and West Dorset. This process is independent of the Government and is informed by advice from the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation (ACRA).
Funding allocations for 2025/26, published on 30 January 2025, include an ACRA-recommended adjustment specifically focused on rurality that reflects the additional cost of providing home-delivered community services in sparsely populated areas, and recognises the longer travel times required to deliver said services. Allocations cover the whole financial year, so there is not winter specific additional funding provided. Further information on funding allocations for 2025/26 is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/allocation-of-resources-2025-26/
All ICBs and trusts have developed their own winter plans, which were stress tested at regional events throughout September to expose any weaknesses and to be strengthen where necessary. We continue to work closely with the most challenged trusts, providing targeted improvement support to help them improve their four-hour and 12-hour performance, and reduce ambulance handover delays.
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 support his department is making available for trusts to help reduce bed occupancy to the RCEM recommended level of 85% occupancy.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of our winter preparations, we are asking trusts to place a special focus on reducing bed occupancy ahead of Christmas, creating additional capacity and improving patient flow.
The Urgent and Emergency Care plan, published in July, focuses on those improvements that will see the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care (UEC) performance this winter and on making UEC better every day. The plan is backed by almost £450 million of capital investment for Same Day Emergency Care, Mental Health Crisis Assessment Centres, and new ambulances, avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital and supporting the diagnosis, treatment, and discharge on the same day for patients. The plan supports a permanent shift in how we manage demand and patient flow.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many job vacancies there were for (a) Foundation Year 1 doctors, (b) Foundation Year 2 doctors and (c) specialty training posts in (i) England and (ii) Suffolk NHS region at the most recent date for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the number of vacancies for Foundation Year 1, Foundation Year 2, or specialty training posts in England or in the Suffolk National Health Service region.
NHS England collects and publishes data relating to the fill rates for training places in medical specialties. These are for the entry point of the initial recruitment processes for the specific training programme, rather than a measure of total vacancies at a given point in time. This information is available at the following link:
https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/fill-rates
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Department has to ensure continuity of funding for Early Support Hubs beyond March 2026; and how will they be integrated into the introduction of Young Futures Hubs from next year.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The early support hubs were originally funded by the Shared Outcomes Fund, which provided £8 million of top-up funding to expand open-access, community services and to build the evidence base for early intervention services for children and young people's mental health. The project was initially funded in 2024/25 for one year and we were able to extend the programme for an additional year to 2025/26.
In addition to expanding access to support, early support hubs have played a key role building an evidence base to support the introduction of young futures hubs next year. The evaluation findings are directly informing our young futures hubs programme. Young futures hubs will bring services together to support young people with emerging needs, including early mental health advice and wellbeing interventions. As we launch the first 50 young futures hubs, we will work with local areas and partners to build on learning from the early support hubs pilot.
Our aim is to set up 50 hubs where they will have the most impact over the next four years. The design and implementation of the programme in future years will be informed by our work with early adopters. We will set out more details in due course.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many performance reviews were undertaken for staff in (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years; in how many of those cases performance was rated as unsatisfactory or below; how many staff left as a result of such a rating; and what proportion of full-time equivalent staff this represented.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Senior civil servants (SCS) and delegated grades, non-SCS staff, follow different performance management frameworks. SCS staff operate within the framework for SCS performance management prescribed by the Cabinet Office. For delegated performance there is a flexible framework that requires departments to reflect a number of core elements in their approach, including differentiating performance, addressing under and poor performance, and addressing diversity and inclusion.
In the Department of Health and Social Care, the policy is that all individuals should have monthly reviews and performance ratings that are collated and returned to human resources mid-year, in October, and at the end of the year, in April. Whilst the Department of Health and Social Care only collected data for delegated grades for the 2024/25 performance year, it has complete data for SCS staff for the last five years. The following table shows the number of end of year performance ratings returned from 2020/21 to 2024/25:
Year | SCS | Delegated grades |
2020/21 | 192 | Not recorded |
2021/22 | 284 | Not recorded |
2022/23 | 257 | Not recorded |
2023/24 | 227 | Not recorded |
2024/25 | 225 | 2,820 |
Furthermore, the following table shows how many were rated as unsatisfactory or below, or the equivalent ratings used by the relevant organisations, on each occasion, from 2020/21 to 2024/25:
Year | SCS | Delegated grades |
2020/2021 | [c]* | Not recorded |
2021/2022 | [c]* | Not recorded |
2022/2023 | 10 | Not recorded |
2023/2024 | 10 | Not recorded |
2024/2025 | 13 | <10 |
Note: *[c] means confidential and suppressed due to small numbers of less than five.
The Department of Health and Social Care does not hold data on how many staff left as a result of an unsatisfactory performance rating.
In the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the policy is that all individuals should have monthly performance conversations, and performance ratings are collated and returned to human resources at end of year in April. The UKHSA only collected data for delegated grades for the 2024/25 performance year but has complete data for SCS staff for the last five years. The MHRA did not collect data for delegated grades or SCS staff for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 performance years. The following table shows the number of performance reviews undertaken by the UKHSA and the MHRA in the last five years:
| UKHSA | MHRA | ||
Year | SCS | Delegated grades | SCS | Delegated grades |
2020/21 | 446 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
2021/22 | 237 | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
2022/23 | 172 | Not recorded | 78 | 837 |
2023/24 | 145 | Not recorded | 108 | 1,024 |
2024/25 | 118 | 1,518 | 134 | 1,272 |
In addition, the following table shows how many were rated as unsatisfactory or below, or the equivalent ratings used by the relevant organisations, on each occasion, for each of the last five years:
| UKHSA | MHRA | ||
Year | SCS | Delegated grades | SCS | Delegated grades |
2020/21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2021/22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2022/23 | [c]* | 0 | 0 | < 10 |
2023/24 | [c]* | 0 | [c]* | < 10 |
2024/25 | [c]* | 39 | [c]* | 12 |
Note: *[c] means confidential and suppressed due to small numbers of less than five.
The UKHSA does not hold data on how many staff left as a result of an unsatisfactory performance rating. The following table shows the number of full time equivalent (FTE) staff at the MHRA and the percentage of the staff who left due to unsatisfactory ratings, for each of the last five years:
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Total organisation FTE staff | 1,334 | 1,097.2 | 1,152 | 1,294.1 | 1,456.4 |
Percentage of FTE staff who left due to unsatisfactory rating | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff in his Department (a) did not retain employment following the completion of their probationary period and (b) had their probationary period extended in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department’s probation policy and guidance advises managers on the steps to take to assess a new employee’s suitability for the post and to provide support to enable them to succeed. It also advises on the steps to take where performance, attendance, or conduct are not satisfactory. This can include exiting the employee or extending their probation to provide further evidence for a final decision on their suitability.
The number of staff in the Department who did not retain employment following the completion of their probationary period, and those whose probationary period was extended, in each of the last five years is set out below:
- in 2025, four staff did not retain employment and four had their probationary period extended;
- in 2024, two staff did not retain employment and two had their probationary period extended;
- in 2023, there were no staff who did not retain employment and no staff had their probationary period extended;
- in 2022, four staff did not retain employment and three had their probationary period extended;
- in 2021, one staff member did not retain employment and one had their probationary period extended.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Billions to be redirected back into patient care with NHS reform, published on 11 November, if he will publish the upfront costs of these reforms.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The reforms announced on 11 November will involve some upfront costs associated with organisational change, including the reintegration of NHS England and the restructuring of integrated care boards.
The Government is committed to ensuring that Parliament and the public are appropriately informed of these costs. Information will be published at the appropriate time, in line with established reporting mechanisms, to ensure transparency and accountability. The Department will continue to provide updates as the reforms progress.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
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 implications for his policies of the Women’s Environmental Network's report entitled Blood, Sweat and Pesticides, published in May 2025; and what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help prevent the use of glyphosate in tampons.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department and regulates medicine, medical devices and blood components for transfusion in the United Kingdom, with responsibility for ensuring medicines meet appropriate standards of safety, quality, and efficacy.
MHRA has not evaluated this report, as period products are not regulated as medical devices and consequently fall outside of MHRA’s remit. Rather, they would fall under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, which are within the remit of the Office for Product Safety and Standards. Information on how these are regulated is available at the following link:
https://www.ahpma.co.uk/tampon_code_of_practice/
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 discussions his Department has had with regulatory bodies on the standards required of individuals providing ultrasound scans in non-NHS settings.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on the prevalence and use of private ultrasound clinics. No recent discussions have taken place with regulatory bodies on the standards required of individuals providing ultrasound scans in non-National Health Service settings.
While there are no legal requirements for those carrying out ultrasound in the Untied Kingdom to hold specific professional qualifications or registration, all providers in England who provide ultrasound scans must be registered with the Care Quality Commission and meet certain legal duties, which includes ensuring that anyone carrying out such activity has the appropriate skills, knowledge, and experience.
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 data his Department holds on the (a) prevalence and (b) use of private ultrasound clinics.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on the prevalence and use of private ultrasound clinics. No recent discussions have taken place with regulatory bodies on the standards required of individuals providing ultrasound scans in non-National Health Service settings.
While there are no legal requirements for those carrying out ultrasound in the Untied Kingdom to hold specific professional qualifications or registration, all providers in England who provide ultrasound scans must be registered with the Care Quality Commission and meet certain legal duties, which includes ensuring that anyone carrying out such activity has the appropriate skills, knowledge, and experience.