Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has issued (a) a national strategy and (b) guidance for NHS trusts on genetic disorders linked to consanguinity.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Genomic testing is delivered through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service and guided by the National Genomic Test Directory, which outlines the eligibility criteria for genomic testing based on specific clinical indications. These eligibility criteria support clinicians to decide whether genetic testing is appropriate, including in cases where genetic disorders may be linked to consanguinity. In addition, through the Genetic Risk Equity Project, NHS England is piloting and evaluating new models of care in nine sites to improve equity of access to genetic services for the small proportion of consanguineous couples at increased genetic risk. NHS England has published training modules about close relative marriage and genetic risk for midwives and health visitors, as well as guidance on how to submit data around consanguinity and pregnancy to the Maternity Services Dataset.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions her Department has had with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education on reforming Child Benefit rules to better support children experiencing mental-health crises who cannot attend school.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Child Benefit remains in payment until 31 August following a child’s 16th birthday. This applies without any conditions on education, so there is no impact on children of this age if they are unable to attend school for any reason.
For young people who are over 16 and under 20, Child Benefit remains payable if they continue in full-time non-advanced education or training. Legislation allows for Child Benefit to continue being paid when this education is interrupted. This can be for a period of up to six months, or for as long as is reasonable if it is attributable to the illness or disability of mind or body. Child Benefit can also still be paid in respect of young people who cannot attend education for an average of more than 12 hours per week due to an illness or disability.
The Government does not hold data on the number of families where Child Benefit has stopped because a young person over 16 has not been able to attend education due to mental ill health.
Where a young person is unable to return to education because of mental ill-health or trauma, disability benefits may provide a more suitable form of long-term support.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 reduce waiting times for veterans accessing Op COURAGE services, including for those in rural counties such as Wiltshire.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has been working with the regional providers of Op COURAGE to ensure that they are meeting the needs of veterans. This includes reviewing the time that veterans wait for assessment and treatment. Any required changes identified through this internal review will be implemented from April 2026.
All primary care networks in Wiltshire have at least one general practice (GP) accredited as being veteran friendly. NHS England, in partnership with the Royal College of General Practitioners, are continuing to encourage GPs to participate in the Armed Forces Veteran Friendly GP accreditation scheme. This voluntary initiative is available to GPs across England and is free to access.
NHS England is working with Op COURAGE and Op RESTORE to develop more meaningful data on outcomes, patient satisfaction, and to demonstrate progress on continuous improvement in services and clinical provision. This work will focus on ensuring that future reporting is both purposeful and proportionate, to avoid detracting from the delivery of frontline services.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department has made available to local authorities for (a) housing (b) other support to Gazan evacuees.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is funding local authorities, in the form of an accommodation tariff, so they can provide suitable accommodation for families from Gaza for up to two years in England.
The Department of Health and Social Care is providing local authorities a fixed flat-rate tariff to fund wraparound services to families. Local authorities are also able to claim additional funding to cover exceptional adult social care, children’s social care, and educational costs.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which Government Departments use a ministerial car.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government Car Service (GCS) provides Departmental Pool Cars (DPC) to the following Government departments:
Attorney General’s Office
Cabinet Office
Department for Business and Trade
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Department for Education
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Department for Health and Social Care
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Department for Transport
Department for Work and Pensions
HM Treasury
Home Office
Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Ministry of Justice
Scotland Office
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 rates of mental ill health among male carers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the vital role of unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they receive the support they need. Through measures set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are supporting carers by making them more visible, empowering their voices in care planning, joining up services, and streamlining caring tasks through a new ‘MyCarer’ section in the NHS App. We are also expanding access to mental health care through 24/7 neighbourhood services, new emergency mental health departments, and enhanced support via the NHS App, all of which will be available to carers experiencing mental ill health.
Local authorities have duties under the Care Act 2014 to support unpaid carers. To help them fulfil these duties, the 2025 Spending Review provides for an increase of over £4 billion in funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.
On 19 November, we published the Men’s Health Strategy. The strategy includes tangible actions to improve access to healthcare, provide the right support to enable men to make healthier choices, develop healthy living and working conditions, foster strong social, community and family networks and address societal norms. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention, respiratory illness, prostate cancer, and heart disease.
As Minister of State for Care, I also chair a regular cross-Government meeting with ministers across departments to consider how we can work together to provide unpaid carers with the recognition and support they deserve.
The Department has no current plans to introduce a multi-year funding scheme for support groups specifically for male carers, but we will continue working across government and with local authorities to ensure that unpaid carers of all genders are able to access appropriate support.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will consider the potential merits of a multi-year funding scheme for support groups for male carers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the vital role of unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they receive the support they need. Through measures set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are supporting carers by making them more visible, empowering their voices in care planning, joining up services, and streamlining caring tasks through a new ‘MyCarer’ section in the NHS App. We are also expanding access to mental health care through 24/7 neighbourhood services, new emergency mental health departments, and enhanced support via the NHS App, all of which will be available to carers experiencing mental ill health.
Local authorities have duties under the Care Act 2014 to support unpaid carers. To help them fulfil these duties, the 2025 Spending Review provides for an increase of over £4 billion in funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.
On 19 November, we published the Men’s Health Strategy. The strategy includes tangible actions to improve access to healthcare, provide the right support to enable men to make healthier choices, develop healthy living and working conditions, foster strong social, community and family networks and address societal norms. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention, respiratory illness, prostate cancer, and heart disease.
As Minister of State for Care, I also chair a regular cross-Government meeting with ministers across departments to consider how we can work together to provide unpaid carers with the recognition and support they deserve.
The Department has no current plans to introduce a multi-year funding scheme for support groups specifically for male carers, but we will continue working across government and with local authorities to ensure that unpaid carers of all genders are able to access appropriate support.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 increase awareness of support groups for male carers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the vital role of unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they receive the support they need. Through measures set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are supporting carers by making them more visible, empowering their voices in care planning, joining up services, and streamlining caring tasks through a new ‘MyCarer’ section in the NHS App. We are also expanding access to mental health care through 24/7 neighbourhood services, new emergency mental health departments, and enhanced support via the NHS App, all of which will be available to carers experiencing mental ill health.
Local authorities have duties under the Care Act 2014 to support unpaid carers. To help them fulfil these duties, the 2025 Spending Review provides for an increase of over £4 billion in funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.
On 19 November, we published the Men’s Health Strategy. The strategy includes tangible actions to improve access to healthcare, provide the right support to enable men to make healthier choices, develop healthy living and working conditions, foster strong social, community and family networks and address societal norms. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention, respiratory illness, prostate cancer, and heart disease.
As Minister of State for Care, I also chair a regular cross-Government meeting with ministers across departments to consider how we can work together to provide unpaid carers with the recognition and support they deserve.
The Department has no current plans to introduce a multi-year funding scheme for support groups specifically for male carers, but we will continue working across government and with local authorities to ensure that unpaid carers of all genders are able to access appropriate support.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 reduce the number of deaths in hospital.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is prioritising patient safety and a learning culture in the National Health Service to prevent harmful events from happening to patients. The NHS Patient Safety Strategy, originally published in 2019, and updated in 2021 and 2023, includes key programmes to support the NHS to improve patient safety continuously and reduce patient harm. Further information on the NHS Patient Safety Strategy is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/the-nhs-patient-safety-strategy/
As part of this, the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework reforms the way providers respond to patient safety incidents, with further information available at the following link:
In addition, the Learn From Patient Safety Events service also enables the NHS to learn from more than three million patient safety incidents reported annually, including through the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for analysis. Further information on the Learn From Patient Safety Events service is available at the following link:
Other examples of key patient safety initiatives include rollout of Martha’s Rule, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/marthas-rule/
From September 2024 to July 2025, this policy has resulted in changes in treatment for roughly 1,000 patients, with more than 260 patients requiring transfers of care to high dependency or intensive care units, enhanced levels of care, or a tertiary centre. The Government also introduced the statutory medical examiner system from September 2024 which means that medical examiners independently scrutinise every death in England and Wales not referred to a coroner. This is estimated as more than half a million deaths in 12 months. Medical examiners support local learning and improvement by detecting and referring concerns through established local clinical governance processes.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 support male carers of children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the vital role of unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they receive the support they need. Through measures set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are supporting carers by making them more visible, empowering their voices in care planning, joining up services, and streamlining caring tasks through a new ‘MyCarer’ section in the NHS App. We are also expanding access to mental health care through 24/7 neighbourhood services, new emergency mental health departments, and enhanced support via the NHS App, all of which will be available to carers experiencing mental ill health.
Local authorities have duties under the Care Act 2014 to support unpaid carers. To help them fulfil these duties, the 2025 Spending Review provides for an increase of over £4 billion in funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.
On 19 November, we published the Men’s Health Strategy. The strategy includes tangible actions to improve access to healthcare, provide the right support to enable men to make healthier choices, develop healthy living and working conditions, foster strong social, community and family networks and address societal norms. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention, respiratory illness, prostate cancer, and heart disease.
As Minister of State for Care, I also chair a regular cross-Government meeting with ministers across departments to consider how we can work together to provide unpaid carers with the recognition and support they deserve.
The Department has no current plans to introduce a multi-year funding scheme for support groups specifically for male carers, but we will continue working across government and with local authorities to ensure that unpaid carers of all genders are able to access appropriate support.