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 assessment his Department has made of the risks to patient safety arising from hospital records not being fully shared between different NHS trusts.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Appropriate information sharing is essential to delivering safe and effective health care. Improving this will enable enhanced quality of care and safety for patients and better informed clinical and care decision-making empowered by access to precise and comprehensive information.
NHS England has been supporting National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts in acquiring and developing the effectiveness of their electronic patient records and supporting them to reach an optimum level of digital maturity which will further reduce barriers to the sharing of information needed to treat patients.
By 2028, a new single patient record will end the need for patients to have to repeat their medical history when interacting with the NHS. By providing a complete, real-time view of patient information across regions and care settings, it will significantly improve clinical safety and performance.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2026 to Question 108297, whether his Department holds any evidence on rates of neonatal and post-neonatal death, including accidental suffocation and overlaying, associated with parental cannabis use during pregnancy and the postnatal period.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) programme is responsible for reviewing stillbirths and neonatal deaths across the United Kingdom to identify causes, improve clinical care, and reduce future preventable deaths. Analysis of MBRRACE-UK data found that between 2014 and 2024, there were 17 neonatal deaths attributed to accidental suffocation, with only one case explicitly linked to cannabis use. There was also one neonatal sudden infant death syndrome case involving maternal cannabis and alcohol history, and one neonatal death where maternal cannabis use was a secondary contributor. There were thus a total of three neonatal deaths linked to cannabis use between 2014 and 2024.
The National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) collects and analyses data on the deaths of all children under 18 years of age. The latest data published by the NCMD highlighted that of the deaths reviewed by Child Death Overview Panels between April 2024 and March 2025, substance misuse during pregnancy was identified as a contributing factor in 62 out of 4,035 infant deaths where data was available. The NCMD thematic report on Deaths of children and young people due to traumatic incidents also highlighted that between 1 April 2019 and March 2022, there were 42 deaths as a result of accidental strangulation or suffocation. 13, or 31%, children were aged under one years old, 17, or 40%, were aged one to four years old, and 12, or 29%, were aged five to 17 years old. In total, 18 children died where entrapment or overlay was found to be a significant contributing factor, but the analysis did not look at whether or not there was substance misuse by the parents.
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, whether his Department plans to provide additional funding to a) Leicester and b) Leicestershire to reduce NHS waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service funding for local services, including in Leicester and Leicestershire, is allocated to integrated care boards using NHS England’s Fair Share model and the NHS resource allocation formula.
This formula is designed to support equal opportunity of access for equal need, taking into account factors such as demography, morbidity, levels of deprivation, and the unavoidable costs of providing services in different areas. It is based on independent academic research and overseen by the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, which provides advice to my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and the Chief Executive of NHS England.
Through the 2025 Spending Review, announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in June 2025, the Government has prioritised health with a record investment in the health and social care system. The Government is providing £29 billion more day-to-day funding in real terms by 2028/29 than in 2023/24, alongside the largest ever health capital budget, with a £2.3 billion real-terms increase in capital spending over the Spending Review period.
This will support delivery of our commitment that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029, including patients in Leicester and Leicestershire.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will have discussions with the Office for National Statistics on revising its back baseline to reflect pre-2020 trends.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Analysts from the Department of Health and Social Care are having regular discussions with colleagues at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) regarding planned improvements to the methodology used to estimate excess deaths, as outlined in an ONS blog post from April 2025, which is available at the following link:
https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2025/04/04/excess-deaths-our-continued-work-towards-a-better-understanding
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
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 adequacy of the resilience of NHS services to disruptions within the commercial laundry sector.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS England estates, commercial, and emergency preparedness, resilience, and response teams are undertaking an assessment of the provision of laundry services, in-house and out-sourced, in the National Health Service. This includes the NHS requirements for laundry services, available capacity, and the most efficient approach to their provision.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether they will require their department and agencies to offer payroll deductions to all employees to enable them to join a credit union.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department’s financial wellbeing offer for its workforce includes access to a variety of advances including rental deposits and season ticket loans, as well as debt/budgeting advice and support through its Employee Assistance Programme.
The Department does not offer credit union membership via payroll deductions and has no current plans to introduce such arrangements. Of our executive agencies, only the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has a general payroll deduction facility which could be used for such a purpose and the UKHSA includes details on its Financial Wellbeing page as to where employees can find further information on credit unions.
Asked by: John Grady (Labour - Glasgow East)
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 the British Association of Prosthetics and Orthotics and training providers on the long term availability of training courses for people to qualify as clinicians and technicians in Prosthetics and Orthotics.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Higher education institutions are independent providers and are responsible for making their own decisions about course delivery and viability based on learner demand and provider capacity.
NHS England continues to work closely with the British Association of Prosthetics and Orthotics and education providers to maintain and strengthen training pathways, including apprenticeship routes, for learners into these courses.
Asked by: John Grady (Labour - Glasgow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Department is taking to help ensure the long term availability of training courses for people to qualify as clinicians and technicians in Prosthetics and Orthotics.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Higher education institutions are independent providers and are responsible for making their own decisions about course delivery and viability based on learner demand and provider capacity.
NHS England continues to work closely with the British Association of Prosthetics and Orthotics and education providers to maintain and strengthen training pathways, including apprenticeship routes, for learners into these courses.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much their Department has spent on X and xAI since July 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of January 2026, total expenditure by the Department since July 2024 has been £69,384.94, inclusive of VAT, on X and zero on xAI.
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 the total monetary value was of NHS costs submitted under the European Health Insurance Card scheme that were not recovered in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under our agreements with the European Union, European Free Trade Association countries and Switzerland, we make claims to European countries for National Health Service costs incurred by temporary visitors from those countries. Claims are made in arrears and take up to four years before they are fully settled.
The following table shows the position of European Health Insurance Card and Provisional Replacement Certificate claims for the last three financial years as of 31 March 2025:
Financial year | Total value of claims submitted by UK (£000s) | Claims withdrawn by UK (£000s) | Claims paid to the UK (£000s) | Outstanding claims (£000s) |
2022/23 | 10,200 | 402 | 9,174 | 624 |
2023/24 | 12,054 | 233 | 6,570 | 5,251 |
2024/25 | 12,041 | 19 | 863 | 11,159 |
Grand Total | 34,295 | 654 | 16,606 | 17,035 |
These figures come from extracts from the NHS Business Services Authority’s claims processing database used by the Department for accounting purposes. Claims listed as withdrawn or paid have been settled whereas those listed as outstanding are still being agreed. We expect most outstanding claims to be settled in the United Kingdom’s favour.
This data excludes countries where NHS costs for temporary visitors are reimbursed based on a formula agreement which calculates costs from the number of visitors from that country to the UK. Further information is available at the following link: