Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of rapid alcohol delivery services on the level of alcohol dependency and alcohol-related harm; and whether she plans to review existing licensing and age-verification regulations to access such services.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Licensing Act 2003 regulates the sale and supply of alcohol. The Government recognises that consumer purchasing habits have evolved in recent years, particularly with a notable growth in alcohol sales made via online platforms and rapid delivery services.
The Department for Health and Social Care, which has responsibility for policy on health harms, and the Home Office are looking at how current licensing rules apply to these services and monitoring emerging evidence on the impact they may be having on people’s health. I am clear that we will act where necessary to protect public safety.
To this end, I will shortly hold a roundtable jointly with the Minister for Public Health and Prevention to consider solutions with healthcare professionals and experts in the field.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to minimise the risk of harm caused by alcohol sold through home delivery apps.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Licensing Act 2003 regulates the sale and supply of alcohol. The Government recognises that consumer purchasing habits have evolved in recent years, particularly with a notable growth in alcohol sales made via online platforms and rapid delivery services.
The Department for Health and Social Care, which has responsibility for policy on health harms, and the Home Office are looking at how current licensing rules apply to these services and monitoring emerging evidence on the impact they may be having on people’s health. I am clear that we will act where necessary to protect public safety.
To this end, I will shortly hold a roundtable jointly with the Minister for Public Health and Prevention to consider solutions with healthcare professionals and experts in the field.
Asked by: Adam Dance (Liberal Democrat - Yeovil)
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 reduce the number of avoidable severe allergic reactions in (a) Yeovil constituency, (b) Somerset and (c) England.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Last year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved two sublingual immunotherapy treatments for moderate to severe allergic rhinitis.
National Health Service partners in Somerset encourage all patients with a diagnosis of severe allergy to have prescribed and to carry with them an adrenaline injection device which when used early enough in a severe allergy response can prevent patient harm and admission.
Over the past five years, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has delivered a substantial programme of work to improve allergy safety in restaurants and food businesses, including in Yeovil. The FSA published new best practice guidance in March 2025 to improve allergen information when eating out. The FSA has also expanded its free online allergen training, which has now been taken by over one million people since 2020. Through this work, the FSA is aiming to enable people with food allergies to make informed and safe choices and trust the food that they receive.
The Department for Education is developing new statutory guidance which will significantly strengthen how schools support pupils with allergy. The Government has also amended the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to place a new statutory duty on schools to develop and publish an allergy safety policy, and to give powers to my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to make regulations relating to allergy safety, including requiring schools to stock adrenaline devices, to secure allergy awareness training, and to record and report incidents of near misses. These measures should help to prevent instances of children experiencing severe allergic reactions while at school.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a list of training programmes used by civil servants in his Department since 2020.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department’s approach to learning, development, and training programmes is designed to build a highly skilled, confident workforce. The Department has progressively strengthened its offer since 2020 through the introduction and iteration of the Core Skills Programme. The training programme focuses on developing profession specific and working in Government skills.
In addition to departmental learning provisions, business areas are allocated devolved learning and development budgets, enabling them to prioritise training that addresses their own identified capability needs. These individual training requirements tend to be job-specific, personal development, technical, qualifications, or accreditation based, or subject matter expertise related, such as specific policy areas.
A full list of departmental provision since 2020 is provided below, and this is in addition to courses that can be booked individually through Civil Service Learning, the cross Civil Service Learning Platform:
- Management Fundamentals 2020;
- New Manager Programme 2021;
- Experienced Manager Programme 2021;
- Foundation Management Programme 2023;
- Practitioner Management Programme 2023;
- Department of Health and Social Care Management Fundamentals 2023;
- ACAS Line Manager training 2023;
- Core Skills Programme 2023 to present, covering policy, digital, project delivery, commercial, analysis and finance, and working in Government skills;
- the Department’s Management Academy, Managing Change Programme 2023 to 2024, to strengthen capability in leading people through organisational change;
- People Policies Workshop 2025 to present, for line-management learning intervention focused on practical application of core people policies; and
- Leadership Development Programme, which is ongoing.
The Department also delivers a number of talent schemes which incorporate formal training and development programmes alongside on‑the‑job experience. These schemes are designed to build future capability in priority professions and leadership pipelines, supporting individuals at different career stages, including both delegated grades and Senior Civil Servants (SCS), through a combination of a defined learning curriculum, practical development, and coaching and mentoring. A list of departmental talent schemes that have delivered training programmes since 2020 is set out below. For delegated grade talent schemes, they are as follows:
- Health Policy Fast Track Scheme;
- Civil Service Fast Stream;
- Future Leaders Scheme;
- Beyond Boundaries;
- Interdepartmental Talent Programme;
- Summer Internship Programme;
- Autism Exchange Internship Programme;
- Care Leavers Internship Scheme; and
- Civil Service Apprenticeship Programmes.
And for SCS talent schemes, the programmes are as follows:
- Senior Leaders Scheme;
- Directors Leadership Programme;
- Forward Institute Exchange Programme ;
- Forward Institute Fellowship;
- Individual Development Programme;
- OpDel Exchange Programme;
- Policy Fellowship for the Centre for Science and Policy;
- Whitehall and Industry Group Senior Leaders Programme;
- Whitehall and Industry Group Exchange Programme; and
- High Potential Development Scheme.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimations his Department has made of the cost of integrating the social care sector into the Department and devolving it to local government level.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No estimation or assessment has been made. The Department currently has responsibility for social care policy. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to meet the eligible care and support needs of people in their local area.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if it will make an assessment of the potential merits of transferring control of social care to the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government to provide services at the local level.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No estimation or assessment has been made. The Department currently has responsibility for social care policy. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to meet the eligible care and support needs of people in their local area.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has considered New Zealand's retirement villages sector in developing policy on the future of the social care system in England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the important role retirement villages play in providing high quality, safe, and suitable homes which can help people stay independent and healthy for longer and reduce the need to draw on health and social care provision.
The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to support the development of suitable older people’s housing. We are aware of relevant international evidence in this area, including examples cited in the Older People’s Housing Taskforce report such as older people’s housing models in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what minimum English language proficiency requirements apply to frontline adult social care workers in England; and whether his Department, or any relevant regulator, has conducted audits or assessments in the last five years of the ability of non‑native English‑speaking staff in those roles to communicate effectively in English with service users and carers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are required to deploy enough suitably qualified, competent, and experienced staff and only employ 'fit and proper' staff who are able to provide care and treatment appropriate to their role, as per Regulations 18 and 19 of the Health and Social Care 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 respectively.
It is the responsibility of a care provider to ensure that everyone involved in the delivery of services has the required level of English language competence to enable them to communicate effectively with people who use services and colleagues.
The CQC can assess providers’ compliance with these regulations through assessment and monitoring activity. Where an assessment of a service has been carried out, individual reports will be published to the CQC’s website. Where a breach or non-compliance of regulation is identified, the CQC can take regulatory action as set out in the CQC’s published enforcement policy, which is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/enforcement/enforcement-policy
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 assessment his Department has made of the potential risks of system level Single Point Of Access (SPOA) on patient choice; and what guidance his Department will issue to integrated care boards to ensure SPOA use is in line with NHS patient choice rights.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The policy intention for the Elective Single Point of Access (SPoA) model is fully compatible with NHS England’s Patient Choice Guidance, published in December 2023. Patients must continue to be offered a choice of provider at the appropriate point in the pathway, and local pathways should be designed to ensure that choice rights operate in practice.
SPoA acts as a single ‘front door’ to support clinical triage to the most appropriate service or outcome, meaning timelier, more joined-up care for patients, without altering patients’ statutory right to choice.
NHS England has published system guidance, The Elective Single Point of Access: Technical Guidance for 2026/27, which specifies that patients must continue to be offered a choice of provider and team at the appropriate point in the pathway when they can make an informed choice. An elective SPoA diagram showing touchpoints of choice is included in the technical guidance annex.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.