Asked by: Damien Egan (Labour - Bristol North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure parents of children with SEND are informed of (a) their rights and (b) the protections available to them.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Children and Families Act 2014 requires local authorities to publish a Local Offer, setting out in one place information about provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those without an education, health and care plan.
Every local authority must have a SEND information, advice and support service. These provide free and impartial advice to children and young people with SEND and their parents and carers.
The department works with national organisations such as Contact, IPSEA and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums. We also fund local parent carer forums across England who gather the views and experiences of local SEND families to help shape and inform policy and provision and offer a valuable peer support network for parents and carers navigating the SEND system.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of restrictions on television and online advertising of products high in fat, salt and sugar on levels of marketing through outdoor and brand-based advertising; and if he will consider extending restrictions to cover such advertising.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan for England, we will take decisive action on the obesity crisis to ease the strain on our National Health Service and create the healthiest generation of children ever. We are already delivering the biggest public health reforms in a generation, including implementing restrictions on the advertising of less healthy food and drink before 9:00pm on television and at all times online from 5 January 2026.
Last year, the Government published the revised National Planning Policy Framework for local government, giving local authorities stronger, clearer powers to block new fast-food outlets near schools and where young people congregate. This will stop the relentless targeting of children and young people by the fast-food industry.
We also welcome the work by the metropolitan mayors to support the action to ban junk food marketing across public transport networks and public spaces that are controlled locally.
An impact assessment on the advertising restrictions was published on the GOV.UK website, which considered the impact of the restrictions on brand advertising and alternative media, including outdoor advertising, from the perspective of actions that advertisers of products that are high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) may take to mitigate the loss of revenue from the restrictions on television and online. The impact assessment made an assumption that approximately £14 million of lost revenue may be mitigated if HFSS advertisers took these actions.
We continue to review evidence of the impacts on children of advertising for less healthy food and drink products and will consider if and where further action is needed.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
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 15 September 2025, to Question 73327, on Alan Milburn, what other (a) NHS, (b) social care and (c) other matters Alan Milburn has recused himself from.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Prior to appointment, non-executive candidates are required to declare all relevant interests. Appropriate mitigations are then put in place and approved by the Department.
This process was carried out for the Rt Hon. Alan Milburn, whose interests and any updates to them are available in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts and on the GOV.UK website in alignment with Government policy.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many consultations his Department has launched since 4 July 2024; and if he will list them.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the election, the Government outlined its ambitions through the Plan for Change, which sets out an ambitious set of milestones, across the missions, for this Parliament.
As the House of Commons would expect, the Government continually reviews its work to ensure that it is delivering the best outcomes for the people of the United Kingdom, and that its policies continue to represent the best value for the taxpayer. Public consultations will be available on the GOV.UK website as they are published, at the following link:
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
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 number of GP appointments (a) offered, (b) attended and (c) cancelled by practices in Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency in the most recent year for which data is available; and if will make it his policy to monitor trends in practice-cancelled appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
General Practice Appointment Data is published monthly by NHS England and captures information on appointments that have occurred, rather than those that are offered. The data also only includes appointments that were attended or marked as 'Did Not Attend' (DNA), not those that are cancelled.
Since cancelled slots can often be rebooked and used by other patients, the most reliable and meaningful data to collect are both attended appointments and DNAs.
In September 2025, in the Middlesbrough and Thornaby East Constituency, 1.04 million appointments were delivered, and 54,000 appointments were not attended.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 the proportion of written parliamentary questions which receive answers within the usual time period.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department takes seriously its parliamentary obligations. I am grateful to my colleagues for their patience as we respond to a very high number of written parliamentary questions (PQs).
The Department of Health and Social Care is the busiest Department in Whitehall in terms of the volume of PQs that we receive, routinely receiving in excess of 1,400 PQs each month. In the most recent period for which the Table Office has provided data on PQ performance, from 24 March to 30 June 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care received nearly double the number of PQs as the next highest volume departments, and received 15% of all PQs tabled across Whitehall.
We are taking action to improve PQ performance. This includes enhancing the data available to policy teams on outstanding casework and ensuring that the joint leadership of the Department is championing the importance of PQs.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
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 15 September 2025 to Question 73327 on Alan Milburn, if he will list which other areas of health policy Mr Milburn has recused himself from.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Prior to appointment, non-executive candidates are required to declare all relevant interests. Appropriate mitigations are then put in place and approved by the Department.
This process was carried out for the Rt Hon. Alan Milburn, whose interests, and any updates to them, are available in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts and on the GOV.UK website in alignment with Government policy.
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 steps his Department is taking to help improve the speed and efficiency of vaccine rollout when new vaccines receive NHS approval.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting the timely delivery of new vaccination programmes to fully protect the public from vaccine preventable diseases. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation meets regularly to consider both current and future vaccine products and to advise ministers accordingly.
The Department works with NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to secure supply deals with manufacturers, stockpile doses, and coordinate logistics to ensure fast deployment, working at pace to update guidelines and training documents so that the workforce providing vaccines is ready to go.
To boost capacity, the Department is exploring new ways of delivering vaccinations including health visits and community pharmacy, with pilots for administering vaccinations as part of health visits standing-up from January 2026. Digital tools also ensure speedy and efficient rollout, for instance: online booking via the NHS app; automated reminders; and data dashboards to track uptake and tweak priorities in real-time. Finally, the Department works with NHS England and the UKHSA to develop targeted communications campaigns, advertising, and social media to build trust and drive appointments, aiming for high coverage from day one. Programme planning by the UKHSA and NHS England occurs simultaneously to ensure delivery of safe, clinically effective, stable, and accessible programmes that commence at the right time and are rolled out in a timely manner after a policy decision has been made.
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.