Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking at the national level to ensure that International Classifications of Diseases for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics-11 coding practices in the NHS capture the role of psychiatric illness in cases of organ failure or suicide.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for coding causes of death using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD‑10). This is separate from hospital morbidity coding undertaken within the National Health Service. The response below therefore relates to morbidity coding and applies to cases of attempted suicide and organ failure for patients admitted to hospital alive.
ICD-11 is the International Classification of Diseases for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics, Eleventh Revision, and is not yet approved as an Information Standard under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act, and so ICD‑10 remains the mandated classification for NHS morbidity data.
Under current national coding guidance, all conditions identified in the medical record by the responsible consultant as relevant to the episode of care are coded. Where a clinical link has been established between a psychiatric condition and outcomes such as organ failure or an episode of attempted suicide, each of these conditions is coded in line with this guidance.
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, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of mental health support for senior leaders in non-clinical NHS roles.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on the level of suicides amongst the National Health Service workforce.
Data relating to numbers of suicides in England and Wales is published regularly by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). ONS occasionally also publishes ad hoc analysis of suicide numbers by standard occupational classifications. Whilst this data does not allow identification of the employer, such as the NHS, it does present suicide numbers by broad occupation categories. The latest ad hoc publication can be found at the following link:
There is a wide range of mental health support for all NHS staff. Staff are able to access mental health support through their general practice but can also access support provided by their employer through employee assistance programmes or occupational health. NHS England also offers a range of health and wellbeing resources, including health and wellbeing apps and text support services, and NHS leaders can access the National Staff Mental Health Treatment Service which is available to both clinical and non-clinical staff and is in place to help those with more complex mental health needs. Further information on the National Staff Mental Health Treatment Service is available at the following link:
https://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/
The service is designed to offer confidential support to NHS professionals, who cannot access confidential support locally.
NHS England has also published a national suicide prevention toolkit and postvention toolkit to help organisations introduce prevention strategies and support their workforce, both of which are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/working-together-to-prevent-suicide-in-the-nhs/
https://www.nhsconfed.org/system/files/2023-03/NHS-employee-suicide-postvention-toolkit.pdf
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, what data his Department holds on trends in the level of suicides amongst senior leaders in non-clinical roles in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on the level of suicides amongst the National Health Service workforce.
Data relating to numbers of suicides in England and Wales is published regularly by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). ONS occasionally also publishes ad hoc analysis of suicide numbers by standard occupational classifications. Whilst this data does not allow identification of the employer, such as the NHS, it does present suicide numbers by broad occupation categories. The latest ad hoc publication can be found at the following link:
There is a wide range of mental health support for all NHS staff. Staff are able to access mental health support through their general practice but can also access support provided by their employer through employee assistance programmes or occupational health. NHS England also offers a range of health and wellbeing resources, including health and wellbeing apps and text support services, and NHS leaders can access the National Staff Mental Health Treatment Service which is available to both clinical and non-clinical staff and is in place to help those with more complex mental health needs. Further information on the National Staff Mental Health Treatment Service is available at the following link:
https://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/
The service is designed to offer confidential support to NHS professionals, who cannot access confidential support locally.
NHS England has also published a national suicide prevention toolkit and postvention toolkit to help organisations introduce prevention strategies and support their workforce, both of which are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/working-together-to-prevent-suicide-in-the-nhs/
https://www.nhsconfed.org/system/files/2023-03/NHS-employee-suicide-postvention-toolkit.pdf
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 assessment he has made of the impact of levels of access to GP appointments in influencing patients’ decisions to attend accident and emergency departments for non-emergency conditions.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service guidance is clear that patients should only attend accident and emergency (A&E) for emergencies that cannot be dealt with by a patient’s general practice (GP), NHS 111, or walk-in centres.
GPs are independent contractors to the National Health Service and are required to provide care during core hours, from 08:00 to 18:30, Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. Evidence suggests that when practices are closed, patients are more likely to seek care elsewhere. The 2025 GP Patient Survey found that 23.4% of respondents reported attending A&E when they wanted care or advice from a healthcare professional and their GP was closed. Though the survey does not qualify whether the attendance was due to urgent or non-urgent care being needed.
The Office for National Statistics’ Health Insight Survey shows that the proportion of patients who find it easy to access their GP has increased significantly, from 60.9% in July 2024 to nearly 77% more recently. As part of efforts to improve access, from 1 October GPs were required to make online services available throughout core hours. For the first time, the Office for National Statistics’ data shows that more patients surveyed are now contacting their GP online than by telephone, with 44.6% contacting practices online compared with 38.9% by phone. There has also been a 17.9%, or 1.3 million, increase in online consultation submissions in January 2026 compared to December 2025. This expansion of access routes is intended to make it easier for patients to receive timely advice and care from GPs, supporting appropriate use of urgent and emergency services
The 2026/27 GP Contract also makes it explicit that any requests identified as clinically urgent, as determined by the GP, must be dealt with on the same day.
Out of hours services are those provided outside of these core hours, from 18:30 to 08:00 on weekdays, all weekends and on bank holidays. Practices may provide out of hours services or opt out of providing these with their commissioner’s approval.
Where a practice has opted out of delivering these services, the commissioner, such as an integrated care board, must commission the services from an alternative provider for that practice’s registered patients.
Last year we invested £80 million in Advice and Guidance. We are now embedding this money in core contract funding. As a result, since April 2025, we have avoided 1.3 million patients ending up on a waiting list.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of migraine on levels of sickness absence, labour market participation and economic inactivity.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that 3.1 million days were lost due to headaches and migraines in 2024. This represents 2.1% of all days lost, the same percentage as in 2019.
No assessment has been made of the potential impact of migraine on labour market participation and economic inactivity. This information is not available because the Labour Force Survey - the primary source for data on labour market participation and economic inactivity - only reports figures by long‑term health condition. The category of “migraines and headaches” appears only as a reason for sickness absence, not as a separate long-term health condition.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children are disproportionately represented in the care system; and if so, what plans they have to address this within the wider programme of children’s social care reform, including efforts to strengthen early help and reduce avoidable entries into care.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
At 31 March 2025, there were 740 Gypsy Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage Children Looked After. This represents 0.9% of all children looked after. The Office for National Statistics 2021 census reported that Roma and White Gypsy or Irish Traveller children account for 0.4% of the child population.
The Families First Partnership Programme, backed by £2.4 billion over three years, is delivering national reforms to Family Help, Multi‑Agency Child Protection, and Family Group Decision Making. Funding is ringfenced for prevention, with local authorities deciding how best to support vulnerable children, young people, and families, including those of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
The government aims to shift children’s social care toward earlier intervention. Central to this is the development of multi‑disciplinary Family Help teams working within communities to provide early, wraparound support. These reforms aim to improve outcomes, prevent escalation of need, and reduce long‑term costs by safely decreasing the number of children entering care.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the long-term fiscal impact of replacing RPI with CPI for Plan 2 student loan interest.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Interest rates on student loans have been consistently linked to a widely recognised and adopted measure of inflation. Interest rates are set in legislation in reference to the Retail Price Index (RPI) (from the previous March) and are applied annually on 1 September until 31 August.
The Office for National Statistics has undertaken a substantial programme of work over the past two years to enhance how inflation is measured and this will be carried over into student loans. The Office for Budget Responsibility has confirmed that from 2030 (at the earliest), movements in RPI will be aligned with Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs as viewed here: https://obr.uk/box/the-long-run-difference-between-rpi-and-cpi-inflation/.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to help ensure that an accurate record exists of which homes are reliant on Home Heating Oil for heating.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Information on the heating fuels used by households is published by the Office for National Statistics and the Devolved Administrations. For more information, please see here - Constituency data: Households off the gas grid - House of Commons Library
The Government has made £53 million of additional support available to help low-come households who use heating oil. In England this has been allocated to Local Authorities via the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF). Households should apply to their local authority and provide any evidence that is requested.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the financial losses to UK consumers resulting from fraud facilitated via social media and online platforms in each year since 2020.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government takes the issue of fraudulent activity arising on social media and online platforms very seriously. The Office of National Statistics estimates that, in year ending March 2024, nearly half of all frauds were online-enabled.
The department does not currently collect data on the financial losses from victims of fraud through social media channels directly. However, there have been 228,141 reports to Report Fraud of cyber-enabled fraud in 2025, totalling approximately £1.9 billion of losses. The government has also estimated that the total socio-economic cost of fraud to the UK was £14.4 billion between 2023-2024.
Whilst the Government does not collect this type of data directly, as part of the recently published Fraud Strategy, the Government has committed to working with industry, including social media and online platforms, to develop metrics, with the purpose being to improve transparency and accountability and track sectors’ performance in tackling fraud.
We encourage anyone to report instances of online fraud to Report Fraud, the UK’s dedicated fraud reporting service, and visit the Stop! Think Fraud website for information on how they can stay safe from fraud.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in online-enabled fraud, including investment fraud involving deepfake content, since 2020.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Fraud and cybercrime are deeply interconnected. The Office of National Statistics estimates that in year ending March 2024, nearly half of all frauds were online-enabled.
The government’s Fraud Strategy (2026-2029) sets out the latest trends and evolving drivers of online fraud. Criminals routinely hijack online channels to socially engineer people into sending money directly, through fraudulent adverts or through convincing fraudulent emails and text messages. Criminals exploit data breaches, and use phishing techniques, to obtain personal information to takeover online accounts directly. We have also seen the growth of ‘fraud-as-a-service’ marketplaces, which lower the barrier to entry for new criminals.
The government is aware that criminals have adopted generative AI as a tool to increase the scale and sophistication of attacks, as well to bypass company’s security procedures to impersonate customers for account takeovers. Measuring these types of attacks is a challenge as often victims will be unaware of whether AI has been used. While reports of AI enabled fraud are increasing, they still account for a fraction of all Report Fraud cases (0.2% in 2025); but it is almost certain that the true number of AI enabled frauds is much higher.
We encourage anyone to report instances of online fraud to Report Fraud, the UK’s dedicated fraud reporting service, and visit the Stop! Think Fraud website for information on how they can stay safe from fraud.