Asked by: Baroness Thomas of Winchester (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the NHS 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure growth and retention in the occupational therapy workforce across health, social care, community and specialist services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it. While the scope of the 10 Year Workforce Plan is the NHS workforce, we understand the importance of effective integration across social care and community care.
We are working through how the 10 Year Workforce Plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the command paper, Protecting What Matters, CP 1540, 9 March 2026, page 16, what steps he is taking to promote Englishness and a national sense of identity in England.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
A great strength of our national identity is its pluralism. Whether we are from England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland; whatever our religion or belief; whether we were born here or abroad; or whatever the colour of our skin, we can all embrace our shared identity, celebrate what we have in common, and be proud of our country’s long history and heritage.
As set out in Protecting What Matters, we will set clear national integration expectations for communities across the country, focused on stronger social connections, shared identity, English language proficiency, and participation in work. We will also strengthen the national curriculum and qualifications in England to ensure high quality teaching of our nation’s history.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of potential merits of making English language training compulsory for asylum seekers who do not have English language proficiency.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has set out its commitment to supporting successful integration, as highlighted in the Immigration White Paper. Being able to communicate effectively in English is essential for accessing public services, participating in civic life, securing employment, and building strong connections within local communities. Without sufficient language skills, individuals may face barriers to integration and increased risk of social isolation.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to integrated care boards on supporting vulnerable people, including those with mental health conditions, cognitive impairment or learning disabilities, to safely self-administer insulin.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving the integration between community mental health services and other physical health services and meeting the holistic needs of people with severe mental health problems is a priority, as set out in the Community Mental Health Framework.
Recognising the continued need to further support services to provide high quality personalised care for all patients needing secondary mental health services, including those with diabetes, NHS England has shared new draft guidance with systems, the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework, which sets out how services must effectively assess, plan, and manage people's care in collaboration with all relevant teams, including how they assess safety and risks of harm.
The Health Services Safety Investigation Body recently published a report Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem, which recommended that NHS England and the Department develop a strategy for improving collaboration between mental health teams and specialist diabetes services. A formal response to this recommendation will be published in May 2026.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
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 national implementation plan on insulin safety for those with mental health conditions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving the integration between community mental health services and other physical health services and meeting the holistic needs of people with severe mental health problems is a priority, as set out in the Community Mental Health Framework.
Recognising the continued need to further support services to provide high quality personalised care for all patients needing secondary mental health services, including those with diabetes, NHS England has shared new draft guidance with systems, the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework, which sets out how services must effectively assess, plan, and manage people's care in collaboration with all relevant teams, including how they assess safety and risks of harm.
The Health Services Safety Investigation Body recently published a report Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem, which recommended that NHS England and the Department develop a strategy for improving collaboration between mental health teams and specialist diabetes services. A formal response to this recommendation will be published in May 2026.
Asked by: Jim Dickson (Labour - Dartford)
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 ensure that people experiencing suicidality or who have attempted suicide receive sustained, trauma-informed and long-term support beyond crisis intervention, including through better integration of NHS services with community-led organisations such as Body & Soul, particularly for people from marginalised communities.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that people experiencing suicidal thoughts or who have attempted suicide receive compassionate, personalised, and sustained support.
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England 2023 to 2028 outlines our cross‑sector approach to improving support for people who experience suicidality, including tailored support for priority groups and improved integration between services. Voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations are vital in providing community‑based trauma‑informed support alongside clinical services.
The 10-Year Health Plan supports this approach through a shift towards community‑based prevention and services. This includes closer collaboration between the National Health Service, local authorities, and VCSE partners to improve access to integrated, long‑term support.
Last year, NHS England published Staying Safe from Suicide: Best Practice Guidance for Safety Assessment, Formulation and Management, which promotes a more holistic, person-centred approach to suicide prevention with accompanying e-learning. The NHS medium-term planning framework requires integrated care boards to ensure practitioners undertake training and deliver care in line with this guidance from 2026/27.
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, what steps the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is taking to improve clinician reporting of myocarditis and pericarditis in the Yellow Card system; and whether the Department has assessed under‑reporting rates for these conditions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is committed to continually strengthening the Yellow Card scheme to support patient safety. The MHRA regularly promotes awareness through public health campaigns, conferences, established networks, and new educational resources available on the Yellow Card website. Further information is available on the MHRA website at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/medicines-and-healthcare-products-regulatory-agency
Reporting rates through spontaneous reporting systems, such as the Yellow Card Scheme, are highly variable, and dependent not just on the condition, but other factors such as the product, public interest, and media attention. As such, the MHRA does not hold estimates of under reporting rates for these conditions.
The MHRA is expanding and improving digital reporting routes. Every National Health Service webpage relating to a medicine or vaccine now links to the Yellow Card scheme, and the MHRA is working with NHS colleagues to enhance integration with the NHS App to increase visibility and reporting by the public. Yellow Card reporting is now embedded in almost all general practice clinical IT systems, enabling healthcare professionals to submit reports directly on behalf of patients.
Over recent years, the MHRA has delivered a major upgrade programme to modernise the Yellow Card scheme’s technology and infrastructure. This includes improving the quality and timeliness of submitted information, making it easier to report, adding conditional questions to reduce follow up, and support real time signal detection of safety issues.
The Yellow Card app has also been modernised to mirror the website, broaden reporting options, including defective and counterfeit medicines, and improve access to safety data. Multifactor authentication has been introduced to enhance account security and enable future integration with the NHS login. The app has also been upgraded to a progressive web application, providing a seamless and engaging user experience across devices.
Together, these improvements increase public awareness, make reporting, including of myocarditis and pericarditis, easier, and enhance the MHRA’s ability to identify and assess emerging safety concerns across healthcare products.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the level of immigration since July 2024 on social cohesion in the UK.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office will increase existing English language requirements for economic migrants and introduce new English language requirements for dependants of those coming under economic routes.
These measures support the integration of those coming here to work here (and their families) into UK communities, as well; as ensuring that those coming to work here are less vulnerable to abuse and exploitation in the workplace.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Merron on 9 March (HL Deb col 9), what steps they plan to take to ensure the integration of care between the proposed National Care Service and the National Health Service.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring joined up health and care services. While the Independent Commission will inform the long-term direction of a national care service, the Government is already progressing reforms to strengthen the join up between services, so people experience more integrated and person-centred care.
We are developing Neighbourhood Health Services, which will allow more integrated working within the National Health Service, as well as between the NHS, local government, and a wide range of public services, including the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector. The National Care Service and the Neighbourhood Health Service will play a critical role in helping people stay independent for longer, minimising the time that they need to spend in hospital or in long-term residential care.
Alongside this, we are improving national data and digital infrastructure, including driving the adoption of digital and social care records so people get the right care quicker, without needing to repeat their care needs or medical history.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
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 support children and young people with arthritis.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting children and young people with arthritis to ensure they get timely, quality care.
Services for children with suspected arthritis are commissioned in line with the national service specification for paediatric rheumatology services.
The national service specification helps to reduce waiting times for diagnosis by mandating clear referral pathways and rapid access to specialist paediatric rheumatology teams. It sets national standards requiring timely triage of suspected cases, prioritisation of urgent referrals, and availability of multidisciplinary expertise for early assessment. The specification ensures consistency across regions, minimises delays caused by local variation, and supports faster initiation of diagnostic tests and treatment planning.
NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time Paediatric Rheumatology programme is aimed at improving care for children and young people with inflammatory, autoimmune, and rheumatic conditions. Led by specialists, it uses data-driven, "deep-dive" peer reviews of all National Health Service trusts to reduce unwarranted variations, improve transition services, and standardise best practice.
Additionally, the 10-Year Health Plan’s commitments to expand community diagnostic centres for quicker access to tests, introduce digital tools to support early symptom monitoring and triage, and improve the integration between primary care and specialist services will further streamline referral pathways and ensure children receive timely assessment and treatment.