Written questions by Cooper.

What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the health impact of high street regeneration.

The design of places where people live, work, and play have a significant role in shaping physical and mental health and wellbeing. Departmental minsters meet with Government colleagues to discuss cross-Government efforts to improve the public’s health, including the impact of the local built and natural environment on health. For example, ministers at the Department of Health and Social Care have met with ministers at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to specifically discuss the relationship between health, towns and planning.

Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help tackle disparities in leasehold maintenance charges for residents living in self-contained bungalows who are charged for communal amenities they cannot not use.

The government is committed to ensuring that leaseholders, including those living in self-contained bungalows, are protected from unfair practices, including in relation to service charges.Individual leases set out what services leaseholders may expect to receive and areas they can access, and what they should pay for.Overcharging through service charges is completely unacceptable.By law variable service charges must be reasonable and, where costs relate to works or services, the works or services must be of a reasonable standard.  Should leaseholders wish to contest the reasonableness of their service charges, they may make an application to the appropriate tribunal.Leaseholders may also access free, independent advice from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), which is funded by the Department and offers a range of online resources, as well as telephone and email support.We intend to consult in the very near future on the measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 designed to drive up the transparency of service charges and to make them more easily challengeable if leaseholders consider them to be unreasonable.

What steps he is taking to help small businesses to improve their capacity to deliver workplace health interventions.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) introduced the Employment Rights Bill on 10 October which is currently passing through the House of Lords. We are also publishing an SME Strategy Paper later this year, which will result in positive and practical support to small and medium size businesses and employers across the UK.The Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead an independent Keep Britain Working Review as a part of the plan to Get Britain Working, focusing on what employers and government can do to encourage and support people living with ill-health in work.

How the 10 year plan for the NHS will ensure that the NHS shifts from sickness to prevention.

The 10-Year Health Plan will set out broader actions for how we shift the health and care systems in England towards preventing ill-health rather than treating sickness. Through the 10-Year Health Plan we want to take action to reduce the causes of the biggest killers and ensure that the National Health Service uses its relationship with patients to help patients improve and protect their own health.We are already taking action, for instance enabling a smoke free generation through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and continuing the rollout of the NHS Health Check. We will build on the success of our vaccination and screening programmes and work with communities to understand what is preventing uptake.

How revised school food standards will align with (a) wider Government strategies on health and (b) the 10-Year Plan for Health.

The government is committed to raising the healthiest generation ever and it is important that schools follow the latest nutritional guidance. We are working with experts on revising the School Food Standards, to ensure they support on strategies around health. The current School Food Standards already state one or more portions of vegetables as an accompaniment and one or more portions of fruit must be provided every day and at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week.

How much his Department has allocated for smoking cessation campaigns in the 2025-26 financial year; and whether he has made an assessment of the number of additional quit attempts that may be made as a result of these campaigns.

The 2025/26 budget for smoking cessation campaigns has not yet been confirmed.

What steps he is taking to increase the facilities available for critical adolescent mental health cases.

If children and young people do need to be admitted to inpatient services for mental health treatment, they should be accommodated in an environment that is suitable for their age. In some instances, clinically urgent situations will sometimes necessitate children and young people being placed on wards that are not specialised for children and young people’s mental health services, or away from their home and family. In these situations, patient safety, the least restrictive environment, and clinical need remains paramount.The model of provision of National Health Service funded inpatient treatment for children and young people is being re-designed to support the move to community-based provision, where children and young people are able to access appropriate support in a timely, effective, and patient-centred way, close to home and in the least restrictive environment.This transition is being supported by the introduction of provider collaboratives to support place-based commissioning and to develop local services that meet the needs of their communities. Options may include increased day provision, and the new model will see a change to how inpatient environments are best utilised.

What steps she has taken to implement a strategic plan to remove asbestos from all non-domestic buildings.

The Government is committed to working towards asbestos removal across Great Britain’s (GB) workplaces, whilst ensuring the safe management of any asbestos present. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is engaging with stakeholders about how to improve what is known about the scale and condition of asbestos remaining in GB workplaces. This will be used to develop a robust evidence base that can support or improve legacy asbestos management as part of a wider, long term strategic plan.

What steps his Department is taking to help prevent childhood obesity.

Obesity robs our kids of the best possible start in life, and is particularly concentrated in the most deprived areas. Supporting people to stay healthier for longer is at the heart of our Health Mission. We face a childhood obesity crisis and this government is taking action. We have acted to end the targeting of junk food ads at children. We’ve also given local authorities stronger powers to block applications for unhealthy takeaways near schools to put children first.

Whether his Department plans to expedite implementation of the recommendations from the Hughes report, published on 7 February 2024; and whether he plans to prioritise establishment of (a) interim payments and (b) a valporate specialist unit to support those affected.

The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report. The report sets out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, including proposals for a financial scheme and for the establishment of a valproate specialist unit. The Government will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s Report at the earliest opportunity.

By what procedure central government funding is allocated to institutions providing hospice care.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on the demand in that ICB area, but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.From 2007/8 until 2023/24, children and young people’s hospices received funding via the Children’s Hospice Grant. While 2023/24 marked the final year of the Children’s Hospice Grant in its previous format, in 2024/25, NHS England provided £25 million of funding for children and young people’s hospices, maintaining the level of funding from 2023/24. For the first time, this funding was distributed to hospices by ICBs, on behalf of NHS England, rather than being centrally administered as before. Since 2022/23, individual allocations of this funding have been determined using a prevalence-based model, enabling allocations to reflect local population need.

What steps he is taking to monitor the rise in cases in the more spreadable variant of mpox now detected in the UK.

There are two distinct types of the mpox virus: clade I and clade II. The previous significant outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2022 was from clade II. Clade I is currently classified as a high consequence infectious disease. The risk to the UK population remains low. We expect to see the occasional imported case of Clade Ib mpox in the UK.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continues to closely monitor mpox epidemiology and has well established surveillance systems to monitor the spread of mpox. This is supported by a robust contact tracing process that helps us to effectively contain any imported cases found in the UK.The latest information about UK cases of mpox is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-detects-first-case-of-clade-ib-mpoxA full summary of the measures UKHSA is taking is summarised in the technical briefing, which is available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66e83b367f20ecc7ec3aa1db/mpox-technical-briefing-9.pdfThis briefing will be reviewed and updated as more is understood about the disease.UKHSA is engaged with international partners, including the World Health Organisation, European, US and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, ensuring we receive updates about international cases in a timely fashion.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to support (a) low and (b) middle income countries issuing compulsory licenses for the HIV prevention tool lenacapavir.

Lenacapavir could play a critical role in the global fight against HIV but only when it is available and affordable in countries that need it. We strongly supported Unitaid's decision to invest £17 million to accelerate access to Lenacapavir through market-shaping grants.As Lord Collins stated in Parliament on 18 November at the HIV APPG roundtable, we welcome Gilead's bilateral voluntary licensing agreements with six generic manufacturers to make and sell generic Lenacapavir in 120 resource-limited countries, and their commitment to provide Lenacapavir at non-profit pricing in sub-Saharan Africa.In combination with our market-shaping interventions, this will help accelerate access to this potentially groundbreaking tool.

What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to increase the amount of health-related content in the national curriculum.

Health education has been compulsory in all state-funded schools in England since 2020, as part of statutory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE).The RSHE curriculum, which is currently being reviewed, includes a wide range of health-related topics, including healthy eating, physical fitness, mental wellbeing and first aid, as well as the risks of smoking, drugs and alcohol.Separately, the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review will consider how RSHE fits into the wider curriculum.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will prioritise global health spending in the Overseas Development Assistance budget in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.

The UK is a leader on global health and one of the largest providers of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for health, including to organisations like Gavi, helping to vaccinate one billion children, and through the Global Fund, which has cut the global death rate from HIV, malaria and TB by 50 per cent, and as the largest flexible funder of the World Health Organization.In 2024/25, we are prioritising predictability and stability after years of turbulence under the previous Government. We will publish the FCDO's ODA programme allocations for 2024/25 shortly. We are considering how to allocate our ODA programme budget for 2025/26 to lay the foundations for our ODA spending in future years; the allocations will be published in due course.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to his speech to the 2024 Country Land and Business Association conference of 21 November 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the proposed 25-year farming roadmap to include (a) food and (b) food consumption.

At the Country Land and Business Association conference, Defra communicated that we would work together with farmers on a 25-year roadmap. This means we will not be telling farmers what to do. The 25-year farming roadmap will be co-produced to transition to new models that are more environmentally, and more financially, sustainable for the long-term. Defra will focus on making farming and food production more profitable and sustainable for decades to come.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of anaesthetic workforce shortages on the NHS’s ability to tackle the elective backlog.

Tackling waiting lists is a key part of our Health Mission. We have committed to getting back to the NHS Constitutional standard that at least 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment within our first term. As a first step to achieving this, we will deliver 2 million additional appointments, scans, and operations, or the equivalent to 40,000 per week.Whilst no formal assessment has been made of the specific potential impact of anaesthetic workforce shortages on the National Health Service’s ability to tackle the backlog, the Government will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills, to deliver the care patients need.

What estimate he has made of the percentage of (a) doctors and (b) anaesthetists preparing to leave the profession; and what steps he is taking to improve retention.

The Government is committed to tackling the workforce crisis across the National Health Service. This will be achieved through better workforce planning, which will address the recruitment and retention challenges facing the NHS.NHS England continues to lead on a range of initiatives to boost retention, with a strong focus on improving organisational culture, supporting staff wellbeing, and promoting flexible working opportunities. It is continually reviewing the effectiveness of these, and their impact on the workforce.No specific estimate of the future numbers of doctors and anaesthetists preparing to leave the profession has been made. The General Medical Council publishes annual information on the total number of doctors leaving their register of licenced professionals. This shows that in 2022, 11,319 doctors left the licenced register, the equivalent to 4% of the register. No information is available for anaesthetists specifically.

What steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of anaesthetists.

NHS staff have been overworked for years, with staff being burnt out and demoralised.We are committed to training the staff we need, including anaesthetists, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the NHS in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where need is greatest.There is no quick fix, but through the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan we will build a health service fit for the future.

Whether he plans to increase the number of medical speciality training places (a) in total and (b) in anaesthesia.

NHS staff have been overworked for years, with staff being burnt out and demoralised.We are committed to training the staff we need, including anaesthetists, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the NHS in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where need is greatest.There is no quick fix, but through the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan we will build a health service fit for the future.