Written questions by Johnson.

With reference to the Health Building Note 09-03: Neonatal Units, published 20 March 2013, how many and what proportion of neonatal units (a) do and (b) do not meet the standard for parent accommodation.

Not all maternity hospitals are currently able to offer adequate accommodation for families who have experienced a bereavement. This is due to the historic undercapitalisation across the National Health Service, as highlighted by the Darzi Report. As a first step towards improving our maternity and neonatal estate, we are investing over £100 million through the 2025/26 Estates Safety Fund to address critical safety risks on the maternity estate, enabling better care for mothers and their newborns. The provision of bereavement suites is included in current estate standards on the design and planning of new maternity units. This is delivering improvements, as our enquiries suggest that current NHS capital programmes progressing maternity new builds include the provision of an appropriate bereavement suite.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that neonatal services are fully incorporated into the scope of the National maternity and neonatal investigation.

Baroness Amos has published the terms of reference for the national maternity and neonatal investigation. The terms of reference fully incorporate neonatal care into its aims. The full terms of reference are available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-maternity-and-neonatal-investigation-terms-of-reference/national-maternity-and-neonatal-investigation-terms-of-reference

With reference to the press notice entitled Dental patients to benefit from 700,000 extra urgent appointments, published on 21 February 2025, how many of the extra 700,000 urgent dental care appointments have been delivered (a) in total and (b) by ICB since 1 April 2025.

We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.Data on the delivery of these additional urgent dental care appointments will be published in due course.

How many consultant pathologists are employed by the NHS by (a) headcount and (b) whole time equivalent.

NHS England publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England, which are available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statisticsThese statistics include staff working in hospital trusts and integrated care boards, but excludes staff working in primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), the human resources system for the National Health Service.The data published by NHS England shows that, as of June 2024, there are 3,164 full-time equivalent and 3,515 headcount consultants in the pathology specialty group employed in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England.

What data his Department holds on the proportion of urgent dental care appointments purchased by ICBs that were attended by a patient.

We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they need. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.The Department does not hold data on the proportion of urgent dental care appointments, purchased by ICBs, that were attended by a patient.

With reference to the press notice entitled Dental patients to benefit from 700,000 extra urgent appointments, published on 21 February 2025, how many urgent appointments each ICB has been asked to stand up.

We have asked integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they need. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from April 2025.Appointments are available across the country, with specific expectations for each region. These appointments are more heavily weighted towards those areas where they are needed the most.The press notice referred to in the question contains the number of appointments each ICB has been asked to deliver. This is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dental-patients-to-benefit-from-700000-extra-urgent-appointments

What progress he has made on the commitment to deliver a doubling of the number of NHS CT and MRI scanners.

We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services, including investment in new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scanners. We are investing in transforming and expanding diagnostic services to speed up waiting times for tests, a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the referral to treatment 18-week standard.The 2025 Spending Review confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years across new diagnostic, elective and urgent care capacity. This includes £600 million in capital funding for diagnostics in 2025/26 to support delivery of the NHS performance standards. This funding will deliver new community diagnostic centres, including new MRI and CT scanners, new scanners in acute hospital settings, as well as replacement of the oldest CT and MRI scanners. Further details and allocations will be set out in due course.The National Imaging Data Collection is an annual retrospective data collection for NHS imaging services within England. It is published annually, focusing on the number of reported imaging assets, including MRI and CT scanners. The latest publication is correct for March 2024 and is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostics-waiting-times-and-activity/national-imaging-data-collection/

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the NICE cost effectiveness threshold.

The Life Sciences Sector Plan states that future changes to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE’s) methods and processes can be considered where they are evidence based, financially sustainable, and represent value to the taxpayer.The pharmaceutical sector and the innovative medicines it produces are critical to our National Health Service, our economy, and the Plan for Change.Through our Life Sciences Sector Plan, we have committed to working with industry to accelerate growth in spending on innovative medicines compared to the previous decade so that NHS patients can be assured of better access to the best and novel treatments. We are working with industry to consider the most appropriate route to achieving this aim and will consider all necessary levers to achieve this, including the NICE cost effectiveness threshold.

What steps he is taking to ensure patients receive time-critical medication in care settings.

Hospital providers are responsible for ensuring that patients within hospital settings receive the appropriate medication on time, and there is a variety of different mechanisms that can be used to support timely administration.These include:Training on time critical medications, which is part of the delivery of safe and effective medicines optimisation through the operation of each organisation’s Medicines Policy.Electronic prescribing and medicines administration, which continues to be rolled out in the National Health Service in England. This is recognised to be essential to record compliance with time critical medications.Self-administration may help some patients, following a shared risk assessment and where providers have the space and facilities to offer patients personalised secure storage for their medicines and there is facility to monitor when doses have been taken independently.Furthermore, NHS England is leading the Medicines Safety Improvement Programme, as part of the wider NHS Patient Safety Strategy. A focus on time critical medicines has been agreed as a priority for this programme and work is underway involving 80 NHS trusts, with 48 of them receiving active support for innovation and improvement.

Which acute hospital trusts have a helipad which can be used 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

There are currently 55 hospital helipad sites located on NHS England estates with a further 26 sites utilised outside of NHS grounds. While some of these are operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, many have restricted opening hours due to local planning requirements, such as noise abatement controls at night.

With reference to his oral contribution of 6 May 2025, Official Report, column 540 and his letter to the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham dated 29 May 2025, when he will meet the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham to discuss time-critical medication.

My office has been in touch with the hon. Member to arrange a meeting.

What action he is taking to ensure people with Huntington's disease have a single point of contact to coordinate their care.

The revised NHS England Specialised Neurology Services (adults) Specification 2025 outlines a comprehensive model of care, detailing the requirements for specialised neurology services but also outlining the expectations of a system wide approach. It articulates how patients should move into and out of specialised neurology services, including patients with Huntington’s disease, incorporating end to end pathways within an Integrated Neurology System. The NHSE Specialised Commissioning Neurology Transformation Team (NTP) have also produced a number of guidance documents to support the implementation of the revised service specification. This includes developing a neurology transformation toolkit, which outlines the impact of care coordination and case management functions in supporting more equitable and efficient care for people with long-term neurological diseases, including Huntington’s disease.

What plans he has to improve the identification of people with undiagnosed hypertension.

It is estimated that around 29% of all people who have hypertension are undiagnosed. We are taking action to address this as part of the 10-Year Health Plan which outlines our intention to publish a Modern Service Framework for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This will identify the best evidenced interventions, set clear quality standards, drive innovation in CVD prevention and management, and reduce unwarranted variation.We have invested heavily in hypertension case-finding for those over 40 in community pharmacies. As of August 2024, 7,641 pharmacies were actively delivering the service.We continue to deliver the NHS Health Check programme in England which assess the top risk factors for CVD among people aged 40 to 74 years and this includes measuring blood pressure. For every 1.4 million NHS Health Checks delivered annually, there are over 340,000 cases of high blood pressure identified, which results in 40,000 diagnoses of hypertension.

What plans he has for the National Health Data Service to collect data on rare cancers.

The Government is setting up the Health Data Research Service (HDRS) to help improve healthcare for everyone in the United Kingdom. The National Health Service has collected health information from millions of people over 75 years old and has a unique set of data which could hold the secret to curing and better treating major illnesses.HDRS will safely and responsibly capitalise on the UK's rich health and care datasets to unlock breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, including cancers. With streamlined access to this data, researchers will be able to carry out research that will prevent illness and benefit patients sooner, with improved and tailored treatments.HDRS will be open to a diverse range of customers with a legal and ethical research project and will be designed to support the broadest spectrum of research topics, including rare diseases.

What plans he has for the National Health Data Service to collect data on pancreatic cancer.

The Government is setting up the Health Data Research Service (HDRS) to help improve healthcare for everyone in the United Kingdom. The National Health Service has collected health information from millions of people over 75 years old and has a unique set of data which could hold the secret to curing and better treating major illnesses.HDRS will safely and responsibly capitalise on the UK's rich health and care datasets to unlock breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, including cancers. With streamlined access to this data, researchers will be able to carry out research that will prevent illness and benefit patients sooner, with improved and tailored treatments.HDRS will be open to a diverse range of customers with a legal and ethical research project and will be designed to support the broadest spectrum of research topics, including rare diseases.

For what reason some people with motor neurone disease are receiving tofersen during its evaluation by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence; and if he will take steps to make it available to all patients who would benefit from it.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.NICE has selected tofersen for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by the superoxide dismutase – 1 (SOD1) gene mutations as a topic for guidance development through its Highly Specialised Technology (HST) programme. The HST programme appraises medicines for the treatment of very rare, and often very severe diseases, and evaluates whether they can be considered a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. NICE has not yet been able to start the evaluation of tofersen as it is unable to issue guidance on the use of the technology without receiving an evidence submission about the technology’s clinical and cost-effectiveness from the marketing authorisation holder. Therefore, NICE is ready to review tofersen via its HST programme, as soon as Biogen indicates that it is ready to start the NICE evaluation.I am aware that the marketing authorisation holder has established early access programmes (EAPs) through which some patients are currently accessing tofersen. Participation in company-led schemes is decided at an individual NHS trust level and under these programmes, the cost of the drug is free to both patients taking part in it, and to the NHS, but NHS trusts must still cover the administration costs and must provide clinical resources to deliver the EAP. No assessment has been made of regional variation in access to tofersen through the programme.NHS England has published guidance for integrated care systems (ICS) on free of charge medicines schemes, providing advice on potential financial, resourcing, and clinical risks. ICSs should use the guidance to help determine whether to implement any of these schemes, including assessing suitability and any risks in the short, medium, and long term. The guidance is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/free-of-charge-foc-medicines-schemes-national-policy-recommendations-for-local-systems/

What steps he is taking to ensure that all individuals with superoxide dismutase-1 motor neuron disease have access to early access programmes for motor neurone disease.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.NICE has selected tofersen for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by the superoxide dismutase – 1 (SOD1) gene mutations as a topic for guidance development through its Highly Specialised Technology (HST) programme. The HST programme appraises medicines for the treatment of very rare, and often very severe diseases, and evaluates whether they can be considered a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. NICE has not yet been able to start the evaluation of tofersen as it is unable to issue guidance on the use of the technology without receiving an evidence submission about the technology’s clinical and cost-effectiveness from the marketing authorisation holder. Therefore, NICE is ready to review tofersen via its HST programme, as soon as Biogen indicates that it is ready to start the NICE evaluation.I am aware that the marketing authorisation holder has established early access programmes (EAPs) through which some patients are currently accessing tofersen. Participation in company-led schemes is decided at an individual NHS trust level and under these programmes, the cost of the drug is free to both patients taking part in it, and to the NHS, but NHS trusts must still cover the administration costs and must provide clinical resources to deliver the EAP. No assessment has been made of regional variation in access to tofersen through the programme.NHS England has published guidance for integrated care systems (ICS) on free of charge medicines schemes, providing advice on potential financial, resourcing, and clinical risks. ICSs should use the guidance to help determine whether to implement any of these schemes, including assessing suitability and any risks in the short, medium, and long term. The guidance is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/free-of-charge-foc-medicines-schemes-national-policy-recommendations-for-local-systems/

What steps he is taking to ensure people with Huntington's disease have equitable access to mental health services.

Access to mental health services is based on clinical need, including for people with Huntington’s disease.We know that too many people are not receiving the mental health care they need and waiting times to access mental health services are too long. We are determined to change that. Backed by an extra £688 million in Government funding this year, we are transforming mental health services – hiring more staff, delivering more talking therapies sessions, and getting waiting lists down through our 10-Year Health Plan.National Health Service Talking Therapies - Long Term Conditions services have been established across the country to support integrated pathways between Talking Therapies services and physical health pathways for people with long term conditions, including neurological conditions. All integrated care boards are expected to expand services locally by commissioning NHS Talking Therapies services integrated into physical healthcare pathways.

How many and what proportion of NHS neonatal units have parental accommodation available.

Not all maternity hospitals are currently able to offer adequate accommodation for families. This is due to the historic undercapitalisation across the National Health Service, as highlighted by the Darzi Report.All trust boards should review their estate data and seek assurance that all healthcare premises from which they are delivering maternity services are of appropriate standard. This should include a review of community-based maternity services, which were not in the scope of the estate survey. In instances where the estate is not of appropriate standard, trust boards should ensure mitigating action is being taken accordingly.As a first step towards improving our maternity and neonatal estate, we are investing over £100 million through the 2025/26 estates safety fund to address critical safety risks on the maternity estate, enabling better care for mothers and their newborns.

What assessment he has made with the Secretary of State for Education of the potential merits of using geofence technology to tackle the use of vaping devices by children in schools.

It is concerning that youth vaping has more than doubled in the last five years and that one in four children aged between 11 and 15 years old tried vaping in 2023. That is why we are committed to bringing about definitive and positive change to stop future generations from becoming hooked on nicotine. To do this, we are acting to reduce the appeal, availability, and accessibility of these products to children whilst not impacting on their use as a quit aid for adult smokers.The Government’s policy, as set out in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, is that all products are age verified at the point of sale rather than the point of use.We are examining the role of certain technology in vapes as part of our secondary legislation programme, and we are currently running a call for evidence on vapes which explores this area, and which we would encourage stakeholders to respond to. In addition, next year we will run a consultation on introducing smoke-free and vape-free places, restrictions on vape packaging, and on changing how and where vapes are displayed in shops.