Written questions by Norris.

Whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the resilience of outsourced non-emergency patient transport services.

Awaiting answer.

What financial monitoring arrangements Integrated Care Boards are required to maintain for private ambulance contractors delivering NHS-funded services.

Awaiting answer.

Whether (a) his department (b) ICBs are routinely informed when major NHS contractors face significant tax enforcement action.

Awaiting answer.

What steps he is taking to help reduce waiting times at the RUH (Bath) A&E department.

The Government recognises the pressures facing emergency departments, including at the Royal United Hospital Bath, and is taking sustained action to reduce accident and emergency waiting times and improve patient flow across urgent and emergency care. Through the NHS Medium‑Term Planning Framework and the Model Emergency Department, NHS England has set out a clear trajectory for improving performance, with a focus on reducing long waits, improving safety, and delivering better patient experience.At the Royal United Hospital Bath, NHS England is working with the trust and the wider local system to support delivery of these improvements. This includes action to improve patient flow, increase the use of Same Day Emergency Care to avoid unnecessary admissions, strengthen discharge and community capacity, and deliver capital investment to improve emergency department flow. The trust is also receiving support from national improvement programmes, including Getting It Right First Time, alongside action to strengthen overnight staffing and real‑time performance oversight.

What steps his Department is taking to improve access to mental health services for children in North East Somerset and Hanham.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country, including children and young people’s mental health services in the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.As prioritised in our Medium-Term Planning Framework, we are taking action to reduce the longest waits for specialist mental health support, tackling regional disparities, and expanding access, thereby making services more productive so children and young people spend less time waiting for the treatment they need.We are also accelerating the rollout of Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges to reach full national coverage by 2029. With an additional 900,000 children and young people having access by spring 2026, 60% of all pupils will have access to this early support at school, up from 44% in spring 2024. As part of this, we are investing an additional £13 million to pilot enhanced training for staff so that they can offer more effective support to young people with complex needs, such as trauma, neurodivergence, and disordered eating.More widely, we are rolling out Young Futures Hubs. The Government’s first 50 Young Futures Hubs will bring together services at a local level to support children and young people, helping to ensure that young people can access early advice and wellbeing intervention. We will work to ensure that there is no wrong door for young people who need support with their mental health.

If he will publish a national strategy for palliative and end-of-life care.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and will enable integrated care boards to address challenges in access, quality, and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan.

What steps he has taken to accelerate the pay review process so that NHS staff in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency receive uplifts nearer the start of the financial year.

The Government has taken a number of steps to accelerate the National Health Service pay review process, aiming to ensure that pay uplifts for staff are implemented as close to the start of the financial year as possible.Having accepted the 2025/26 headline pay recommendations in full, the Government issued remit letters to the Pay Review Bodies in July 2025 formally beginning the 2026/27 pay round over two months earlier than last year.We have now published our written evidence reports for the three pay review bodies, the NHS Pay Review Body, the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration, and the Senior Salaries Review Body, which cover pay for most NHS staff. Our oral evidence sessions that follow publication of the written evidence took place in November and December 2025. This puts us on track to meet my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s ambition to announce and implement pay uplifts into pay packets as close to 1 April 2026 as possible.

What steps his Department is taking to improve early diagnosis of cardiovascular disease in primary care in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Action includes the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board providing £1.8 million to support hypertension services. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Implementation is continuing this year, in 2025/26, and includes partnership working with community pharmacy to case find undiagnosed hypertension. £30,000 of the funding has also been invested to increase the uptake and quality of the national Blood Pressure Community Pharmacy service.

What progress his Department has made on reducing waiting times for children requiring speech and language therapy.

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.For 2026/27 we have asked systems to actively manage long waits for community health services, including reducing the proportion of waits over 18 weeks, developing a plan to eliminate all 52-week waits, and increasing community health services capacity to meet growth in demand, expected to be approximately 3% nationally per year.NHS England is working with the Department for Education to identify and support children with speech, language, and communication needs by co-funding pathfinder sites to deliver the Early Language Support for Every Child programme.The programme aims to identify and support children and young people in early years and primary school settings with mild to moderate speech, language, and communication needs, reducing the rate of specialist referrals, and increasing workforce capacity through innovative workforce models.

What progress his department is making on its target to reduce the time taken for cancer diagnoses.

The Department is supporting the National Health Service to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), for 75% of patients to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of being referred urgently by their general practitioner for suspected cancer. NHS England collects and publishes monthly FDS performance data nationally and for individual cancer groups.To achieve the FDS, NHS England rolled out public awareness campaigns of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlined referral routes for different cancer types, and is increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres.NHS England has also achieved full roll out of non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type.Between October 2024 and September 2025, approximately 193,000 more patients got a cancer diagnosis or the all-clear on time than in the year from July 2023 to June 2024.

What steps he is taking to strengthen maternity and neonatal care for people in North East Somerset & Hanham.

The University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Trust (UHBW), the North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT), and the Royal United Hospitals NHS Trust (RUH) provide maternity services for North East Somerset and Hanham.Steps taken at UHBW and NBT include: a well-established Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) that replicates national guidance; achieving full compliance against all 10 maternity safety actions for the second year running; good progress against ‘Saving Babies Lives’ Version 3; and working to reduce inequalities in maternity and neonatal care through collaboration with the Race and Health Observatory and Black Maternity Matters anti-racism training for perinatal staff.Steps taken at RUH include robust oversight of perinatal quality improvement projects as part of NHS England’s ‘Savings Babies Lives’ care bundle, including the smoke-free pregnancy incentive voucher scheme, and working with families through initiatives such as the MNVP.At a national level, Baroness Amos is leading a rapid, national, independent investigation into National Health Service maternity and neonatal services to help us to understand the systemic issues behind why so many women, babies, and families experience unacceptable care. The Government is also setting up a National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The taskforce will take forward the recommendations of the investigation to develop a new national action plan to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.

What progress is being made to improve North East Somerset & Hanham patient access to GPs.

We are expanding capacity in general practice and delivering more appointments to patients. North East Somerset and Hanham sit within the NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board area, which has seen a 9.4% rise in the number of general practice appointments delivered over the past year, with 304,000 appointments delivered in September 2025 compared to 278,000 appointments delivered in September 2024. This is above the national average increase of 6.6%.In October 2024, we have invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme and given additional flexibilities to recruit 2,500 new general practitioners into primary care networks across England. We have invested an additional £1.1 billion in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS. This is the biggest increase in over a decade. Additionally, the new £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund will create additional clinical space within over 1,000 general practices across England to deliver 8.3 million more appointments each year.

What progress is being made to ensure women in North East Somerset & Hanham have access to menopause treatments on the NHS.

The Government recognises that women suffering from symptoms of menopause have been failed for far too long, and we acknowledge the impact it has on women’s lives, relationships, and participation in the workplace. The number of women in Bath and North East Somerset receiving hormone replacement therapy, commonly used to relieve menopause symptoms, has increased by approximately 85%, from 15,770 women in 2021/22, to 29,140 in 2024/25. The Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire integrated care board (ICB) has also commissioned its general practices (GPs) to provide testosterone replacement to menopausal women, who are affected by low libido as a result of ongoing hormone replacement therapy treatments. Hanham falls within the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care System area, within which seven primary care networks are trialling the use of group education and group consultations for menopause. Over 1,000 people have attended a group education session. The University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust Menopause Service is running a training clinic for six GPs with additional qualifications in menopause, to upskill further in menopause care and help reduce waiting lists.

Whether he will take steps to make Integrated Care Boards coterminous with strategic authorities.

The English devolution white paper made clear the Government’s long-term ambition to align public service boundaries, including health and strategic authority boundaries. We reaffirmed this commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan, published on 3 July 2025. Our aim is that integrated care boards should be coterminous with strategic authorities wherever feasibly possible.I also refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS915 I made to the House on 9 September 2025, which provided an update on further progress.

What steps he is taking to support hospices to provide high quality end-of-life care.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. Whilst the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at the end of life and their loved ones.We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local integrated care boards on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26.  This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.In the long-term, the Government and the NHS will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining the drivers and incentives that are required in palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.

What recent progress his Department has made on reducing backlogs at (a) Royal United Hospital Bath and (b) Southmead Hospital.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. Waiting list data is available for the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, which encompasses the Royal United Hospital Bath, and the North Bristol NHS Trust, which encompasses the Southmead Hospital.As of July 2025, the total elective waiting list for the Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation NHS Trust was 41,010, with 57.7% of patients waiting less than 18 weeks. The total elective waiting list for the North Bristol NHS Trust was 44,047, with 65.8% of patients waiting less than 18 weeks.Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period. Comparing from April 2025 to July 2025, the latest available data, performance against the 18-week standard has worsened by 2.9% at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, and improved by 2.6% at the North Bristol NHS Trust.

What steps his Department is taking to improve (a) electronic patient records and (b) associated systems in the NHS.

We are improving National Health Service electronic patient records (EPRs) through a £2 billion investment in IT systems, the implementation of a Frontline Digitisation programme, and the approval of new general practice IT systems to increase digital maturity across secondary and primary care. The programme is forecasting to achieve 98% EPR coverage by March 2026, with the remaining 2% of NHS trusts advanced in their plans for an EPR.This aims to reduce administrative tasks, improve data access for better patient outcomes, and foster collaboration by replacing paper records with digital ones.

What steps his Department is taking to support family carers in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

The Government recognises the vital role of unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they have the support they need.The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers. To help local authorities fulfil their duties, including to unpaid carers, the 2025 Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.In April, the Government also increased the Carer’s Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196, the largest ever increase since the Carer’s Allowance was introduced.Through measures in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are equipping and supporting carers by making them more visible, empowering their voices in care planning, joining up services, and streamlining their caring tasks by introducing a new ‘MyCarer’ section to the NHS App.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of progress on reducing NHS waiting lists in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029. We provided additional investment in the Autumn Budget that has enabled us to fulfil our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments early. More than double that number, 4.9 million more appointments, have now been delivered.Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.The North East Somerset and Hanham Constituency spans two integrated care boards (ICBs). From June 2024 to June 2025, the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB’s waiting list decreased by 0.8%. The NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB’s waiting list increased by 2.4%. However, average wait times have decreased across both ICBs. Over the last 12 months there has been a 3.5% increase in the number of people waiting less than 18-weeks. The number of patients waiting over a year has also decreased by 2%.

What progress his Department has made in ensuring additional NHS appointments are made available to people in North East Somerset and Hanham constituency.

Tackling waiting lists is a top priority for this Government. We have exceeded our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments. More than double that number, 4.9 million more appointments, have now been delivered in England.On 6 January, NHS England published a plan titled Reforming elective care for patients, which sets out a whole-system approach to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029. The plan is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/reforming-elective-care-for-patients/Progress is being made in the North East Somerset and Hanham constituency, which spans two integrated care boards (ICBs). In both ICBs, around 60% of patients wait under 18 weeks for elective care.As of June, average waiting times have decreased across both ICBs, compared to the same period last year. Over the last 12 months there has been a 3.5 percentage point increase in the number of people waiting less than 18 weeks. The number of patients waiting over a year has also decreased by 2%.