Written questions by Chambers.

What steps his Department is taking to improve support for family carers.

Our 10 Year Health Plan will boost support for family carers via digital tools like MyCarer, and include them in care planning and shared decision-making processes.We have already taken action. We have raised the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit to £196 per week - the biggest increase since 1976. We have also launched an independent commission into adult social care, to shape adult social care and address unpaid carers’ needs.

What steps he is taking to improve the identification of young carers by adult mental health services.

Local authorities are required by law to take reasonable steps to identify young carers in their area that need support, and to undertake an assessment of need, where appropriate. To support local authorities in their child protection duties, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which was introduced to Parliament in December 2024, contains provisions that will strengthen multi-agency working with children and families by introducing a new duty on safeguarding partners, including local authorities, police, and health services.We recognise that, when someone is admitted to a mental health hospital or detained under the Mental Health Act, young carers are not always appropriately identified by adult mental health services. To improve this, as part of the reforms to the Mental Health Act, we plan to encourage individuals to make the presence of any young carers known in their Advance Choice Document. This document is intended to be a source of key information for mental health professionals if the individual experiences a mental health crisis.Furthermore, provisions in the Mental Health Bill aim to ensure that people who care for a patient’s welfare, such as young carers, are proactively involved in the patient’s statutory care plan by the clinician. We will include guidance in the revised Mental Health Act Code of Practice to help ensure young carers are appropriately involved and supported.NHS England is working to support the identification of young carers and has recently published guidance for general practitioners. NHS England is also utilising data to help support greater joined up work between health, education, and social care.

If he will ensure that UK trained doctors have a Speciality Training Pathway available to them after foundation year two.

We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure that 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 National Health Service 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.Speciality training positions are advertised nationally, and the process is administered by a lead deanery on behalf of the four nations of the United Kingdom. There is no obligation on NHS providers to advertise residency positions for British nationals before foreign nationals, or to hire British residents before overseas residents. The rules and criteria for recruitment into specialty training are agreed by the Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection committees on behalf of the four statutory education bodies of the UK and must meet standards required by the General Medical Council. Working with NHS England, we continue to keep the selection process for all applicants to medical speciality training under review.  Internationally educated staff remain an important part of the workforce, and our Code of Practice for International Recruitment ensures stringent ethical standards when recruiting health and social care staff from overseas. However, the Government is also committed to growing homegrown talent and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join the NHS.

If his Department will take steps to ensure that the level of funding for mental health services (a) reflects changes in service demand and (b) reduces the imbalance of resource allocation between mental and physical health.

Despite the challenging fiscal environment, the Government has committed to protecting funding on mental health. We know 2025/26 will be a challenging year, and the National Health Service must live within its means. This will require a relentless focus on operational performance, recovering productivity, tackling unwarranted variation, and reducing delays and waste to ensure taxpayers’ money is spent wisely.Our focus on mental health will continue to be backed by the Mental Health Investment Standard in 2025/26 to ensure mental health funding is ring-fenced to support delivery of our commitments, including those outlined in the NHS Planning Guidance.

What progress his Department has made on providing smoking cessation support to patients who are in hospital receiving care for cardiovascular disease.

As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England has prioritised, and given new funding to integrated care boards (ICBs) for, the rollout of tobacco dependence services in hospital settings. Decisions on the scale and makeup of the services are agreed locally between ICBs and providers, based on local priorities. Where services are available, they will be accessible to people with the greatest need, including those with cardiovascular disease.

What progress his Department has made on the prevention stream of the health mission; and when he plans to publish an update from the mission board.

The Government is committed to tackling the United Kingdom’s biggest killers and building a fairer UK, where everyone lives longer, healthier lives. This is why our Health Mission sets out to shift away from a model geared towards late diagnosis and treatment, to one where there is focus on prevention and more services are delivered in local communities.We have already acted with the landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill passing committee stage on 30 January 2025. We are committed to banning junk food advertising to children. A 9pm TV watershed and 24-hour online ban on paid-for advertising of less healthy food and drink products targeting children are on track to come into force across the UK on 1 October 2025. We have also committed to banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to young people aged under 16 years old.Alongside this, we are exploring all interventions that will improve public health across a range of the UK’s biggest killers and help deliver the shift from treatment to prevention. Further details on our approach will be shared as we move forward.Mission Boards are Cabinet Committees. It is a long-established precedent that information about the proceedings of the Cabinet or of any committee of the Cabinet is not normally shared publicly; this includes mission boards.

Whether prevention and public health will feature in the 10 year health plan.

Yes. The Government’s Health Mission sets out our ambition to build a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan, which will be published later this year, will set out broader actions for how we shift health and care systems in England towards preventing ill-health rather than treating sickness.

Whether he plans to introduce a new plan to help reduce childhood obesity.

The prevention of ill health is a clear priority for the Government, and the cornerstone of this is supporting children to live healthier lives. We face a childhood obesity crisis, and the Government will take action to tackle the root causes of obesity head on, easing the strain on our National Health Service and creating the healthiest generation of children ever. We have already laid secondary legislation to restrict advertisements of less healthy food and drink to children on television and online, we have announced changes to the planning framework for fast food near schools, and we are taking steps to ensure the Soft Drinks Industry Levy remains effective and fit-for-purpose. Further action on obesity under the Government’s Health Mission will be set out in due course.

What the cost of agency staff employed by Royal Hampshire County Hospital was in the last 12 months.

The information requested is not available. Information regarding expenditure on agency staffing will be held locally by the National Health Service trust, the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. NHS England collects some information on the staffing expenditure of NHS bodies, but this information has not been centrally validated.

What the average wait time in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital's Accident and Emergency department was between December 2024 and January 2025.

The data is not available in the format requested. The latest provisional published data for the median average time spent at emergency departments at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for November 2024 was 218 minutes. Information relating to December 2024 will be published on 13 February 2025.

What steps he plans to take to tackle the shortage of social care packages in (a) Royal Hampshire County Hospital and (b) Winchester.

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market and to commission services to meet the diverse needs of all local people. In performing that duty, a local authority must have regard to current and likely future demand for such services and consider how providers might meet that demand.The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund includes grant conditions which require each local authority to submit an adult social care capacity plan. These were submitted to the Department in June 2024.The Government is supporting local authorities by making available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.

What steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of (a) counsellors and (b) psychotherapists in the mental health workforce.

The National Health Service workforce has been overworked for years, leading to staff becoming burnt out and demoralised and, while there has been growth in the mental health workforce over recent years, more is needed. That is why, as part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce waiting times and provide faster treatment. We recognise that bringing in the staff needed will take time. We are working with NHS England on options to deliver this expansion of the mental health workforce.More broadly, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. This plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. A central part of this will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.This summer we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.

What steps his Department is taking to help integrate accredited (a) counsellors and (b) psychotherapists into mental health support teams for students.

We know that too many children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and that waits for mental health services are far too long. We will provide access to a specialist mental health professional in every school so that mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, can be identified early on and prevented from developing into more serious conditions in later life. We are working with our colleagues at NHS England and the Department for Education to consider options to deliver this commitment.Department for Education guidance encourages mental health support teams to work with other existing professionals, such as school or college-based counsellors, educational psychologists, school nurses, pastoral care, educational welfare officers, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, local authority provision, primary care, and NHS Children and Young People Mental Health services.

What proportion of NHS funding has been allocated to mental health services in each year since 2015; and whether this funding met the NHS mental health investment standard.

The following table shows the recurrent National Health Service baseline, the total forecast mental health spend, and the proportion of NHS funding forecasted to be allocated to mental health services, which is only available in the format required under section 3(2) of the Health and Care Act 2022 from 2022/23 to 2024/25: 2022/232023/242024/25Recurrent NHS baseline£142,400,000,000£154,700,000,000£164,000,000,000Total forecast mental health spend£12,600,000,000£13,900,000,000£14,800,000,000Mental health share of recurrent baseline8.87%9%9.01%Source: Department of Health and Social Care Written Ministerial Statements.The forecast figures for mental health spend are different from those in the NHS Mental Health Dashboard, which also includes spend on learning disabilities and dementia. The dashboard also compares integrated care board (ICB) mental health spend to ICB allocations, whereas the figures above compare projected total mental health spend to the recurrent NHS Mandate, which includes spending across ICBs, service development funding, and specialised commissioning.The following table shows the number of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), now integrated care boards (ICBs), meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS), each year from 2016/17 to 2023/24:YearNumber of CCGs, now ICBs, meeting the MHIS2016/17177 out of 209 CCGs2017/18186 out of 207 CCGs2018/19179 out of 195 CCGs2019/20181 out of 191 CCGs2020/21135 out of 135 CCGs2021/22106 out of 106 CCGs2022/2341 out of 42 ICBs2023/2442 out of 42 ICBsSource: NHS Mental Health Dashboard, NHS EnglandNote: between 2020/21 and 2021/22, there was a methodology change in how CCG base allocation was calculated.Calculation of the MHIS does not include spend on learning disabilities, autism, dementia, and specialised commissioning.

If he will make it his policy to maintain the Mental Health Investment Standard.

The NHS Operational and Planning Guidance for 2024/25 makes clear that integrated care boards are expected to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will set out expectations for mental health funding, including its share of overall National Health Service expenditure in 2025/26, in due course, as required under section 3(2) of the Health and Care Act 2022.

What proportion of extra NHS funding announced at the budget will be allocated to NHS mental health services.

The NHS Operational and Planning Guidance for 2024/25 makes clear that integrated care boards are expected to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will set out expectations for mental health funding, including its share of overall National Health Service expenditure in 2025/26, in due course, as required under section 3(2) of the Health and Care Act 2022.

With reference to paragraph 2.40 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October, if he will make an estimate of the number of pharmacies that will pay increased National Insurance contributions (a) nationally and (b) by constituency.

We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, which enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department, from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26. The employer National Insurance rise will be implemented April 2025, and the Department will set out further details on the allocation of funding for next year at the earliest opportunity.

With reference to paragraph 2.40 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October, whether he has made an estimate of the (a) overall cost to pharmacies and (b) the estimated average cost per business in the pharmacy sector of the proposed increase to employer National Insurance contributions.

We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, which enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department, from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26. The employer National Insurance rise will be implemented April 2025, and the Department will set out further details on the allocation of funding for next year at the earliest opportunity.

With reference to paragraph 2.40 of the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October, whether he has made an estimate of the total cost to pharmacy businesses of the proposed increase in employer National Insurance contributions (a) nationally and (b) by constituency.

We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, which enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department, from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26. The employer National Insurance rise will be implemented April 2025, and the Department will set out further details on the allocation of funding for next year at the earliest opportunity.

Whether he is taking steps to encourage increase his international counterparts to increase financial support for low- and middle-income countries in combating antimicrobial resistance at the Global High-Level Ministerial Meeting in Saudi Arabia.

The United Kingdom has long championed improved global finance to address anti-microbial resistance (AMR). The Department has committed £450 million of Official Development Assistance budget to tackle AMR in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through improving laboratory capacity and surveillance on resistance. The UK has also funded £106.6 million through the Global AMR Innovation Fund to develop innovative solutions to AMR which focus on the needs of LMICs.We welcome the adoption of the political declaration on AMR at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and its call for the World Bank to work with the Quadripartite to facilitate improved access to existing funding for AMR.I attended the 4th Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance in Jeddah on 15 and 16 November 2024. At the event I worked with other global leaders to secure progress that is being made to deliver the commitments agreed at the UNGA High Level meeting and build momentum on the actions needed, particularly on sustainable financing to tackle AMR.