Written questions by Hendrick.

What provisions he is making in the National Health Service to ensure that patients with long term eye conditions receive adequate practical and emotional support.

We recognise the importance of practical and emotional support for people living with long term eye conditions. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are responsible for assessing individuals’ care and support needs and, where eligible, for meeting those needs. This includes the legal duty for local authorities to support people with sight loss.NHS England has published a patient support toolkit for eye care commissioners and providers which aims to ensure that patients with ophthalmic conditions are supported throughout their care journey. It sets out that whilst receiving care provided by the hospital, patients need information and support through diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment. Individuals can also refer themselves into talking therapies, which are widely available.We are also taking steps to revise the certificate of visual impairment to improve signposting to local support for newly certified patients with a sight impairment or severe sight impairment.

What steps her department is taking to make transports systems more easily accessible for people with sight loss, to allow them to travel independently and spontaneously.

The government is committed to improving transport services so they are more inclusive and enable people with sight loss to travel safely, confidently and with dignity. As part of our broader mission to break down barriers to opportunity, we recognise that more needs to be done to ensure transport is accessible to all.Our Bus Services Act 2025 includes a comprehensive package of measures to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of local transport. Through the Act, we are helping authorities to provide safer and more accessible bus stations and stops and mandating more streamlined disability training for bus drivers and frontline staff. We are also requiring local authorities to regularly review the accessibility of their bus networks through the development and publishing of a Bus Network Accessibility Plan.The government recognises the concerns which have been raised about floating bus stops, particularly. On 20 November I wrote to all local traffic authorities in England requesting that they put on hold designs which require people to board or alight directly from or into a cycle track. The Act requires the Secretary of State to publish statutory guidance on their provision and design within three months of Royal Assent, drafting of which is underway.We are also continuing the implementation of the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations (AIR), which will require audible and visible destination and next stop information on board most local bus services by October 2026.Ensuring the rail network is also accessible is at the heart of our passenger-focused approach to improving rail services. We are committed to improving the experience for disabled passengers and that is why we have published a roadmap to an accessible railway. It sets out what we are doing now to improve the day-to-day travelling experience for disabled passengers in the lead up to Great British Railways being established. We have installed platform edge tactile paving at every station in England with the final station in Scotland due to be complete next month. The final Welsh station, currently closed for refurbishment, will have them installed when it reopens in April.We are also committed to developing an Accessible Travel Charter. The Charter is a commitment to a shared vision for accessible travel. It will set out what disabled travellers can expect from their journeys, share best practice across organisations and create consistency in end-to-end journeys for disabled travellers.

How many medical appointments were missed by (a) deaf and (b) hearing impaired people due to a lack of information support (i) at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, (ii) in the North West and (c) in England over the last three years.

The Department does not hold data on medical appointments missed in the format requested. Our Elective Reform Plan sets out the focussed action we are taking to reduce missed appointments, as part of delivering the Government’s commitment to return to the constitutional standard of 92% of patients having their first treatment within 18-weeks of referral. This includes enhancing communication between hospitals and patients, using the results of artificial intelligence to predict missed appointments, and targeting support to vulnerable patient groups, saving up to one million missed appointments.The Elective Reform Plan and the 10-Year Health Plan commit to modernising care equitably and inclusively, including ensuring consistency in the availability of information, so that patients, including those that are deaf or have hearing impairments, are supported to attend appointments and have the best possible experience of care.As part of this, NHS England published a refreshed Accessible Information Standard (AIS) in July 2025. This sets out a specific, consistent approach to meeting the information and communication support needs of service users with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, and requires that relevant staff are adequately trained. NHS England is supporting implementation of AIS, so that staff and organisations are aware of the importance of meeting the needs of disabled people using services.

If he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the RNID report entitled Still Ignored: the fight for accessible healthcare; what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the communication barriers and health inequalities for deaf and hearing-impaired people are reduced.

Under the 2010 Equality Act, health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. This includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language interpreters to support deaf patients.NHS England published a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) on 30 June 2025 and is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on the AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the National Health Service are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using services.In July 2016, NHS England published the report Commissioning Services for People with Hearing Loss: A Framework for Clinical Commissioning Groups. This framework supports the newly established integrated care boards in England to make informed decisions on maximising value for local populations and providing consistent, high quality, integrated care. It also addresses inequalities in access and outcomes between hearing services.NHS England is also rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag which enables the recording of key information about a patient and their adjustment needs, to ensure support can be tailored appropriately. Guidance and free training on the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag are available for health and social care staff.

What plans are in place to ensure that the medical records of deaf and hearing-impaired patients are appropriately marked prior to the introduction of the Single Patient Record in 2028.

The Reasonable Adjustment flag is part of the NHS Spine, and professionals and their administrative staff can work with an individual to create the flag using the National Care Records Service, to ensure that an individual’s needs for reasonable adjustments are recorded and shared, to ensure appropriate support by health and care services. Work is continuing to allow direct integration of the flag with clinical systems, using the Patient Flags Application Programming Interface. The Single Patient Record (SPR) programme is at an early stage of development. Inclusivity and ease of access is central to the vision for the design of the SPR, and the record of people’s reasonable adjustments, and their needs, will be part of the information made available to staff.

How many BSL-interpreters were provided at the outset for patients seeking healthcare treatment in (a) Preston, (b) Lancashire and (c) England over the last 12 months.

The information requested is not held centrally. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, which includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language interpreters to support deaf patients in the community.On 30 June 2025, a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on AIS. The intention is to ensure that staff and organisations in the National Health Service are aware of the AIS and the importance of meeting the information and communication needs of disabled people using these services.The AIS implementation guidance outlines support for people with hearing loss, and is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/accessible-information-standard-implementation-guidance/#:~:text=Common%20types%20of%20communication%20support%20and%20alternative%20formats NHS England is rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag which enables the recording of key information about a patient and their adjustment needs, to ensure support can be tailored appropriately.

If he will publish a timeline for when the NHS app will be made British Sign Language accessible.

The Government has set out a commitment to make the NHS App British Sign Language (BSL) accessible in the 10-Year Health Plan, which covers the period to 2035. Currently, there is no timeline for when the NHS App will be made BSL accessible. The NHS App roadmap is published and regularly updated, and is available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/nhs-app/roadmap

Whether his Department plans to introduce mandatory visual display screens in (a) GP practices and (b) medical waiting rooms to ensure (i) deaf and (ii) hearing impaired patients are made aware of their appointment.

The Department has no plans to mandate screens in general practices. However, a revised Accessible Information Standard (AIS) was published on 30 June 2025, to ensure that people who have a disability, impairment, or sensory loss can access and understand information about National Health Services and receive the communication support they need to use those services. Nationally, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are required to be fully compliant with all aspects of the standard.NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication, and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on the AIS.

Whether he plans to take steps to improve access to interpreters for pregnant women and their families who are receiving maternity and neonatal care; and whether he plans to introduce national guidance to ensure consistency of interpretation provision across all maternity and neonatal services.

Community language translation and interpretation services are crucial for patient safety. The responsibility to commission these services sits with integrated care boards and National Health Service providers as they are better placed to make decisions about how they use their funding based on the needs of their local populations. Local commissioners are responsible for applying the highest quality standards possible.To identify the most effective way to improve interpretation provision across all clinical services including maternity and neonatal care, NHS England has completed a strategic review, building on the recommendations of independent safety investigations.In response, NHS England has developed a Framework for NHS action on Community Language Translation and Interpreting, to help improve interpretation services so that they meet the needs of communities and support equitable access, experience, and outcomes for all. A six-month period of engagement work ensured that issues relating to maternal and neonatal care were considered in the development of the Improvement Framework, which is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/improvement-framework-community-language-translation-interpreting-services/

What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of average (a) stillbirth and (b) neonatal mortality rates among (i) Black and Asian babies and (ii) babies born to mothers in the most deprived areas; and (b) what steps he is taking to help reduce maternal inequalities.

The Department recognises that there are stark inequalities for women and babies, and that they should receive the high-quality care they deserve, regardless of their background, location or ethnicity.A number of interventions specifically aimed at addressing maternal and neonatal inequalities are underway. These include the Perinatal Equity and Anti-Discrimination Programme, delivery of an inequalities dashboard and projects on removing racial bias from clinical education and embedding genetic risk equity. Additionally, all local areas have published Equity and Equality action plans to tackle inequalities for women and babies from ethnic minorities and those living in the most deprived areas.An important aspect of both the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation and the National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce announced in June, is to address inequalities in maternal and neonatal care and promote health equity in the delivery of those services.We are putting in place immediate actions to improve safety across maternity and neonatal care, which includes the implementation of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle in all Trusts to reduce the rates of stillbirth, preterm birth and neonatal care.NHS England is also introducing a Maternal Mortality Care Bundle to set clear standards across all services, and address the leading causes of maternal mortality. Women from Black and Asian backgrounds are more at risk of specific clinical conditions that are the leading causes of death. This bundle will target these conditions, and we expect a decline in deaths and harm.

Whether he plans to take steps to routinely monitor and report miscarriage rate trends; and what steps he has taken to reduce the rate of miscarriages.

The risk of miscarriage is estimated at 15%, or approximately 100,000-150,000 miscarriages per year in the United Kingdom. However, due to lack of data on the earliest losses, the true figure could be higher at approximately 250,000 a year. An update to digital record standards on maternity means that the National Health Service is now able to record the pregnancy outcome for any woman, including miscarriage, where they have been in contact with NHS maternity services.The Tommy’s Miscarriage Centre at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital has completed its pilot assessing the effectiveness of a graded model of sporadic or recurrent miscarriage care and is in the final stages of evaluating the study. Under the ‘Graded Model of Care’, women receive dedicated care from their first miscarriage. It includes bereavement support, health advice and risk assessment for women who wish to become pregnant again, screening for mental health support, and a clear pathway to manage congenital risks.Research on the feasibility and affordability of this care is due to be published later this year. The Department has received headline positive early findings from Tommy’s and will continue to engage with Tommy’s through our planning for maternity and neonatal services.We look forward to discussing the full findings of this important work with Tommy's in the coming weeks, and to consider what immediate and longer-term actions the Government can put in place that will help to transform care and deliver the outcomes and experience we want to see.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that all police forces have mandatory training to support victims of online harassment and stalking.

It is vital that the police and other frontline professionals have the right framework to follow when supporting victims of stalking, both online and offline. That is why the Government is legislating in the Crime and Policing Bill to introduce multi-agency statutory guidance on stalking and ‘Right to Know’ statutory guidance for the police to set out the process by which they should release identifying information about online stalking perpetrators to victims. The Home Office has also allocated £13.1 million to launch the new National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection and their work includes enhancing the police response to stalking. Centralising policing expertise to tackle these crimes will drive national coordination, with the development of strengthened specialist training for officers across the country ensuring they offer consistent protection for victims.

Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to introduce a mandatory ID submission for people creating online accounts on anonymous websites.

The Government has no plans to mandate the new digital ID for creating online accounts on anonymous websites. We will be consulting on other ways people might want to use this ID by the end of the year, such as when verifying their age for accessing certain websites - but there are no plans to make that mandatory.

If he will consider the potential merits of providing a leaflet to people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease with (a) information about the disease, (b) the relevant contact numbers for their (i) hospital and (ii) nurse and (c) local support groups available to them.

Our 10-Year Health Plan will ensure that people with complex needs are supported to be active participants in their own care. As part of this, 95% of people with complex needs or long-term conditions like Parkison’s disease will have an agreed personalised care plan by 2027. Care plans will be a feature of the developing Neighbourhood Health Service, which will provide integrated, accessible, and localised services that will focus on early detection and diagnosis, and comprehensive multidisciplinary care. By being community-based, the centres will reduce barriers to care and ongoing support and will empower patients to manage their condition more effectively.From 2026, ‘Diagnosis Connect’ will ensure patients are referred directly to trusted charities and support organisations as soon as they are diagnosed. It will ensure that patients are provided with timely, personalised advice, information, and guidance to help them manage their condition, improve their control over it, and navigate the complex support systems they may face. The Department has already had conversations with Parkinson’s UK about its ‘Parkinson’s Connect’ programme and will continue to do so in the context of ‘Diagnosis Connect’.

If he will make it his policy to provide people with Parkinson's disease with a personal plan to allow (a) access to, (b) advice from and (c) treatment by a multidisciplinary team of (i) Parkinson’s nurses, (ii) physiotherapists, (iii) nutritionists, (iv) speech therapists and (v) other relevant health professionals.

Our 10-Year Health Plan will ensure that people with complex needs are supported to be active participants in their own care. As part of this, 95% of people with complex needs or long-term conditions like Parkison’s disease will have an agreed personalised care plan by 2027. Care plans will be a feature of the developing Neighbourhood Health Service, which will provide integrated, accessible, and localised services that will focus on early detection and diagnosis, and comprehensive multidisciplinary care. By being community-based, the centres will reduce barriers to care and ongoing support and will empower patients to manage their condition more effectively.From 2026, ‘Diagnosis Connect’ will ensure patients are referred directly to trusted charities and support organisations as soon as they are diagnosed. It will ensure that patients are provided with timely, personalised advice, information, and guidance to help them manage their condition, improve their control over it, and navigate the complex support systems they may face. The Department has already had conversations with Parkinson’s UK about its ‘Parkinson’s Connect’ programme and will continue to do so in the context of ‘Diagnosis Connect’.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure the provision of adequate levels of funding for seeking a cure for Parkinson's disease.

Government responsibility for delivering research into Parkinson’s disease is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation.The Government is investing in Parkinson’s disease research across all areas, from causes, prevention, and diagnosis to treatment and care, including for carers. Between financial years 2019/20 and 2023/24, the Government spent a total of £79.1 million on research into Parkinson’s disease.One example of ongoing research into Parkinson’s disease is the UK Dementia Research Institute’s new partnership with Parkinson’s UK to establish a £10 million research centre dedicated to better understanding the causes of Parkinson’s and finding new treatments.The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including Parkinson’s disease. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on Parkinson’s disease to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that there are Parkinson's trained assessors for benefit assessments involving applicants with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to ensuring that individuals with Parkinson’s disease and other health conditions receive high-quality, objective, and accurate assessments. To uphold this commitment, DWP has established clear competency standards for health professionals (HPs), as outlined in its official guidance and regulatory framework. DWP recognises the importance of ensuring HPs conducting assessments possess the necessary experience, skills, and training. To uphold this standard, DWP has established clear competency requirements, outlined in both guidance and regulations. Assessment suppliers must demonstrate that their HPs meet these standards before they are authorised to carry out assessments on behalf of the department. DWP does not require HPs to be specialists in the specific medical conditions or impairments of the individuals they assess. Instead, the emphasis is on ensuring HPs are experts in disability analysis, focusing on how a person’s condition affects their daily life and functional abilities. All HPs receive thorough training in disability analysis, which includes evaluating the impact of a wide range of health conditions on everyday activities. To support this, DWP provides suppliers with core training material and guidance on conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease. These contain clinical and functional information relevant to the condition and is quality assured to ensure its accuracy from both a clinical and policy perspective.

What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of trends in the number of patients who have been referred by their GP for a possible Parkinson's diagnosis and are not seen by a neurologist or geriatrician within 18 weeks in line with NICE guidance.

We recognise the importance of a timely diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and remain committed to delivering the National Health Service constitutional standard for 92% of patients to wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment by March 2029, a standard which has not been met consistently since September 2015. This includes patients waiting for elective treatment on neurological pathways.We are investing in additional capacity to deliver appointments to help bring lists and waiting times down. We provided additional investment in the Autumn Budget 2024 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.The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the specific productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the constitutional standard.The Getting It Right First Time programme, which provides tailored regional and national support to providers, also has a neurology specific Further Faster workstream. This is a clinically led initiative supporting peer to peer learning and improvement. A neurology 'handbook' and checklist with benchmarked data and case studies has been published and there are regular neurology online sessions for clinical and operational leads.The shifts outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan will free up hospital-based neurologists’ and geriatricians’ time by shifting care from hospitals to communities, utilising digital technology to reduce administrative burdens, and promoting prevention to reduce the onset and severity of neurological conditions that lead to hospital admissions. This includes expanding community-based services, employing artificial intelligence for productivity, developing integrated neighbourhood health teams, and investing in digital tools and data. These shifts will enable earlier identification and management of Parkinson's disease, allowing specialists to focus on complex cases and improve patient outcomes.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2025 to Question 60418 on medical testing, how much of the £600 million capital spending this year on diagnostics including funding all pathology networks will be allocated to (a) Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and (b) Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board.

As part of the £1.65 billion for investment to improve National Health Service performance against constitutional standards in 2025/26, £600 million was allocated to diagnostics. Final allocation of this funding will be agreed via national panels upon receipt and review of business cases.To date, the Department has approved £2,267,000 capital to Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from this overall allocation.

What steps she is taking to prevent arson attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers.

The safety and security of the local communities in which hotels are located, the staff who work there, and the asylum-seekers staying there is of paramount importance, and on-site security staff monitor each hotel round the clock. Our accommodation providers are experienced and have robust policies and procedures in place around health and safety, security, safeguarding, and critical incident management. Security arrangements are kept under continual review and can be adapted at pace if required, in consultation with the police and other agencies.