Written questions by Bhatti.

What steps she is planning to take in the 10-year NHS Plan to improve (a) palliative and (b) end of life care.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and families receive the care they need when and where they need it, including those who need palliative and end of life care.As part of the work to develop a 10-Year Health Plan, we have been carefully considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our partners, including the hospice sector.

Whether he has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on using the transformation fund announced in the Spring Statement 2025 on support for the palliative and end of life care sector.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift.In February 2025, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format, with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.

Whether he plans to include measures on reforming funding allocations for (a) palliative and (b) other end of life care services in the comprehensive spending review.

We want a society where every person receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and palliative and end of life care services will have a big role to play in that shift.In February 2025, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, in a roundtable format, with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.

If he will commission research on the outcomes following gender affirming surgery on young adults under the age of 25.

In line with the findings of the recent Cass Review, the Government is committed to supporting the development of research that delivers a robust, evidence-based understanding of gender dysphoria and transgender issues, especially where these issues relate to children and young people. The programme of research includes investments in research capacity, to enable National Health Service clinicians to dedicate time to research and ongoing service evaluation, and a living systematic review that will provide a regularly updated review of the latest international evidence to inform policy and frontline and clinical practice. These may produce new evidence on the outcomes following gender-affirming surgery on young adults, and contribute to ensuring that children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria are well-safeguarded.The Department, through the National Institute for Health Research, welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including the outcomes following gender-affirming surgery on young adults. 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.

What steps he is taking to ensure that children are not prescribed cross-sex hormones by private medical providers.

Children’s safety must always come first. That is why the Government and the National Health Service in England are implementing the recommendations of the Cass Review, in full.In her review, Dr Cass recommended “extreme caution” when prescribing cross-sex hormones for individuals aged 16 to 18 years old. We expect all providers to act in line with this recommendation.NHS England has begun the process of forming a new clinical commissioning policy for hormone medications. In NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Services, as an interim measure, a national multi-disciplinary team with an independent chair will review all referrals of young people for cross-sex hormones before they can be initiated.Furthermore, in response to the Commission on Human Medicines’ report on the safety implications of restricting the availability of puberty blockers for under 18 year olds, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has asked the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to produce a quality standard for specialist gender services. Quality standards provide an evidence-based description of high-quality care, in a defined clinical area, and can be used by private providers.The Secretary of State introduced an indefinite order on the sale and supply of puberty blockers for under 18 year olds. This order continues to prohibit the sale or supply of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues prescribed by private UK-registered prescribers, for gender dysphoria and/or incongruence, to under-18 year olds not already taking them, and on the sale and supply of the drugs against prescriptions from prescribers registered in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, for any purposes, to anyone under 18 years old. This came into effect on 1 January 2025 as the previous emergency order expired and will be formally reviewed in 2027. We will not hesitate to take further action should safety concerns arise.

What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the report by (a) Baroness Cumberlege entitled Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, published 8 July 2020 and (b) Dr Henrietta Hughes entitled Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published on 7 February 2024; and whether he plans to establish a taskforce to improve patient advocacy services for those affected by vaginal mesh implants.

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review’s overarching conclusion was that the system failed to listen to patients or put patients at the centre of their care. Subsequent work has focussed on improving how the system listens to and responds to concerns raised by patients, strengthening the evidence base on which decisions are made, including through making sure the right data is collected and used, and improving the safety of medicines and devices.The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report, which builds on some of the issues identified by Baroness Cumberlege in the IMMDS Review. The Hughes Report sets out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, including a proposal on advocacy services. We will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report at the earliest opportunity.

If he will take steps to ensure that Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board is in alignment with NICE guideline 28, updated in 2022, related to the fair and equitable adoption of continuous glucose monitoring for eligible people with type 2 diabetes.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended that all people living with type 1 diabetes and people living with type 2 diabetes who required insulin therapy should be eligible for real time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The guidance recommends that all adults and children with type 1 diabetes are eligible for CGM, and that only certain adult and child populations with type 2 diabetes are eligible for CGM.NHS England is developing new reporting systems which are designed to support ICBs to monitor the delivery of CGM. Data on CGM for diabetics is now collected as part of the National Diabetes Audit (NDA). NHS England plans to routinely publish this data in the NDA Core Quarterly dashboard in 2025/26, which will provide the data insights ICBs require, including data on CGM uptake, variation, and health inequalities.This information will help in providing ICBs with data about inequalities and diabetes, and will allow them and NHS England to target strategies to ensure uptake of those patients who are clinically eligible for CGM, but where there are wider factors limiting access to support.

What steps he is taking to ensure alignment of Integrated Care Boards with NICE guideline 28, updated in 2022, related to the fair and equitable adoption of continuous glucose monitoring for eligible people with type 2 diabetes.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended that all people living with type 1 diabetes and people living with type 2 diabetes who required insulin therapy should be eligible for real time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The guidance recommends that all adults and children with type 1 diabetes are eligible for CGM, and that only certain adult and child populations with type 2 diabetes are eligible for CGM.NHS England is developing new reporting systems which are designed to support ICBs to monitor the delivery of CGM. Data on CGM for diabetics is now collected as part of the National Diabetes Audit (NDA). NHS England plans to routinely publish this data in the NDA Core Quarterly dashboard in 2025/26, which will provide the data insights ICBs require, including data on CGM uptake, variation, and health inequalities.This information will help in providing ICBs with data about inequalities and diabetes, and will allow them and NHS England to target strategies to ensure uptake of those patients who are clinically eligible for CGM, but where there are wider factors limiting access to support.

Pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2024 to Question 10785 on Department of Health and Social Care: Institute for Public Policy Research, whether NHS England has awarded any contracts to the IPPR since the general election.

NHS England has not awarded any contracts to the Institute for Public Policy Research since 4 July 2024.

What contracts his Department have awarded to the Institute for Public Policy Research since 4 July 2024.

The Department has not awarded any contracts to the Institute for Public Policy Research since 4 July 2024.

Whether his Department is using (a) artificial intelligence and (b) a third-party organisation to assess responses to the consultation entitled Change NHS: A health service fit for the future, published on 21 October 2024.

The Department has commissioned an external supplier, Thinks Insight and Strategy, to help run the engagement for the 10-Year Health Plan for England. The portal is hosted via the online platform Go Vocal, who are a contracted supplier of Thinks Insight and Strategy. Go Vocal use a natural language processing tool to moderate content on the platform, in addition to Thinks Insight and Strategy running manual checks.Yonder Data Solutions will be responsible for thematically analysing and coding anonymised responses to the online portal. Yonder Data Solutions are a contracted supplier of Thinks Insight and Strategy. Anonymised data will be analysed using a mixture of human and artificial intelligence coding, with manual quality checks carried out.

What role (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) Departmental officials had in the awarding of contracts to the organisations running the Change NHS: A health service fit for the future public engagement campaign.

The evaluation panel for the tender consisted of four people. Three from within the Department’s policy teams, and one from NHS England. No ministers or special advisers were part of the final award decision.

With reference to the Change NHS online portal, what the total cost to the public purse is of contracts issued to (a) Thinks Insight & Strategy, (b) Kaleidoscope Health and Care and (c) The Institute for Public Policy Research to run the public engagement programme; and if he will publish all (i) contracts, (ii) work programmes and (iii) terms of reference connected to the procurement process.

The awarded value of this contract was up to £2,961,595.50. The publication of the details of this award and the redacted contract can be found on contracts finder, with the contract number C306779.

What the procurement process was to award contracts for the Change NHS online portal.

A procurement mini competition was launched via the RM6126 CCS Research and Insights framework on 2 August 2024, with bids returned by 19 August 2024.

What the total budget is for the Change NHS: A health service fit for the future public engagement campaign; and what time period this funding will cover.

The awarded value of this contract was up to £2,961,595.50. The publication of the details of this award and the redacted contract can be found on contracts finder, with contract number C306779. The current contract start date is 13 September 2024, with an end date of 31 March 2025, and an option to extend by three months.