Written questions by Ribeiro-Addy.

How many sickle cell patients have died due to complications due to sickle cell in the last 12 months.

The Department of Health and Social Care does not hold this information. NHS England does not hold or have access to data that would accurately represent the number of sickle cell patients that have died due to complications due to sickle cell disorder (SCD) in the last 12 monthsThe National Disease Registration Service, part of NHS England, is expanding its rare disease collection to include patients with SCD in England. This will form a comprehensive national dataset to enable improved understanding of patient pathways for SCD, support planning and commissioning of services and improve patient outcomes.

How many sickle cell patients whose cause of death was listed as complications due to sickle cell have had an inquest into their death.

The Department does not hold this information as we would only be made aware of inquests that result in the Department receiving a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) Report. Not all inquests result in a PFD report, only where the coroner believes that action should be taken to prevent future deaths.The National Disease Registration Service, part of NHS England, is expanding its rare disease collection to include patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) in England. This will form a comprehensive national dataset to enable improved understanding of patient pathways for SCD, support planning and commissioning of services and improve patient outcomes.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the value of Healthy Start vouchers.

Healthy Start is a demand-led, statutory scheme and aims to support those in greatest need. An assessment was recently made of the adequacy of the value of Healthy Start funding and it was announced in Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan that we will uplift the value of weekly payments by 10%, boosting the ability to buy healthy food for those families who need it most. From April 2026, pregnant women and children aged over one and under four years old will each receive £4.65 per week, up from £4.25, and children under one years old will receive £9.30 per week, up from £8.50.The funding for Healthy Start can be used to buy, or be put towards the cost of, fresh, frozen, or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, and tinned pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries are also eligible for free Healthy Start Vitamins.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure patients receive timely updates about the status of their NHS operations through (a) the NHS App, (b) other digital platforms and (c) other means.

The National Health Service continues to invest heavily in the NHS App, and in the past two years we have been implementing digital integration between acute hospitals and the NHS App, meaning that patients can now view their clinical pathway and appointments via the NHS App. We continue to work with hospital trusts to maximise the opportunities available to update patients via the NHS App, which is a key part of the 10-year plan to reform the NHS.The NHS App has now been adopted by 88% of acute trusts, up nearly 20% since July 2024, which enables patients to view and manage their hospital appointments.Analysis shows that hospitals that make the changes to plug their systems and processes into the NHS App key app features have improved elective care waiting times.

If he will consider increasing the value of Healthy Start vouchers for children from birth to one year old to meet the average cost of baby formula.

Healthy Start is a demand-led, statutory scheme and aims to support those in greatest need. An assessment was recently made of the adequacy of the value of Healthy Start funding and it was announced in Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan that we will uplift the value of weekly payments by 10%, boosting the ability to buy healthy food for those families who need it most. From April 2026, pregnant women and children aged over one and under four years old will each receive £4.65 per week, up from £4.25, and children under one years old will receive £9.30 per week, up from £8.50.The funding for Healthy Start can be used to buy, or be put towards the cost of, fresh, frozen, or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, and tinned pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries are also eligible for free Healthy Start Vitamins.

What steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for urgent NHS operations in cases where patients are waiting significantly beyond the clinically recommended timeframe.

It is unacceptable that patients continue to wait lengthy periods for treatment, especially where waits are for high priority surgical procedures.We are committed to driving down waiting times. In January, we published our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to support our commitment to return to the NHS Constitutional Standard that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, by March 2029.We have already improved performance against this standard by 2.7% compared to last year, with performance increasing from 58.9% in June 2024 to 61.5% in June 2025. In the Operational Planning Guidance, we set a national target to reach 65% for Referral to Treatment performance by March 2026. The waiting list has reduced by over 252,000 in the past year, and we have exceeded our pledge to deliver an additional two million appointments, tests, and operations, having delivered 4.9 million more since July 2024.There is a clear clinical prioritisation process, including for the cancer standards, where our expectation is that patients are seen very rapidly. All waiting lists are rightly subject to clinical prioritisation at a local level, ensuring that patients are prioritised in line with clinical need, while considering overall wait time.

What plans his Department has to increase the availability of (a) daily and (b) weekly surgical appointments for operations in NHS hospitals.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients, including those waiting for surgical appointments, wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029.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 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.We are also continuing to deliver dedicated and protected surgical hubs to deliver high volume low complexity (HVLC) surgery more efficiently. Surgical hubs help to create additional capacity for surgical appointments, whilst improving outcomes for patients. Health Foundation analysis found that HVLC activity was on average 21.9% higher in a trust with a new hub in the first year of opening, with effects seen within three months of opening.We have committed to increase the number of surgical hubs over the next three years on top of the 120 currently operational. At the Autumn Budget 2024, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £1.65 billion in funding to support NHS performance across secondary and emergency care, including for surgical hubs.

Whether his Department plans to increase the use of capacity in local private hospitals to reduce NHS waiting times for surgical procedures.

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.Independent sector providers have a role to play in supporting the NHS as trusted partners to deliver elective services by using additional capacity to tackle the backlog whilst delivering value for money, delivering more than 100,000 elective appointment and procedures every week for the NHS.Patients have a legal right to choose where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient. This includes the independent sector who hold contracts with integrated care boards across the country to deliver services for the NHS.The NHS and the independent sector have established a partnership agreement, the first of its kind for 25 years, setting out how we will work together to reduce the elective care waiting list (including that for surgical procedures). This will see more NHS patients able to choose to be treated in a private hospital where there is capacity, at no cost to patients.

Whether he plans to allow patients to (a) view and (b) choose from available operation appointments across different hospitals within the same region.

Patients in England can choose the hospital for their first outpatient appointments via the NHS e-Referral Service and the NHS App, allowing them to view and choose from available appointments across different hospitals within the same region.The National Health Service is a large, decentralized system, and individual NHS hospital trusts are responsible for managing their own patient portals, resulting in different systems and features. Each trust may set its own policies and internal delays before results are displayed in the portal, rather than linking them directly to the patient. A delay in displaying results is a common practice for sensitive test results linked to conditions such as cancer, to give doctors an opportunity to review them with the patient first.The NHS ensures adequate data for My Planned Care by employing a multi-faceted approach, including centralised data collection and curation, implementing shared records for better data integration across systems, establishing robust data quality checks and reporting, adhering to strict information governance and security standards, and actively working to link diverse data sources. These processes support the provision of timely and accurate information on the My Planned Care website to help patients and healthcare professionals.The NHS continues to invest heavily in the NHS App and in the past two years we have been implementing digital integration between acute hospitals and the NHS App, meaning that patients can now view their clinical pathway and appointments via the NHS App. We continue to work with hospital trusts to maximise the opportunities available to update patients via the NHS App, which is a key part of the 10-year plan to reform the NHS.The NHS App has now been adopted by 88% of acute trusts, up nearly 20% since July 2024, which enables patients to view and manage their hospital appointments.Analysis shows that hospitals that make the changes to plug their systems and processes into the NHS App key app features have improved elective care waiting times.

What steps his Department is taking to improve coordination between NHS hospitals within the same region to offer patients earlier appointments at alternative sites.

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 (RTT) by March 2029.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 percentage point improvement on current performance over that period.It is for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to determine how best to manage their system capacity to meet this target. Mutal aid is a route some systems are using for those waiting longest. This can mean that some patients receive treatment at a different hospital to the one they originally selected (with the patient’s agreement).NHS England regional and national teams work with providers and ICBs with particularly significant waits, and this can include identifying alternative capacity outside of individual systems.Patients have a right to choose their provider when they are referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient, informed by waiting times information. Patients also have a right to request their ICB find an alternative provider if they are waiting over 18 weeks for consultant-led care.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Government’s immigration policies on trends in the level of recruitment of internationally educated nurses into (a) the NHS and (b) social care roles; and whether he has prepared contingency plans for a reduction in the level of recruitment.

The immediate changes to the skills thresholds outlined in the Immigration White Paper relate to roles below Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) level 6. Nurses meet the new skill threshold of RQF level 6 and in turn remain eligible for the Health and Care Worker visa. The Government is committed to developing homegrown talent and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join our National Health Service. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will outline strategies for improving retention, productivity, training, and reducing attrition, thereby enhancing conditions for all staff while gradually reducing reliance on international recruitment, without diminishing the value of their contributions. We acknowledge that the adult social care sector faces significant challenges in the recruitment and retention of the nursing workforce and we recognise the need for a strong emphasis on retaining nurses within adult social care, by supporting and valuing the workforce. The Department continues to monitor adult social care workforce capacity, bringing together national data sets from Skills for Care’s monthly tracking data, the Capacity Tracker tool, and intelligence from key sector partners.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, if he will publish the combined ethnic and gender breakdown of the 173,574 donors deferred due to Haemoglobin as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group.

NHS Blood and Transplant is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. From 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025, a total of 173,574 donors were deferred due to low haemoglobin. The table attached shows the combined ethnic and gender breakdown of these deferrals as a proportion of total deferrals, and the total deferrals per ethnic group.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, if he will publish the ethnic and gender breakdown of the 4,493 donors deferred due to travel as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group.

NHS Blood and Transplant is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. From 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025, a total of 4,493 donors deferred due to travel. The table attached shows the ethnic and gender breakdown of these deferrals as a proportion of total deferrals and the total deferrals per ethnic group.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of routinely publishing data on (a) blood donations and (b) donation deferrals.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood donation in England.NHSBT does not routinely publish data on blood donation or donation deferrals, however it agrees that there is merit in publishing this data routinely and is considering doing so on an annual basis.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, if she will provide the ethnic breakdown of the 173,574 donors deferred due to Haemoglobin as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. From 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025, a total of 173,574 donors were deferred due to low haemoglobin. The following table shows the ethnic breakdown of these deferrals as a proportion of total deferrals, and the total deferrals per ethnic group:EthnicityTotal deferralsLow haemoglobin deferralsPercentage of total deferralsPercentage of total deferrals per ethnicityAny other Asian background3,4481,7370.6%50.4%Any other Black/African/Caribbean background7244600.2%63.5%Any other ethnic group1,4096680.2%47.4%Any other mixed/multiple ethnic background2,1141,1910.4%56.3%Any other White background17,3439,5583.3%55.1%Arab1,0054290.1%42.7%Asian Bangladeshi8174440.2%54.3%Asian Indian7,1764,3671.5%60.9%Asian Pakistani2,1261,0730.4%50.5%Black- African6,5624,1951.4%63.9%Black- Caribbean3,6632,4720.8%67.5%Chinese1,7099210.3%53.9%English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British231,879139,70148.0%60.2%Mixed White and Asian2,0711,0800.4%52.1%Mixed White and Black African8425000.2%59.4%Mixed White and Black Caribbean2,0931,3190.5%63.0%Not disclosed1,5168690.3%57.3%Unknown8804300.1%48.9%White Irish3,6342,1600.7%59.4%Total291,011173,57459.6%59.6%Source: data is taken from NHSBT’s centrally held administrative systems, extracted 27 June 2025Note: ‘Any other ethnic group’ includes Gypsy or Irish Traveller and Roma to comply with small number suppression.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, whether he will provide a breakdown of the top 10 countries travelled to by the 4,493 donors deferred due to travel.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood donation in England. NHSBT has confirmed that they do not hold the requested data.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, what the ethnic breakdown is of the 4,493 donors deferred due to travel; and what this is as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need.From 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025, a total of 4,493 donors deferred due to travel. The following table shows the ethnic breakdown of these deferrals as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group:EthnicityTotal DeferralsDeferrals due to Travel% of Total Deferrals% Total Deferrals by EthnicityAny other Asian background3,448630.0%1.8%Any other Black/African/Caribbean background724210.0%2.9%Any other ethnic group*1,409440.0%3.1%Any other Mixed / Multiple ethnic background2,114380.0%1.8%Any other White background17,3432730.1%1.6%Arab1,005200.0%2.0%Asian Bangladeshi817110.0%1.3%Asian Indian7,1761570.1%2.2%Asian Pakistani2,1262320.1%10.9%Black- African6,5622650.1%4.0%Black- Caribbean3,663660.0%1.8%Chinese1,709340.0%2.0%English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British231,8793,1071.1%1.3%Mixed White and Asian2,071390.0%1.9%Mixed White and Black African842150.0%1.8%Mixed White and Black Caribbean2,093230.0%1.1%Not Disclosed1,516200.0%1.3%Unknown880190.0%2.2%White Irish3,634460.0%1.3%Grand Total291,0114,4931.5%1.5%Source: NHSBT’s centrally held administrative systems, extracted 27 June 2025.Note: *Any other ethnic group includes Gypsy or Irish Traveller and Roma to comply with small number suppression.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of immigration salary thresholds on the number of overseas NHS staff on band three Agenda for Change pay.

From 9 April 2025, the minimum salary for Health and Care Worker Visa holders increased to £25,000 per year. This applies to new Certificates of Sponsorship assigned on or after that date. Entry level National Health Service Agenda for Change band 3 roles do not meet the new minimum salary threshold for a Health and Care Worker visa.NHS Agenda for Change pay band 3 staff currently on the Health and Care Worker visa are not required to meet the new minimum salary threshold until the point at which they need to renew their visa. At this point, we expect the majority of staff to have accrued two or more years experience, and therefore be at the top of pay band 3, which is above the new minimum salary threshold.Whilst we hugely value our international workforce and the skills and experience they bring, we are also committed to growing homegrown talent and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join our NHS. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will outline strategies for improving retention, productivity, training, and reducing attrition, thereby enhancing conditions for all staff while gradually reducing reliance on international recruitment, without diminishing the value of their contributions.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's changes to drug appraisal methods on access to new treatments for people with secondary breast cancer.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for the methods and processes that it uses in the development of its recommendations. The severity modifier was introduced in January 2022 as part of a number of changes intended to make NICE’s methods fairer, faster, and more consistent.NICE carried out a review of the implementation of the severity modifier in September 2024 and found that it is operating as intended. Since the introduction of the severity modifier in December 2022, the proportion of positive cancer recommendations is higher, at 84.8%, than with the end-of-life modifier it replaced, at 75%, and the proportion of positive recommendations for advanced cancer treatments is also higher, at 81.1% compared to 69%.Since January 2022, NICE has recommended all but one of the treatments for breast cancer that it has assessed. These treatments are now available to eligible National Health Service patients.NICE has commissioned research to gather further evidence on societal preferences that will inform future method reviews.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that experienced non-medical aesthetic practitioners are included in (a) consultations and (b) policy development on the regulation of cosmetic procedures.

In exploring options for the regulation of cosmetic procedures, the Department has engaged with a broad range of stakeholders, including representatives from the British Beauty Council and the Beauty Industry Group. The Department will continue to engage with a broad range of stakeholders in addressing concerns about the safety of the cosmetics sector, and will notify them of any upcoming consultations on this area to which they can contribute.