Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England have spent on work relating to Part IX of the Drug Tariff and the MedTech Commercial Strategy.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Across the Department and NHS England, £1,067,157.34 has been spent directly on Part IX of the Drug Tariff, including VAT where applicable. This does not include Department and NHS England staff time. This covers the period 2024/25, and 2025/26. This includes planned spend up until the end of the 2025/2026 financial year.

For the MedTech Commercial Strategy, across the Department and NHS England, planned direct spend up until the end of the 2025/26 financial year is £120,000. This does not include Department and NHS England staff time and includes VAT.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the support for travel costs for children and young people with cancer introduced in the National Cancer Plan for England will be for England only or whether support will also be available for those in other nations, who may travel to England for some or all of their care; and whether any Barnett consequentials will arise from this funding.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department knows that the cost of travel is an important issue for many young cancer patients and their families across the United Kingdom.

Through the National Cancer Plan for England, the Government is committing up to £10 million a year to a new fund open to all children and young people in England with cancer and their families regardless of income, to support them with the cost of travelling to and from treatment. This commitment sits alongside wider action to transform cancer care for children and young people. The Department is currently working with its partners to define the scope and parameters of the scheme and further detail will be announced in due course.

Health is predominately devolved. Devolved governments receive funding through the Barnett Formula, and it is ultimately for them to allocate, prioritise, and manage their budgets. This funding is not new and so Barnett consequentials do not apply. However, the Department does work closely with our counterparts in the devolved governments to share expertise and identify new opportunities to improve health and social care delivery across the UK.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve targeted case-finding and earlier diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in community settings.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

To enable faster diagnosis of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and earlier treatment, access to spirometry tests in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is growing and will continue to do so as more sites come online. The first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.

As of November 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks in 170 sites across the country. 101 CDCs across the country now offer out of hours services, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around busy working lives.

Research into new diagostic tests for COPD, such as computed cardiopulmonography and N-Tidal Diagnose, is underway. Discussions on whether new diagnostic pathways could be developed will be dependent on the research findings.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the National Cancer Board will be accountable for the children and young people’s chapter of the National Cancer Plan for England; and, if so, how it will ensure sufficient representation from the children and young people sector.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Cancer Plan for England, published on the 4 February 2026, sets out several commitments and ambitions, to be delivered within the next 10 years. The role of the reformed National Cancer Board will be to support and monitor the delivery of the commitments and ambitions and provide regular updates to ministers.

The board will be co-chaired by the Director General for Planned Care in the Department, as well as an independent representative. It is important to choose the most suitable appointment process for selecting an independent representative to co-chair the board. Officials from NHS England and the Department are carefully following the required public appointments procedures for the selection of the independent representative.

The reformed National Cancer Board will be established once a co-chair is appointed, which will include a children and young people cancer lead that will support the delivery of the children and young people commitments in the National Cancer Plan.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to enable the adoption of innovative diagnostic technologies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease within the NHS; and what engagement they have had with clinical bodies to support large-scale implementation of targeted case-finding pathways that promote earlier diagnosis and help prevent disease progression.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Health Service is working to expand access to innovative diagnostic technologies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Research into new diagnostic tests for COPD, such as computed cardiopulmonography and N-Tidal Diagnose, is underway.

Discussions on whether new diagnostic pathways could be developed will be dependent on the research findings.

NHS England continues to work closely with Respiratory Clinical Networks and bodies such as the British Thoracic Society to support improvements to services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with clinicians and relevant professional bodies regarding the development of new diagnostic pathways for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that reduce reliance on a single test and enable diagnosis in a wider range of care settings.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

To enable faster diagnosis of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and earlier treatment, access to spirometry tests in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is growing and will continue to do so as more sites come online. The first five months of 2025/26 saw an increase in CDC spirometry testing of approximately 2,000 tests per month more than in the previous year.

As of November 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks in 170 sites across the country. 101 CDCs across the country now offer out of hours services, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around busy working lives.

Research into new diagostic tests for COPD, such as computed cardiopulmonography and N-Tidal Diagnose, is underway. Discussions on whether new diagnostic pathways could be developed will be dependent on the research findings.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish a response to the The Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published on 7 February 2024; and when they expect redress schemes to be approved for sodium valproate and pelvic mesh.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report, which sets out options for redress for those harmed by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Minister for Health Innovation and Patient Safety recently met with the Patient Safety Commissioner to provide an update on the ongoing health initiatives led by the Department regarding sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. Though a decision to provide financial compensation has not yet been made, the Government is determined to make meaningful progress on this area.

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