Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which bodies will be able to exercise powers to enter and view health and care premises following the abolition of local Healthwatch.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that patients and the public have a strong and effective voice in the design and improvement of health and care services. We have announced that Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch organisations will be retained and the system strengthened so that patients' and public experiences play a greater role in improving health and social care services. The reforms will support more consistent engagement with patients and communities, helping services better understand and respond to local needs.
Local Healthwatch will retain its existing powers including to enter and view premises used by providers for the provision of services, and the Government has committed to continue funding local authorities to commission Local Healthwatch services. Through the new Patient Experience Directorate, we will ensure that the views and experiences of patients and the public directly inform national policy for health and social care, so that lived experience drives action, reform and improvement.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what funding they intend to provide to local authorities for the duties relating to public and patient feedback that would be transferred to them under the Health Bill.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that patients and the public have a strong and effective voice in the design and improvement of health and care services. We have announced that Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch organisations will be retained and the system strengthened so that patients' and public experiences play a greater role in improving health and social care services. The reforms will support more consistent engagement with patients and communities, helping services better understand and respond to local needs.
Local Healthwatch will retain its existing powers including to enter and view premises used by providers for the provision of services, and the Government has committed to continue funding local authorities to commission Local Healthwatch services. Through the new Patient Experience Directorate, we will ensure that the views and experiences of patients and the public directly inform national policy for health and social care, so that lived experience drives action, reform and improvement.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their proposed arrangements for a new national director of patient experience, in place of local Healthwatch, will cover adult social care services as well as NHS services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that patients and the public have a strong and effective voice in the design and improvement of health and care services. We have announced that Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch organisations will be retained and the system strengthened so that patients' and public experiences play a greater role in improving health and social care services. The reforms will support more consistent engagement with patients and communities, helping services better understand and respond to local needs.
Local Healthwatch will retain its existing powers including to enter and view premises used by providers for the provision of services, and the Government has committed to continue funding local authorities to commission Local Healthwatch services. Through the new Patient Experience Directorate, we will ensure that the views and experiences of patients and the public directly inform national policy for health and social care, so that lived experience drives action, reform and improvement.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK National Screening Committee's draft prostate cancer screening recommendation does not discourage testing among higher risk men, including black men and those with a family history, and that those men receive clear information to support informed decision-making; and whether they will ensure that those men can access a test if they request one.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting MP) will consider the final recommendation of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) on screening for prostate cancer when it is received. At that point, he will decide on implementation, including any changes to guidance around testing that may be required.
It is anticipated that the final recommendation will be provided in early 2026 after the conclusion of a 12-week consultation which opened on 28 November 2025. This seeks views on an evidence review and a draft recommendation to:
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of their review of the New Hospital Programme on patients of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new hospital scheme for the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust at St Mary’s Hospital is in the scope of the review into the New Hospital Programme.
We are finalising the outcome of the review so we can be honest and upfront with everyone on when we expect the new hospitals to be delivered. As is standard practice, a Public Sector Equality Duty impact assessment will also be completed as part of this process.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will set out further details on the outcome of the review, which will include a new and realistic delivery schedule for the programme, at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many cancer patients met the 62-day treatment target between urgent GP referral and first definitive treatment in (1) 2020, (2) 2021, (3) 2022, and (4) 2023 to date; and what steps they are taking to reduce waiting times for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer and are waiting for their treatment.
Answered by Lord Markham
The number of cancer patients that met the 62-day treatment target between urgent general practitioner referral and first definitive treatment in 2020 was 113,704; in 2021 was 119,302; in 2022 was 111,649 and in 2023 to date where most recent data is available till September 2023 is 83,129.
The Department is taking steps to reduce cancer treatment waiting times across England, including the time between diagnosis and commencement of treatment for cancer. The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.
In the 2023/24 Operational Planning Guidance, NHS England announced it is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years to support delivery of the strategy and the operational priorities for cancer which includes increasing and prioritising diagnostic and treatment capacity for cancer.
Additionally, the Government recently published the Major Conditions Strategy Case for Change and Our Strategic Framework on 14 August 2023 which sets out our approach to making the choices over the next five years that will deliver the most value in facing the health challenges of today and of the decades ahead, including for cancer.
Asked by: Lord Bailey of Paddington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce waiting times for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer and are waiting for radiotherapy treatment.
Answered by Lord Markham
Since 2016, there has been significant investment in radiotherapy equipment so that every radiotherapy provider had access to modern, cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million and enabled the replacement or upgrade of approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines, equal to around a third of all radiotherapy treatment machines. This is investment on top of that committed by National Health Service trusts, either from their own capital budgets or via donations.
Since April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines has sat with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the NHS from 2022 to 2025.
The Government worked with NHS England to publish the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care in February 2022, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer treatments like radiotherapy. This will further be supported by the additional £3.3 billion of funding in each of the next two years announced at the Autumn Statement to support the NHS.