Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect the NICE guidelines on semaglutide for patients with cardiovascular disease will be published; and what plans they have to ensure that the guidance is implemented by GPs.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources.
NICE published final draft guidance on 1 April that recommends semaglutide as an option for reducing the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, such as cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, or non-fatal stroke, in people with cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity. NICE currently expects to publish final guidance in May 2026.
If recommended in final NICE guidance, the NHS would be required to fund treatment within three months of publication. Integrated care boards are responsible for determining local delivery arrangements and for ensuring that clinicians are supported to prescribe in accordance with NICE recommendations.
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 11 March (HL15021), how many patients are treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma by the NHS each year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides a range of treatments for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including chemotherapy as a first treatment, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapies, and stem cell transplantation for eligible patients.
Effectiveness of treatments is assessed by clinicians for individual patients using data on measures such as the responsiveness of the cancer to treatment, remission, overall survival, and quality of life. The most appropriate treatment depends on the type and stage of lymphoma and the patient’s individual circumstances, and decisions are made by specialist multidisciplinary teams.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has evaluated and recommended several Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell (CAR-T) Therapy treatments for use within the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of various cancers, including for large B-cell lymphoma a sub type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which are now available to NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations. In November 2025, NHS England published commissioning guidance to support the implementation of CAR-T therapies for blood cancer.
Furthermore, the National Cancer Plan commits to ensuring rare cancer patients, including blood cancer, have improved access to targeted and personalised treatments where genomics identifies suitable options. The plan aims is to improve survival rates for rare cancers, including blood cancers by exploring novel procurement routes for diagnostics and treatments. Genomics will support the development of new treatments to improve outcomes for those with cancer.
The following table shows, from latest data available, the number of patients treated for non-Hodkin lymphoma receiving radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer treatment (SACT), and tumour resections for their tumour, each year from 2019 to 2022:
Year | Patients treated with either radiotherapy, SACT, or surgery |
2019 | 8011 |
2020 | 7361 |
2021 | 7737 |
2022 | 7826 |
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the availability of CAR T-cell therapy for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma over the next five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides a range of treatments for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including chemotherapy as a first treatment, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapies, and stem cell transplantation for eligible patients.
Effectiveness of treatments is assessed by clinicians for individual patients using data on measures such as the responsiveness of the cancer to treatment, remission, overall survival, and quality of life. The most appropriate treatment depends on the type and stage of lymphoma and the patient’s individual circumstances, and decisions are made by specialist multidisciplinary teams.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has evaluated and recommended several Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell (CAR-T) Therapy treatments for use within the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of various cancers, including for large B-cell lymphoma a sub type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which are now available to NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations. In November 2025, NHS England published commissioning guidance to support the implementation of CAR-T therapies for blood cancer.
Furthermore, the National Cancer Plan commits to ensuring rare cancer patients, including blood cancer, have improved access to targeted and personalised treatments where genomics identifies suitable options. The plan aims is to improve survival rates for rare cancers, including blood cancers by exploring novel procurement routes for diagnostics and treatments. Genomics will support the development of new treatments to improve outcomes for those with cancer.
The following table shows, from latest data available, the number of patients treated for non-Hodkin lymphoma receiving radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer treatment (SACT), and tumour resections for their tumour, each year from 2019 to 2022:
Year | Patients treated with either radiotherapy, SACT, or surgery |
2019 | 8011 |
2020 | 7361 |
2021 | 7737 |
2022 | 7826 |
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what treatments are available from the NHS for non-Hodgkin lymphoma; and what assessment have they made of the relative effectiveness of each treatment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides a range of treatments for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including chemotherapy as a first treatment, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapies, and stem cell transplantation for eligible patients.
Effectiveness of treatments is assessed by clinicians for individual patients using data on measures such as the responsiveness of the cancer to treatment, remission, overall survival, and quality of life. The most appropriate treatment depends on the type and stage of lymphoma and the patient’s individual circumstances, and decisions are made by specialist multidisciplinary teams.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has evaluated and recommended several Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell (CAR-T) Therapy treatments for use within the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of various cancers, including for large B-cell lymphoma a sub type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which are now available to NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations. In November 2025, NHS England published commissioning guidance to support the implementation of CAR-T therapies for blood cancer.
Furthermore, the National Cancer Plan commits to ensuring rare cancer patients, including blood cancer, have improved access to targeted and personalised treatments where genomics identifies suitable options. The plan aims is to improve survival rates for rare cancers, including blood cancers by exploring novel procurement routes for diagnostics and treatments. Genomics will support the development of new treatments to improve outcomes for those with cancer.
The following table shows, from latest data available, the number of patients treated for non-Hodkin lymphoma receiving radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer treatment (SACT), and tumour resections for their tumour, each year from 2019 to 2022:
Year | Patients treated with either radiotherapy, SACT, or surgery |
2019 | 8011 |
2020 | 7361 |
2021 | 7737 |
2022 | 7826 |
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many patients per annum are expected to be treated by the NHS with Car-T cell therapy for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of patients treated per annum with CAR-T cell therapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, from 2023 to 2025, and in total:
Year | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Total |
Number of patients | 390 | 362 | 357 | 1109 |
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether NHS patients in England are free to have a prescription at primary care level issued at a pharmacy of their choice.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients have the power to nominate a pharmacy for their regular dispensing or can choose to nominate a different one each time they are issued a prescription.
Asked by: Lord Booth (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 potential impact of the mandatory targets proposed under the healthy food standard on population salt intake.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will take decisive action on the obesity crisis, easing strain on our National Health Service and creating the healthiest generation of children ever. The Plan committed to introducing mandatory healthy food sales reporting for all large businesses in the food sector before the end of this Parliament and targets to increase the healthiness of sales in all communities, in line with United Kingdom dietary guidelines. This will set full transparency and accountability around the food and drink that businesses are selling and to encourage healthier products.
The policy is expected to cover foods that are high in salt and we expect businesses to consider salt reduction as part of actions to increase the healthiness of their sales.
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to evaluate the effectiveness of the salt reduction programme, and what plans they have for further measures to achieve that public health objective.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Evaluation to date has shown that through the voluntary programme, salt reductions of up to 20% have been achieved in some products. Data also shows that retailers and manufacturers have a higher proportion of products that meet the targets set than the out of home sector. Planning for future monitoring of salt reduction in foods is ongoing.
The legislated restrictions on the advertising of junk food on television and online, and on the promotion of less healthy foods in certain locations in supermarkets and with reduced prices, also target foods that are high in salt, through the inclusion of products such as crisps, pizza, and sandwiches, and through the criteria that are used to assess the “healthiness” of products, which includes salt levels per 100 grams.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government has committed to introducing healthy food sales reporting for all large businesses in the food sector before the end of this Parliament and to set targets to increase the healthiness of sales in all communities. This mandatory measure will cover foods that are high in salt.
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish updated data on population level salt intake.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Salt intake is assessed through an analysis of sodium in urine samples. The next urinary sodium survey of adults aged 19 to 64 years old in England is planned to start in late 2026, with the results published in 2029.
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what resources they are providing towards finding a cure for HIV, and which international groups and drug companies they are working with to find a cure.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 1 December 2025, the Department published the new HIV Action Plan to support the Government’s ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. The new HIV Action Plan encourages research and development with an action for the Medical Research Council to support high quality proposals in HIV vaccine and therapeutic development research. The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care including HIV research.
These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on HIV 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.