Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the problems affecting transplants identified in the episode by BBC File on 4 Investigates, The battle for hearts and lungs: Transplants in trouble, released on 24 March.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the challenges faced by heart and lung transplant services, as highlighted in the BBC File on 4 Investigates programme. Clinical teams have continued to improve activity and patient outcomes, reflecting their expertise and commitment. However, challenges remain and further work is needed to address variation in access, workforce pressures, and the complexity of organ acceptance and allocation.
NHS England is working closely with the Department, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), and transplant centres to address these issues. The concerns raised in the programme are consistent with challenges previously identified by the Organ Utilisation Group and explored through the Implementation Steering Group for Organ Utilisation’s Cardiothoracic Information Collation Exercise. This has informed NHS England’s clinically led national improvement programme for heart and lung transplant services, which brings together clinicians, patients, and patient organisations to co-design solutions to improve services in these key areas.
In parallel, NHSBT is delivering a Department funded programme of Assessment and Recovery Centres (ARC), including lung ARC pilot schemes launched in February 2026, to improve the preservation and utilisation of donor organs for transplantation.
While it is encouraging that activity has increased and waiting lists have reduced, the Government recognises that continued work is needed to ensure services are consistently accessible and resilient. Work will continue with patients, partners, and local centres to ensure care is personalised, equitable, and sustainable, and to address challenges facing the transplant workforce.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisals that have been terminated in the last five years; and what proportion of those terminations were rare disease medicines.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence shows that between 2021/22 and 2025/26, the total number of appraisals that were terminated was 100. Over the past five years, 41% of terminated appraisals related to rare disease medicines.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the performance of NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board in (1) contracting dental practices for the provision of NHS dental services, and (2) ensuring that patients have comprehensive access to dental services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what system is in place to ensure that integrated care boards are effective in contracting dental practices for the provision of NHS dental services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to produce a timetable for agreeing compensation for those harmed by pelvic mesh and the medicine valproate, as recommended in the report from the Patient Safety Commissioner, The Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published on 7 February.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether UK Biobank had made them aware of the exposure online of confidential health records from the UK Biobank project, as reported in The Guardian on 14 March, before the General Practice Extraction Service Data for Consented Research Directions 2026 were signed on 10 February.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the exposure online of confidential health records from the UK Biobank project, as reported in The Guardian on 14 March.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many times confidential health records from the UK Biobank project have been removed from the internet (1) where UK Biobank requested that the researcher do so, and (2) where UK Biobank did so itself.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to secure supplies of medicines, medical devices and medical consumables in the case of war or pandemic; and whether those steps include building and maintaining strategic reserves of those supplies.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how many times confidential health records from the UK Biobank project have been exposed online.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.