Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (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 report of the Commission on Palliative and End-of-Life Care Opportunities For England, published in May.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Minister of State for Care (Stephen Kinnock MP) met the Hon. Member for York Central and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff to discuss the progress of their independent commission into palliative and end of life care, including the commission’s first of three reports, published on 13 May 2025, which he has formally responded to.
In line with the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community. The palliative and end of life care sector will have a big role to play in that shift.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the accuracy of data about complications arising from medical abortions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a legal requirement in England and Wales that all terminations must be notified to the Chief Medical Officer within 14 days of the procedure. The HSA4 abortion notification form is provided to collect the required information up until the time of the patient’s discharge from the abortion service. Information is collected on the abortion and the woman that had the abortion, including the method of the abortion, whether any abortion pills were taken at home, the gestation, or number of weeks, and details of any known complications.
The Department continues to work with abortion providers to ensure that abortion complications known up until the time of discharge from the abortion service are recorded on the HSA4 form. There are no plans to require the notification of complications that occur after discharge from the abortion service.
Abortion continues to be a very safe procedure, for which major complications are rare at all gestations. Home use of early medical abortion pills is recognised to be a safe procedure by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the World Health Organisation
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they considered the legal opinion by Tom Cross KC and Ruth Kennedy entitled In the Matter of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill published on 28 April when updating the ECHR Memorandum for Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, published on 26 June.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We were aware of the advice, but did not reference it in our European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) memorandum. The Government prepared the ECHR memorandum to assist the Joint Committee on Human Rights. In that memorandum, the Government has set out the articles of the ECHR which it considers are likely engaged by the bill, including Article 14 together with Article 2.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consulted the Equality and Human Rights Commission before publishing the Equality Impact Assessment for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission was not consulted before the Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) was published for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. However, the briefing authored by the commission in November 2024 has informed the EQIA.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is a Private Member’s Bill, and the Government has taken a neutral stance. The EQIA for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is a neutral and independent assessment of the impact of the bill, and the Government did not undertake a consultation process on this assessment.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (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 10 February, what steps they are taking to reduce expenditure and staff time spent on diversity schemes in the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Taxpayers rightly expect value for money from the funding that is spent in the National Health Service.
The NHS and the Department’s arms-length bodies are continually expected to review their expenditure with a view to finding efficiency savings and ensuring value for money for the public purse.
Equality and diversity initiatives that exist within the NHS focus on targeting health inequalities as well as addressing the abuse and discrimination that some NHS staff face in the workplace. They also help NHS organisations comply with legal requirements set out for public bodies in the Equality Act 2010, and the public sector equality duty.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (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 long-term impact on the National Health Service of prospective successful applications for indefinite leave to remain until 2029.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential impact of changes in the levels of grants of Indefinite Leave to Remain on the National Health Service, and there are no current plans to undertake such an assessment.
Internationally educated staff remain an important part of the workforce, and our Code of Practice for International Recruitment ensures stringent ethical standards when recruiting health and social care staff from overseas. The Government remains committed to growing homegrown talent and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join our NHS.
We will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to safeguard neurodivergent and vulnerable children and young adults from receiving medically unnecessary surgeries as part of gender-affirming care interventions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions gender services for children and young people in line with its interim service specification for children and young people with gender incongruence. These services do not make referrals for surgical interventions.
Children and young people are cared for holistically by specialist multi-disciplinary teams based in specialist children's hospitals. The multi-disciplinary team should include expertise in child and adolescent mental health, including family therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, and neurodevelopmental conditions.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress has been made on data sharing by adult gender clinics to enable the study of long-term outcomes for patients, including young adults and children, who have accessed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the publication of the Cass Review Final Report, NHS England assumed responsibility for progressing the data linkage study, which will help us learn from the experiences and outcomes of young adults who accessed previous models of National Health Service gender services care.
This work is being undertaken with oversight from the NHS England National Research Oversight Board and is progressing as intended.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (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 children are not privately prescribed cross-sex hormones in order to circumnavigate the ban on puberty blockers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The safety of children and young people is an overriding priority for the Government, and that is why we introduced an indefinite ban on the sale and supply of puberty supressing hormones from the European Economic Area and private providers in the United Kingdom.
We will monitor the impact of the ban and will not hesitate to go further if the evidence shows the indefinite ban is being circumnavigated.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they are making in supporting research on brain cancers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department of Health and Social Care invests over £1.6 billion per year in research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24. Cancer is a major area of NIHR spend, reflecting its high priority.
In the five years between 2018/19 and 2022/23, NIHR directly invested £11.3 million in research projects and programmes focused on brain tumours across 15 awards. In addition, our wider investments in NIHR research infrastructure, namely facilities, services and the research workforce, further allow us to leverage research funding from other donors and organisations. These investments are estimated to be £31.5 million, between 2018/19 and 2022/23, and have enabled 227 brain cancer research studies to take place in the same period. In total NIHR investments have enabled 8,500 people to participate in potentially life-changing research in the National Health Service over this time.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including brain cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition.
In September 2024, the NIHR announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients, and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation. In partnership with the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, in 2025 NIHR are also funding two brain tumour research fellowships.
The Department of Health and Social Care has also relaunched the Children and Young People’s Cancer Taskforce, which met on 4 March 2025. The taskforce will examine clinical and non-clinical ways to improve outcomes and patient experience for children and young people with cancer, including research. The taskforce will feed into wider Departmental work on the National Cancer Plan.
The Government recognises that a cancer-specific strategy is needed to improve outcomes for people living with cancer. The National Cancer Plan will work to address these challenges for cancer patients across the country, using a system-wide approach to improve cancer services from prevention and research, to access and treatment. The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years and provide an NHS that is there when you need it.
The NIHR works closely with other government funders, including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UKRI delivers a substantial portfolio of researcher-led projects. This includes research on the fundamental and mechanistic biology of brain tumours and the development of new technology and medicines to treat brain tumours. Total UKRI spend in 2023/24 on brain tumour specific research was £7.08 million.