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.
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 Lord Collins of Highbury on 4 November 2024 (HL1875), what the policy is of (1) the Department for Health and Social Care and (2) NHS England, on recognising species dysphoria, in relation to (a) cats, (b) dogs, and (c) llamas.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Neither the Department nor NHS England has a specific policy on recognising species dysphoria.
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 mandatory training for NHS England employees Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Human Rights Skills, published in August 2024; and whether they will place a copy of any training materials in the Library of the House.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Human Rights Skills training has been withdrawn by NHS England. There are currently no plans to have a copy of the training materials in the Library of the House.
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 the Minister of State for the Department of Health and Social Care on 22 October 2024 (4235), what their policy is on the use of the phrase "pregnant people" by the NHS, in place of sex-specific language such as “pregnant women” or “pregnant women and girls”.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service website aims to provide health advice and guidance that is clear and easy to understand, and that helps everyone who uses the website find the information they need, so they can make informed decisions about their own health.
This Government believes in an approach to equality that benefits all groups, not some groups at the expense of others. As part of this, we understand the need for health information to be as clear as possible and to use language that is grounded in biological sex. Using the right language is crucial to ensure patients, including women, receive the dignity and inclusion they should expect when accessing services. However, we recognise that for some people, their gender identity is different from their biological sex.
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 cost and feasibility of implementing the High Court approval mechanism proposed in the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Now that Parliament has voted to give the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill a Second Reading, the Government will assess the impacts of the bill, and we expect to publish an impact assessment before Members of Parliament consider the bill at the Report stage.
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 recent discussions they have had with the Care Quality Commission about discharging its obligations under section 46 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to update the health and social care sectors on how frequently it will assess the providers it regulates.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) was planning to publish information about their expectations of the frequency of future assessments in July 2024. Due to the timing of the review into the operational effectiveness of the CQC led by Dr Penny Dash, the CQC did not share this information as planned.
The interim findings of Dr Dash’s review, as well as the full and final report published on 15 October 2024, made clear recommendations on how the CQC needs to change its regulatory approach. The CQC has committed to making those changes.
The CQC will publish an update on how frequently it will be carrying out its future assessments in due course, in consultation with stakeholders and others, as outlined by Section 46 (7) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
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 the Minister of State at the Department for Health and Social Care on 7 October (HC4240), what guidance (1) the Department for Health and Social Care, and (2) NHS England, have given to NHS trusts and its arms-length bodies on reducing external spending on equality, diversity, and inclusion programmes.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance was published on 14 May 2024, and required all Departments and arm's length bodies to set controls on all equality, diversity, and inclusion related expenditure. No further guidance was issued by the Department to National Health Service trusts.
NHS England has not published written guidance to NHS trusts and arm’s length bodies on reducing external spending on equality, diversity, and inclusion programmes.