Asked by: Lord Kamall (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 patient-facing staff across neighbourhood health services have access to appropriate clinical navigation training and resources required to direct patients to appropriate self-care, community pharmacy or clinical services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community pharmacies will have a vital role in the Neighbourhood Health Service and in supporting self-care, as the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan brings healthcare to high streets as part of a shift in care to the community.
In March 2026, the Neighbourhood Health Framework was published to empower local leaders to develop and scale neighbourhood health. The framework is designed to support joined-up partnership between integrated care boards and local authorities, as they work together through health and wellbeing boards, and with their partners, to develop locally led neighbourhood health plans.
Local areas will have flexibility to design their plans to meet the needs of their local communities, including integrating community pharmacy and self-care into neighbourhood health services.
Work is ongoing to ensure that local neighbourhood teams continue to have access to standard, quality training for personal care roles.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (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 (1) self-care, and (2) community pharmacy, are integrated into the design of neighbourhood health services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community pharmacies will have a vital role in the Neighbourhood Health Service and in supporting self-care, as the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan brings healthcare to high streets as part of a shift in care to the community.
In March 2026, the Neighbourhood Health Framework was published to empower local leaders to develop and scale neighbourhood health. The framework is designed to support joined-up partnership between integrated care boards and local authorities, as they work together through health and wellbeing boards, and with their partners, to develop locally led neighbourhood health plans.
Local areas will have flexibility to design their plans to meet the needs of their local communities, including integrating community pharmacy and self-care into neighbourhood health services.
Work is ongoing to ensure that local neighbourhood teams continue to have access to standard, quality training for personal care roles.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (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 30 March (HL15661), what assessment they have made of the impact on equitable access to precision cancer treatments if non-genomic biomarker testing is not guaranteed for all patients who require it.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan commitment for all cancer patients who would benefit from a genomic test to receive one to inform treatment decisions applies specifically to genomic testing. While the Plan supports the wider use of biomarker testing, including non-genomic tests, these are being expanded and integrated across cancer pathways rather than subject to a similar universal guarantee.
The Plan commits to the wider integration of biomarker testing across cancer services to improve treatment selection and outcomes. Non-genomic biomarker tests form part of wider diagnostic pathways, alongside histopathology, imaging such as magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scans, and other laboratory investigations, all of which contribute to multidisciplinary team decisions on the most appropriate treatment.
Through the National Cancer Plan, more equitable access to precision cancer treatments will be supported by reducing unwarranted variation, reviewing the scope of testing, and bringing additional biomarker tests, both genomic and non-genomic, into routine use where clinically appropriate. This will be supported by national guidance and commissioning processes to ensure consistent access across the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (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 30 March (HL15661), whether the National Cancer Plan commitment that every cancer patient who needs a genomic test will receive one also applies to non-genomic tests required to guide precision treatment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan commitment for all cancer patients who would benefit from a genomic test to receive one to inform treatment decisions applies specifically to genomic testing. While the Plan supports the wider use of biomarker testing, including non-genomic tests, these are being expanded and integrated across cancer pathways rather than subject to a similar universal guarantee.
The Plan commits to the wider integration of biomarker testing across cancer services to improve treatment selection and outcomes. Non-genomic biomarker tests form part of wider diagnostic pathways, alongside histopathology, imaging such as magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scans, and other laboratory investigations, all of which contribute to multidisciplinary team decisions on the most appropriate treatment.
Through the National Cancer Plan, more equitable access to precision cancer treatments will be supported by reducing unwarranted variation, reviewing the scope of testing, and bringing additional biomarker tests, both genomic and non-genomic, into routine use where clinically appropriate. This will be supported by national guidance and commissioning processes to ensure consistent access across the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the National Cancer Plan’s commitments on improving diagnosis for children and young people will specifically address the diagnostic challenges faced by teenagers and young adults, rather than treating this group solely within paediatric diagnostic pathways.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises the unique challenges that teenagers and young adults with cancer face, often falling between paediatric and adult care, and that age-appropriate care is necessary regarding diagnosis and wider support.
Early diagnosis of cancers is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan. The Plan sets out the commitment to ensure patients aged between 16 and 24 years old are referred to the Teenage and Young Adult multi-disciplinary team to enable early discussions and age-appropriate support during diagnosis, treatment and beyond.
The Plan also sets out the Government’s commitment to ensure all primary and emergency care clinicians have telephone access to a consultant or a relevant consultant, to ask for advice on suspected cancer cases in children aged between zero and 18 years old directly through the expansion of Advice and Guidance and in line with current Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Facing the Future guidance. This guidance includes a focus on the needs of adolescents aged between 16 and 18 years old.
More generally, a national service specification is in place for the provision of teenage and young adult cancer services. This sets out the requirements and relationships that need to be in place with other services so that patients can access treatment and care in age-appropriate settings.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of ongoing developments in mental health treatment and research, whether they consider it appropriate for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to conduct substantive reviews of its mental health guidelines at least every five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for keeping its guidelines up to date in light of new evidence. NICE keeps its guidance under active surveillance and decisions on whether published guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board, chaired by the NICE Chief Medical Officer, in line with its published prioritisation framework as opposed to fixed points.
NICE has a large suite of mental health guidelines with mental health being included as one of its priority topics for 2026/27. Details of the guidelines that are currently under review or being actively updated in NICE’s mental health topic suite are published on NICE’s website in an online-only format.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the report by the Vascular and Venous Disease All-Party Parliamentary Group, the Association of British HealthTech Industries and the Royal College of Podiatry, Making the case for reform in the vascular sector, published on 17 March, what consideration they have given to incorporating the recommendations of the report into the development of the modern service framework.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease Modern Service Framework (CVD MSF) in Spring. The CVD MSF will prioritise ambitious, evidence-led and clinically informed approaches to prevention, treatment, and care, supporting consistent and equitable access across the CVD pathway.
We welcome the report of the Vascular and Venous Disease All-Party Parliamentary Group. The Department and NHS England have engaged widely with stakeholders, such as the Stroke Association and Heart UK, to co-produce the CVD MSF and ensure we consider the role of emerging innovations across the CVD pathway.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the membership of the Robotic Assisted Surgery Steering Committee is; what the committee's terms of reference are; and when the committee expects to set specific targets for the pace and scale of adoption across the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS) Steering Committee has cross-government representation from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, the Office for Life Sciences, NHS Supply Chain, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and clinical leads from a range of National Health Service provider trusts. The terms of reference are actively being redrafted to reflect the increased scope of the committee's work.
Decisions on the procurement of RAS are made locally by NHS trusts and integrated care boards, in line with local need and national guidance. The steering committee is developing plans to drive the pace and scale of adoption in line with commitments to expand RAS over the next decade as set out in the 10‑Year Health Plan. A baseline assessment is being undertaken to understand the current provision of RAS and the increase in activity needed to begin to close the gaps. NHS England has funding in place for a national robotic surgery registry, which, once established will provide near real-time data on this aspect.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there are plans to develop a cancer manual for teenagers and young adults alongside other cancer manuals committed to in the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing inequity and variation in cancer care is a priority for the Government. The National Cancer Plan, published in February 2026, sets out how the Government will reduce unwarranted variation in access to cancer treatments to drive up standards across England and tackle health inequalities head on.
The Department and NHS England will establish clear quality standards for cancer delivery through cancer manuals, published by tumour type. Quality standards will incorporate clinical-effectiveness, safety, and experience of care, in line with the definition of quality set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The manuals will provide a consistent framework against which clinicians, trust boards, and commissioners can assess the quality of their service.
The Department is reviewing the process for developing cancer manuals, including the criteria to use to select specific tumour types.
The Department recognises the unique challenges that teenagers and young adults with cancer face, often falling between paediatric and adult care. Through the National Cancer Plan for England, the Government will ensure patients aged between 16 and 24 years old are referred to the Teenage and Young Adult multi-disciplinary team to enable early discussions and age-appropriate support during diagnosis, treatment and beyond.
The Government will also break down barriers to clinical trials for young people aged between 16 and 24 years old, who often do not qualify for pediatric or adult trials, by requiring clinical justifications for age limits.
Furthermore, the Government will improve the experience of staying in hospital, youth support coordinators will provide teenagers and young adults support on education, emotional and practical impacts of cancer, returning to study and fertility concerns.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (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 (HL15192), what plans they have to expand the NHS newborn blood spot screening programme alongside implementation of universal newborn genomic testing.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), which advises Ministers on all screening matters, is working with partners to develop rolling evaluation to safely build the evidence needed to add more rare diseases to the NHS newborn blood spot screening programme. The evaluation would consider conditions that can be tested using mass spectrometry, an analytical technique used for detecting abnormal molecules in the blood which might indicate important disorders, as well as those requiring genomic tests. The rolling evaluation would help the UK NSC make timely evidence-based recommendations on multiple rare conditions.
The Generation Study which launched in 2024 is evaluating the effectiveness of using whole genome sequencing to test 100,000 newborns for genetic mutations associated with more than 200 rare genetic conditions. The study is due to be completed by summer 2027.
The evaluation part of the study will then be completed and shared with the UK NSC who will assess the findings to determine whether any newborn genomic screening can be recommended. Where more research is required, the rolling evaluation will assist in securing evidence.