Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to provide sustained, ring-fenced funding for in-vitro diagnostic services in the community, and (2) to ensure patients are able to access appropriate in-vitro care in the community.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government has not announced plans for a separate ring-fenced funding stream for community-based in-vitro diagnostic services. Integrated care boards are responsible for determining how allocated funding is used to meet local population needs, including for diagnostic services and community diagnostic centres (CDCs).

CDCs offer patients a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home, giving greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, reducing the need for hospital visits and supporting timely diagnosis and treatment. CDCs provide a range of in-vitro diagnostic services and are a key part of the Government’s aim to shift care out of hospitals and into communities.

The National Cancer Plan set out a £2.3 billion investment to expand diagnostic capacity and deliver 9.5 million additional tests. This includes increasing the number of CDCs and ensuring that as many as possible are open 12 hours a day and seven days a week, improving access to diagnostic services in local communities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the adoption and implementation of in-vitro diagnostics across the NHS.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government has not announced plans for a separate ring-fenced funding stream for community-based in-vitro diagnostic services. Integrated care boards are responsible for determining how allocated funding is used to meet local population needs, including for diagnostic services and community diagnostic centres (CDCs).

CDCs offer patients a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home, giving greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, reducing the need for hospital visits and supporting timely diagnosis and treatment. CDCs provide a range of in-vitro diagnostic services and are a key part of the Government’s aim to shift care out of hospitals and into communities.

The National Cancer Plan set out a £2.3 billion investment to expand diagnostic capacity and deliver 9.5 million additional tests. This includes increasing the number of CDCs and ensuring that as many as possible are open 12 hours a day and seven days a week, improving access to diagnostic services in local communities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what infrastructure is in place to ensure delivery of the National Cancer Plan for England’s commitment to provide a genomic test to all patients who would benefit from it.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Health Service has a national infrastructure in place to deliver genomic testing through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service (NHS GMS), including a national network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (NHS GLHs). These hubs deliver testing as set out in the National Genomic Test Directory, which includes tests for over 200 cancer clinical indications, including whole genome sequencing and other genomic tests.

The National Cancer Plan commits to ensuring that all cancer patients who would benefit receive a genomic test within a clinically relevant timeframe. Delivery of this ambition will be supported through the continued expansion and integration of the NHS GMS across cancer pathways.

As set out in the plan, over the next five years the service will extend circulating tumour DNA and other biomarker testing to additional cancers. The scope of testing will continue to be reviewed, with additional biomarker tests brought into routine use where clinically appropriate and cost effective.

NHS England has also undertaken procurement for NHS GMS Lead Providers from 2026 to support a new delivery model and strengthen genomic testing capacity. In addition, the NHS Genomics Education Programme is supporting workforce planning to ensure the NHS has the capacity and skills required to deliver genomic medicine.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding will be ring-fenced for research into rare cancers as part of the National Cancer Plan for England.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Government responsibility for delivering cancer research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation.

Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests over £1.8 billion each year on research through the NIHR. Cancer is one of NIHR’s largest areas of spend at over £141.6 million in 2024/25, reflecting its high priority.

It is not the usual process of the NIHR to ringfence funds for research into specific conditions.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including rare cancers. Our approach to funding research is through open and fair competition and peer review to ensure that the highest-quality proposals, most likely to deliver real impact for patients, are funded without imposing financial targets or limits.

Welcoming applications on rare cancers 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.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total spend on medical devices on the Specialised Services Devices Programme list in 2025–26; and what was the total Specialised Services Devices Programme budget in 2025–26.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The total spend on medical devices on the Specialised Services Devices Programme list in 2025/26 was £1,093,622,000. The total budget for the Specialised Services Devices Programme in 2025/26 was £1,012,198,000. The forecasted spend on medical devices in the Specialised Services Devices Programme for 2026/27 is £1,212,135,000.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much they forecast to spend on medical devices in the Specialised Services Devices Programme in 2026–27.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The total spend on medical devices on the Specialised Services Devices Programme list in 2025/26 was £1,093,622,000. The total budget for the Specialised Services Devices Programme in 2025/26 was £1,012,198,000. The forecasted spend on medical devices in the Specialised Services Devices Programme for 2026/27 is £1,212,135,000.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether unspent allocations from the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund may be carried forward into the next financial year; and, if this does not happen automatically, what process exists for underspends to be reprofiled or reallocated.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Funding for the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund was agreed through the Spending Review. As such, capital allocations are set for each financial year and do not automatically carry forward into subsequent years.

Underspends cannot automatically be carried forward into the next financial year, with any residual underspends managed in line with normal departmental financial processes. The Department works with NHS England and local systems to ensure that delivery in the National Health Service continues to be maximised within the capital allocation for each year, delivering benefits for patients and the public and ensuring value for money for the taxpayer is achieved. This can include reviewing the profile of schemes to be delivered or completed across financial years.

Where there is a need to reprofile or adjust available spend between financial years, this must be considered and agreed with HM Treasury through the Supplementary Estimates process.

The Government has committed a further £426 million of utilisation and modernisation funding over the next four years. Up to half of this funding is being used to upgrade the existing local estate to deliver neighbourhood health centres as part of the 10-Year Health Plan. Half is being utilised for general practice upgrades, continuing on the investment made in 2025/26.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what will be the process in 2026–27 for allocating funding from the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund to general practices which are not neighbourhood health centres.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government has committed £426 million over the next four years through the Utilisation and Modernisation Fund. Up to half of this funding is being used to upgrade the existing local estate to deliver neighbourhood health centres, as part of the 10-Year Health Plan. Half is being utilised for general practice (GP) surgery upgrades continuing on the investment made in 2025/26.

Systems have submitted their capital plans for the current Spending Review period 2026 to 2030, including proposals for half of the Utilisation and Modernisation Fund to be invested in GP surgery upgrades. The assessment of proposals by local regions has been completed and individual schemes are now submitting detailed schedules of works for rapid approval so work can commence.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure early patient education, shared decision-making, nephrology training and renal workforce planning support, to achieve greater uptake of home dialysis across England.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England is taking action through the Renal Services Transformation Programme and renal networks to increase home dialysis uptake by strengthening early patient education and shared decision‑making through standardised pre‑dialysis pathways, supporting multidisciplinary care models, and working with providers on workforce capacity and training. This is complemented by improvements to operational processes, including home assessments and installation pathways, to ensure patients can access home therapies in a timely and consistent way.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed home dialysis expectation in NHS England’s forthcoming revised Renal Service Specification will be supported by accountability, reporting or improvement mechanisms to help renal centres achieve and sustain higher rates of home dialysis.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England is currently working to update the Renal Service Specification which aims to support increased home dialysis provision in line with the Renal Services Transformation Programme ambition for at least 20% of patients to be treated at home.

Delivery will be supported through accountability and reporting via renal networks and National Health Service commissioners.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of progress towards achieving the recommendation in the report from the Getting It Right First Time programme Renal Medicine, published in March 2021, that all renal centres should promote home dialysis for suitable patients and reach a minimum home dialysis rate of 20 per cent.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Progress is being made towards the ambition through NHS England’s Renal Services Transformation Programme and renal networks, which promote a “home‑first” approach and routine offering of home therapies.

Some regions have improved, with renal networks and regional specialised commissioners using UK Renal Registry data and regional dashboards to benchmark uptake, track progress, and target support in other areas. Increasing home dialysis uptake remains a core national priority.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of regional variation in home dialysis uptake between renal centres in England, including variation identified by the UK Renal Registry; and what steps they are taking to increase uptake in those areas with lower rates of home dialysis.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We recognise the regional variation in home dialysis uptake, as identified through UK Renal Registry data, reflecting differences in workforce, infrastructure, and local practice.

To address this, renal networks are using data dashboards to benchmark variation, supporting some centres to implement improvement plans, standardising pathways such as pre‑dialysis education and home set‑up processes, and sharing best practice from high‑performing “home‑first” models to improve equity of access.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report from the National Kidney Federation A Manifesto for Increasing Home Dialysis in England for the Benefit of Patients and the NHS, published in May 2025; and what steps NHS England is taking to support increased and more equitable access to home dialysis across England.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We welcome the National Kidney Federation’s 2025 manifesto which is closely aligned to NHS England’s existing national priorities to expand home dialysis, reduce inequalities, and improve patient choice.

NHS England is supporting this through renal networks by improving transparency via unit‑level dashboards, standardising pre‑dialysis education so home therapies are routinely offered, embedding home dialysis in local commissioning plans with integrated care boards, and reviewing renal tariffs to better support clinically appropriate home‑based care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have the necessary infrastructure in place to support the commitment in the National Cancer Plan to automatically contact patients with rare cancers to offer them the opportunity to be part of clinical trials through a tailored service; and if not, what the timeline is for delivering this commitment.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with a rare cancer, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.

As set out in our National Cancer Plan, the Government will implement the Rare Cancers Act, including Section 3 of the act which will involve developing a service to ensure rare cancer patients can be automatically contacted about clinical trials.

The Government is currently scoping the technical requirements for this service and identifying a suitable route for delivery, before a development project is commenced. This will allow data sharing across existing Department-funded infrastructure, namely the National Disease Registration Service and the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Be Part of Research registry tool. The service is expected to be implemented within three years.

Implementing the provisions of the Rare Cancers Act will make it easier for clinical trials on rare cancers to take place in England.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Department of Health and Social Care plans to collect data on the number of brain tumour patients receiving whole genome sequencing.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England is responsible for commissioning the NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS) which provides genomic testing in the National Health Service in England, through a network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). The NHS GLHs deliver testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory, which includes tests for over 7,000 rare diseases and over 200 cancer clinical indications, including both whole genome sequencing (WGS) and non-WGS testing.

WGS for brain cancer is available under the National Genomic Test Directory under the GT1432 Test Code.

NHS England publishes testing activity and performance data through Patient Level Contract Monitoring data across all seven NHS GLHs on the NHS.UK website.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they collect data on (1) the number of clinical trials available to brain tumour patients, and (2) the number of brain tumour patients participating in clinical trials; and if not, whether they have plans to collect this data.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Yes, the Government does collect data on clinical research studies and numbers of participants through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network’s Central Portfolio Management System.

This includes data on clinical trials supported by the NIHR Research Delivery Network’s portfolio, including clinical trials for brain tumours, and the number of participants recruited to those trials.